One of the key challenges for reputable brands all around the world is to be recognized from all stakeholders
as an ethical business (Dibb et al., 2019). The CSR about ethical concerns is particularly attentive and
marketers should always be aware of the disastrous outcomes of a news/viral social media campaign against
an unethical decision. Miao Ze-hua et al. (2011) argued that Chinese pharmaceutical companies could
potentially create a market based on customer’s lifestyle: essentially being carefully focused on the customer’s
life cycle and provide products and services developed on the classification of needs (Miao Ze-hua et al.,
2011). This is obviously a way to increase revenue and generate profit encouraging consumption…
This is the basis of a social disaster, unethical market choices can for sure bring the society to an unhealthy
and difficulty way to strive in life: great proclamations with an anthropocentric conception (Miao Ze-hua et al.,
2011) must be followed by tangible actions to be truly ethical.
One of the organizations I worked for, claimed to act in an ethical way in the well-known competitive and
aggressive pharmaceutical market. The core of this assumption was all about delivering products that
maintained the promise they claimed. However, regardless of the excellent quality of these products, I found
this statement a little biased: it undermines in the minds of consumers that on the market there are products
from other companies that do not keep the promises. Which is also true. Especially in the health sector,
marketing messages are often aimed at vulnerable people of all kinds (Palmer and Hedberg, 2013).
Is it more socially responsible to focus the organization’s marketing message on itself or highlighting the less
ethical choices of competitors?