Introduction

E-Marketing is the process of marketing product/services using the

Internet. It includes both direct response marketing and indirect marketing
elements and uses a range of technologies to help connect businesses to their
customers. E-Marketing is the short form of Electronic Marketing.

Electronic-Marketing is the lifeblood of modern business. E-Marketing

may be defined as the process of building and maintaining customer
relationship through internet activities and to satisfy the goals of both buyers as
well as sellers. As far as traditional marketing is concerned “Marketing is
human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange
process” (Kotler and Turner, 1981). The web is now established in India as a
mass-market media channel for the wealthy. Email has become a mass-market
media channel for office workers and professional classes, but the use is more
fractured than in Europe. The main changes in internet access both at home and
at work have happened in the last five years and have seen the internet has
become an essential part of office life.

Email has become an important business tool for both domestic and
international firms, and the ability to overcome the geographic challenges of
such a large country have made it a quick replacement for fax services.
However the role of the web goes far beyond business. For a new generation of
consumers it’s become a key lifestyle and entertainment channel, with many
strong nationally created entertainments, sport and news sites traceable back to
the mid nineties. The internet is a gateway to world knowledge as well as a
massive platform for national media and documentation. Once people start
using the internet their behaviour changes permanently and already in India
over two thirds of people with access use it several times a week or more.

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 E-Marketing or electronic marketing refers to the implementation of
marketing principles and techniques through electronic media and more
specifically using the Internet. The terms E-Marketing, Internet marketing and
online marketing, is frequently interchanged, and can often be considered
synonymous. Terms like E-marketing, Online Marketing, Internet Marketing
and E-Business Marketing are not standardized and are often used
synonymously in the literature.

Web sites are the most common manifestation of the capabilities of the
Internet. Some Web sites have only one or two main objectives, while others
may have several. Nevertheless, a common purpose of all Web sites is
marketing communications, even if this is not the express objective of the site
(Du Plessis et al., 2003).

The E-marketing has become the information highway for the buying
public. Most persons prefer the hassle free transactions that can be offered by E-
Marketing shopping. The Internet marketing is a communications tool that
enables cheap, fast and effective communication between a firm and its various
publics. E-Marketing lets us create interactive campaign using music, graphics
and videos. Having looked at what are the parameters that influence the minds
of companies which pursue internet marketing, it would be useful to see what
influences consumers to actually use the internet for either shopping purposes or
for some particular service. Companies dealing with e-marketing must have a
privacy policy statement under their website. This would assure consumers that
the company would not misuse the information gathered from them. Chung et al
(2002) based on their study of New Zealand consumers suggest that companies
must have a privacy policy statements under their website.

Ethics in marketing term, relates to moral actions, conduct, motives and

character that also means professionally right or benefiting, conforming to

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professional standard of conduct. In the perspective of online marketing for the
professional practitioner, that is the marketers, ethics concerns the values in
their qualified practices when they carry out marketing activities through the
new media. This includes all activities or exchanges marketers conduct in the
Internet Environment.

Ethical Issues in E-Marketing:

The online marketing activities can offer lot of opportunities for
companies to market themselves and their products inexpensively and
effectively, but they need to exercise considerable care to ensure that their
method or their E-Marketing technique doesn't get them into legal or other
difficulties. Consumer concerns about unethical practices on internet are
directly having a direct effect on the take up of electronic commerce as well as
E-marketing. While many people are willing to access the Internet, a lack of
trust is preventing them from purchasing via internet.

Unethical behaviours include all actions that result in unfairness to others,

whether those behaviours are legal or not. Unethical actions can be aimed
towards competitors. Businesses will attempt to win customers away from
competing businesses, as fair competition is a cornerstone to a free enterprise
economy. However, when competition becomes unfair, it also becomes
unethical. (Wells and Spinks, 1996)

SPAMMING:

E-mail is major new communications tools that substitute the fax and
telephone to remove the barrier of distance. It is instant, economical (free to
most users). We can read e-mail when we wish regardless of time zone

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considerations. E-mail is a marketing communications-tool that offers way for
one-on-one messages for both B2B and B2C communications. Remarkably, it
has a universal communications tool in a mere five years.

