Marketing ethics in the fitness industry

Introduction

  The fitness industry is growing but fitness center professionals are experiencing ethical issues.  Focusing on corporate social responsibility, the fitness industry should understand its social responsibilities or it should understand their role in improving the environment, the society, as well as the economy. However, the fitness industry goes against the principles of the CRS, or in other words, they do not serve the sole purpose of improving the health and wellbeing. The industry measures its success in financial terms or other words it puts financial above the wellbeing of the customers. According to CSR, the fitness industry should ensure the social impact in terms of health and wellbeing improvement, and educational attainment.   Today, the fitness industry is associated with unethical issues. They provide false advertisement and fraudulent claims to gain the edge.  The industry should understand that the false promise results in mistrust and frustration. The fitness industry should embrace CSR; that is understand the values of the industry and put those values into the community and as a result,  the industry will gain trust since the customers will feel accepted and develop a sense of belonging. 

 

CSR and social purpose marketing

 

  Corporate social responsibility means that companies should understand the interest of different stakeholder groups including communities, environment, employees, customers, and more (Maignan & Ferrell, 2004). Companies are expected to create a strong relationship with customers to meet their social needs and increase business survival.  CSR influence companies in understanding social marketing. This means that the marketing mix supports the social responsibility of a company. In marketing, corporate social responsibility states that customers should understand the behavior of a company in other words they need information and knowledge so that they can be able to make their purchasing decision (Maignan & Ferrell, 2004).  Research and studies find that responsible companies create a positive image and customer interacts positively with the company. There, the CSR enables the organization to have a social purpose marketing or in other words, companies understand that customers are interested in companies that provide purpose-driven brand (Maignan & Ferrell, 2004). To achieve a special marketing purpose, companies must be socially responsible or they must promote social responsibility through providing socially conscious brands, promote ethically sourced products, and ensure that all company's operations align with corporate mission. Consumers look forward to becoming productive exercisers and therefore, they look for products that will enhance their performance (Balmer et al. 2011). Therefore, if customers want a good performance, the fitness industry is expected to focus on social purpose marketing. This means that the industry should not only focus on making money but it should also focus on benefiting society.  It should realize that its sole social responsibility is to attract customers by providing them with beneficial services and products.  Another important point to note is that consumers do not only look for brands and services that will offer functional benefits but they are aslo interested in the social purpose of that particular product or service.  This means that companies need to build a strategy known as the social purpose which entails fulfilling social and environmental needs.

 

 

 

Marketing ethics

  The fitness industry is involved in deceptive marketing.  The latter means that it provides misleading information or false facts to persuade customers to purchase the product or services. Their aim to make a profit and other expected outcome (Kotecki, 2011). The bad thing is that the industry targets a wider audience and this means that the information will reach many customers yet they will not benefit but rather, the industry doing the adverting will benefit in making a profit (Kotecki, 2011).  It is important to note that the misinformation is against professional ethics.  For example, the UKSARMS sells the androgen receptor to increase bone density and muscle mass. However, the drug has negative effects in that users can develop prostate cancer. This means that professionals give medical advice yet they are not permitted by the law. They recommend treatment without following the guidelines and regulations. There is also the issue of conflict of interest in the fitness industry where the professionals do not reach mutual satisfaction and agreement (Kotecki, 2011).  It is important to provide a general knowledge that is scientifically backed or they should adhere to the utilitarian principle in conducting the marketing.  For example, Myprotein which is an E-commerce company provides nutritional products that improve individuals' health and wellbeing.  The company uses marketing techniques that focus on creating a healthy lifestyle.  It is important to note that the company uses scientific research in providing high-quality products and this means that when promoting the products, it gives information that relevant and scientifically backed. 

  Sher, (2011) states that industries are involved in moral failures while marketing their products. They are using immoral manipulation or they influence customers to buy products yet they do not give them straightforward information. Therefore, customers are not given the opportunity or freedom to make rational choices. This means that their need and desires are not fulfilled simply because they are exposed to physical stimuli that hinder them from making rational and emotional decisions (Sher, 2011). Since industries are working under a competitive environment, companies are using the manipulative strategy to deceive consumers to hinder them from making normal decisions. Sher (2011) asserts that companies should understand that manipulative marketing is involved in moral issues since it targets to change the customer's desires and beliefs (Sher, 2011).  Manipulation is only necessary if the marketer focus on anti-intentional manipulation or in other words the actions do not focus on altering the goals of the customer. However, when the fitness industries are providing false information, it means that they are manipulation the customers to change their decisions. The author recommends that in using the manipulation strategy, it is important to use tactic methods that influence customer’s decision making or it provides the customer with helpful information. The point is that in manipulative marketing, the market should not focus on altering the decision-making of the customer but rather, he or she should have positive perception toward the customer (Sher, 2011).  Also, the market should focus on increasing sales but not subverting the customer's interests and preferences.

