Profits drive free markets that are inherently competitive. Marketing as a component of free markets is foremost a tool to gain profits. In a free market economy, the primordial purpose of marketing is to create the competitive advantage of the business organization over its competitors. Profits are arrived at if the organization fulfills the needs and wants of its market. It is not marketing’s basic character to be beholden to the considerations of ethics. Ethics in marketing is the conscious application of standards of fairness and concepts of moral rights and wrongs to the marketing function of the business organization. It is not within the purview of legal mandates. It is basically a self-regulatory effort. The dynamics of marketing ethics remain within the circles of the industry.

A systematic review of marketing ethics research that was conducted by Nill and Schibrowsky (2007) on all journal articles produced by a major search engine during the period 1981 to 2005 found that while there is an increase in the number of marketing publications, the area of marketing ethics became less represented in mainstream literature. Researchers showed lesser interest in matters of societal issues and basic ethical norms.

The realm of marketing ethics is expansive and includes more than the marketing professionals themselves. The question of ethics also includes consumer behavior. A study conducted by Carrigan and Attalla (2001) using focus group discussions found that consumers today, although admittedly more sophisticated, do not necessarily favor ethical companies and punish unethical firms. However, it becomes a challenge for marketers to persuade consumers to favor ethical marketing. Since marketing is a powerful and influential movement, it can take the responsibility of swaying consumer behavior into positive purchase attitude that supports and encourages ethical marketing.

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