Stealth marketing as a strategy

Stealth marketing has gained increasing attention as a strategy during the past few years. We begin by providing a brief historical review to provide some perspective on how this strategy has been practiced in a myriad of ways in various parts of the world, and how it has consequently evolved in the emerging new marketplace. A more inclusive definition of stealth marketing is then proposed to conceptually understand its use in various contexts. Specifically, we propose a new typology of stealth marketing strategies based on whether businesses or competitors are aware of them, and whether they are visible to the targeted customers. We further provide suggestions of how firms can counter the stealth marketing strategies used by their competitors. Contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence is also provided about how such strategies can be used for “doing good” for society. Finally, the assessment of efficiency and effectiveness of stealth marketing strategies, and their related ethical implications, are discussed.     

Attitudes of marketing professionals toward ethics in marketing research: A cross-national comparison

The study reported here examines, in the context of Crawford's (1970) items, differences in research ethics attitudes among marketing professionals in Australia, Canada, Great Britian, and the United States. The study results indicate the lack of significant differences in research ethics attitudes among marketing professionals in the four countries. This finding is interpretable as implying the generalizability of the results of previous research ethics studies involving domestic (United States) marketing professionals as respondents. Ishmael P. Akaah is Associate Professor of Marketing at Wayne State University. He received his M.B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Direct Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Savings and Development, Eastern Africa Economic Review, Journal of Information and Optimization Sciences, and Proceedings of the American Marketing Association.     

Social marketing meets interactive media

Advertisers involved with social marketing are beginning to recognise the sea change that is coming due to the spread of interactive media usage throughout many subpopulations of interest. Unfortunately, models of how social marketing theory and practice shold evolve have not been forthcoming, severely limiting the development of appropriate media usage strategies. This paper seeks to resolve this dilemma, in part, via discussion of how social marketing goals and objectives are challenged and advanced in this new environment. Advertisers must face inherent opportunities and challenges, as failure to do so will leave social agendas unfinished or unresolved, particularly as new and younger generations become principal targets.     

Social capital: a review from an ethics perspective

Social capital has as its key element the value of social relationships to generate positive outcomes, both for the key parties involved and for wider society. Some authors have noted that social capital nevertheless has a dark side. There is a moral element to such a conceptualisation, yet there is scarce discussion of ethics within the social capital literature. In this paper ethical theory is applied to four traditions or approaches to economic social capital: neo‐capitalism; network/reputation; neo‐Tocquevellian; and development. Each is considered in detail and subject to ethical analysis by the application of utilitarianism, Kantianism, justice and rights, and ethic of care. Accordingly, the assumption that social capital is either value‐neutral or a force for good is critiqued, and a framework for understanding social capital from an ethics perspective is presented.     

The ethics of political marketing practices,the rhetorical perspective

Negative attack ads used in political compaigns have been attacked as being unethical because they contribute to voter cynicism and apathy and as being manipulative. From a rhetorical perspective these advertisements serve a positive societal function by creating alternative rhetorical visions that can contribute to the marketplace of ideas.Dr. Banker is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department at Stonehill College in North Easton, Massachusetts. He has published articles in such journals asWorld Communication and theJournal of Educational Psychology. His primary research interest is in Political Communication.     

The American marketing association code of ethics: Instructions for marketers

This article addresses the two main obstacles — ignorance and conflict — that block the pathway to ethically proper conduct, both generally in business and specifically in marketing. It begins with a brief examination of theories of the moral good which emphasizes the Greco-Roman humanistic tradition and the Judeo-Christian religious tradition. A professional code of ethics, such as the code of the American Marketing Association, is meaningful only if human beings are regarded as making moral judgments that, objectively speaking, are morally wrong, that is only when the code is considered a set of moral absolutes.Following that, the question of ignorance is dealt with utilizing the American Marketing Association code of ethics. The specific items in that code are related to the three central principles of economic justice: equivalence, contributive justice, and distributive justice. In the second section, the question of conflict is encountered in the context of four other ethical principles — double effect, culpability, good end and bad means, self-determination — that are likely to be helpful in dealing with two cases that are especially instructive because they are limiting cases: the dilemma and the hard case. The role of the hero or champion in conflicts is underscored.Edward J. O'Boyle is Research Associate and Associate Professor of Economics at Louisiana Tech University. His current research interests include quality-productivity-ethics, ethics in marketing, and improved pedagogies for teaching ethics. His articles have been published inMonthly Labor Review, Review of Social Economy, Linacre Quarterly, Louisiana Economy, International Journal of Social Economics, Marketing Education Review, andBusiness Insights.Lyndon E. Dawson, Jr., is Professor of Marketing at Louisiana Tech University and Lecturer at the Poznan School of Management in Poland. He received his Ph.D. in 1967. His current research interests focus upon ethical issues in business and the application of current marketing theory and practice in Eastern Europe. His recent co-authored works in ethics appear inJournal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Business Insights, andMarketing Education Review.     

