Business-Consumer Interaction

Importance of Consumers:

“It is a consumer’s demand that leads to the purchase of a good or service which generates revenue for organisations. When consumers are absent from this equation, the success of an organisation is questionable.” (Philip Nguyen, 2017).

Relevant ethical issues:

• Consumer Protection
• Product Policy: Product safety, fitness for purpose
• Marketing Communication: Deception, misleading claims, intrusiveness
• Pricing: Excessive pricing, price fixing, predatory & deceptive pricing
• Distribution: Gift & bribes, slotting fees
• Marketing Strategy: Targeting vulnerable individuals, consumer exclusion
• Market Research: Privacy issues

Resources:

• Excessive pricing: COVID-19 Drug at $2340!
• Misleading claims: what products were among those marketed with the most outrageous claims of all time?
• Novartis, Alcon Pay $347 Million to Settle Bribery Probes
• Rolls-Royce Bribery Scandal
• FIFA Corruption Scandal
• Volkswagen “Engineering a Deception”