Primary Role Of Marketing

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Lazer speaks about the primary role of marketing to be to propagate / promote / encourage consumption. This view held water, in 1969 (in that era) becoz that era was the advent of industrialization as we know it today in the modern era. Lzaer dint take into consideration certain factors, like the fact that resources are not inexhaustible, pollution factor, etc. That era was about mass consumption. However this does not hold true anymore. Marketing today has a much more macro role to play as a business function, and that is to meet the long term objectives of the firm. Earlier firm focused on profit maximization as their primary objective, hence marketing primary role was to promote consumption and sales. Today profits are a function and aims of a business but not necessarily the primary function. Today firms have larger macro objectives, such as corporate social responsibilities, etc.

The marketing concept has seen a paradigm shift from being focused on mass consumption (in the 1960's) to being consumer focused (in the 1980's) to today, where marketing has a much more macro role as a business function, which is to meet the long run objectives of the firm / organisation.

The firm / organisations objectives have also seen a shift from it being pro- profit maximization (60's) to today, where they have imbibed a lot more objectives / concepts such as:

• CSR


• Understanding and meeting the consumer wants, needs, wants consumer feedback (v important)


• Profits are still an objective, but not necessarily the primary objective.

Marketing today includes a lot of concepts, such as de-marketing, societal marketing, CSR has been imbibed in the concept of marketing.

Examples: Govt / Ngo backed humanitarian causes, such as anti smoking campaigns (perils of smoking) - which actually discourage consumption of cigarettes

Examples: When you buy a car, marketing talks about the existence of brands, products, options available. It doesn't necessarily promote consumption.

The idea of marketing is to make the consumers aware of the existence of:

• Products


• Goods


• Services


• Ideas


• Concepts

The longstanding aim of marketing concept is to develop satisfied customers.

In the 1960's, flow of information was unilateral. Firms produced goods and these were consumed by the people. Lack of options. However, today things are different. The consumer has a lot of options, hence greater power to choose.

• Lazer has referred to consumption as the consumption of physical goods and services.


• Lazer had the tendency to discuss consumption patterns in America and


• We must respect the fact that Consumption is driven by the social, cultural and economic factors surrounding an individual and hence it is a voluntary action.


• Marketing is a tool - acts as a bridge between consumers and goods / services.


• Marketers have done a poor job of marketing the concept of marketing


• Marketing is to be used to make more rational decisions by creating awareness of various options available.


• Marketing is to be used as a tool to create awareness and creating mutual values for both parties.


• Consumption has been mentioned as vital for economic development and gdp growth. But who said consumption is bad. If you earn, obviously u will consume.


• Economic crises effect on consumer behavior - I will purchase only what I need - rational thinking.

There was an argument about somebody's dream was to pursue an mba, and that a bank loan facilitated the dream. And how the bank marketed the loan facility. Marketing by the bank didn't make you take the decision to study further. It merely facilitated your decision by providing you the means. Hence, marketing doesn't encourage consumption. Rather, makes you aware of the existence of your products. To consume is your decision.The societal marketing concept is an enlightened marketing concept that holds that a company should make good marketing decisions by considering consumers' wants, the company's requirements, and society's long-term interests. It is closely linked with the principles of corporate social responsibility and of sustainable development.

The concept has an emphasis on social responsibility and suggests that for a company to only focus on exchange relationship with customers might not be suitable in order to sustain long term success. Rather, marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or improves both the consumer's and the society's well-being.

Most companies recognize that socially responsible activities improve their image among customers, stockholders, the financial community, and other relevant publics. Ethical and socially responsible practices are simply good business, resulting not only in favorable image, but ultimately in increased sales.

Early papers on the topic include those by William Lazer[1] and by Philip Kotler and Sidney Levy.[2] The Journal of Marketing presented a comprehensive discussion of societal marketing in July, 1971.

Societal marketing should not be confused with social marketing. The societal marketing concept was a forerunner of sustainable marketing in integrating issues of social responsibility into commercial marketing strategies. In contrast to that, social marketing uses commercial marketing theories, tools and techniques to social issues. Social marketing applies a customer orientated approach and uses the concepts and tools used by commercial marketers in pursuit of social goals like Anti-Smoking-Campaigns or fund raising for NGOs.

How are UK Retailers Promoting Sustainability?

• Marks and Spencer: posters in stores advertise the Company's goal to make it's UK and Ireland operations carbon neutral within 5 years; bBanners advertise that 70% of the company's food packaging is recycled.
  
• Morrison's: campaign for Great taste, Less waste within stores - encourages customers to store food correctly so that it lasts longer, and shows them how to create delicious meals from leftovers.
  
• Numerous retailers have deployed posters near check-out registers promoting the use of re-usable carrier bags.
• Fair-Trade range of products are promoted.
• Emphasis on locally sourced produce.

CONCLUSION:

MARKETING is not an end in itself. It is not the exclusive province of business management. Marketing must serve not only business but also the goals of society. It must act in concert with broad public interest. For marketing does not end with the buysell transaction-its responsibilities extend well beyond making profits. Marketing shares in the problems and goals of society and its contributions extend well beyond the formal boundaries of the firm.

At one extreme, some authors have continued to advocate that marketing must stimulate massive consumption. At least one even recommended that new consumption standards be adopted to recognize that extravagant demands and hedonistic desires are normal to, and justified by, an affluent society.' At the other extreme, many authors have subsequently insisted that marketing must become societal or socially conscious and, therefore, should champion vital social issues and beneficial public services.

