Pathology of ethical marketing in the field of children’s non- textbooks and introduction of a model for it

One of the weaknesses associated with buying non-textbooks in the field of children is that parents do not trust their contents. At the same time, ethical measures and ethical marketing in book sales companies, and brands active in the field of children's books, including written and illustrated books, can create a suitable culture for Iranian children from an early age by raising the per capita reading rate. In the meantime, because the decision-making power of children in choosing right books is low, the role of parents in choosing books is very important. Therefore, ethical marketing and doing pathology in this field can play important roles in creating a culture of reading at an early age.

The purpose of this study is to focus on a corrective mechanism in the children’s book market and explain the required immoral actions in this area. Lack of a pathological approach in the field of book marketing can reduce trust in brands in the field of written and illustrated books, and the market share of these brands declines over time due to the inability to provide value to the customer. This also degrades the reading culture in childhood. Thus, the main focus of this research is on the pathology of ethical marketing practices and the presentation of a process model in the field of children's book marketing.

The present research is developmental-applied in terms of purpose and qualitative in terms of data collection and nature. The study made use of a data-based theory along with the "Strauss and Corbin systematic approach". Therefore, the phenomenon-centrality of ethical marketing in the field of cultural products, especially in the field of non-textbooks for children, causal conditions, contextual conditions, intervening conditions, and finally reaction measures and ethical marketing consequences were studied through the data theory. Open, axial and selective codings were done to analyze the data in this method. In order to collect the data, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with open-ended interviews along with the views of experts in the field of ethical marketing of children's textbooks.  The participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Open-ended questions asked about the experts' understanding of ethical marketing, the harms of ethical marketing in the non-textbook publishing industry; the consequences of paying attention to ethical marketing in the non-textbook publishing industry and certain other issues. The statistical population of the study included all the senior managers, consultants, managers and marketing experts in the brands active in the field of compiling and selling children's textbooks as well as university professors. The sampling continued until theoretical adequacy was achieved. In total, 20 interviews were conducted, and no new codes were obtained from 15 to 20 people in the interview process.

The results suggest the existence of uncertainty in parents' decision-making as a causal condition, ethical marketing as a central phenomenon, contextual conditions including the broad categories of rules and regulations and ethical culture, intervening conditions including vendor personal characteristics and organizational support, strategies in three major categories of ethical branding, vendor ethical responsibility and ethical attachment. The results of this study reinforce the culture of reading and improve sales performance. In this study, in the section on causal conditions, parents' decision uncertainty was raised. In fact, these conditions refer to the creation of the main phenomenon. It seems that one of the major weaknesses and disadvantages in the field of ethical marketing is the inability of parents to make sure about purchasing non-textbooks for children. The main tenet of this research has been ethical marketing.

Ethical marketing in this study includes normative and descriptive marketing that seeks to explain the ethical characteristics of marketing. In the normative part, the main focus is to explain the principles. Also, in the field of background conditions, the researcher achieved two major categories of rules and regulations as well as moral culture, which shows weaknesses in the country in these two areas. In fact, these two major categories suggest that organizations are not in a stable and supportive position in terms of specific and precise frameworks so as to achieve ethical marketing. Moreover, regarding the interventionist conditions that can affect the identified strategies, the research points to the individual characteristics of the salesperson and organizational support that can affect ethical marketing programs. The fifth dimension concerned strategies and included ethical branding, vendor ethics, and general ethics. Finally, for the target community and the whole Iranian society, it is important to enhance the sales performance for all brands active in the field of publishing non-textbooks and strengthen the culture of reading books, especially non-textbooks among children.