Question

Mr smith owns a chocolate candy company the manufacture the choconut big bar which he sells for$2. The chocolate bar measures 6 inches long by 3 inches wide and ½ inches thick.it is sold with the bar wrapped in foil placed in a seal brown cardboard box with the name printed white. Currently mr smith is losing money because the cost of chocolate and nuts has increased beyond his budget.

Instead of cutting back on the quality of the ingredients, mr. smith is planning to cut the size of the bar to 5 inches long by 2 ½ inches wide and keep the bar ½ thick. He will keep the same $2 price per bar. He hopes that no one will noticed the change in the size of the barif he alters the outside packaging to a cheaper brown colored paper wrap with the choconut big bar name in white on the label. Mr. smith will advertise the new package saying- “it’s the same choconut big bar,-now in a new paper wrapper”.

From ethical point of view are there any positive or negative effects to the company with his strategy? Are there any positive and negative effects to consumers/customer for his strategy?

Answer 1

Yes, this is unethical because Mr. Smith is actually using information which is not valid or justified in any sense as the product is reduced in size and in order to make up the wrapper is used. If the customers are not aware of the change then the organization may not be affected but it may actually affect the organization's internal environment because in that case the employees and stakeholders may feel that the organization is not practicing ethical means in this aspect which may create a negative impact on the stakeholders.

The customer may lose trust on the organization if they actually gets to know that the size is reduced and that will be negative for the organization because they have used a method which can be considered as a way to misguide the customers. It may actually benefit the organization in terms of revenue if the change is not understood by the customers.