Answers for Ethical Marketers

A Guide to Good Practice in Business Communication

Deirdre K. Breakenridge

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000377026
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Commerce
• Subtopic: Communication d'entreprise

With recent changes in technology, media, and the communication landscape, the journey to ethics has become more complicated than ever before. This book aims to answer ethical questions, from applying ethics and sound judgment through your organization and communication channels to taking your ethics and values into every media interview. With the understanding of how personal and professional ethics align, business leaders, managers, and students will maneuver their way around this new landscape showcasing their values in ethical conduct.

This book is divided into eight important areas based on where and why a breakdown in ethical behavior is likely to occur, and delivers advice from experts on the frontlines of business communications who know what it means to face the inherent changes and challenges in this field. With more than 80 questions and answers focused on guiding marketing, PR and business professionals, readers will uncover situations where ethics are challenged, and their values will be tested.

This straightforward Q&A guidebook is for professionals who realize ethics are a crucial part of decision-making in their communications and who want to maintain trust with the public and their positive brand reputations in business. Readers will receive answers to pressing ethical questions to help them apply best practice guidelines and good judgment in their own situations, based on the stories, theories, and practical instruction from the author's 30 years of experience as well as the thought leaders featured in this book.

Chapter 1

Learning the Essentials & the Overarching Ethical Lessons

If someone asked you, “Can you define your values in 30-seconds or less?”, would you be able to rattle them off quickly? Are your values engrained in your mind, in your heart, and are they a part of your everyday MO (Modus Operandi)? Defining your values is an exercise challenging you to identify your pillars of ethical conduct. Then, each pillar breaks down into the communication and the behavior you value, based on what is important to you personally, what you expect from yourself and from others around you.

Whether you realize it or not, your ethics and values also play out daily in your communications. They follow you down every conversation path and they are with you at every crossroad. Is it truth, accuracy, fairness, respect, objectivity, or is it all of the above that you hold as your ethical standards? Do you tell the truth and behave honestly and with integrity in your interactions? Do you focus on accuracy and do you stick with the facts? Are you able to listen without judgment and do you remain fair and objective? What about respect for others and where does your level of patience fall into your definition?

In many cases, professionals are first introduced to ethics in school, by learning about different situations and case studies. However, reading a textbook is not when the definition of ethics should be formed, or the point when you begin to practice ethics as an Ethical Marketer. Why not? Because ethics play out throughout your life. They are woven into situations you experience, both in your personal interactions as well as your career. What you value comes from your heart and has to make sense in your head. Your ethics and values are personal. Some call it a matter of the heart, reinforcing why it is important to think about, define clearly, and detail what you believe is ethical behavior long before you enter the workforce.

You may be saying, “I’ve already defined my values.” Great news! You must also realize your values and ethical behavior are shaped and affected by different situations within your society and culture, family dynamics, friendships, your workplace, and the influential people around you. As much as you want to “say and do the right thing,” alignment to your personal ethics can be challenged any day, and every day. Regardless of your age or experience, as these situations play out, you have the opportunity to either redefine or finetune your ethics. As you do, you will have a better understanding of yourself and what standards you will want to uphold as an Ethical Marketer.

If you have a set of ethics guiding you personally, then this book will help you to see how your life and career path coincide, as you adhere to your own standards. The Q&A in this chapter will help you to get to, or remain in, ethical alignment with stories, experiences, and examples to inform you and to also challenge the very basis of your ethics foundation.

Ethical behavior shows up in all your communications. It is your everyday standard, not just at work, it is wherever you go. As such, you need to be open, aware, and fully present with what matters the most to you. A commitment to these ethical standards helps you avoid compromising your integrity and character, as you face challenging situations in your life and work.

The Ethical Marketer has to rely on a strong foundation of ethics. Learning the essentials, on the road to ethics, is the best place to start.

Q1 How much are ethics personal vs. professional when you are communicating on behalf of a business?

Ethics do not stop at the door of your office building when you enter, and they do not stay at the office when you go home. If you are working remotely, then they do not turn on when you go online and turn off when you step away from your computer or smartphone.

