Social criticisms of marketing

1. Social criticisms of marketing • Marketing impact on individual consumers- Consumers,consumer advocates,government agencies and other critics have accussed marketing • The harming they say are through high prices,deceptive practices,high pressure selling, unsafe products,planned obsolescence • Poor service to disadvantaged consumers

2. a.High prices 1.High costs of production 2.High avertisement and promotion costs 3.Excessive markups of prices b.Deceptive practices- 1.Deceptive pricing eg;factory prices 2.Deceptive promotion eg:out of stock 3.Deceptive packaging

3. c.High pressure selling • Sales people accused of high pressure selling • Direct them to unwanted or unneeded things • In most cases the gain is less from high pressure selling • It may work only for one time or short term • It may damage the long term relationship

4. d.Shoddy or unsafe products- 1.Another criticism is that the products lack the needed quality 2.Next is about the services not performed well 3.Many products deliver little benefit as to what is being promised 4.And ultimately the products and services tend to be harmful

5. e.Planned obsolescence- 1.The products becomes obsolete before the actual time it need to be replaced 2.And the brands and feature changes suddenly to encourage buying 3.Other producers hold back features and introduce later to make older models obselete

6. Poor service to disadvantaged consumers- 1.The urban poor often have to shop in smaller stores carrying inferior good with higher prices 2.Type of economic discrimination in which the major chain retailers avoid placing stores in disadvantaged areas 3.Home and auto insurers have been accused of assigning higher premiums to people with poor credit standing

7. Marketings impact on society as a whole a.False wants and too much materialism- 1.Marketing system urges too much interest in material possessions 2.People are judged by what they own rather than who they are 3.In the new millennium many social scientists have noted a reaction against the wastage of previous decades and return to basic values 4.The interest in material things is not a natural state of mind but false wants created by marketing

8. b.Cultural pollution- 1.Critics charge the marketing system with creating cultural pollution 2.Senses are being constantly attacked by advertising 3.Commercials interrupt serious programmes and pollute peoples mind with materialism 4.Marketers answer the charges of commercial noise 5.Because of mass communication the ads are bound to reach people who are not interested

9. c.Too few social goods- 1.Business has been accused of overselling private goods at the expense of public goods 2.A viable option is to make producers bear the full social costs of their operations 3.Another option is to make consumers pay for the costs

10. d.Too much political power- 1.Advertisers are accused of holding too much power over the mass media limiting media freedom 2.Fortunately many powerful business interests once thought to be untouchable have been tamed in public interest 3.As media receive advertising revenues from many advertisers, its easier to resist the influence of them

11. Marketings impact on other businesses a.Acquisition of competitors 1.Firms are harmed and competition reduced when companies expand by acquiring competitors 2.The large no. of acquistions and rapid pace of industry consolidation a concern 3.As a result, in every industry- the major number of competitors are shrinking 4.The acquiring companies may gain economies of scale and will be good for the society

12. b.Marketing practices 1.Sometimes marketing practices bar new companies from entering an industry 2.Large companies can use patents ,heavy spending on promotion& tie up with suppliers and dealers to drive out competition 3.Antitrust regulations recognise that some barriers are a result of economies of scale

13. c.Unfair competitive marketing practices 1.They may set prices below costs or threaten to cut off business with suppliers 2.They may discourage the buying of a competitors products 3. Various laws work to prevent such predatory competition eg: Microsoft

14. Public actions to regulate marketing • Consumerism- is an organised movement of citizens and govt. calls for the following consumer rights 1.The right to be well informed about aspects of the product 2.The right to be protected against marketing practices 3.The right to influence products and marketing practices to improve the quality of life