Question

Explore the legal and ethical constraints on implementing relationship marketing using the digital media. Think about things like privacy, use of data and net neutrality. Please think critically and support your thoughts with examples. Remember to cite any / all sources.

Answer 1

First of all, we need to answer what we mean by implementation of relationship marketing using the digital media. The simple meaning of this is acquisition and maintenance of client relationship using digital sources such as internet, mobile banking, in this case client does not need to visit the brick and motor establishment of any company to maintain his relationship with the client.

There are legal and ethical constraints of using the digital media for relationship marketing. For example :-

a) Privacy and use of data :- If a company is trying to connect a client using digital media, the company need the e-mail of the clients and most of the countries around the world have laws that requires the company to obtain individual permission before a company can collect the e-mail id or other personal information.

So a company make sure to ask a user with "I agree to provide personal information " while a user install or use the digital mobile app of an company.

b) Other issue is net neutrality :- concept of net neutrality is that internet service providers should all internet data as same regardless of their origin , source or destination.So while a company uses the digital media for relationship management or marketing it should ensure that the content of the company is available across the internet service providers.

Few example of misuse of digital media for relationship marketing is the illegal way to acquire customer e-mail id or contact through various fake website and using the information to acquire the clients.