 Laczniak, 1983) asserts that ethics should be the number one priority in making marketing decisions. Note that the practice of marketing is also associated with ethical concerns and most writing suggests that for industries to improve ethics, they should adhere to the golden rule, the utilitarian principle, the categorical imperative, the professional ethic, and the TV test.  However, Laczniak asserts that these ethical frameworks are limited and the educators believe that the frameworks lack theoretical rigor. The author supports the ethical frameworks which are multidimensional and significant (Laczniak, 1983). For example, multidimensional means that the ethical framework is not simple but they address multidimensional factors in solving ethical dilemmas.  Non-utilitarianism in nature means that rather than using a utilitarian theory that is full of critics, markets should use positive actions to reach a positive outcome. The author argues that utilitarianism means that marketers should maximize benefits to many people (Laczniak, 1983). The theory does not consider the process of action but it is interested in the outcomes. Therefore, non-utilitarianism means that the actions that are intended to maximize benefits should be put into concern. 

 

Market and Consumer Data

 

 According to Gloria, the fitness industry should understand the consumer need social consciousness for them to make decisions concerning their consumption. In other words, greater social conscience impacts the decision-making process (Salazar, 2017).This is because, as the consumer gains information, knowledge, and becomes aware of the company's responsibility they gain a positive image that influences their purchasing behavior.  In specific,  fitness industry should solve the ethical issues by promoting individual factors such as provide information and knowledge towards the products, and the  'halo' effects which entail the industry should give positive attributes and this makes the customer believe that if one attribute is positive then the others are positive (Salazar, 2017). The author states that the fitness industry should apply theories such as the marketing mix in solving marketing issues. The following are the marketing mix conceits that the industry should apply;

• Product

  The fitness industry should provide clear and straightforward information concerning the services.  Rather than providing false information to make profits, the industry should provide clarity so that the target audience that pays attention and improves their purchasing power (Salazar, 2017).  Professionals should provide the information since they are of the information that makes the customer get satisfied.

• Price

 The fitness industry should concern price as part of the marketing concept. The price and value should go hand in hand and this means that each product or service should offer value concerning the price. 

• Place

 The fitness industry should communicate clearly about physical location. It should also communicate about the online locations so that the target audiences can get to the location easily to view the product and services and make a decision.  

• Promotion

 Finally, the fitness business should use effective communication to create a mutual relationship between the business and the customers (Salazar, 2017). The goal of the promotion should be to make a profit and to promote after-sale satisfaction.  Therefore, the business should inform the customer about the product and customer using the right message strategy. The information should be to bring desirable outcomes.

Recommendations

 The fitness industry should not only focus on making money but it should also focus on satisfying customers needed. The literature has suggested that customers need to meet their expectations, they need good products and services, and they need a fair price (De Lyon et al. 2017). Since the fitness industry is full of ethical issues, the first strategy to address the issues is to limit the profit motive. There is sufficient evidence that the business is involved in fraud to the rich themselves. Even if it is good to make a profit to progress the economy the business should focus on satisfying customer needs. It is important to note that the literature finds that most of the ethical issues arise from marketing (De Lyon et al. 2017).  When promoting the products, they provide the wrong message which can affect the health and wellbeing of the individual. Thus, it is important to provide a clear and accurate message so that customers have to make rational choices. Finally, fitness professionals play a significant role in providing health-related services. However, they lack adequate training. It is recommended that professionals should use evidence-based information in providing daily practices. 

Conclusion

 The literature has provided rich information concerning the fitness industry and how fitness professionals are involved in ethical issues. The analysis has found that the fitness industry should have strong societal expectations. The industry should not only focus on making profits but it should focus on improving health outcomes. The literature recommends that the fitness industry should recognize the corporate social responsibility. The recognition will provide the importance of social purpose marketing and bring a positive outcome on the ethical aspect and customers' willingness to purchase the products and services. Therefore, if the fitness business wants to achieve its targets, it should invest CSR in the business. This will result in competitive advantage, new business opportunities, business stability, improve business image and reputation, and more importantly, reduce ethical risks. Lastly, the fitness industry needs to restructure its performance and address the issue of misleading ads to prevent consumers from purchasing deceptive products. The recommendation to consumers is that they should develop intelligence consumer behaviors. This means that they should read the advertisement ads from reliable sources. For example, the FDA is considered with public health, and information from this source can be considered reliable.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Maignan, I., & Ferrell, O. C. (2004). Corporate social responsibility and marketing: An

integrative framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 32(1), 3-19.

 

Balmer, J. M., Powell, S. M., Hildebrand, D., Sen, S., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2011). Corporate

social responsibility: a corporate marketing perspective. European Journal of Marketing.\

 

Kotecki, J. E. (2011). Physical Activity & Health: An Interactive Approach: An Interactive

Approach. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

 

Laczniak, G. R. (1983). Framework for analyzing marketing ethics. Journal of

Macromarketing, 3(1), 7-18.

 

Sher, S. (2011). A framework for assessing immorally manipulative marketing tactics. Journal of

Business Ethics, 102(1), 97-118.

 

Salazar, G. L. L. (2017). The Corporate Social Responsibility and the Marketing Strategy:

Influence on the Customer’s Purchase Decision. International Journal of Business and

Social Science, 8(2).

 

De Lyon, A. T., Neville, R. D., & Armour, K. M. (2017). The role of fitness professionals in

public health: a review of the literature. Quest, 69(3), 313-330.