The Role of Ethics in purchasing decisions

I have been a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles, ever since I started watching the NFL in the fall of 2004. This "loyalty" continued even though I spent three years living in New York and Dallas, where the Eagles' divisional rivals played. I finally visited Philly during Christmas break last year, eager to buy myself an Eagles jersey.

I walked into a Modell's Sporting Goods store in downtown Philly to buy the jersey. But, I could not afford to spend $60-$70 on a football jersey. I was looking for something that would cost under $40. When I walked around the store, I saw jerseys of some of my favorite players, Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook, etc. But they were all priced above $40, the magic ceiling for me.

That is when I noticed that there were a bunch of Michael Vick jerseys, priced at $20. There I was, after 5 years of loyalty to my team, finally ready to buy a jersey to proclaim that I was an Eagles' fan. At $20, the authentic NFL-branded jersey was a steal. But I couldn't convince myself to buy it. From a virtue ethics perspective, I could not see myself wearing a Vick jersey. It was a simple sports jersey, but the name on the jersey evokes reactions from people, due to the on and off-field behavior of the player.

Could it be possible that the jersey was priced significantly lower because of this reason? It might have been just a promotion since Vick was new in Philadelphia, but the drastic difference in price made me think whether other customers also felt the same way.

How could marketers use this?
Marketers could expose ethical violations of their competitors' products to make consumers aware of the implications when they buy such products. NGOs could also do the same. A classic example is PETA's campaign against P&G's use of unethical testing methods for its pets product IAMS.

When a customer is browsing for pet products in the supermarket aisle and comes across an IAMS product, they might hesitate to buy it, if they are convinced by PETA's campaign. There will be consumers who are not affected, but the ethical implications behind a particular brand, or name, or company will continue to be factors in influencing consumers' purchasing decisions.