Ethics in financial products marketing

Ethics is essential in financial products marketing in order to build trust and loyalty with consumers. This chapter highlights the importance of ethics in financial products marketing through examining the consequences of unethical marketing practices as demonstrated by a string of recent international scandals involving financial products. The chapter also provides a model by which to examine these marketing practices. The first section of this chapter defines financial products and provides some context for studying the ethics of marketing financial products. This is followed by a discussion of the various theoretical approaches to marketing of financial products and the significance of the marketing of financial products where the consequences of unethical marketing can be particularly severe. The next part of the chapter examines a number of unethical marketing practices involving financial products, including recent reports of market rigging, misrepresentation, mis-selling and predatory sales practices. The interplay between regulation and ethics is then discussed and a model of ethical marketing is presented, and applied to the marketing of a range of financial products to help businesses ensure that their moral obligations to customers and to staff are appropriately considered in their marketing practices. The chapter argues that application of ethical marketing practices can drive strategic marketing actions and marketing campaigns for financial product providers that will engage and educate consumers, and which will provide better long-term outcomes for all stakeholders and for society as a whole.