Transcript Social Criticisms of Marketing

Sustainable Marketing
Social
Responsibility
and Ethics
May 7, 2014
Chapter 3 - Jennifer Ford
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Sustainable Marketing
• Sustainable Marketing:
– Socially and environmentally responsible
marketing that meets the present needs of
consumers and businesses while preserving
or enhancing the ability of future generations
to meet their needs.
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Take a minute…
….and write down on a piece of paper one
example of a time you purchased something
that you felt was unfairly marketed or
promoted to you…
i.e. the product broke down, quality was
poor, was found cheaper elsewhere, “oversold” on the product, etc.
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Marketing’s impact on individual
consumers has been criticized in terms of
three factors that are cited as leading to
high prices:
– High costs of distribution
– High advertising and promotion costs
– Excessive markups
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Marketers may be accused of deceptive
practices including:
– Pricing: falsely advertising “wholesale” or
“factory” prices or large reductions from phony
high retail list prices
– Promotion: misrepresenting a product’s
features or performance, or luring consumers
to store for out-of-stock items
– Packaging: exaggerating package contents
through design, misleading labeling, or size
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Deceptive practices have led to legislation
and other protective consumer actions:
– Competition Bureau acts as a watchdog to
prevent deceptive practices
– Use of puffery is legal, but may harm
consumers in subtle ways
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Salespeople can be accused of using
high-pressure selling tactics
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Criticisms of shoddy or unsafe products:
– Poor product quality or function
– Products deliver little benefit or are harmful
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Planned obsolescence causes products to
become obsolete before replacement by:
– Using materials and components that break,
wear, rust, or rot before they should
– Continually changing acceptable styles
– Intentionally holding back functional features,
then introducing them later to make older
models obsolete
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Social Criticisms of Marketing
• Marketers are accused of poorly serving
disadvantaged consumers:
– Forced to shop in smaller stores, paying more
for inferior goods
– National chain stores, insurers, and health
care providers practice “redlining” and refuse
to open businesses in poor neighborhoods
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In small groups…
….discuss and share your original examples
you came up with. Can you think of other
examples? Are social criticisms of
marketing common – if so, which ones are
most common?
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Impact on Society
• Marketing’s impact on society has been
criticized as:
– Creating false wants and encouraging
materialism that benefits industry more than
consumers
– Creating cultural pollution, stemming from
constant exposure to marketing messages
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Consumer Actions
1: Consumerism:
– An organized movement of citizens and
government agencies to improve the rights
and power of buyers in relation to sellers
– Seller’s rights include the right to:
•
•
•
•
•
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Introduce any product in any size and style
Charge any price for the product
Spend any amount to promote the product
Use any product message
Use any buying incentive schemes
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Consumer Actions
• Buyers’ rights include the right to:
– Not buy a product that is offered for sale
– Expect the product to be safe
– Expect the product to perform as claimed
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Consumer Actions
• Consumer advocates call for more rights to:
– Be well informed about aspects of the product
– Be protected against questionable products
and marketing practices
– Influence products and marketing practices in
ways that will improve “quality of life”
– Consume now in a way that will preserve the
world for future generations of consumers
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Consumer Actions
• Environmentalism:
– An organized movement of concerned
citizens and government agencies to protect
and improve people’s living environment
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Consumer Actions
• Environmental sustainability:
– Involves developing strategies that both
sustain the environment and produce profits
for the company
• Environmental sustainability portfolio:
– Pollution prevention
– Product stewardship
– New clean technologies
– Sustainability vision
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Business Actions
•
Consumer-Oriented Marketing:
– A company’s marketing activities are viewed and organized from the consumer’s
point of view
•
Customer-Value Marketing:
– A company puts most of its resources into customer-value-building marketing
investments
• Innovative Marketing:
– A company seeks real product and marketing improvements
• Sense-of-Mission Marketing:
– A company’s mission is defined in broad social terms rather than narrow product
terms
• Societal Marketing:
- Marketing decisions are made by considering consumers’ wants and interests,
the company’s requirements, and consumers’ and society’s long-run interests
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Marketing Ethics
• Firms must develop corporate marketing
ethics policies as broad guidelines for staff
• Ethics policies should cover:
– Distributor relations
– Advertising standards
– Customer service
– Pricing
– Product development
– General ethical standards
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Break time!
Take 15 minutes and have a break! When
we come back we will apply what we have
discussed in the Pink Ribbon debate.
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