One of Five recommendation:

One of Five recommendation:

With the growth in technology and increase awareness by the consumer due to access to information, companies are necessitated to maintain ethical standards to remain relevant in the market. Ethical brands are now getting more recognition as people realize the importance of maintaining ethical standards by organizations for the well-being of the consumer. Upon these realizations, numerous brands are striving to maintain or enhance their ethical brand image to remain competitive in the market. A good example is the Coca-Cola company who have had difficulty meeting their financial objectives due to a few ethical crises. One of its biggest challenges is how to tackle plastic pollution, especially considering the soft drink company has been declared the most pollutant of plastic in the world, producing up to 3M tonnes of plastic yearly (Laville, 2020).

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Nonetheless, Coca-Cola can look to adopt various ethical based theories to enhance its brand ethical image. Virtue Ethics is one of the theories that can assist the company. In this approach to ethics, the emphasis is made on individual characters as the most vital component of ethical thinking rather than the rules of actions themselves (McLaverty & McKee, 2016). It means that focus is made on the moral character of the action taker and not on the ethical duties and rules or the consequence of particular actions. It does not only provide for what is right or wrong in individual action; rather, it guides the sort of behavior and characteristics that should be displayed by a person willing to do the right thing (Roskoski, 2017). Thus, through adopting this theory, Coca-Cola will be able to understand step by step actions that are necessary to maintaining an ethical brand image.

However, the company should consider the impact of the natural environment on its business and, in turn, mitigate to turn the environmental crisis into business opportunities by providing ethical solutions to some of this crisis (Gaspar et al. 2016). Also, Coca-Cola should understand that due to globalization, the business environment is changing. Exchange in technology has made global competition to increase, and thus a company that follows ethical and moral paths will enjoy competitive advantage and recognition (Gaspar et al. 2016). Furthermore, the development of information technology has made it easy for an organization to deliver satisfactory services to customers globally. Thus, Coca-Cola can utilize IT to manage its resources globally to improve its ethical brand image.

Another theory that can be utilized in ensuring Coca-Cola brand ethical image is the duty-based ethical theory. In this concept, human values are used for deciding wrong and right, and the consequences affect the work (Roskoski, 2017). It considers that a person should adhere strictly to a set of moral values that established their values of right from wrong. The best solution is to find the principle of justice, also known as equity and equality. This is where there is the even-handed treatment of all people without giving any effect to their needs and requirement. Thus it is the role of the leadership of the company to develop a duty-based ethical by showing their commitment to establishing ethical practices in Coca-Cola. Also, this should be translated globally to other company leaders through the use of information technology. In this way, the character-based ethics will consider duty-based ethics and how the consequences reflect on particular actions.

Conclusion

To conclude, virtue ethical and duty-based ethics theory, amongst other ethical theories, have been recommended as the most appropriate actions Coca-Cola can adopt to enhance their ethical brand image. The theory of virtue ethics has been discussed here where it has been outlined as one of the major approaches in normative ethics in a company such as Coca-Cola. Every conduct of the business has an impact on society, and thus it is vital for every business organization to an ethical brand image is critical for a successful brand image. Also, duty-based ethics theory has been outlined as a moral philosophy that guides people to strictly adhere to what is right and refusing what is wrong.

Also, other theories have been discussed, including the theory of utilitarianism, which is based on the mechanism of evaluating what is wrong or right based on outcomes that are ethically justified. The other ethical theory is the right based ethical theory, duty-based ethical theory, justice-based ethical theory, relationship-based ethical theories, and character-based ethical theory. All the approach considers what is right and is morally conventional and what is not negatively affect society at large. People’s actions impact the consequence of their efforts in that doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do and don’t do wrong because they are wrong. The principle of justice describes moral obligation and how this equity and equality relates. Moreover, the theories are based on employing ethics based on trustworthy relationships and actions and honest characters of the person theme self.