Marketing is the backbone of every organization. It has traveled a lot in its concept and definition. Different era provided different concepts of marketing like product, production and marketing concepts. It is the case with its definition, where the selling of products and services were considered as marketing and now the customer satisfaction, retaining the existing one and making new customers is considered as marketing. (Philip Kotler)
As the time is passing the organizations are now moving towards the concept of societal marketing. The source of these developed concepts and definitions is mostly by the Baghdad of this era USA. So the very important issue in today’s market is the ethics, and ethics in marketing is an issue that has been in the debate for sometime also.
So the American Marketing Association has described code of ethics in marketing. We can see some Code of Ethics from American Marketing Association
Honesty and Fairness:
Being honest in serving consumers, clients, employees, suppliers, distributors and the public. Not knowingly participating in conflict of interest without prior notice to all parties involved.
Rights and Duties:
Products and services offered are safe and fit for their intended uses. Communications about the offered products and services are not deceptive. All parties intend to discharge their obligations, financial and otherwise, in good faith
(And many others, the list is long.) But as we said that Islam is the complete religion, then the question is that what Islam says about this marketing ethics? Quran and Sunnah are the basic sources of Islamic rules and regulations, so marketing executives can give better interpretation regarding code of ethics but Islam has given the best interpretation about ethics in Marketing.
Marketing mix from an Islamic perspective
It follows from the above that any commercial activity from an Islamic perspective is governed by two principles. First, submission to the moral order of God and second, sympathy and mercy to God’s creations which implies refraining from doing harm to others and thus preventing the spread of unethical practices (Niazi, 1996). This section analyses the five Ps of the marketing mix (i.e. product, price, promotion, place and people) within the context of international marketing as determined by these Islamic principles.
Product:
Islamic principles dictate that the production process must be innocent and pure from beginning to end. It should be guided by the principles of lawfulness, purity, existence, and precise determination and ensure that the ingredients have been taken/extracted/obtained from lawful sources. In other words, the production process must be guided by the criteria of the value and the impact of the product upon the whole society which is to prevent conflict, unjustified profits, fraud, uncertainty and harm to society.
Price:
Islam encourages the self-operating mechanism of price adjustments subject to certain prohibitions. These include changing the price without altering the quality and/or quantity of the product; over charging the customer for illicit gain; practicing price discrimination; charging excessive prices as a result of scarcity of supply of a given commodity; hoarding; restriction on trade; unjustified price manipulation; black marketing; and concealment of essential foodstuffs. All unethical lapses in pricing are tantamount to injustice (and are sin) and all profits that accrue as a result are unethical and unjust.
Promotion:
Islam obligates the seller to disclose all known faults of the product or service and condemns manipulative promotional behavior. It prohibits the seller from falsely glorifying the product; any cover up; false assertions; unfounded accusations; concoctions, false testimonies; deception; inducing people to give their money away through cunningness and craftiness; helping them in their immoralities praising what is vile to satisfy their desires; the use of sexual, emotional, fear or pseudo research appeal; encouraging extravagant behavior; excessive use of fantasy; the use of suggestive language and behavior; and the use of women as sexual objects. Such promotional techniques are considered fraudulent and violate the principle of justice.
Place:
Unethical lapses in distribution channels from an Islamic perspective include the usage of packaging designs without adequate security; inappropriate or inadequate packaging; transport of dangerous and harmful products in a manner that exposes the general public to its dangers; unnecessary delays in product/service delivery; compelling customers to return repeatedly causing those inconveniences. The role of distribution channels should be to create value and uplift the standard of living by providing ethically satisfactory services and not to be a burden to the customer.
People:
Islamic ethics demand protection and to enable free and independent judgment on part of the customer. Sellers must make available all known information on a product or service to enable the customer to make an informed decision. In fact, access to such information is the customer’s right under Islamic law. Any trans- action concluded under constraints or coercion is prohibited since the ability to think rationally while making any decision is a prerequisite in Islamic law. Islamic marketing ethics dictate that society at large must have access to honest information free from coercion.
Conclusion:
Western approaches are totally based on the concept that how we can make our profit maximum, so the element of materialism is always their in the minds of west. Whereas Islam is giving us a message that we are in this world but not forever so you have to obey the orders of Allah and to serve the human being on this earth according to the Sunnah of Holy Prophet (PBUH).
So the trading rules and a rule of value maximization of Islam is far better than the rule of profit maximization by western executives. Value maximization is giving benefit to all the parties whether the buyer, seller or any other intermediary.
According to Islam, unethical marketing practices and their implications in search of profit maximization have tremendous side effects on the socio-cultural and socio-economic welfare of the worldwide society and constitute injustice exploitation and oppression.
Reference:
- Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler.
- Islamic marketing ethics of just practices: a value-maximization approach by M.Saeed, Zafar U.Ahmed, Syeda Masooda Akhtar
- Islamic Law of Contract/Research cell Dyal Sing Trust Library Lahore, Niazi, Liaquat Ali Khan.
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