What should John Smith do?

I don't think that John smith should sell the names of the participants in the survey to the car dealership. If John wants to maintain a high standard of ethics for his company, he should steer clear of going behind his customers backs, despite the fact that his company really needs the money. In the code of ethics on the AMA website, many issues are addressed and need to be followed by marketers. In the ethical norms section of the code of ethics, it states that "This means building relationships and enhancing consumer confidence in the integrity of marketing by affirming these core values: honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency and citizenship." Although this does not directly apply to the dilemma faced by John Smith, it says that all marketers should respect their customers and hold a certain amount of responsibility. I believe that going behind these customers' backs and selling their information is not responsible for John to do. Also, I believe that this would be crossing the line in terms of respecting the customer, since one would assume that the customer believes that the information that they provided is being held confidential.

I don't believe that this is illegal on the part of John Smith, but I do believe that if he wants to maintain a high level of customer satisfaction and customer loyalty and abide by the code of ethics set forth by the AMA, he should not sell these names. Do you agree that although the code of ethics can be a bit blurry in certain areas, John should not sell these names?