Ethical consumption

[macgardener]

Nicely put, CRTreeDude.

Remember when loyalty came from being perceived to be a good company with a good product rather than from luring people in with loyalty schemes?

[CRTreeDude]

Originally Posted by macgardener

Nicely put, CRTreeDude.

Remember when loyalty came from being perceived to be a good company with a good product rather than from luring people in with loyalty schemes?

Or to put it simply, if someone will take advantage of their neighbors, they will their clients too. After all, they don't have to live with their clients.

Anytime someone approaches me with a deal that will take advantage of someone, I pass. It is amazing how many times that has saved ME from being taken advantage of. After all, the easiest way to con someone is to promise something for nothing.

[spadlet]

I think that CSR is also used to try and attract employees. People are starting to request practices such as recycling and ethical goods in their workplace. I think that companies will often try to get away with the 'bare minimum' for example selling 'Ethical Apple Juice' rather than 'Certified Fairtrade Apple Juice'. If you check out the costs from the suppliers the Fait Trade certified stuff always costs more. Thus selling the Fairtrade certified produce reduces proffit margins, unless prices increase. The 'Ethical' juice only says on the package that a certain percentage of proffits are donated to some charities in some countries. To me that just seems like some tokenistic marketing ploy to look good whilst protecting proffits. CSR is all very nice in theory but it's the details that should be publicised to customers and the reasoning behind the decisions. Then you can compare companies on what they're really doing.

After all, if a company implements good practice in production, there wouldn't be as much need for spending on mitigation activities.

Not sure if that answers you questions or is just a bit of a rant . It just seems pointless a company advertising things like 'selling a special Fairtrade brand coffee' if your local outlet is always 'waiting for a delivery'.

[ethics01]

Dear all, thank you for your comments to date as they are very helpful. I really appreciate everyone’s input so far but I have been advised that, in accordance with my research aims, I must restrict participation in the ethical consumption discussion to U.K. and U.S. based forum users (consumers) only. If your profile does not highlight your geographical location, indicating this to me in the discussion (or by message) would be helpful. I would also encourage U.K. and U.S. based forum users that have not participated in this discussion to consider sharing their thoughts on the subject.

Thanks,

Linden Reekie

[ethics01]

Based on the diverse and interesting comments raised so far, to what extent do you distinguish between companies being “socially responsible” and companies being “ethical”?

[Karl]

Originally Posted by ethics01

Dear all, thank you for your comments to date as they are very helpful. I really appreciate everyone’s input so far but I have been advised that, in accordance with my research aims, I must restrict participation in the ethical consumption discussion to U.K. and U.S. based forum users (consumers) only. If your profile does not highlight your geographical location, indicating this to me in the discussion (or by message) would be helpful. I would also encourage U.K. and U.S. based forum users that have not participated in this discussion to consider sharing their thoughts on the subject.

Thanks,

Linden Reekie

If you are simply looking for responses from "UK" and "US" based users, you are in the wrong forum (I believe that Stormfront.org may be able to help you).

If you wish to restrict the discussion to specified users, then do not use the public message boards, contact specific members using the PM system!

In any case, since you appear to be posting your homework questions here, you probably need all the help you can get, beggars cannot be choosers.

[CRTreeDude]

Originally Posted by ethics01

Dear all, thank you for your comments to date as they are very helpful. I really appreciate everyone’s input so far but I have been advised that, in accordance with my research aims, I must restrict participation in the ethical consumption discussion to U.K. and U.S. based forum users (consumers) only. If your profile does not highlight your geographical location, indicating this to me in the discussion (or by message) would be helpful. I would also encourage U.K. and U.S. based forum users that have not participated in this discussion to consider sharing their thoughts on the subject.

Thanks,

Linden Reekie

Since the first world countries export their deforestation and environmental destruction, what difference is there? I am a citizen of the USA by the way.

[Karl]

Originally Posted by ethics01

Dear all,

My name is Linden Reekie and I am a postgraduate student studying an MSc in International Management at King's College London. I am currently undertaking Dissertation research into ethical consumption in relation to ethical marketing strategies of major food brands in the UK and US.

