Do Ethics Take The Wheel In Our Purchasing Decisions?
As a young adult living in a pandemic, I am always on my phone or laptop. Sometimes my time on these devices are spent using the media to learn about different social events and political issues. However, most of the time, I’m just online shopping.
Considering I spend a lot of time doing both of these things, you’d think these two activities would intersect to influence my purchasing power…
As we know, we live in a participatory culture. Meaning, we all have access to a public platform where we can engage and express our opinions on a wide range of topics. Since many of us have social media, we use these platforms to project our thoughts. In some cases, it is used by the public to destroy the image of larger corporations that are seen as, ‘unethical’.
In today’s society, many of us are now deciding to take the role of the responsible consumer. We appear to be much more conscious of our purchasing decisions and the ways they can impact society, as well as our environment. According to a previous study, a competitive company’s marketing initiatives are more likely to succeed when they engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts. Therefore, it appears to be more important than ever for marketers to ensure they can create an ethical brand image that will align with the values of their consumers.
For example, Airbnb were able to successfully market themselves and increase their brand awareness online through their, 2017, ‘#weaccept’ campaign. This was a successful CSR initiative that increased their engagement on social media and resulted in an abundance of new sign-ups. Airbnb’s marketing campaign and strategies have truly demonstrated the influence ethics and CSR has on attracting consumers.
Naturally, most of us want to do the right thing. Therefore, it makes sense that we would gravitate towards a business that aligns with our morals and values. Moreover, it seems that we, as consumers, sometimes use our platform to boycott those businesses that are supposedly, harmfully contributing to our world.
#StopFundingHate is a hashtag created by a pressure group that are advocates for ethical advertising. They have aims to prevent the promotion of news sources that have prompted hate within the media in the United Kingdom. For example, they particularly detested news corporations that have facilitated or promoted any form of Hate Speech. Furthermore, Stop Funding Hate utilised their social media platform, to tear down large corporations that failed to demonstrate CSR. As a result, awareness of this grew to a wider audience, deterring more consumers from other similar news organisations.
The relationship between marketing a successful brand and CSR appears to be of importance. It can be the reason that we, as ethical consumers, decide to go with a specific brand.
Does this suggest that maybe marketers should put more effort in supporting ethical causes rather than the actual product or service itself?