New Challenges to Old Problems: Building Trust In E-marketing

The growing importance of the Internet brings with it an expanding array of ethical concerns having to do with sales and marketing. Oddly enough, many of these concerns were addressed years ago in the context of brick-and-mortar institutions. They are reemerging today in different forms with e-commerce. At the heart of Internet-based relationships lies the information that brings people and organizations together in e-commerce. The overwhelming ability of information lures customers to the Internet. Indeed, it can be said that the Internet has heralded in a "new era" in marketing. The tremendous amount of information available to customers has readjusted the power balance and forced firms to rethink their strategic positioning. Business firms also find this access to information attractive, as well as the Internet's usefulness in both disseminating information as collecting data for marketing purposes. The problem, however, is that not all firms treat the information they collect respectfully and responsibly.