The Legal and Ethical Bindings of Advertising and Marketing

Advertising and marketing do not necessarily deal with humanitarian morals and scruples all the time. But this doesn’t mean that there are no dos and don’ts in this field. False claims and mass deception can sound the death knell for your company. The temptation for cutting corners by producing inferior goods and advertising them off as superior ones is manifest in many marketers. But prudent marketers are always wary of legal troubles that could plague their business. They adhere to certain dos and refrain from certain don’ts. Here’s some good advice.

Dos

• Be original. Choose a company name and logo that hasn’t already been chosen by another marketer. As much as you’d like to cash in on a successful company’s success through imitation, it is legally wrong. Besides, a sound business mind would tell you that you can only ape the company’s name and logo, not its success.
• Always do your homework before you make any superlative claims about product. You can call it the ‘healthiest’, ‘cheapest’ or ‘fastest’ only if you have evidence to back up your claims. Adequate research is therefore mandatory.
• Make sure you plan ahead. Developing a budget for advertising and marketing that you can afford is crucial to launching a successful marketing campaign. Read about state and national legal bindings which concern creation of businesses and protection of consumers at solvemyproblem.com.

Don’ts

• Do not leave out important information (such as side effects of a particular drug). This counts as consumer deception and can cost you legally in the long run.
• Do not resort to false and paid testimonials for your business. Once these are proven to be false, your company will no longer be trusted by existing or potential customers, however few.
• Do not try to fool the consumer with an excess of jargon and rhetoric. Advertising is all about keeping to clear and simple so that everyone gets it. You cannot cloud the mind of a customer and expect his full faith in your product or service.

Ethics are Important

All businesses have an ethical responsibility towards their consumers. If the consumer is expressing faith in you, you cannot repay him in falsities and fallacies. Besides, you cannot sell anything by hook or crook anymore due to the sound legal regulations imposed by consumer protection forums. Marketing experts will tell you that it is unlawful and looked down upon once your dirty marketing secrets are out in the open. Color the white truth, but do not tell the black lie.