Marketing Ethics Case Study Analysis

Marketing Ethics Case Analysis

In fulfillment of Assignment #1

BY:

Zaid Matalka

9038

Prepared For:

Stephen G. Wright

Assistant Professor of Management

MRKT101 – Introduction to Marketing

Spring 2011

8th of March 2011

Marketing Ethics Case Analysis

Various Hair Dye Manufacturers including Clairol, Revlon, Helene Curtis and Alberto Culver were using a substance called 4-MMPD (4-Methoxy-M-phenelenediamine sulfate) in their products. This Substance was not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it was found that 4-MMPD contains an ingredient that can penetrate skin and cause cancer to laboratory animals when tested Moreover it was found that this chemical caused mutation in bacterial genes.

The FDA could only require a label to be fixed to the products explaining the dangers of using them. Although Dye manufacturers refused to put the warning label and strongly defended their products, they were required to put them after all. All of the manufacturers of hair dyes stopped using the chemical except for Revlon, the replaced the chemical with a similar one,

That was proving to cause cancer in animals.

The companies involved this case never took social responsibility into consideration. Companies in this case should have made social responsibility a long term objective, More over they should go by the pyramid of corporate responsibility which states that other than making profit, companies should obey the law, meaning knowing what is right or wrong and implying it, be ethical, and this means avoiding harm to people, and that is an obligation towards the society and the consumers. The companies in this case did not act legally, instead of obeying the FDA rules and regulations of putting a warning label on their products they tried to fight and manipulate their way around it because they knew that putting them will alert people that their products are harmful, Resulting in a decrease sales thus a decrease in revenue. The...