MARKETING IN SOCIETY

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AbstractMarketing today is a universal human activity that has greatly permeated all facets of people’s daily lives. For-profit firms employ marketing to convince consumers to buy their offerings. Non-profit enterprises leverage marketing tools to promote their motives and purposes. Political establishments motivate and encourage the electorate to vote for their candidates using marketing tools. The collective aspect of all these examples is that marketing is imperative to all societal institutions. While marketing practices have shown themselves as crucial and valuable to modern-day society, they have received significant criticism from multiple perspectives.

Despite this criticism, marketing, practiced by countless individuals and all legal businesses, plays an indispensable role in contemporary society. Precisely, critics of marketing overlook the fact that ethical marketing provides the principal tool for creating and sustaining healthy competition, brand demand, corporate reputation, business relevance, and other aspects that render it a positive force in today’s society. In this paper, the author takes a protagonist stance in answering the question: is marketing a positive force in contemporary society? Particularly, the author adopts marketing theories and constructs to account for the positive societal aspects and effects of the marketing practice.

Table of Contents

TOC o “1-3” h z u HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452058” Abstract PAGEREF _Toc35452058 h 2

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452059” 1.0 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc35452059 h 4

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452060” 2.0 Marketing as a Positive Force in Society PAGEREF _Toc35452060 h 4

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452061” 2.1 Creation of New Jobs PAGEREF _Toc35452061 h 5

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452062” 2.2. Acceleration of Economic Development PAGEREF _Toc35452062 h 6

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452063” 2.3 Customer Information and Education PAGEREF _Toc35452063 h 6

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452064” 2.4 Contribution to SME Development PAGEREF _Toc35452064 h 7

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452065” 2.5 Consumer Behavior Modeling PAGEREF _Toc35452065 h 7

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452066” 2.6 Customers’ Choice Enhancement PAGEREF _Toc35452066 h 8

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452067” 2.7 Progressive Social Change PAGEREF _Toc35452067 h 9

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452068” 2.8 Consumer Expectation Management PAGEREF _Toc35452068 h 9

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452069” 2.9 National Revenue Augmentation PAGEREF _Toc35452069 h 11

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452070” 3.0 Conclusion PAGEREF _Toc35452070 h 11

HYPERLINK l “_Toc35452071” Reference List PAGEREF _Toc35452071 h 13

1.0 IntroductionIrrespective of the forms it takes, marketing encompasses the actions and processes by which organizations promote themselves and their offerings by communicating with relevant audiences. The concept of marketing includes communication channels, tools, and tactics such as advertising, digital and social media, public relations, and others used to reach target audiences with the intended brand messages (Fill 2006; Jain and Yadav 2017). Marketing practices have been in existence for decades and have continued to evolve to respond to changing socio-economic and socio-political conditions.

Following this evolution, mixed perceptions and arguments have emerged regarding the social effects of marketing. Some scholars have criticized marketing arguing that it ignores the primary intent of sensing, serving, and satisfying the needs of consumers and enhancing the quality of their lives (Gandhi 2017). The principal premise of critics’ arguments is that the marketing function advocates high-pressure selling and materialisms, harms consumers via prices, encourages deceptive pricing practices, promotes substandard and unsafe products, limits the social good, supports planned obsolescence, causes cultural pollution, and drives poor services to disadvantaged consumers (Kaur 2018; Kotler et al. 2014; Rome Business School 2013).

However, these critics forget that only unethical marketing practices cause these problems in society. What this means is that ethical marketing practices culminate in helpful effects on individuals, businesses, and non-business institutions, making it a positive force in contemporary society. Such positive effects include job creation, economic development spurt, enhanced customer choices, constructive social change, consumer behavior modeling, and customer education, among others. The current individual assessment paper focuses on providing detailed accounts of these and other positive effects that illuminate marketing as a positive force in contemporary society.

2.0 Marketing as a Positive Force in SocietyThe correct understanding of the positive effects of the marketing concept is central to studying modern marketing as a positive force in contemporary society. Ethical marketing has a broad gamut of beneficial effects on today’s society, which include the following:

2.1 Creation of New JobsMarketing in modern society increases employment opportunities. Wilkie and Moore (2012) suggest that marketing is a system in which employment and other processes such as capital investment, planning, production, financing, risk-taking, and others occur. These processes occur with the expectations that transactional exchanges involving them will continue to happen to fuel the continuing operations of this system. So, marketing or the marketing industry itself creates direct and indirect employment and new job opportunities as organizations seek new and innovative ways of promoting themselves and their offerings. These direct and indirect jobs and employment opportunities empower the society with assured income (Anbumani 2007). Also, the creation of new jobs improves the quality of life and the living standards of the people in society as they have access to new sources of household income. An example here is the marketing of dairy products. This will culminate in an increased demand for these products, which will necessitate more hiring in dairy plants, hence creating new jobs. Also, it will encourage more breeding of milk animals and more milk production, which would directly induce employment in dairy farms.

