When is marketing a valuable social practice - Term Paper Example

Lecturer Paper When is marketing a valuable social practice? Introduction To have an imperative discussion of the concept, it isin order to delineate the unblemished concept ‘social marketing’. It is delineated as planned procedures and processes intended to influence change. With its key components of advertising and promotion (media strategy and planning, segmentation, position, effective tracking, message design and testing, creative strategy, marketing and consumer research) social marketing plays a fundamental role in environmental and health topics across the globe. The concept combines some of the old approaches in planning, integral framework and adopts some of the latest communication technology to solve the current issues. The concept applies marketing techniques in the generation of discussion, promotion of behaviors, values, attitudes and information. Through these techniques, social marketing facilitates the creation of a healthy environment to the behavior and social change. Discussion There are a myriad of ethical challenges faced by marketers across the globe. Brenkert, a philosopher, points out some of these key challenges. The first challenge is the use of sex and fear during marketing campaigns. A number of critiques believe that some of the marketing materials used instill fear amongst the public from using a product or associating with other people. The second challenge is deception and invasion of privacy. Marketing has been criticized for aiding greed, providing misleading information as they persuade people to buy products and services they do not need and spent a lot of money that could be used in other areas. It’s also been criticized for neglecting the low-end people in the society and only focuses on the rich tycoons in the society. Since marketers are only concerned by those who are able to buy their products, they are seldom concerned about the poor people. Advertisements are directed to the poor people are very low quality ones. Finally, it’s been accused of being intrusive and might distract attention of people. With the above challenges and accusations, critiques have regarded marketing as a waste of time, and spend a lot of resources convincing customers to purchase products and access services they don’t need. It has been blamed for promoting consumerism and materialism. Other critiques have also argued that marketing is behind the fact that people take identities from brands they put on. Doctors have blamed the high incidences of obesity on marketing; high incidences of fast food consumption happen because of the intense advertisements. Multinational companies that are involved in marketing are accused of taking values and practices from their home countries to the host nations. (Brenkert 24) therefore comprehensively analyzed three key challenges with regards to social marketing through 3 main challenges; who defines a social problem and who decides that it should be addressed?, he criticized the rationale that models of behavior change and associated theories are more suitable in solving social problems and finally posed the question whether marketers are behaving rationally if they do not appreciate the autonomy of the targeted market. Brenkert delineates the social practice of marketing as a scenario where marketers mainly focus on social issues in social marketing form as opposed to focusing on the law and other interests. He argues that the main focus of the interested parties is how they will benefit and how important the concept is. In social marketing practice, the market digs into some of the fundamental social issues that affect the people. Central Features of Marketing As stated above, the fundamental question that is posted by Brenkert is how marketing can be designed to also support the societal members. He believes that good marketing should always be concerned about the good of the people. He therefore lists below as the features of good marketing. Goal oriented action; the first feature is the goal. Brenkert believes that the most important thing is advertising is to identify the targeted population. Marketing should be informative and should contain details that benefit the people. The marketer must therefore identify the reason why advertising is necessary. It must clearly state the reason it is necessary to carry out promotions on a product. Without a clear goal, it is likely that the people will be exploited and at the same time the message be passed. Capacity for responsible choice: One reason that marketing has been criticized is because of the misleading information and therefore customers often buy products that they are not willing to purchase. Bernett believes that a good marketing should give customers an opportunity to give succinct information and to leave customers with a choice. It should not be coercive with skewing its decision towards a particular brand irrespective of customer’s wishes. Instrumental relatedness; Brenkett believes that instrumental relatedness is one of the key features of marketing. He argues that the advertisement should be connected with the particular good that is being marketed. The information that is given should be associated with the product. Any misleading information will deceive customers to buy a product hoping to satisfy his/her utility. (Brenkert 124) Competition- This is the last feature of marketing according to Brenkett. He argues that competition is very important and cannot be assumed. A good advert must contain useful information related to the importance of the product. It should give customers a reason to purchase