Question 1: Is it ethical to sell a product that is at best only mildly effective? Discuss Answer: We know that the words effective and efficient are not the same words. Fullifilling a goal by using all the resources is called effective while fullfilling a the same goal using lowest possibl resources is called efficient. So in general selling a product that is not or only slightly effective, while pretending that it is efficient, is unethical.

Particularly, in case a vendor is cheating on the customer and capitalizes on people’s misery. However, the question of good or bad ethics in this context depends very much on the setting and the cultural circumstances of producer and consumer as well as on the product itself. The present case dealing with HLL as well as CKL, the established vendors of skin lighting cream on the Indian market for many years, illustrates a situation in which the producer encounters the consumers? trongly culturally positioned desire of fair skin, by offering a skin lightning product, which is from a dermatologist’s point of view considered to be ineffective (“reaches only the upper layer of the skin”, “does not affect melanin production and gives a poor result”) or at least short-lived (“whitens facial hair and not the skin”). Nevertheless, Indian women keep on using these products for years, but will never notice lasting effects. So, while considering the consumers? oint of view we need to understand that they use the product to fulfil their desire for societal recognition, particularly by their peers. Therefore, it is less the use of the product but more the psychological effect that the product provides to the consumer. From a managing point of view the advertisement’s aim is to present the product at its best aspect,it is the marketer’s responsibility to anlyze the strengths of the product and find its weaknesses. So from this point of view it is not unethical.

But If we look at the same case a bit differently then we can give our openion that, its is not ethical to sell the product that is at best, only mild effective because at a spur of the moment the consumer one feel it is the best but as the time goes on one understands the difference and realizes that their trust and loyalty with implicit understanding have been impeached and this may affect the brand in certain ways like pricing, promotion and may be distribution,it can completely change the consumers perception about the brand.

The product fair and lovely which is called the miracle worker and is said that it will provide the result within the four weeks of the use but dermatologist have already explained the reasons that it is never going to last forever but on the contrary it is going to have a temporary effect because of bleaching. We have also seen in the case that one consumer has said that she has been using the product for such a long time that she must be turned into snow white by this time!!

But according to her she hasn’t got enough result infact she claimed that her skin is just the same as it was befor the use of the product! Such a consumer surely will stop consuming the product and wil never use products of this brand. So it is not ethical to sell a mildly efective product. Again from another point it can be said that it is ethical to sell a product that is at best mildly effective if all the core values are met when promoting a product.

A strong fact to consider is that, in order to maintain an ethical position, a company should never lie to its customers. That means for example, that it should be stated on the packaging and/or in the advertisement how and under which circumstances the product is working and what its limits are. Honesty and transparency of core values is very important. All over the world, products that probably only have a minimal effect or are even harmful are sold and promoted.

If we consider the selling of cigarettes, we can now read that this product is harmful for people’s health on each package sold as well as on advertisements. We assume that the customer is responsible and mature and can make his/her own decisions on whether to buy a product or not. The promotion that HLL launched for Fair and Lovely as the “miracle worker” probably was not the best approach since it could dupe the consumer regarding the true effect of the product. Since it is scientifically proven in the case that it is mildly effective.