Healthcare marketing ethics, just like any other types or forms of ethics are important; not only can it grow profit margin; it can also protect organizations from lawsuits, as well as attract patients who appreciate and can afford quality care services. Ethics are a collection of principles of right conduct that shape the decisions people or organizations make. Practicing ethics in healthcare marketing means deliberately applying standards of fairness, or moral rights and wrongs, to marketing decision making, behavior, and practice in the organization. In a market economy, a business may be expected to act in what it believes to be its own best interest. The purpose of marketing is to create a competitive advantage. An organization achieves an advantage when it does a better job than its competitors at satisfying the product and service requirements of its target patients. Those organizations that develop a competitive advantage are able to satisfy the needs of both customers and the organization. Importance of marketing ethics driving conscious consumption are: ethics are the moral principles and values that govern individuals or group decisions; they serve as a roadmap on how to act rightly and justly when faced with ethical dilemmas; it sometimes deals with personal and moral principles of one’s value; mind judgment may play a larger role when defining ethical and legal boundaries; actions that are technically legal could be viewed as unethical.
