Ethical and Legal Issues

What do you believe are the three most important takeaways from the AMA Code of Ethics for Marketing and why?

Privacy within Digital Contexts:

AMA Code of Ethic states that "information collected from customers should be confidential and used only for expressed purposes." I think this code is important. Violating such code can destroy company's brand image once it got caught. People will no longer support and in the worse case, boycott the company for stealth their information. Therefore, civil rights or consumer right should be respected. Marketers should ask for a consent before obtaining any datas. However, when concern with some kinds of data collection method for example "cookie," it actually does give some advantages to customers. Shopping baskets to hold a purchase is a good example of how customers can be benefit from the use of cookies.

Spam:

In the online expansion section, AMA stated the Code of Ethics regarding spam that "the expressed wishes of others should be respected with regard to the receipt of unsolicited e-mail message." For marketers, I think it important for them to distinguish their communication tools--electronic mail or e-mail from "spam." Forcing customers in accepting mass distribution of unsolicited electronic mail, companies can later be filed a lawsuit against for violating the laws and subjected to investigation. It could even be charged for enormous fines, driven out from their business or even prohibited from re-establishing a new one. They can doing this by sending out a message only when requested by customers or after get a permission for putting an e-mail address into the list for mass distribution of news and information. The communications should be specific and not contain any deceptive information or misleading statements. Also, they can provide options for those people to opt-out for the list anytime as they would like to with clear instructions on how to terminate the further contact.

Fraud:

My last takeaways comes from the emerging issue section. AMC Code of Ethic states that "members refrain from doing business with questionable clients or third parties." Fraud is the biggest deal among other kinds of bad marketing practices in my opinion especially when it comes to financial issues. It is the practice that marketers should avoid at all cost. Not only because it against the laws, having been proved as guilty of fraud can corrupt the reputation of the company and the company itself.