Ethical Marketing Policy

Introduction

Lighthouse is a purpose-driven company, focusing on providing secure, sustainable transport and destruction of counterfeit items and redundant stock from global brands.

Marketing plays a significant role in how we attract and win business, and we acknowledge that there are ethical approaches we can take as a company to ensure that we can live by our ‘triple-bottom’ line approach in business.

Treating our customers with respect and focusing on long-term growth – we can build strong relationships with our community through a set of shared values to realise our vision of providing one solution, one location, zero to landfill.

Marketing in an ethical way focuses not only on how our offering benefits our customers but also how our company is striving to prevent all items from going to landfills.

Ultimately, the public has the right and power to information on how we do business, and our marketing function has a major responsibility to make this happen the right way at the right time.

Purpose

Lighthouse seeks to uphold the highest ethics when it comes to our marketing, which includes honesty, integrity, and responsibility]. Below are our approach to our ethical marketing, practices and efforts to go beyond compliance to ensure honesty, fairness and responsibility in our ways of working.

Scope

This Policy applies to all employees and third parties associated with Lighthouse or any of our marketing partners and their employees, no matter where they are located.

In the context of this Policy, third-party refers to any individual or organisation that Lighthouse meets and works with including but not limited to suppliers, contractors, distributors agents and customers.

Marketing Principles/Commitments

1. Legally Complaint

All marketing communication must comply with independent marketing and advertising standards in our local jurisdiction and legal within the jurisdictions we market in, as well as being decent, honest and truthful. To ensure this happens, we prepare all marketing communication with a sense of responsibility to consumers and society.

We must also respect the privacy and confidentiality of customers, protecting them from unwarranted infringements of privacy. To learn more about this – review our Privacy Policy.

2. Honesty

We commit to absolute honesty in our marketing in our campaigns/for customers and partner-driven projects.

To do this, we pledge to:

• • Never use dishonest marketing tactics for our own or client marketing campaigns, including:

    • False advertising: exaggerating values and benefits of our offering

    • Fake or overly doctored reviews and testimonials

    • Inflated analytics or results when creating messaging

  • Never “cherry-pick” specific data points to use in marketing and communications that are not representative of the overall marketing impact

  • Not withhold negative information or data from the public solely to protect our image

  • Only use words that are realistic descriptors of the offering or impact we are promoting

3. Integrity
   
   We commit to the utmost integrity for our marketing in our campaigns/for customers and partner-driven projects.

To do this, we pledge to:

• • Make transparent the potential risks and negative impacts of our offering, including, when appropriate

  • Evidence of everything we publicly state to prove any claims that our customers are likely to regard as objective and that are capable of objective substantiation

  • Maintain best practice with white hat SEO and content marketing, avoiding any ‘black hat’ tactics

  • Reject Impact Washing in all its forms – this is similar to greenwashing and happens when a business exaggerates its positive impact to gain a marketing advantage or uses “feel good” marketing to cover up or distract from negative outcomes that their core business model is having in other areas–socially or environmentally.

4. Environmental

Both in the messaging and in how we advertise we commit to minimising the impact we have on the environment.

To do this, we pledge to:

• • Be truthful and honest in our communication when it comes to the impact our offering has on the environment, to avoid any issues related to greenwashing – taking into account governmental guidance including the Green Claims Code published by DEFRA

  • Where possible, measure the emissions related to our advertising

  • Choose communication methods and partners that align with our focus to have a reduced impact on the environment

  • Not make unqualified claims and any absolute claims must be supported by a high level of academic and scientific evidence.

  • Base environmental claims on the full life cycle of an advertised product, unless the marketing communication specifically states otherwise, and make clear any limitations.

  • When using the natural environment in our advertising, we will do so in a relevant

5. Socially responsible

We commit to socially responsible communication and marketing in our campaigns/for customers and partner-driven projects.

To do this, we pledge to focus on the following areas:

• • Inclusivity: We recognize that the “average consumer” may not represent everyone, and we strive to consider diverse perspectives in our advertising decisions.

  • Vulnerable Groups: We acknowledge and prioritise the needs of vulnerable groups, ensuring that our marketing is understood and positively received by society as a whole.

  • Human Dignity: We respect the inherent dignity of all stakeholders, valuing their differences and avoiding negative stereotypes or dehumanising portrayals.

  • Customer Satisfaction: We listen to our customers, continuously improving their satisfaction by monitoring their needs and making reasonable efforts to meet them.

  • Cultural Respect: We treat all stakeholders in our community, including buyers, suppliers, and distributors, with understanding and respect for their unique cultures. To do this we will seek input from relevant stakeholders and communities.

  • Supporting the Vulnerable: We make additional commitments to support vulnerable market segments, such as children, seniors, and economically disadvantaged individuals.

  • Offense-Free Communication: Our marketing communications avoid anything likely to cause widespread offence, maintaining sensitivity to diverse backgrounds and perspectives.

  • Child Protection: We exercise caution when featuring or addressing children, ensuring their well-being by avoiding physical, mental, or moral harm in our marketing communications.

  • Safety Promotion: We never depict children in hazardous situations or promote dangerous behaviour, instead prioritizing their safety and well-being.

Responsibilities

The marketing team, led by the CEO is ultimately responsible and accountable for ensuring compliance with this Policy. This compliance extends to any third parties/marketing partners – who will be notified of the existence of this policy

Lighthouse will not work with any partner unwilling to comply with this Policy.

Training

It is easy to claim that our efforts are honest, however, it takes discipline, rigour, and sometimes internal conflict to ensure honesty in marketing. To ensure this happens our marketing team is trained up and accountable to our Ethical Marketing Guidelines, with refreshers run annually and when new marketing employees join to ensure best practice is maintained.

Throughout the guidelines, we ask ourselves the following questions during campaign strategy and execution:

• Are we communicating our services’ value without exaggerating or misleading our key audiences?

• Are we using language that honestly communicates the features and benefits of our services?

• Are we accurately quoting our customers, partners, and team when we share reviews or testimonials?

• Is our use of data and examples honest and accurate when promoting our features, benefits, or the impact of our products and services?

• Is there internal pressure to communicate dishonest information within the marketing and communications coming from team members or the leadership? If so, we will push back or disengage from the project. A reminder the company’s whistleblower policy is here>> if you wish to raise concerns anonymously.

Publicly Disclosing

Lighthouse will disclose in our annual impact report, any marketing campaigns that in retrospect didn’t meet our ethical standards. We do this as we acknowledge that we are improving in this space, but there is still much for us to learn.

With the disclosure, we will also share our learnings and future corrections to not only ensure we can fulfil our ethical marketing policy in the future but also share this with other companies who can utilise these learnings.

Review

This policy was published by Rodica Murphy, Sustainability Director on 29/01/2024, and will be reviewed periodically on an annual basis.