For years, I have been saying who you are online is who you are in person and vice versa. You take your brand character and persona with you wherever you go. There are expectations of consistency and people expect you to act and communicate a certain way, no matter where you are and at every touch point with them. Your ethics are the thread that weaves through all your interactions, conversations, and marketing communications. Would you tell the truth to your friends and then lie to colleagues at work? Would you share news and information with complete transparency and accuracy on the job, yet embellish and use hyperbole with your family and friends? Chances are you will practice your ethics personally and professionally, and from your heart, at all times.

Ethics are reinforced in higher education. However, it is early in your childhood that you are introduced to and learn right from wrong. At a very early age you are watching your parents and role models and that is when your ethics begin to form. They become a part of your life and your DNA even before you recognize ethics as a part of your inner guidance system. Think of it as your Ethics GPS.¹ This same system of guidance gets honed, refined, and tested countlessly from your younger years all the way up until present day, and through the workday with all the communication you share.

Ethics are a personal choice with a professional alignment. You can’t have one without the other. Ask yourself, is your Ethics GPS on all of the time?

Q2 What happens if my ethics do not match my company’s?

I remember a challenging situation at my former marketing communications agency. We were a small growing agency with about 20 people. It was just after the 9/11 terrorist attack and our company was struggling with our marketing event business (large nationwide sales events) scaling back rapidly. Prior to the attack we had built a book of business focused on the creative development and production for several high-profile themed events. However, post-9/11, companies were traveling much less and not gathering their staff in major cities for large meetings. Clients cutting back took a large toll on our company and bottom line.

Around the same time, there was some excitement from my partners about work with a large conglomerate. I immediately pointed out that many of our clients were health related and children focused, and the conglomerate was not promoting the same health values and benefits. Working with this large corporation was not appealing and certainly did not excite me. This type of account was the antithesis of our work, which was more focused on people living healthy lives. As a matter of fact, working on the account did not interest me at all. The prospect of leading a team to benefit this organization challenged my ethics; the perfect example of my ethics in misalignment with my company’s, at the time.

As a partner, I had one vote and I used it. However, there were other partners, so I was outvoted quickly. I made it known that I would steer clear of the sales pitch development and the meeting with the executives to safeguard my own values. At the end of the day, we did not win the business and my ethics remained intact.

There will be times when your ethics are challenged. My situation was business profit over ethical values. For me, it was important to place my values and the interests of our current clients first, which came down to trusting my Ethics GPS.

In the end, always let your good judgment guide you to your higher standards.

Q3 Does Emotional Intelligence (EI) affect ethical behavior?

Absolutely! Your level of EI can be proportionate to your ethical behavior. Here’s why you want to increase your EI for better judgment in your decision-making. Think about the communication at your company and on social media during a time of issues or crisis. At these times, would you expect to see a lot of emotional intelligence? How can you tell. Here is a quick quiz to evaluate your level of EI:

• Do you respond rather than react? (Example: Listening without judgment)
• Do you practice self-control? (Example: Your level of present, calm and focused participation)
• Do you exercise self-awareness? (Example: Ability to see both sides of an issue)
• Do you adapt well to change? (Example: Your ability to course correct quickly)
• Do you serve the needs of others? (Example: Your ability to help others succeed)

Based on the answers to these questions, if you answered “yes” with confidence to each question, then you are practicing emotional intelligence. When you show self-awareness, exhibit self-control, and reserve judgment, you are much more likely to you have a “check” on your own behavior.

The definition of emotional intelligence describes the need to manage your own actions and reactions (your behavior first). When you do this successfully, you are able to be more aware and to manage the behaviors of others. Being more aware of how you come across, also helps you to listen, process, and tune into someone else’s situation more accurately. EI helps you to make a more informed decision with a true understanding as opposed to a knee-jerk reaction that leads to a poorly guided decision.

With more emotional intelligence, your decisions will come from a place of knowledge and keen perception, and the resulting communication will ultimately serve and be beneficial to others.²

Q4 What do you do when you are asked to flat-out lie?

