Digital Marketing

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Digital marketing is defined as the application of digital media, data, and technology, along with traditional communication techniques for marketing. In 2020, U.S. consumers spent $861.12 billion dollars buying items online and the U.S. eCommerce grew forty-four percent. The covid-19 pandemic has altered online shopping habits and shifted society towards more digital dependence. Companies such as Amazon, Target, and Walmart have picked up on these trends and they are transforming their online retail and improving their digital marketing. Currently, more companies are starting to realize that if they are “not findable on the web” they will not be able to reach the modern consumer.

People are starting to prefer shopping online rather than shopping in person for several reasons. Not only is online shopping more convenient, but there tend to be better comparison prices and less expenses involved. Consumers also appreciate the privacy and discreteness of eCommerce shopping. Digital marketing tactics play on these shifting habits and have become much more than simple Facebook ads and disposable corporation emails. Today, there are many types of digital marketing including Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Pay-per-Click (PPC), Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and Market Analytics . Even though these are different mechanisms of marketing, all of these platforms want traffic to their website to pay the bills of the digital marketers. The shift to online shopping has led companies to exploit consumers by selling their personal information in exchange for them falling for their digital marketing techniques and shopping comfortably from their homes.

Ethical Implications

Identities on Social Media

One of the primary ethical implications of digital marketing is the misrepresentation of identities on social media. Social media influencers and other online employees have marketed a company’s products or services on social media without disclosing their involvement with them. This is considered false advertising because an influencer’s endorsement message should have an apparent and understandable relationship with the brand and its product. For example, when the Kardashians were marketing SugarBearHair products on Instagram, they violated several Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines by not disclosing that they were being paid to endorse the product. According to the Federal Trade Commission, if a sponsor is not acknowledging the true intentions behind a certain product advertisement, then they are misleading the consumer. The misjudgment of the product would not allow the consumer to make the best incentive for the decision to buy. Therefore, the company and who they pay to digitally market their items (or services) is responsible for false advertising practices and needs to be held accountable.

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Consent

The other major ethical implication is the consent of the user, whether it be through email or some other medium, to be contacted. In fact, the Federal Trade Commission has also set guidelines with regards to contacting the consumers. These guidelines include but are not limited to unsubscribing when requested, identifying the emails as an advertisement, not using deceptive subject lines, and letting the consumers know how to unsubscribe from the emails or whatever other medium is used for advertising. These guidelines are intended for the consumers to be protected from the digital marketers, but these can help the marketers in terms of building trust between the consumer and the marketer.

Privacy

Digital marketing also faces criticism over consumer privacy, in regard to the practice of gathering and storing data. These issues range from consumer data collection, unauthorized access of consumer data, unauthorized secondary use of consumer data, and consumer data accuracy. The Big Data movement has allowed companies to collect vast amounts of personal information about customers, such as their search history or posts on social media. Other information that may be collected and held by companies includes details about visiting a website, applying for a credit card, online purchases, and more..This collected data is then mined or sold to third-party companies to perform statistical measures to enable companies to improve on their performance of market research and consumer segmentation and identifying key information about company issues. It can be argued that both marketers and customers can benefit from the storing of data in databases since customers may be able to receive special offers on items that match their preferences. However, some consumers feel that this collection of data is a violation of their privacy and puts consumers at risk in the event of a company database or website database breach.

Scams

Since online transactions typically require the customer to enter their credit card information, customers worry that poor security of the company’s database may lead to consequences such as internet fraud, identity theft, and financial scams, etc. Additionally, the growth of digital marketing and online shopping has led to an increasing number of internet scams, that typically result in financial loss. In 2017, the total monetary loss from internet scams was estimated to be more than $800 million. Phishing is one fraudulent internet practice that uses deceptive emails and fraudulent online websites to trick users into disclosing their personal data, such as usernames and passwords, banking information, Social Security numbers, and more. Not only does this result in potential identity theft and financial loss, but the professional image of reputable online marketers may have their brand image ruined. Scams result in the loss of trust from individuals in website, email, and other digital or online transactions.