Main course page
WEEK 14: Topic 11- Marketing Ethics and Responsibility (Part 2)
PREVIEWING THE CONCEPTS: CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
1. Define sustainable marketing and discuss its importance.
2. Identify the major social criticisms of marketing.
3. Define consumerism and environmentalism and explain how they affect marketing strategies.
4. Describe the principles of sustainable marketing.
5. Explain the role of ethics in marketing.
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This final chapter focuses on the concepts of sustainable marketing, meeting the needs of consumers, businesses, and society – now and in the future – through socially and environmentally responsible marketing actions.
First, the chapter defines sustainable marketing and then looks at some common criticisms of marketing as it impacts individual consumers and public actions that promote sustainable marketing.
Finally, we look at how companies can benefit from proactively pursuing sustainable marketing practices that bring value not just to individual customers but also to society as a whole.
11.3 CONSUMER ACTIONS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE MARKETING
The two major movements have been consumerism and environmentalism.
Consumerism is an organized movement of citizens and government agencies to improve the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers.
Traditional sellers’ rights include:
· The right to introduce any product in any size and style, provided it is not hazardous to personal health or safety; or, if it is, to include proper warnings and controls.
· The right to charge any price for the product, provided no discrimination exists among similar kinds of buyers.
· The right to spend any amount to promote the product, provided it is not defined as unfair competition.
· The right to use any product message, provided it is not misleading or dishonest in content or execution.
· The right to use any buying incentive programs, provided they are not unfair or misleading.
Traditional buyers’ rights include:
· The right not to buy a product that is offered for sale.
· The right to expect the product to be safe.
· The right to expect the product to perform as claimed.
Consumer advocates call for the following additional consumer rights:
· The right to be well informed about important aspects of the product.
· The right to be protected against questionable products and marketing practices.
· The right to influence products and marketing practices in ways that will improve the “quality of life.”
· The right to consume now in a way that will preserve the world for future generations of consumers.
Consumers have not only the right but also the responsibility to protect themselves instead of leaving this function to someone else.
Environmentalism
Environmentalism is an organized movement of concerned citizens, businesses, and government agencies to protect and improve people’s living environment.
Environmentalism is concerned with damage to the ecosystem caused by global warming, resource depletion, toxic and solid wastes, litter, and other problems.
In recent years, most companies have accepted responsibility for doing no harm to the environment.
Environmental sustainability - Environmental sustainability is about generating profits while helping to save the planet.
The greening activities pay off for the firm in the short run.
Pollution prevention - Eliminating or minimizing waste before it is created.
Product stewardship - Minimizing not just pollution from production and product design but all environmental impacts throughout the full product life cycle, and all the while reducing costs.
Design for environment (DFE) and cradle-to-cradle practices involve thinking ahead to design products that are easier to recover, reuse, or recycle and developing programs to reclaim products at the end of their lives.
New clean technology. Many organizations that have made good sustainability headway are still limited by existing technologies. To create fully sustainable strategies, they will need to develop innovative new technologies.
Sustainability vision. Serves as a guide to the future. It shows how the company’s products and services, processes, and policies must evolve and what new technologies must be developed to get there.
Many of the laws that affect marketing are listed in Chapter 3.
The task is to translate these laws into the language that marketing executives understand as they make decisions.
11.4 BUSINESS ACTIONS TOWARD SUSTAINABLE MARKETING
Sustainable Marketing Principles
Under the sustainable marketing concept, a company’s marketing should support the best long‑run performance of the marketing system.
1. Consumer‑Oriented Marketing
Consumer-oriented marketing means that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the consumer’s point of view.
Only by seeing the world through its customers’ eyes can the company build lasting and profitable customer relationships.
Customer-value marketing means the company should put most of its resources into customer value‑building marketing investments.
By creating value for consumers, the company can capture value from consumers in return.
Innovative marketing requires that the company continuously seek real product and marketing improvements.
Sense-of-mission marketing means that the company should define its mission in broad social terms rather than narrow product terms.
Societal marketing means an enlightened company makes marketing decisions by considering consumers’ wants and interests, the company’s requirements, and society’s long‑run interests.
Products can be classified according to their degree of immediate consumer satisfaction and long‑run consumer benefit.
· Deficient products have neither immediate appeal nor long‑run benefits.
· Pleasing products give high immediate satisfaction but may hurt consumers in the long run.
· Salutary products have low appeal but may benefit consumers in the long run.
· Desirable products give both high immediate satisfaction and high long‑run benefits.
Marketing Ethics
Corporate marketing ethics policies are broad guidelines that everyone in the organization must follow.
What principle should guide companies and marketing managers on issues of ethics and social responsibility?
One philosophy is that such issues are decided by the free market and legal system.
A second philosophy puts responsibility not on the system but in the hands of individual companies and managers.
Written codes and ethics programs do not ensure ethical behavior.
Ethics and social responsibility require a total corporate commitment.
The Sustainable Company
Sustainable marketing goes beyond caring for the needs and wants of today’s customers.
Sustainable marketing provides the context in which companies can build profitable customer relationships by creating value for customers in order to capture value from customers in return, now and in the future.
How can marketing practices create barriers to entry that potentially harm other firms? Are these barriers helpful or harmful to consumers? Please share your answers here.