Spamming is one of the huge problems; it is very difficult to distinguish

between normal as well as genuine email marketing and spamming. In contrast
of using emails, where the recipients have voluntarily accept to receive
commercial email about a area of interest, some companies are inappropriately
using internet mailing lists to broadcast the same message to a large number of
recipients who did not ask for it. This form of unsolicited commercial emailing
is called spamming, or spam.

A number of studies have reported that Internet users find certain Web
tactics to be irritating. Studies have shown online consumers’ discontent with
aspects such as clutter, e-mail SPAM, as well as pop-up and pop-under
advertisements. These irritating aspects discourage Internet users from visiting
sites that employ these tactics. (Belch & Belch, 2004)

"Spamming" occurs when email users are flooded with unsolicited

information about products or services. Early spammers simply assumed that
most of their recipients would not mind receiving marketing messages, even
though these messages had no relevance for them. But it become obvious to
spammers that this tactic resulted in shut down servers, angry service providers
and negative publicity

In this context of the practical functioning of a system of e-marketing we

can point to the problems of spamming and of junk-mail as a major obstacle to
trustworthy marketing operations in e-business or e-marketing. When customers
use the internet and store our email-addresses for different purposes they can
also be stored by search engines that use their email-addresses as the basis for

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future marketing efforts. This spam registration is very controversial because
the customers have not authorized the search engines to use their email
addresses to distribute marketing messages (Cheeseman, 2000).

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In the light of grown consumer marketplace at an exponential rate and as
well as Technology at the same rate has increased many times the capacity of
online companies to collect, store, transfer and analyze vast amount of data
from and about the consumer who visit their Web sites for shopping. Just as the
E-Marketing created many exciting new opportunities, it also introduced many
new questions that warrant careful study. Increasing Internet usage also raises
questions about how best to protect consumer privacy and prevent digital
piracy. Many researches have been conducted regarding different issues relating
to E-marketing and their implications thereof. Some of such studies have been
discussed:

Krishnamurthy Sandeep (2000) opined that comprehensive overview of

the spam problem and a critical analysis of the solution. This was followed by
an analysis of the pernicious impact of spam on the major stakeholder groups:-
Consumers, Internet Service Providers, Legitimate Advertisers, E-commerce
firms and employers. Next, they analyzed the various proposed responses to
spam ranging from laissez faire arguments to legislative solutions. Then, they
focused upon one proposed solution-permission marketing.

Bette Ann et al (2001) opined that incredible growth of electronic

commerce and presents ethical issues that have emerged. Security concerns,
spamming, web sites that do not carry an “advertising” label, cyber squatters,
online marketing to children, conflict o interest, manufacturers competing with

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intermediaries online, and dinosaurs are discussed. The power of internet to
spotlight issues was noted as a significant force in providing a kind of self-
regulation that supports an ethical e-commerce environment.

Tamara Eisenschitz (2002) opined that E-mail law. The distinction was
made between regulation of the Internet in general and of e-mail. Five topics
were presented: identity and trust, employment, contents administration, record
management and security issues. In all of them the important step was to define
the issues and the actual regulation then develops from that of non-digital
equivalents. The key finding was the need for Education for all levels of users
to clarify the issues.

Gorling Stefan (2004) studied and provided number of immoral

business-models that have been established as a part of the internet-economy. It
discussed how breaking into computers has become a viable business model for
corporation and how the internet underground is challenging our views of what
a company is. The paper tried to group a number of similar business models
such as spyware, viruses, spam etc. under a common term, parasites, and
discussed how they are a part of viable business-models rather than merely an
annoyance to the computer users.

NEED OF THE STUDY

The online consumer marketplace has grown at an exponential rate. E-
Marketing is the hot topic and an exciting area for research due to its relative
novelty and explosive growth. Technology has enhanced the capacity of online
companies to collect, store, transfer and analyze vast amount of data from and
about the consumer who visit their Web sites for shopping. Just as the Internet
creates many exciting new opportunities, it also introduces many new questions

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that warrant careful study. Increasing Internet usage also raises questions about
how best to protect consumer privacy.