Differences in research ethics judgments between male and female marketing professionals

With the unprecedented increase in the number of females holding executive positions in business, there has arisen interest in issues pertaining to the role of women in business organizations, including that of malefemale differences in ethical attitudes/behavior. To add to the research evidence on the issue, this paper examines differences in research ethics judgments between male and female marketing professionals. The results indicate that female marketing professionals evince higher research ethics judgments than their male counterparts. Ishmael P. Akaah is Associate Professor of Marketing at Wayne State University. He received his M.B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Health Care Marketing, Journal of Business Research, International Marketing Review, Journal of Global Marketing, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Savings and Development, Eastern Africa Economic Review, Journal of Information and Optimization Sciences, and Proceedings of the American Marketing Association.The author acknowledges the financial assistance of the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Service (ORSPS) and the School of Business Administration, both of Wayne State University, Detroit.     

The Great Gatsby as a business ethics inquiry

The author argues for the use of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel,The Great Gatsby, as a text for studying business ethics. The author presents a documented analysis of the major ethics themes in the book including, for example, moral growth, Gatsby's life of illusion, the withering of the American Dream, and the parallels between the 1920s and the 1980s. Fitzgerald's fiction analysis is then tied to the '90s via current social science and philosophical evidence addressing Fitzgerald's 1920s concerns. Data examining the incidence of lying in contemporary American life, a review of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development, and data-based studies of wealth distribution in America are among those strands of evidence. The article concludes with a brief look at students' responses toGatsby in a legal and social environment of business course.In effect, the author presents a lesson plan for teachingThe Great Gatsby as a general introduction to ethics and American values. As such, theGatsby discussion is designed to precede a more pragmatic and specific inquiry employing conventional business cases and the like.Tony McAdams is professor of business law in the Management Department at the University of Northern Iowa. Professor McAdams' articles have been published in theHarvard Business Review and theAcademy of Management Review, among other journals, and he is the principal author of the text,Law, Business, and Society. He received the 1978 Distinguished Teaching Award from the student government at the University of Kentucky.     

Social welfare, positivism and business ethics

It appears that there is a conflict of values running through business ethics between profits accruing to shareholders and the cost of entrepreneurial activities on wider stakeholders. In the ethics research literature, the multiplicity of normative ethical stances has resulted in much debate but little in the way of consistent policy proposals. There is, by comparison, an extensive literature in positive economics that attempts to resolve value conflicts similar to those faced by business ethicists. In this paper the adoption of positive welfare statements are advocated and the value judgements implicit in economics are used as the starting point. It is argued that there is merit in expressly stating a set of value judgements to demonstrate the intractable nature of finding a social consensus without a positive social welfare function that explicitly weights the values. This paper reviews the arguments surrounding corporate objectives, particularly with regard to ethical considerations and the profit maximisation orthodoxy. This is discussed within the stakeholder-stockholder narrative. A range of ethical positions in the management strategy literature are analysed and discussed. It is argued that the values underpinning business ethics research can be conceived of via a function of social welfare (including an ethical 'auctioneering' model). The paper concludes by suggesting that all ethical positions can be captured by a Bergson-type welfare function.     

Social marketing: Conceptual and pragmatic observations from a current Australian campaign

In this paper the authors discuss the meaning of social marketing and its essential differences from “conventional” marketing. Further, by reference to a current campaign which seeks to maximize adoption by medical general practitioners of an “early intervention” package to prevent development of alcohol‐related problems in patients, the authors discuss the merits of the application of social marketing principles to such a public health campaign. The difficulties experienced in both the application of social marketing principles to this campaign and in empirically assessing the effectiveness of this and similar campaigns are also discussed. The authors conclude that, although the validity of social marketing as a theoretical construct is unimpeachable, there is much further work to be done in establishing empirically the effectiveness of the application of the principles of social marketing as a social change strategy.     

Teaching ethics to marketing and logistics majors: A transformative learning experiment

Within the context of a transformative learning field experiment, the ethical ideologies of marketing majors, logistics majors, and nonbusiness majors were found to differ. Based on this finding, a field experiment was conducted to determine the effect (if any) that ethics instruction has on marketing and logistics majors versus nonbusiness majors. Students' knowledge of basic ethical principles and their ability to assess the application of these principles to ethical dilemmas were tested with a new assessment instrument. The major findings suggest (a) transformative learning ethic exercises have pedagogical potential and (b) dissimilar ethical predispositions between marketing and logistics majors versus nonbusiness majors confirms the need for customizing ethics pedagogy by college major.     

Milieu as a pertinent unit of analysis in project marketing

The purpose of this article is to shift gear from the purely economic to the socioeconomic level in project marketing and consequently to demonstrate that project marketing consists, to a certain extent, in the management of a firm's relationships to a local network of business and non-business actors, named the milieu. This networking action forms the basis of a proactive approach aiming at anticipating bids and at maximizing the firm's chances of success on on-going projects.     

