Individual Assignment on Marketing Ethics - California Fitness

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Responsibility

In respect of “Responsibility”, California Fitness failed to prevent using coercion. The staff took turns to tricked a customer to pay for expensive classes and made her HKD140,000 credit card payment without her agreement (Lo, 2016). According to the Customs Department, they violated the Trade Descriptions Ordinance provision. Scholars recommend that company should develop, considerate and enforce the codes of ethics, organizing official ethics training programs, hiring some ethical consultants, maintaining ethics committees, and ensuring that senior managers handle any ethical problems which confront their firms (Dunfee, 1985).

Conclusion

Being the biggest fitness chains in Hong Kong, California Fitness violated the marketing ethics repeatedly. In fact, they should strike the balance between profits and ethics by being honest, fairness and responsibility.

References

Chonko, L. B., & Hunt, S. D. (1985). Ethics and marketing management: An empirical examination. journal of Business Research, 13(4), 339-359

Chu, J. (2015, November 24). Coach jailed for using Hong Kong clients' credit cards. South China Morning Post

CMA Code of Ethics & Standards of Practice (1967). Retrieved February 13, 2017 from, Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) Web site: http://www.the-cma.org/regulatory/code-of-ethics

Dunfee, T. W., Smith, N. C., & Ross Jr, W. T. (1999). Social contracts and marketing ethics. The Journal of Marketing, 14-32

Lo, C. (2016, July 7). Top gym chain California Fitness in trouble again. South China Morning Post

Murphy, P. E. (2010). Marketing, Ethics of. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.

O'Boyle, E. J., & Dawson, L. E. (1992). The American marketing association code of ethics: Instructions for marketers. Journal of Business Ethics, 11(12), 921-932

Smith, N. C., Palazzo, G., & Bhattacharya, C. B. (2010). Marketing’s consequences: Stakeholder marketing and supply chain corporate social responsibility issues. Business Ethics Quarterly, 20(04), 617-641

Sun, N. (2016, September 18). Hong Kong Consumer Council names and shames California Fitness for aggressive sales practices. South China Morning Post

Ngo, J. (2015, December 30). Mentally disabled Hong Kong man ‘strong-armed’ into signing up for gym classes. South China Morning Post

Wong, L. (2013). California Fitness Official Site. Retrieved February 12, 2017 from http://www.californiafitness.com.hk/