Ethics And Legalities In Marketing: An Important Discussion

There’s a great quote by Zig Ziegler that always stuck with me: “Timid salesman have skinny kids”.

In marketing forums I constantly see people asking whether specific marketing techniques are unethical or illegal. In most cases, something is unethical or illegal based on how the tactic is used, not the tactic itself.

This is going to be a pretty advanced discussion, so we need to define our terms before getting started. Understanding these distinctions is very important, because a lot of marketers are limiting their results out of fear.

Here are my working definitions for the following terms in relation to business:

Unethical/Immoral: Being misleading or doing harm for personal benefit. (Note: There’s a difference between “unethical” and “immoral”, but I’m lumping them together for this discussion unless I state otherwise.

Illegal: Against the law

Against T.O.S. (Terms Of Service): While not necessarily illegal or unethical going against the terms of service of a specific website or company

Polite: How cordial and well you treat others

Aggression Level: How in-your-face (or timid) you are

Before I start giving business examples, lets look at a few real-world examples:

• Cheating on your spouse is unethical/immoral, but not illegal
• Driving safely over the speed limit is illegal but not unethical/immoral
• Talking loudly in a library is not illegal or immoral, it’s just against the library’s T.O.S. (you’re supposed to be quiet, they might ask you to leave)
• Being rude to someone isn’t illegal and usually isn’t unethical, it’s just not polite.
• Respectfully and nicely asking for donations to a worthy charity multiple times to the same person isn’t illegal, unethical, or impolite, it’s just aggressive.

These are very important distinctions, and here’s the most important for you to understand as a marketer: You can be aggressive with your marketing tactics and still operate legally, ethically, and morally.

• Using fake testimonials: Unethical and illegal
• Using real testimonials but not complying with the new strict FTC guidelines: Not unethical, but illegal
• Saying you’re limiting the sale of a PLR (Private Label Rights) products to 100, but then continuing to sell more: Unethical and illegal
• Saying you’re limiting the sale of a PLR product to 100 and refusing to sell any more after 100: Ethical and legal
• Arbitrarily limiting the number of a certain product you will sell, using the artificial limit as a “scarcity technique”: Ethical and legal, as long as you do what you say… And yes, that applies to digital/downloadable products too, not just physical inventory. To repeat: There’s nothing illegal or unethical about choosing to limit how much of a product you sell.

Understanding these definitions will be very important as I begin introducing more advanced concepts in the weeks ahead.