the product and leave others. Therefore the advertisement should be competitive enough with all the relevant information. As a building block for the pluralistic conception, Brenkett presents six middle level values and principles which are involved in marketing. The first value is freedom. This value holds that customers have the right to make a choice on various products which are in the market. They have an option to reject the advertised option. The second value is the truth. The dignity of customers cannot be exchanged for anything. The author holds that the information given should always dignify customers and hold the fundamental respect to them. The advertisement should not present deceiving to the customers. The third value is the justice. Being a philosopher, Brenkert believed that all the marketing techniques and materials released to the customers should ensure that they get all equal treatment. Customers should not be discriminated on whatever form. (Brenkert 87) The forth value is trust. Brenkert believes that all materials released by the marketers should be trusted. When information is given about a product, customers should be able to find similar descriptions when they walk to the shop to buy the products. The fifth value is well being. The most important thing to customers is the satisfaction of their utility. The main reason customers buy a product is to enhance their lifestyle. Finally the last value is autonomy. Advertisement should leave customers with the option of buying products from other firms so long as it meets his/her requirements. “The Marketing Concept (TMC) is an idealism that focuses on the satisfaction of the firm without taking into consideration the perceptions of the people. The most important thing is the satisfaction of the organization. According to Brenkert, most companies care about their success. The marketing concept does not care about ethical principles in the society. The most important motive thing is the profit that the company is expected to make from advertisement. He argues that this concept is unethical and should not be embraced. It does not take into consideration the ethical feelings of the people. There are a number of problems that are associated with the marketing concept. The first problem is welfare of the people. The company does not care about the benefits to be accrued by the customers and their welfare but instead their profit. The second problem is that it is corruption. Usually there are a number of corrupt practices that are rarely identified. The third problem is the ethical issue. Companies involved never consider the ethical practices but instead how the firm will benefit. The fourth problem is that it encourages unhealthy competition. Each company is only interested about achieving their benefit without taking into consideration the benefits to the family members. Finally, marketing concept is linked to deceiving messages. A number of companies might use deceiving information to target vulnerable customers. The concept therefore enhances customary vulnerability. (Brenkert 65) Integrated Marketing Concept (IMC), is a marketing concept which requires the integration of the norms and values of the marketers and the consumers. Brenkert argues that through this concept, organizations will be able to adopt some of the best practice that will reduce some of the unethical practices. There are a number of societal norms which customers subscribe to; on the other hand, corporate hold a number of beliefs and business principles that they should remain true to. This paper holds that the idea can enhance the existing relationship between customer values and the company principles. Through the discussion of different pillars associated with the concept, Brenkert holds that the success of the company is anchored on the good customer client relationship. Despite the solution that it offers, there are a number of loop holes associated with the concept. The aim of the two parties is totally different. The main reason corporate are in business is to make profit, on the other hand the aim of the customers is to get high quality goods at a reduced price to satisfy their utility. Therefore, this paper objects the concept because the aim of the two parties is different. (Brenkert 113) Integrated marketing concept seeks to find a common ground for the two parties involved; customers and the company/businessmen. This paper opposes this concept as a way of understanding ethical issues in marketing. Instead of integrating the norms, the regulating authorities should ensure that marketers strictly follow the stipulated guidelines. The existing values and the rights of the customers should not be violated. On the other hand, the adopted regulations should not interfere with the rights of the marketers and their ability to make profit. It is no doubt that unethical marketing practices harm the society. Customers are often deceived to buy some products which they are not willing to purchase. The form of marketing that makes the world worse is that which is full of deception and adopts unethical procedures to convince customers. Conclusion In a nutshell, Brenkert digs into some of the unacceptable unethical practices by the marketers. It provides a reasoned examination of marketing ethics. Despite the analysis, the solutions presented cannot do enough to deal with the problem of unethical practices in marketing. In a nutshell, marketing is only a valuable social asset if it follows ethical guidelines without taking advantage of the customers. Work cited Brenkert, George G. Marketing Ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print. Read More