The temptation to push ethical boundaries grows as marketing opportunities decrease and competition intensifies during economic downturns. Tactics that were previously frowned upon - bait and switch, low balling and stretching the truth – appear to garner more consideration when preparing proposals during periods of monetary crises. “Hey, just win the project for us; we’ll negotiate the details at the bargaining table.” After all, everybody’s doing it.

As work becomes scarce, it is easy to blur the distinction between finessing the sale and telling out and out lies. After all, isn’t bluffing and gamesmanship expected in the business world?

Pam and Taree invite “you to be the judge” by participating in a lively marketing ethics workshop that combines discussion and exercises at the November luncheon. You will learn to:

Judge your own ethics standards by applying self tests;

Explore alternative solutions to “everybody’s doing it;” and

Differentiate between unethical and illegal behavior.

“You Be the Judge” provides highlights from the speakers’ white paper, “Marketing Ethics: The Truth, The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth…Or Not,” which was presented at SMPS Build Business national conference in Las Vegas last summer.

Those attending this exclusive Seattle chapter offering will be privy to excerpts from the authors’ interviews with renowned A/E/C marketers such as Ford Harding, and learn where the experts personally draw the line on some of these practices.