Response to Mallory Beam's Post on The John Smith Scenario..

“Do you feel as if John should take the risk and sell the names?”

I agree with you that he should not sell the names. He has a responsibility to live up to the Statement of Ethics provided by the American Marketing Association. He needs to either contact the people he interviewed and let them know he has been asked to share their information or he needs to let them know there is a possibility of sharing the information when he conducts the initial interview. He needs to live up to the ethical standards of honesty, responsibility, trust, respect, and fairness. He needs to respect the privacy of the 2,000 people he interviewed. He needs to be honest with the people he interviewed that he is giving away the information. He also needs to be fair with them and give them the option. Either way he decides to go he needs to take responsibility for his actions.

I feel he shouldn’t sell the names without contacting each and every person he surveyed. Yes it would be costly and very time consuming but it would be the right thing to do; otherwise you might lose future business. Ethically it would be the right thing to do. What do you think?