Operating an e-Business

Paper Summary:

This paper provides an overview of e-business and its implications, an analysis of three potential ethical problems facing e-businesses today, followed by a summary of the research in the conclusion.

From the Paper:

"Target marketing is a common practice used by a number of large producers, wholesalers, service institutions, and retailers in the United States (Peterson, 1991). According to Choudhury and Cui (2003), "The increasing efforts by marketers to target diverse groups of consumers call for a closer examination of the ethical implications of market segmentation and differentiated marketing" (p. 364). The practice of target marketing refers to the concentrated marketing of a product to a segment of consumers based on the attractiveness of the group in terms of such factors as its size and growth rate. "Theoretically speaking," Choudhury and Cui suggest that "there is nothing inherently wrong with targeted marketing" (p. 364). Increasingly, though, more and more cases of targeting potentially harmful products at vulnerable consumers have raised ethical concerns in terms of justice and fairness, such as targeting sweepstakes at the elderly and handguns at women. According to Choudhury and Cui, "Even indirect and subtle targeting of potentially harmful products at vulnerable consumers has received criticism, such as targeting children with R-rated movies and using animal characters to promote cigarettes and alcohol" (p. 365). Even assuming that consumers are not the targets of such marketing practices, though, they are still far from being completely secure in sharing their personal information online, which brings us to the next ethical issue for e-businesses today: security of personal information."

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• Term Paper # 96122 : "Marketing in E-Business"

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