Ethical Marketing And Customer Satisfaction In Telecommunications Companies
[A CASE STUDY OF MTN, NIGERIA]

According to the Ethics Resource Center of the United States (2016), ethical marketing is a set of activities that utilize principles and standards that define acceptable conduct in the marketplace. Marketing usually occurs in the context of an organization, and unethical activities usually develop from the pressure to meet performance objectives. Some obvious ethical issues in marketing involve clear-cut attempts to deceive or take advantage of a situation. Ethical marketing involves ensuring safety of products, ensuring a product satisfies a need it promises  to,  or  aids  in  providing  a  lifestyle  it  advertises,  and  any techniques   to manipulate and hide  facts  and  information  customers  need  could harm a company.  Murphy et al., (2005) also define ethical marketing as a process through which companies generate customer interest in products/services, build strong customer interest/relationships, and create value for all stakeholders by incorporating social and environmental considerations in products and promotions.

Cowell (2004) defines customer satisfaction as a measure of how products or services supplied by a company meet customer expectations. It refers to the extent to which customers are happy with the products and services provided by a business. Gaining high levels of customer satisfaction is very important to a business because satisfied customers are likely to be loyal, make repeated orders and use a wide range of services offered by a business. Customer satisfaction has been studied in different directions, from measurement to its relationships with other business aspects. Some researchers have provided possible means of measuring customer satisfaction (Levy, 2009; NBRI, 2009). Meanwhile other authors like Wilson et al., (2008) demonstrated some determinants of customer satisfaction to be product and service quality,  price, personal and situational factors (Wilson et el., 2008) because customer satisfaction is also based upon the level of service quality provided by the  service  provider  (Lee  et  al.,   2000) and service quality acts as a determinant of customer satisfaction.

Ethical code of conduct is an index of professionalism. In marketing of products by companies like MTN that are faced with stiff competition from other mobile operators, ethical dilemmas are likely to arise and these situations definitely call for an assessment of the morality involved in the decision. For marketers as for other decision makers, no single theory could ever provide the necessary pragmatic guidelines for ethical behavior. Rather, ethical dilemmas require a comprehensive review of all ethical issues involved in the decision, before the most satisfactory course of action can be determined. According to Thompson and Strickland  (2004),  a company’s culture is manifested in the values and business principles that management preaches and practices, in official policies and procedures, in the attitudes and behavior of employees.

However, there is a considerable difference between saying the right things (having a well- articulated corporate value statement or code of ethics) and truly managing a company in an ethical and socially responsible way. According to Thompson et al (2004) companies that are truly committed to the stated core values and to high ethical standards make ethical behavior a fundamental component of their corporate culture. They put a stake in the ground making it unequivocally clear that company personnel are expected to live up to the company’s values and ethical standards. Values statements and codes of ethical conduct are used as benchmarks for judging the appropriateness of company policies and operating practices.

MTN Nigeria is a subsidiary company of the South Africa’s MTN Group Limited who is the main stakeholders of the company with 97.34 percent as put Forth by Isabel Goncalves. The Nigeria mobile network services industry is faced with high competition with the main mobile networks operators being MTN, UTL, Airtel the former Zain that later merged with Warid.  MTN Nigeria records strong growth and has reached a significant milestone in the period by reaching the ten million-subscribers mark (including fixed-line subscribers).

MTN Nigeria has remained among the most brands in Nigeria affinity largely driven by functional attributes such as coverage, proximity of distribution outlets and sustainability initiatives. Its new slogan, “ Everywhere you go” was launched in April 2005, adding a fresh look, feel and appeal to the market and security MTN Nigeria an award for best execution and activation, (www.mtn.co.ug). MTN Nigeria offer mobile services which range from pay as you go service, internet service, fixed line service and a department that manages its subscribers? complaint (customers’ services). MTN has been able to penetrate and ever expand on its share of its market through the use of its key promotional tools. It has gone further to lay strategy of giving back to the community through charitable funds and also being the highest tax payer in Nigeria. This has seen the company’s client and community want to associates with it and this has led to its growth in the market, MTN newsletter (2016).

It is the philosophy of marketing based on the above objectives that MTN used to win customer loyalty and reinforcing the positive values of the brand, creating a strong citizen brand that motivated this study. It creates new challenges for the marketer of the 21st century, in terms of invention and development of products to add long-term benefits without reducing the product's desirable qualities. 

In serving its clientele and community, MTN-Nigeria seeks to achieve this by pursuing key ethical marketing practices. This is embedded in the ethical policy objectives that were the focus of this study including:

i. To provide products and services to the market at fair prices and standards of service

ii. To build a sales force and marketing system with high degree of integrity

iii. To provide green and ethical advertising that ensures environmental responsibility and customer satisfaction

It was based on the guide of marketing practices by these policy objectives that the study sought to examine how ethical marketing has impacted on customer satisfaction in MTN Nigeria.