Majumder (2008) affirmatively contends that marketing comprises of activities such as advertising, distributions, sales, branding, and others that create a climate for more services and additional production. These additional activities emanating from marketing developments automatically generate a need for more people to work in various marketing areas. This way, new employment and job opportunities are generated to benefit society. Furthermore, effective marketing operations require the input, services, and multidisciplinary collaboration of enterprises in different sectors and industries such as transportation, warehousing, insurance, finance, retail facilities, communication, and training and technical institutions. All these services require more manpower, which is derived from society, thereby creating employment while augmenting avenues of new employment. So, marketing is a multifaceted mechanism of activities that involve numerous functions and sub-functions that necessitates the collaborative functioning of different specialized and unspecialized personnel, creating employment in these areas. By estimate, 30-40% of the total population of a country engages in marketing activities either directly or indirectly (Pachori 2019).

2.2. Acceleration of Economic DevelopmentEthical marketing also impacts society positively by accelerating economic development. Several researchers have indicated that marketing drives economic growth and development. For instance, Kotler et al. (2014) stress that marketing is central to economic development because it stimulates demand and consumption. In another study, Sheth and Sisodia (2005) concluded that when marketing is practiced with control and wisdom, it stimulates economic growth while aligning corporate activities with customers’ needs in mutually beneficial ways. Further, Gandhi (2017) argues that marketing enhances economic efficiency and economic performance, which are factor prerequisites of economic advancement. In a different research effort, Jocz and Quelch (2008) associated marketing with augmented consumer sovereignty and democracy, which are essential elements underlying economic growth.

The clear consensus amongst these researchers is that successful and ethical marketing practices propel economic development to the society’s benefit. This is by driving a customer economy characterized by job creation, growing demand and consumption, augmented tax revenues for the government, sectorial expansion, and wealth creation, all culminating in economic growth. Marketing also bridges the gap between producers and consumers (Jocz and Quelch 2008; Kotler et al. 2014). This means that it serves as the link between two essential wheels of an economy: production and consumption (Sherlekar, Prasad, and Victor 2010). By linking and balancing these two wheels, marketing stabilizes employment and prices while ensuring steady economic conditions. This ensures a stable and robust economy that benefits the entire society. Using an example, the marketing of cellphones increases the production and global consumption of cellphones. Consequently, this creates new employment, generates government revenues, and expands the telecommunications sector, leading to further economic growth and expansion.

2.3 Customer Information and Education

Marketing also influences the society positively by informing and educating consumers, a fact that Fill (2006) confirms. Essentially, marketing is the effective connection between businesses and society that educates people, eliminates barriers to knowledge, and provides information that cultivates values and characters in their minds. This does not only lure them towards buying whatever is being offered to them but also maximizes their satisfaction, producing a better community of consumers. Anbumani (2007) agrees with this assertion by suggesting that through aggressive marketing, businesses get consumers to participate in business operations, which augments the feeling of patronage and corporate citizenship. This benefits both businesses and society.

Besides augmenting consumer satisfaction and engagement, marketing also provides practical customer education and information that can assist in guiding consumers in making smart purchasing decisions, get updates about brand offerings, and knowing the value of products and their usage (Heath and Chatzidakis 2012; Kaur 2018). This form of brand awareness does not only boost a firm’s competitive edge and reputation through amplified brand prominence but also stimulates more and more consumer engagement with the organization as marketing keeps the conversation going. Consequently, this gives customers a sense of belonging which increases their satisfaction by adding value to their lives to the betterment of society. Lastly, ethical marketing observes consumers’ right to be well-informed and educated as per customer protection legislation. This assures them of the quality expectations, approved prices, and their safety upon consumption of particular products (Gandhi 2017; Kotler et al. 2014). Such customer education and information add value to their lives and society overall.

2.4 Contribution to SME Development

In contemporary society, marketing is the mainstay of boosting the popularity of small- and medium-sized enterprises, which are an essential source of livelihood for the society, hence their development. According to Mokgoatlheng (2013) and Walsh and Lipinski (2009), marketing supports the ability of owners of SMEs to think strategically towards fueling the success of their businesses. Also, marketing activities and strategies augment the business performance of SMEs by ensuring that microenterprises obtained optimum performance that ought to be identified, advanced, and implemented in a planned way (Mokgoatlheng 2013). Furthermore, marketing, coupled with strategic positioning, and an entrepreneurial focus, enables SMEs to attain and maintain a competitive advantage that is key to their growth and survival amidst large competitors (Walsh and Lipinski 2009). The success and thriving of SMEs enhance the well-being and quality of life of people in these businesses, which essentially contributes positively to contemporary society.

