Marketing and Management for Driving Forces in Organization

Introduction

Ethics should be one of the driving forces for any organization for the external as well as the internal environment (Smith and Murphy 2012). When an organization is operating in the competitive market, they have to take various steps so that they are able to operate well in the market. However, the steps taken by the organizations should be justified and the customers should not complain about the steps taken by the organization (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick 2012). The customers are the main beings who are responsible for the development of the organization. In such a situation, the steps taken by the organization should not violate the interest of the customers (Solomon, Russell-Bennett and Previte 2012).

For the present essay, two companies of Australia will be studied who have violated certain norms to get the information of the customers and stay ahead of the competitors. The companies are the National Australian Bank and the AIM, which has the largest retail chains in Australia. The essay will first look into the steps taken by these companies and why the steps taken by the organization are considered to be not ethical. The essay will then proceed to discuss about the aspects of marketing that they have violated. Finally, the steps that the two companies could have taken in place of the past steps will be suggested in the essay.

Online and social media marketing is currently the favorite among the owners of many companies (Armstrong et al. 2013). Due to the advent of the online marketing, the traditional marketers are gradually moving towards online marketing to promote their products and enhance their business (Galician 2013). AIM provides it business to the customers in the rural, regional and metropolitan location of Australia (4naturalhealth.com 2016). However, with the changing environment, AIM is thinking of growing its business and entering the online market. Even though, they were skeptical before entering the online market and taking their business online, however, as the competitors of AIM have taken to the online marketing, AIM to have entered the online market. AIM took the help of the web analytics approach so that they are able to provide the customers with personalized shopping experience (Kenny, Pierce and Pye 2012). In addition to this, AIM handles a Facebook page that interacts with the people who are friends with AIM. AIM aims at getting the honest feedback from the customers.

However, while applying web analytics approach, AIM was able to get hold of the following information:

Number of sites visited by the customers or the pages that have been browsed by the customers in the AIM page

• Track the origin of the users
• Tracking the customers based on the clicks
• Locate the place from where the customers are leaving the website
• Number of products that have been viewed by the customers
• The customization of the products that have been made by the customers
• Total number of purchases made by the users

Based on the information available, AIM would have been able to create the repeat customers for the company. However, while taking the help of the web analytics approach to market their products and give the customers the desired products; they are violating the privacy of the customers. As a result, a number of issues could have been raised against AIM where they are violating the security and privacy issues while mating their products. In addition to this, they are not taking the consent of the customers before tracking their information, they are tracking the activities of the users in the social networking site.

The national Australian bank on the other hand, messaged one of their customers when she took a loan from another company (Head 2016). The message was regarding the information that national Australian bank has better loan system than any other banks in Australia. The message was sent to the customers mainly because of the tie up of national Australian bank with the credit bureau Veda that messaged the customer regarding better loan system available at national Australian Bank. The customer felt offended as the decision of where she will take the loan from is completely hers and no other entity has the right to invade her privacy and check the personal information of the customer. The customer is a customer of National Australian Bank and hence, the credit bureau Veda was able to trap the information of the customer. The action taken by National Australian Bank or Veda can be termed unethical as they tracked the personal information of the woman and the areas where she is doing a transaction (DesJardins and McCall 2014). At the most National Australian Bank could have informed the customer about the better loan system but they should have not invaded the privacy of the woman and track her transactions. The action National Australian Bank or Veda could also be seen under the light of customer satisfaction but the customer satisfaction does not mean that they have the right to view the personal transactions of any customer (Ferrell and Keig 2013). In addition to this, when National Australian Bank teamed up with Veda, they should have decided on a policy that they should not look into the private matters of the customers or where the customer is spending the money. Thus, it can be said that when a company is going into a partnership with another company, they should set certain rules that would have saved both the organization from committing any unethical deed.

In the process, the organizations forgot that the customers are the ultimate owners of the information and they should be informed before accessing any of the information that belongs to the customers (Smith and Murphy 2012). The customers should be given the option where they can choose whether they want to participate in the information snaring business. In addition to this, the organizations could be sued because they have managed the data that belonged to the customers (Jobber and Ellis-Chadwick 2012).

The aspects of marketing that could be identified for the case of AIM is the aspect of customer satisfaction (Solomon, Russell-Bennett and Previte 2012). The aspect of marketing that could be identified in the case of national Australian bank is the aspect of partnership(DesJardins and McCall 2014). AIM tried to customize the product search for the customer sand hence, studied the behavior of the customer by tracking their activity. They thought that once the customers will be able to get the exact search options and the advertisement of those products that they like will flash in their screens, they will find it easy to make a purchase. On the other hand, the National Australian Bank collaborated with credit bureau Veda to extend their business as well as lower the risk of the business. In addition to the partnership, the merged company might be able to give more customized products to the customers who are visiting the bank. It might happen that the steps taken by the organization for the betterment of the company and to provide best quality services to the customers but when viewed from the ethical point of view, the steps taken by the organizations can be considered unethical (Armstrong et al. 2013).

Hence, it is recommended that the customers should be given a declaration to fill up regarding the sharing of information on the site. The customers should give their consent to the fact that their browsing information will be evaluated by the site where they are making a purchase or doing a transaction of money.

Conclusion

By looking into the case studies of AIM and national Australian bank, it can be said that ethics should be the ultimate goal of every organization when they are working in a compoetiive market. At times, competition makes the organizations take certain drastic steps that they should not have taken. The main problems is faced b y the customers who are transacting with the company. The aspects of marketing that have been found out in the cases AIM and National Australian Bank is customer satisfaction and partnership respectively. In the case of National Australian Bank, as well customer satisfaction can be considered as an aspect. Hence, it can be seen that the ultimate goal of the organizations is customer satisfaction and they take the steps mainly because they want to spread their business by making the customers happy. Both AIM and National Australian Bank tracked the transactions of the customers to give them the best products. However, the steps taken by National Australian Bank is more drastic than the steps taken by AIM and hence, National Australian Bank should be more effective with the ethical marketing than AIM. AIM tracks the browsing history of the customers, while on the other hand, National Australian Bank tracks the actions of the customers when they are doing a transaction with other banks as well. However, invasion of privacy while marketing cannot be accepted any cost and hence, the organization should take necessary steps so that they carry out their transactions in an ethical manner.

References

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DesJardins, J.R. and McCall, J.J., 2014. Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage Learning.

Ferrell, O.C. and Keig, D.L., 2013. The marketing ethics course: Current state and future directions. Journal of Marketing Education, p.0273475313491498.

Galician, M.L., 2013. Handbook of product placement in the mass media: New strategies in marketing theory, practice, trends, and ethics. Routledge.

Head, B. 2016. Australia’s NAB bank accused of “violating” customer through data sharing. [online] ComputerWeekly. Available at: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450299144/Australias-NAB-bank-accused-of-violating-customer-through-data-sharing [Accessed 31 Aug. 2016].

Jobber, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2012. Principles and practice of marketing(No. 7th). McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Kenny, R., Pierce, J. and Pye, G. 2012. Ethical considerations and guidelines in web analytics and digital marketing : a retail case study. AiCE 2012 : Proceedings of the 6th Australian Institute of Computer Ethics conference 2012, [online] pp.5-12. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30043939 [Accessed 31 Aug. 2016].

Smith, N.C. and Murphy, P.E., 2012. Marketing ethics: a review of the field. Sage: London.

Solomon, M., Russell-Bennett, R. and Previte, J., 2012. Consumer behaviour. Pearson Higher Education AU.

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