Virtue Ethics in Marketing FMCGs in East African Common Market

Abstract

The existing disparities in ethical standards of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCGs) in East AfricanCountries (EAC) and the ethical difficulties  in distribution, is underpinned by little understanding of our ethical needs by manufacturers and distributors. Current production of FMCGs were based on ethical standards formulated elsewhere, and it is only after 2010 that some goods appeared that conform to EAC ethical standards. This study was anchored on environmental dependency theory. We undertook to study the ethical dilemmas facing the producers and distributors of FMGs in EAC from 2005 to 2013. We sampled fifteen manufacturers of FMGs in EAC, ten distributers, and interviewed five border officials in Namanga, Mwanza, Mbamba Bay, Busia and Kigoma. The results of our study indicated that manufacturer’s produce goods without thorough research on the qualities, aesthetics and ethical considerations.Distributors have little regard to business ethics, forgetting about their moral obligation to our ethical existence as consumers. They are run after profit in whatever means with less regard to customer ethical demands. We posit that there is need to raise ethical awareness in the production of goods and their distribution in EAC and ethical considerations should be inbuilt at the point of creating the product.

Keywords; Fast Moving Consumer Goods; In-build ethical considerations; Ethical awareness; Aesthetics of packaging; Ethical goods.