Abstract:

The activities carried out in marketing communications, which is one of the sectors most affected by digitalization, are forming a digital footprint beyond being a simple message and communication effort. This leads to a process that directly or indirectly affects consumers in varying intensities. For this reason, if an ethical weakness occurs at any point in the process in question, it is not possible for the consumer to be unaffected. As a result of the changes in consumers and consumer behavior, brand-customer interaction has evolved towards a different dimension. Customers are now, directing the marketing communication process as a result of the acceptance of user-generated contents as a reference by the majority of customers and also because these contents are affecting consumer behavior, Studies show that consumers especially boycott brands that do not or can not protect personal data. That the weaknesses of brands continue in terms of ethics, especially in data security, can reveal consumer cynicism and cynical consumers in the long run. Within the scope of the study, a perspective is presented within the framework of transparency and data security, taking into account the changing consumer phenomenon regarding ethics in marketing communications in the digital age.

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