Objectively, the marketing function encounters ethical challenges that are external to the business organization. One ethical challenge is the fact that marketing infringes on the potential customer’s right to self-determination. A rational individual has the right to make an informed decision, but marketing has the capacity to influence and twist that decision.

Another ethical concern is that marketing causes harm to competitors. Since marketing ultimately leads to fierce competitions, unethical marketing tactics cause market saturation where a product, for instance, is heavily distributed within a market. One look at a traffic jam in the streets will give us an idea that cars are heavily diffused within the city. Yet another ethical issue is that marketing also motivates people to purchase and spend even beyond what is needed and necessary, causing consumerism and waste.

There, too, are the relatively recent ethical issues in marketing that are outside the control of the marketing function. These concerns are objective realities that the marketing world cannot dictate upon. Environmental, social, and community/ethnic issues are huge challenges to marketers to which they respond with green marketing, social marketing, and ethnic marketing, respectively.