The other day, WOMMA (the Word of Mouth Marketing Association) released the “WOMMA Ethics Assessment Tool, which helps marketers identify and eliminate unethical word of mouth marketing tactics before they are implemented.” Read the press release here and the 20 assessment questions here.

The 20 questions are good, but I particularly like this “extra measure of assurance” that states, “Is there anything about this campaign that we would be embarrassed to discuss publicly?”

That’s a great litmus test. It speaks not only to ethical issues, but also to issues of transparency. Because in this hyper-networked world in which we live, the notion of trying to keep two sets of informational books — one that the public gets to see and one that only the company insiders see — is a practical impossibility.

Takeaway for marketers: Ethics matter, probably more to your customers than to your company. Which is why they should matter more to your company.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 30th, 2006 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing Stuff, Marketing Takeaways.