Marketing Activities- A critical analysis from an ethical point of view

Recently it seems as if the general opinion about marketing has deterioratedin particular due to broadly discussed scandals. At the same time there hasbeen increased interest in corporate social responsibility and ethical conduct.Hence this paper evaluates marketing activities with the help of an ethicaltheory as a normative basis namely the Theory of Justice by John Rawls.The author Julia Naskrent first gives an introduction to the basic concepts ofethics and marketing. After justifying its use for the purpose of this paperthe Theory of Justice is operationalized in order to make it applicable for theactual analysis of marketing activities which is made in accordance with themarketing mix. At the end of the first part of the paper a model of the mostimportant findings is presented and forms the basis for the second part.Here ways to legitimize marketing activities are presented by demonstratingseveral instruments and initiatives companies can establish.Due to combining ethical theory and philosophy with practical marketingactivities this paper is interesting for practitioners such as marketers as wellas philosophers scholars and economists.