One of my early mentors was very clear about lying. He said, “Lying is a relationship ender and a deal breaker.” The words “do not lie” have always stuck in my head. Public Relations Strategist, Fraser Seitel, has been practicing Public Relations for decades. He is the President of Emerald Partners and has been named among the 100 most distinguished professionals in the PR industry. I have used Fraser’s book, The Practice of Public Relations, in my NYU and UMASS at Amherst classes for years. The chapter on ethics is one that should be read by students and reread by all professionals.³

After using Fraser’s book and studying his work in my classes, many of my students would question, “Why would anyone think lying is a good idea?” It is a logical question. Why would you lie for yourself or for anyone else? Of course, the pressures of your work and a business situation might lead to a poor judgment and a negative outcome. However, whether it is lying to your employees, customers, the media, shareholders, partners, or any important constituent, lies cause harm and pain, and they place your credibility in severe jeopardy. It can take years to build trust, which can be lost in an instant, without the chance of ever gaining back that trust. Whether you realize it or not, technology and social media has everyone operating in a type of “fishbowl” environment. Eventually, the truth will come out and then it will follow you around.

If you are still on the fence about lies being a relationship ender and a deal breaker (even the little “white lies”), ask yourself, “How did you feel the last time someone lied to you?” Did you want to forge a deeper relationship with that person? Did you rush to include them in your business deals or hire them as a partner or seek her out as your go-to resource?

Chances are you will move on to a new contact or a more trustworthy colleague who has been a reliable and credible professional. One more reminder here: Do Not Lie.

Q5 What do you do if you’re asked to shift the blame for wrongdoing to someone else?

When the news came out regarding Wells Fargo setting up fake accounts for its customers, they did not take accountability. Blaming your employees, customers, or anyone for your unethical behavior, is never a good idea. The Ethics 101 Manual says you need to own up to your mistakes and to take responsibility for your actions. Of course, you would expect the CEO, a seasoned leader and role model, of one of the largest banks in the world to own up to corporate fraud. However, taking responsibility was not the desired approach at the time. Instead, the bank’s early explanation for the alleged illegal sales practice was to throw their employees under the bus.⁴

Was it their compensation program, a lack of compliance, or was it the pressure from management to reach a certain number of new accounts, a quota, if you will? The CEO defended his company. He shared with the news media that there was no incentive for any of their salespeople to have this type of reasoning for the behavior. Wells Fargo didn’t give their people any incentive to “do bad things.” Yet, it happened, and this is how the conduct was explained.⁵

Why does anyone shift the blame knowing they will pay the price later? Wells Fargo was eventually fined and agreed to pay $3 billion to settle their charges for fraudulent sales practices. They also acknowledged collecting fees for products their customers never agreed to have and, quite frankly, did not need.

Is it a lack of clarity on the situation? Is there conscious unethical behavior going on and shifting the blame is a way to say, “Look over here?” which never works out well.

Ethical Marketers (remember as a spokesperson, the CEO is the head Ethical Marketer) use the Dale Carnegie approach. Rather than letting ego, fear, or just downright hubris get in your way, it is time to ask some questions. In Carnegie’s book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, he posed this question, “What is the worst-case scenario [the worst that can happen]?”⁶ In this case it was a $3 billion fine which they had to pay anyway. The CEO should have gotten to the bottom of the allegations quicker, saving precious time, and reputation damage.⁷

Facing and moving through the worst that can happen sooner is a step toward reputation repair. In the end, 5,300 employees were released, and the sales quotas were discontinued. Shifting the blame delays the course correction, which further adds to the reputation damage, both in opinion and financial reparations.

Q6 What do I do if I know a decision is unethical and speaki...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsements
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Author Biography
• Foreword
• Introduction: The Journey to Ethics A Personal Choice & Professional Practice
• 1. Learning the Essentials & the Overarching Ethical Lessons
• 2. Applying Ethics Through All Your Media Channels
• 3. Using Your Ethics in Cause Marketing
• 4. Taking Ethics to Media Interviews and Appearances
• 5. Filtering Ethics Through Your Organization
• 6. Learning Ethics from a Mentor
• 7. Being a Leader Means Being an Ethical Role Model
• 8. Embracing the Ethical Lessons
• Index