WOMMA Ethics

Professor Barnes started our last class with the quote: "Ethics is what you do when no one is looking." A more classical definition of ethics is the system of moral principles found within a culture. The notion of ethical marketing or advertising is not a new concept; however, ethical business has come to the forefront of our attention due to corruption and the depressed economy.

The WOMMA Code of Ethics is strictly for word of mouth marketers with standards that are aimed to guide marketers to being honest, respectful, and compliant. Although all the standards listed are equally worthwhile, the one that stood out to me was: Standard 5 - Genuine Honesty in Communication. I think that this standard is important because word of mouth marketing and the effective use of social media stems from a real conversation. Creating this conversation between businesses and consumers will be impossible without genuine honesty. Additionally, consumers want to talk to a real person, not a no-name corporate dummy that is blasting out information not tailored to the participating consumers.

A simple test for ethical conduct and decision making that I learned in my Intro to Business class was the Front of the Newspaper Test. This ethical reasoning test makes you stop before you do something and ask yourself, "Would I like to have this (action, statement, conduct, etc.) posted on the front of the newspaper as the headlining story?" If your answer is no, take a moment and reconsider how you can change your behavior to be something that you would want highlighted on the front page of the newspaper.