Chapter 3, Question 4

Chapter 3, Question 4
It targeting unethical, or just good marketing? Identify arguments on both sides of the issue and then present your personal position.

Ethics in marketing is a very grey area. I will present three examples of what I believe to be ethical, what I believe to be unethical and grey area. Targeting a segment based on behavioral data such as Visa targeting using an Amazon.com incentive and assuring a relevant offer by targeting customers that already shop at Amazon.com. I believe this to be very ethical. Unethical would be a bank targeting customers who frequently overdraft the account and asking them to open a line of credit. A grey could be a bank targeting college kids with credit cards without credit card history.

Personally, my option is that targeting and segmentation is the single most important step in creating your marketing promotion. Aside from saving $ on upfront targeting costs (verses a random audience) you can use segmented tests to build best practices, predictive models, and end up with customers who know that you know them. Also without a segmented list, chances are slim of achieving a desirable response rate with a breakeven in sight. Yes, I do believe that some marketing cross the line, but as long as management has a strong opinion on what is and what is not “ethical”, segmentation is a powerful tool to segment you customer base.