Page 200 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

192 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

are compatible with the idea of maximizing goals. For example, commercial
marketers could draw the broader conclusion that the greatest good for soci-
ety is equivalent to the highest profitability and/or the most clients, thus jus-
tifying their behavior. Similarly, social marketers could assume that the
highest adoption of social marketing behavior or the most funds raised for
social marketing causes is equivalent to the greatest good for society and jus-
tifies their behavior. It is easy to see how these systems (classical utilitarianism
and financial optimization/social marketing goal optimization), which are
oriented to maximizing results, are philosophically compatible.

Duty-Based Ethics

A second category of ethical theories comprises those classified by phi-
losophers as deontological (i.e., duty-based). This impressive-sounding
word simply indicates that actions are best judged as “good,” standing
alone and without regard to consequences or outcomes. Based on these
theories, intentions or motivations, and not exclusively the act itself, deter-
mine whether a social marketing decision is ethical or unethical. Perhaps
the most famous duty-based theory was developed by the German phi-
losopher Immanuel Kant (1785/1981). He contended that moral laws
took the form of categorical imperatives—principles that defined behavior
appropriate in all situations and that should be followed by all persons as
a matter of duty. Kant proposed three formulations of his supreme categor-
ical (i.e., unconditional) imperative as follows:

1. Act only on maxims that you can will to be universal laws of nature (universal-
ity formulation);
2. Always treat the humanity in a person as an end and never merely as a means
(human dignity formulation); and
3. Act as if you were a member of an ideal kingdom of ends in which you were
both subject and sovereign at the same time (moral community formulation).
For both business and social marketing, duty-based approaches to ethics
have important implications. These approaches suggest, among other things,
that cost-benefit analysis is inappropriate for evaluating some situations,
because decisions that produce good outcomes for the organization or social
marketer but significantly hurt other stakeholders in the process are not
morally acceptable. Because means as well as ends should be subjected to
moral evaluation, an implication of duty-based theories is that sometimes
business and social marketing executives must take actions that do not pro-
duce the best economic or social marketing outcomes. To do otherwise
could be ethically wrong. That is, some actions might violate the basic duty
to treat everyone fairly. For example, using duty-based reasoning, fear