The online growth rate indicates that the online channel will play a more
profound role in consumers’ shopping activities. Inarguably, online channel
present different experiences even when the same product are purchased.
Additionally, the Internet is praised for its capabilities to provide interactivity
(chat, e-mail), personalized experiences (registration, user input,
personalization), multimedia (flash animation, movies), shopping tools (virtual
sales assistant, search engine, order tracking), increased selection and
information.

As the number of people using the internet for their shopping steadily
rises, number of Laws, Regulations agencies has been constructed simontancely
namely FTC, COPAA, to control the E-Marketing but even than there are
number of practices in Electronic- marketing which cross the ethical
boundaries.

The review of the existing literature reveals that a numbers of studies

have been carried out on various aspects of E-Marketing but a very few
comprehensive studies in this area could be found which provides detailed
information regarding Ethical issues in E-Marketing and also no study could be
cited out which could explain the perceptions of respondents/individuals. As the
consumer can only decide what is right or wrong or even permissible in the field
of E-marketing hence study regarding their behaviour become significant. In
the light of the above discussion comprehensive and detailed study regarding
perceptions and attitudes of respondents toward various ethical issues in E-
Marketing is of dire need. Since these consumers are the only scapegoat of this

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unethical business, hence their perceptions and attitudes toward the ethical
issues in E-marketing become an important matter of study.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY:

1. To study the perceptions & attitudes of respondents towards major ethical

issues in E-Marketing (i.e. Privacy, Spamming, Spyware etc.) and its
implications for the marketers as well as for society thereof.

2. To map the profile of respondents on the bases of psychographic and

demographic variables Vis-a Vis their perceptions towards different
ethical issues in E-Marketing.

3. To assess the awareness level of respondent regarding different types of

frauds committed due to breach of privacy on the Internet and preventive
measures taken by them regarding these.

4. To study the level of awareness of respondents regarding legal/regulatory

frame work for ethical issues in E-Marketing.

Research Methodology
Research is not concerned to the revision of the facts and building up to
date knowledge but also to discover the new facts involved through the process
of dynamic changes in the society. Research methodology defines the path that
will be followed to achieve the objectives of the study.

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Research Design
Research design’ should be such that it leads into logical conclusion.
Combination of Exploratory research and Descriptive research will be
undertaken to achieve the stated objectives of the present study. Exploratory
personal investigation involving original field interviews with the
consumers/respondents will help to have a greater insight into all possible
practical aspects of the research problem. The adoption of the descriptive design
may be very effective in the later stage of the present study.

Universe of the study

The purpose of my research is to study the perceptions & attitudes of
respondents towards major ethical issues in E-Marketing. A number of variables
can be considered which will be tested to cover the various factors of E-
marketing. The universe of the study will comprise of the major districts of
Punjab and Union Territory of Chandigarh.

Sample and sample design

The sample size has been restricted to 100 respondents from different
districts of Punjab and Union Territory of Chandigarh. The sample will
comprise of the various individuals belonging to different gender, age, income
categories and professions. The respondents will be the individuals who can
reasonably interpret the E-marketing and can form ethical viewpoint toward
issues in E-marketing, hence in the present study the those individuals will be
included who are educated and exposed to E-marketing. In the present study
Non-Probabilistic convenience technique will be adopted.

Data Collection
At an individual level data will be collected by personally interviewing
all the 100 respondents. A non-disguised questionnaire will be used for data

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collection. The questionnaire will be pre-tested on small sample of respondents.
As a result of pre-tested questionnaire, the final questionnaires will be
formulated. The present study will be based upon the primary data only.

Data Analysis
Appropriate statistical tools and techniques will be used for analyzing
data to meet the objectives. The data will be processed and analyzed with the
use of various statistical/graphical techniques available. The Analysis of the
respondents will be done on the basis of the demographics attributes of gender
and age of the respondents as suggested by the various past studies. Apart from
this, analysis will be done on the basis of psychographical variables derived
from different perceptual statements pertaining to ethical issues in E-marketing.
On the basis of the analysis of the data it will be interpreted in the form of
results and conclusions.

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