2.5 Consumer Behavior Modeling

Proper and ethical marketing contributes positively to modern society by allowing for consumer behavior modeling. Jocz and Quelch (2008) concur with this point by stating that marketing that prioritizes consumer interests play a vital role in shaping and changing consumer behavior. Consumer behavior entails understating marketing stimuli (the economic, cultural, political, and technological force and events) that work within the consumer’s environment to influence observable buyer responses (Kotler et al. 2014). Marketing involves working towards comprehending customer behaviors to produce promotional messages that influence this behavior.

Such understanding provides the basic framework for economic analysts and researchers to model consumer behaviors. Specifically, these analysts and researchers use marketing data and how it correlates with consumer behaviors to discover what guides consumer purchasing decisions. This way, they learn ways of crafting awareness campaigns regarding major social and public issues affecting society. Also, modeling consumer behavior provides a paradigm for comprehending consumers’ loyalty, wellbeing, interpersonal relationships, and other brand-related measures of consumer satisfaction (Appel et al 2020). This way, marketing contributes positively to contemporary society

2.6 Customers’ Choice EnhancementAnother way in which marketing influences society positively, hence being a positive force, is by allowing for the enhancement of customer choices. Besides educating consumers, aiding the modeling of their behaviors, and offering practical information relating to brand offerings, ethical and sustainable marketing assists in facilitating the choices made by customers (Kotler et al. 2014). According to Sahin, Zehir, and Kitapçı (2011), consumers are inclined to relying on trusted brands, along with the consistency emanating from brand loyalty. Also, they use the information generated by consumer advocacy groups as the basis for learning the most reliable brands that offer the premium value for them to choose. With this knowledge, businesses leverage the power of marketing to raise customers’ awareness regarding major market changes that influence offerings and their quality. Ethical marketing provides this type of information in a way that abides by government regulations that bar marketers from providing misleading and false information (Kotler et al. 2014; Nuseir 2018; Wilkie and Moore 2012). Consequently, customers end up making informed decisions and choices without being exposed to many risks that they would otherwise encounter if they engaged in purchasing without benefits of the marketing function. This way, marketing enriches customer choices and purchasing decisions, making contemporary society better.

2.7 Progressive Social ChangeMarketing is an agent of social change that makes society a better place. Scheyban (2015) attests to this fact by stating that marketing paints a particular picture of society, thereby shaping how people see and understand things, think, act, view themselves, and also what they aspire. Biehl-Missal and Saren (2012) agree with this fact by acknowledging that marketing systems play a role in enhancing both cultural and social change. Heath and Chatzidakis (2012) and Kotler et al. (2014) echo the same belief by suggesting that transformative marketing inspires positive social change that enriches or expands consumer well-being. So, ethical marketing can be pivotal in unlocking positive social change. This statement means that while marketing itself does not change social behavior that causes social change, it provides a set of instruments and practices for influencing behavioral change that culminates in social change, thereby serving as an imperative agent of positive social change (Andreasen 2002; Lauri 2015).

Critics would argue that marketing can bring negative social change by promoting unhealthy behaviors. For instance, marketing of tobacco, alcohol, and unhealthy food products can hurt children by augmenting smoking, drinking, and obesity respectively as Scheyban (2015) submits. With such claims, they forget that marketing that translates to such outcomes is unethical, deceptive, and improper. So, ethical, appropriate, and truthful marketing characterized by positive messages is an imperative agent of positive social change because it creates an environment in which inclusions of societal portrayal are reflected towards benefiting both the society and the firm’s bottom line. Such an environment encourages the overlap between ‘for-profit’ and ‘for the good’, and such an overlap is an integrated framework that helps to unlock the powerful engines for positive social change (Scheyban 2015). Also, ethical, correct, and honest marketing stimulates positive social change that brings sustainability to markets while ensuring marketing ethics, effective social marketing, and marketplace initiative (Wilkie and Moore 2012). Furthermore, such marketing empowers groups in society by giving a voice to the marginalized people outside the mainstream system, hence achieving even greater social change.

