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Credit Sprint's Guide to Ethics, Global and Online Marketing for CLEP® Marketing

Roughly 10–20% of the CLEP® exam

CLEP® Principles of Marketing gives real weight to marketing's role in society (ethics, nonprofits and international marketing) and to marketing applications in e-commerce. These topics are easy to learn and easy to lose points on if you skip them.

What you need to know

  • Ethics versus the law: some acts are legal but unethical. Know the major laws (Sherman, Clayton, Robinson-Patman, FTC Act, Lanham, CAN-SPAM, COPPA).
  • Social responsibility and the triple bottom line: people, planet, profit. Greenwashing, planned obsolescence and bait-and-switch are common ethics examples.
  • Nonprofit marketing has two publics (clients and donors) and often sells ideas or behavior change (social marketing).
  • International entry modes from lowest to highest commitment: exporting, licensing, franchising, joint venture, direct investment.
  • Standardization versus adaptation: global brands decide how much to change the product and message for each country.
  • Trade barriers: tariffs tax imports, quotas limit quantity, embargoes ban trade. Dumping is selling abroad below cost or home price.
  • E-commerce models: B2C, B2B, C2C and D2C. Online tools: SEO, paid search, display, email, social, content and influencer marketing.
  • Metrics: click-through rate, conversion rate, bounce rate and cart abandonment. Privacy rules (opt-in, COPPA, cookies) limit targeting.

Practice questions

1. Ethics in marketing refers to
  1. the laws that regulate advertising only
  2. the profit a firm earns each year
  3. rules set only by a firm's competitors
  4. moral principles of right and wrong that guide marketing decisions
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moral principles of right and wrong that guide marketing decisions. Ethics are standards of conduct, which may go beyond what the law requires.

2. A practice that is legal but widely seen as wrong is best described as
  1. illegal
  2. socially responsible
  3. unethical
  4. puffery
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unethical. Legal acts can still violate moral standards.

3. Social responsibility in marketing means
  1. avoiding all advertising
  2. considering the effects of decisions on society as well as on profit
  3. maximizing short-term profit only
  4. obeying only the laws that are enforced
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considering the effects of decisions on society as well as on profit. Socially responsible firms weigh the impact on all stakeholders.

4. A shampoo ad shows a leaf logo and says "all natural" although the product contains mostly synthetic chemicals. This is an example of
  1. greenwashing
  2. cause-related marketing
  3. puffery
  4. planned obsolescence
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greenwashing. Greenwashing is a misleading environmental or natural claim.

5. COPPA primarily protects
  1. children under 13 from online collection of personal data
  2. small businesses from large competitors
  3. investors from fraud
  4. email recipients from spam
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children under 13 from online collection of personal data. It requires parental consent for young children's data.

6. Under the CAN-SPAM Act, a marketer sending commercial email must
  1. send mail only on weekdays
  2. include a way for recipients to opt out
  3. get written permission from every recipient first
  4. use only plain text
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include a way for recipients to opt out. Senders must honor opt-out requests.