Consumers play a pivotal role in the extent to which brand marketing strategies are successful. Therefore, I am interested in gaining insight from consumers about their perceptions and awareness about ethical issues in business in general; the food industry in particular and, later, about specific high-profile brands' ethical marketing strategies. Those participating can contact me for an information sheet further detailing this research.

I would like to begin the discussion by asking:

What does the term Corporate Social Responsibility mean to you?

Marketing strategies, etc....in other words, he's doing a degree in "green-washing" and strategies towards green profiteering. In other words his "postgraduate" degree dissertation is:

"Data collection on US/UK consumer habits, with a view to continuing and expanding the market for luxury items with a green/eco label, produced at lower cost, yet sold at higher prices.

Originally Posted by CRTreeDude

Since the first world countries export their deforestation and environmental destruction, what difference is there? I am a citizen of the USA by the way.

He (or the sponsors of his supervisors "research") are not interested in US citizens living and working in Costa Rica, since such people would generally be outside of the consumption marketplace most of the time (and thus remote from the green profiteering scammers for whom this Linden is collecting data).

I am not suggesting that this supposed dissertation that compares UK and US consumption is not of general interest (even though the general trends can quite easily be guessed without collecting data).

The irony here is that anybody who claims to be looking at "ethical marketing practices", needs to first determine what are "ethical research practices". Short of having IP addresses at his disposal, it is impossible to tell where respondents are from. Therefore, the reliability of the data collected will be at best, suspect (and may even be regarded as fraudulent). So, the internet does not seem to be a sensible place for data collection as part of this "research".

So apart from using extremely questionable data collection practices, he is also extremely rude - he received responses to his homework question from places as diverse as Costa Rica, Ireland, Finland, Australia among others to then say that he is only interested in the views of members living in the US or UK.

So, I maintain Linden, that you have come to the wrong place to do your research. If you want a selective response, then do not use the public message boards, or at the very least contact the administration of the forum first, so you can demonstrate clearly your permission to make unusual requests.

By the way, are these highly unreliable data collection approaches acceptable for an "MSc in International Management at King's College London" ??? In any case, it will not be difficult to determine whether or not there is a "Linden Reekie" registered for the specified programme at that institution.

Anyway, whether you are a bona fide student or otherwise, I believe that the relevant authorities of that college will be interested to know that somebody claiming to represent them, has been posting disruptive messages on public boards (which at the same time happen to be private property). As such, they have already been sent a formal complaint containing the links to this thread (as well as those from a sample of the other similar forums where you posted identical messages of this homework-spam).

Good luck with your studies...

[Karl]

Originally Posted by ethics01

If your profile does not highlight your geographical location, indicating this to me in the discussion (or by message) would be helpful.

Snooping around member's profiles, "Linden Reekie"?

Who or what is this ethics01?

So, in addition to conducting "research" on behalf of mega-corporations trying to cash-in on an imaginary "green jackpot" by conning gullible people in the US/UK perceived to still be rich enough to continuing buying into eco-fraud, "Linden Reekie" is NOW asking members to reveal their personal information (i.e., location) to him (and therefore to who or whatever he represents).

Many members already have that information visible, but it is the choice of the individual member (in setting his or her profile options) as to whether that is shown in public.

They are fully entitled to that privacy, and who knows? Maybe they have a reason for not revealing that information. These low-level "user-profile-data-gathering" snoops with unknown motivations like ethics01/Linden Reekie may be valid justification for not including too much personal information such as location.

Regardless of your username of ethics01, "Linden Reekie" it is highly unethical of you to ask members to reveal their locations (if they chose to do otherwise). I am certain that your request is a violation of the rules of this board.

The sad thing is that I already know exactly which country he is really from based on his IP login data from another website. But it would be "unethical" for me to share that information on ethics01. I will say, however, that this ethics01/"Linden Reekie" seems to spend an inordinate amount of time viewing the user profiles of other members on that site, as well.

PS: ethics01, this search engine spider ~~ has already indexed the name "Linden Reekie" several times with the full content of this thread. It may interest you to know that prospective employers run google searches on applicants, and will definitely find this page when searching for "Linden Reekie", since TES has a high page rank...Sorry, "Linden Reekie" - WORDS have consequences, and you chose your words very poorly. Be more careful and considerate in the future or your career will be ...

[include]

Oof. That told him. Remind me not to piss you off Karl