2.8 Consumer Expectation ManagementAngelova and Zekiri (2011) acknowledge that marketing should principally be grounded on customer expectations. This implies that marketing is all about communicating or conveying messages about the qualities of service or product offerings that attract the targeted audience. Customer expectations are the wants and needs of the target audiences that are attracted to buy product or service offerings through the marketing function. These expectations reflect an understanding of customer service on the marketers’ side and typical actions valued as imperative on the consumers’ side as they interact with organizations. What this means is that customer expectations draw a clear picture of what constitutes consumer satisfaction and customer loyalty of the targeted audience (Khadka and Maharjan 2017).

Thus, ethical and sustainable marketing offers the platform for setting and managing customers’ expectations as Kotler et al. (2014) and Majumder (2008) submit. Such marketing achieves this in three ways. Firstly, marketing enables the corporation to customize and personalize its offerings in a way that reflects an understanding of consumers’ usage of these offerings towards meeting their needs and wants (Appel et al 2020; Kotler et al. 2014; Mokgoatlheng 2013). This allows the marketers to refine their engagement with the consumers relative to their past shopping experiences, thereby making them feel more cared for and understood. A good example of a company that has succeeded in tailoring and personalizing its offerings to meet customer expectations is Amazon. It does so by offering and recommending extra features after customers make purchases, and this is for customers who have shopped at Amazon earlier (Chaffey 2018; MerchantWords, Inc. 2018). This meets one of the most significant consumer expectations: the desire to be treated rightfully as individual human beings, not as a part of homogenous groups.

Secondly, ethical and appropriate marketing enhances customer service by adopting customer service approaches and techniques such as convenience, reliability, marketing ethics, efficiency, and competency (Appel et al 2020; Kaur 2018; Kotler et al. 2014). This facilitates a pleasant and harmonious purchasing experience that meets customer service expectations. Met service expectations help in building immediate consumer goodwill and augmenting customer loyalty (Angelova and Zekiri 2011), leading to greater customer satisfaction. Thirdly, marketing provides the channel for communicating their offerings’ differentiation to customers. An important customer expectation in the digital era relates to how organizations differentiate their offerings to make them unique, innovative, and trendy. Marketing fulfills this expectation by informing consumers how particular offerings are differentiated for uniqueness and trendiness and the technological breakthroughs underlying the offerings’ innovativeness. By meeting and managing these and other consumer expectations, marketing augments value for consumers and enhances their satisfaction, which is an indication of the beneficial impacts of marketing on contemporary society.

2.9 National Revenue Augmentation

Marketing is also an influential, positive force in modern-day society because it increases national revenue collected in each independent economy. Kotler et al. (2014) subscribe to this point by stating that effectively conducted marketing and a properly developed marketing mix culminate in worthwhile and adequate relationship marketing in which relationship revenues exceed relationship costs. National revenue refers to the sum of services and goods a country possesses. Marketing contributes to this revenue in four ways. The first is that the net effect of all marketing activities and effort is an increase in production in different sectors and industries. This creates new investment options and the provision of more offerings. Secondly, marketing techniques create demand for existing and new offerings, which culminates in an increase in production and wealth. Thirdly, marketing attracts new consumers, which augments revenue options available for companies that eventually increase national income through revenue taxation. Lastly, marketing enhances brand value, which generates revenues through increased brand generation (Ökten et al. 2019).

The increase in production and wealth courtesy of marketing makes a nation richer, augmenting national income, which leads to a rise in per capita income. The increase in and growth of national income benefits society in several ways. For example, national revenues are what the government use for spending on infrastructure development, healthcare provision, and financing other economic development stimuli. Sirgy et al. (2012) concur with this observation by acknowledging that tax revenues emanating from marketing are used in providing efficient public services that eventually contribute positively to the nation’s overall quality of life and peopled long-term well-being. From this perspective, marketing is a valuable technique that accelerates the development process and stimulates economic activity that augments national income. This income is used in bettering life’s quality and wellbeing, hence influencing the society positively to depict marketing as a positive force in contemporary society.

3.0 ConclusionThe discussion in this individual assessment paper has highlighted nine items that help in the broader comprehension of marketing as a positive force in present-day society. Specifically, it has established that marketing influences society positively by creating new jobs, spurring economic development, enhancing customer choices, and enabling the modeling of consumer behavior. Marketing also provides customer education and information, facilitates the management of customer expectations, contributes to SME Development, augments national revenue, and serves as an agent of positive social change. These nine positive effects are associated with a broad range of beneficial outcomes for society, providing sufficient and evidence-centered proof that marketing is a positive force in today’s society. Even so, these positive effects are only realized when marketing is conducted appropriately, ethically, and truthfully. Otherwise, the outcomes would portray marketing as a negative force in contemporary society.

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