Infant feeding as a social marketing issue: A review

Despite universally recognized benefits to both mother and child, there is a worldwide decline in the incidence and duration of breastfeeding. This paper examines the choice of infant feeding method as a social marketing and consumer behavior issue by considering infant feeding (1) in the context of exchange, (2) as the first complex consumption decision that is made for a child, (3) in a socio-cultural context, (4) as a policy issue affecting the health care system, the workplace, and the law, and (5) as a methodological challenge to marketing and consumer behavior researchers.

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Zusammenfassung Die ErnÄhrung von SÄuglingen als ein Thema des sozialen Marketings: Ein überblick Obwohl seine Vorteile für Mutter und Kind allgemein anerkannt werden, nimmt das Stillen weltweit ab, sowohl was die HÄufigkeit als auch was die zeitliche Dauer betrifft. Der Beitrag prüft die Entscheidung über die SÄuglingsernÄhrung als Thema des sozialen Marketings und des Konsumentenverhaltens anhand der folgenden Gesichtspunkte: (1) Stillen als Beziehung und Austausch zwischen Mutter und Kind, (2) Stillen als erste komplexe Konsumentscheidung, die für das Kind getroffen wird, (3) Stillen im soziokulturellen Zusammenhang, (4) Stillen als ein Thema der Gesundheitspolitik, der Arbeits und der Rechtspolitik und schlie\lich (5) Stillen als methodische Herausforderung für Marketing- und Verbraucherforscher.

     

Price structure as a marketing variable: An experimental investigation

This study examines the relative impact on preferences of price level and price-structure variables. A pair of four-factor experimental designs were developed to investigate the preferences of students for automobile price structures and recent homebuyers for various price arrangements in buying a house. The findings indicate that, for a majority of the subjects, the structural variables of down payment, interest rate, and monthly payment are more important than price level in determining overall preferences.     

Social marketing and consumers’ experience of lipophobia

Modern societies are lipophobic: they express a deep anxiety about fat and fatness. On the other hand, the public discourses about health and well being, though biased towards lipophobia, are far from unanimous. The general question is how consumers experience and negotiate contradictory messages of hedonism and ascetics from commercial and governmental agents? This study more specifically examines the hypothesis that the governmental campaigns and official messages mediated through TV, newspapers and other media are largely failing their target, since they tend to have the biggest impact on people, that do not have a serious weight problem, but who nevertheless perceive themselves to be overweight. This is investigated through an adapted use of the Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique approach with 20 younger female informants as well as a set of interviews with selected medical and political experts and representatives of consumer groups. The results provide a culturally rooted image of consumers’ fat intake and dietary practices as well as an attempt to de‐stigmatise consumers’ body imagery, informing future food policies and the food industry's satisfaction of public and private interests in consumers’ dietary patterns. This ends up in a critique of a certain approach to social marketing in the food domain. Rather than focusing on informational campaigns spreading messages that are already known to most people, more efforts should be put into the basic build‐up of a better general food culture – one that stresses quality over quantity and which is lipo‐conscious rather than lipophobic.     

An empirical investigation of international marketing ethics: Problems encountered by Australian firms

This study identifies and categorises ethical problems in terms of frequency of occurrence and importance to a sample of Australian international business managers. The study determined that the most frequently cited ethical problem is gifts/favours/entertainment and that this problem may be related to the culture where the international business is being conducted. The most important ethical problem is large-scale bribery. When the frequency of occurrence and importance means are compared in a scatter plot, cultural differences, pricing practices and questionable commissions were catagorised in the high frequency/high importance quadrant. The Australian general managers stated that managerial action will be taken to control unethical behavior among their international marketing managers. It was conjectured that managers were not as firm in their attitudes concerning the necessity to compromise one's ethics to succeed in international business.Dr. Robert Armstrong is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at Murdoch University. He has concentrated his research activities toward international and service marketing. He has published several papers in both subject areas. Currently, he is studying: International Marketing Ethics in the Asia-Pacific region. The long-range study seeks to make cross-cultural comparisons of Southeast Asian and Australian business executives perceptions of the international marketing environments. He is also doing research for an international marketing text for Australia and Southeast Asia.I would like to thank Jane Seman for her assistance in the collection of data and references for this study. I would also like to thank the reviewer(s) for insightful recommendations and suggestions on the draft of the article.     

社区矫正:作为一种社会问题的社会建构论

社会建构论关注的不是作为社会问题的客观现实状况,而是客观现实状况怎么成为社会问题的。社区矫正也是一种社会问题,社区矫正的社会建构过程在我国的社会转型初期社会矛盾催生下呈现,在社会转型深化期合法化。社区矫正作为社会控制手段,在社会建构中理性、文明、柔性、人道、法治是后现代社会发展的必然要求。