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I’ve recently blogged on Ethics, trying to shed some light on how I (and several others) see Ethics and morality. I’ve also narrowed it down to our relation to “others”. This relation can be framed reactively (I am accountable for the harm I cause to others) and pro-actively (I want to benefit others). How does this relate to Marketing and today’s consumer society?

The very essence of marketing philosophy relies on “connecting” with the company’s primary “other”: the customer. Empathy (feeling and understanding others) is perhaps the core trait of a good marketer. Unfortunately, empathy (understand) doesn’t equal sympathy (care for).

There are many obstacles to ethics and sympathy. I will not recycle the popular capitalism-is-making-us-bad argument here, nor will I provide a comprehensive list of endless factors that inhibit ethics. Instead I will focus on how our basic relation to ethics and kindness has become quite problematic. Phillips and Taylor wrote a wonderful book on this topic (“On kindness“). They claim that today’s image of kindness is quite bad, as it is often perceived as a sign of weakness or naivety. They believe that is because we are no longer to think of kindness as something natural and simple. We have substituted the joy of simple kindness to others with the notion of magical kindness: the kind (no pun intended) that is saintly and world transforming. With saintly I mean that we only give credit to kindness if it is completely detached from our own interest (it must be 100% altruistic). With world-transforming I mean that we only value kindness if it is effective in solving problems rather than merely alleviating them.

Let me give you an example. Let’s say I donate 10€ to charity. Today this act is very likely to be received with suspicion: Did he do it just to show off? 10€ means nothing to him anyway, etc. It is also very likely to be met with derogation: What will 10€ do anyhow? The charities will probably spend it on tipping a waiter in a five star hotel where they stay during their “missions”? The donation will just create more dependence, it won’t eradicate hunger, etc.

Magical kindness all over. And when our actions can’t meet these extreme standards we cannot but feel that it doesn’t make any sense or that it’s just too hard. Phillips and Taylor argue that we need to return to normal, simple kindness. The kind (no pun intended) that makes us feel happy without being ashamed, the kind that helps without asking if it will solve the world altogether.

Companies often fall into the trap of magical kindness as well. They focus on ethics as a magical project that will utterly transform the image of the company and the ways in which customers relate to it. They reach for the stars and trip over. Their initiatives seem so fake and far fetched. How about starting with the small stuff? The way we treat people within our company (employees, guests, etc.), and the way we open to those around us. I’m not talking about putting the ideal of kindness into our mission statements. Quite the contrary! I’m talking about living it, because it feels good to be good to others, because it makes us feel more at ease with our roles and work, because it invigorates us and makes us more creative. That’s not a campaign for magical kindness, that’s life.

I have no final solution here, nor am I trying to trash the existing efforts of companies. I am merely pointing out what I believe is a crucial obstacle to ethical marketing: the way we think of ethic. Next time, I will focus on incentives that challenge us to think more and differently about ethics and morality in marketing. I will also provide a short overview of what falls into the “Ethics in marketing” category.