Ethical and Social responsibility in Marketing

Ethics are the moral principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. Laws are society's values and standards that are enforceable in the courts. this distiction is a good starting point for explaining the differences between legal and ethical behavior in marketing, four reasons for these perceptions are:
1) diverse value system
2) public judgment of business decisions
3) increased expectations about ethical behavior
4) the decline of ethical business conduct.
Understanding Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior involves the actions a person takes in purchasing and using products and services, including the mental and social processes that come before and after these actions. The stages a buyer passes through in making choices about which products and services to buy are known as the purchase decision process. This process has five stages.

• Problem recognition: perceiving a need
• Information search: seeking value
• Alternative evaluation: assessing value
• purchase decision: buying value
• postpurchase behavior: Value in consumption or use