On another issue, some of these authors have urged that marketing, having succeeded so well in selling the products of the firm, should now extend that same expertise to organizations other than the firm for the marketing of their services. Most recently, many of these same authors are arguing that, in view of the limitations pressing on the supply of the firm s products, marketing should concentrate on serving in a new and different role, keyed to excess demand rather than excess supply.

Views in 1969

In an article published in 1969, Lazer deduced that from the perspective of a marketing concept geared to interpersonal and social development, one of marketing's roles may be to encourage increasing expenditures by consumers of dollars and time to develop themselves socially, intellectually, and morally. This in itself seems a worthy deduction, but Lazer went on to recommend that new consumption standards should be established, including the acceptance of selfindulgence, of luxurious surroundings, and of nonutilitarian products.' In another article published that same year, Kotler and Levy predicted the extension of the role of marketing beyond business to other organizations - such as political parties, professional associations, charities, universities, and government agencies - to market the persons, organizations, and ideas that these organizations might wish to promote. Luck disagreed with this broadening of marketing's role, which led Kotler and Levy to publish a rejoinder reinforcing their broadening concept.

Views by 1971

By 1971, in a spate of articles on the role of marketing, the proponents of change had modified their attitudes to reflect their greater awareness of the important social issues of the times. Kelley foretold that environmental deterioration is the social issue which will probably receive the greatest amount of business involvement and that business responsibilities toward improving the environment will become more important. Dawson predicted that during the 197O's there will be increasing attention to: 'Should it be sold? Is it worth its cost to society?' despite the fact that marketing may feel more comfortable in focusing on the question, 'Can it be sold?' ' Weiss foresaw increasing regulation of marketing in the 1970s, a basic change to what is sold, not how much, the abandonment of a style of economy marked by profligate production, consumption and waste for an economy marked by rationalized production and recycling. He also predicted that services would mushroom. Feldman similarly forecast the trend away from the purchase of material goods and toward the consumption of services and the preeminence of societal considerations . . . in the purchasing decision. He also suggested that the knowledge of the mairketing of physical products can be applied to the marketing of such services as waste disposal and public transportation. Kotler and Zaltman, in a related vein, envisioned tin extension of marketing principles and procedures to social marketing . . . the design, implementation, and control of programs calculated to inffuence the acceptability of social ideas. In addition, Kotler and Levy subsequently originated the concept and coined the term creative demarketing as that aspect of marketing that deals with discouraging customers in general or a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or a permanent basis.

Therefore, by 1972 the main themes had become the following:

• Social conscience, generally expressed as a concem for environmental restoration and preservation'


• Rationalized marketing, typified by the questions Should it be sold? and What will it cost society?


• Marketing service in the public interest to influence the acceptance of critical social ideas and of beneficial public utilities.


• The genesis of the idea that among marketing's prominent roles should be to regulate the shape and level of demand

It is interesting to note the marked differences between the bold ideas of 1969 and the more conservative and chastened ideas of 1971. Whereas in 1969 such ideas as the extravagant stimulation of consumption and the broadening of the concept of marketing to all organizations were being advocated, in 1971 the central ideas were tbe ultimate benefit to society of what was sold and marketing's new responsibility to sell less in some circumstances rather than more.

Views in 1973-74

During 1973 and 1974, the central propositions became even more conservative. Some of the principal ideas advanced during this period were: the efficient use of resources in production;- the management of demand to keep it within the bounds of limited supply; improved product management to eliminate frivolity and waste in production; and again, as had been foreseen in earlier years, the social advantages of increasing the proportion of services over products as the output of industry.

Summary of the 1969-74 Period

It is significant to note the contrasts in the various views through the five years since 1969:

• Apply marketing principles to social issues versus apply societal considerations to marketing


• Broaden the concept of marketing to apply to all organizations versus modify it to discourage customers of the firm from buying too much


• Justify and stimulate unbounded consumption versus use resources rationally, with efficient production and responsible and frugal consumption

STAGES IN THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING:

Although it is not yet clear what the nature of the forthcoming changes in marketing's role will be, it is quite clear that change is in process. Probably the nearest approach that can be made to describing the change now in process is to summarize comparatively the essentials of the role of marketing at three different stages in its evolution: pre-1960, 1960-1970, and post-1970. Such a summary and comparison is outlined in Table 2, which shows how the focus of marketing has proceeded through the three primary economic agents: entrepreneurs (i.e., producers), consumers, and resource owners.

That the current change, the shift from a focus on consumers to a focus on resources, ill be radical is epitomized in Weiss's prophecy that marketing innovations in the 1970s and 1980s will reshape it more dramatically than did the totality of marketing's evolution over the last 50 years. Marketing's innovations will now ressume revolutionary dimensions and pace.

Marketing's role has survived radical change before. In the 1950s marketing experienced the complete reversal of its orientation. Until that time the role of marketing had been selling hard to the affluent and impressionable consumer the self-styled products of the firm. Thereafter it began responding efficiently and satisfactorily to the expressed or implied wants of a more discriminating consumer with suitable and desirable products of his choice. Marketing expanded, grew in stature, and prospered as a result of this reorientation. Indeed, it was because of this radical transformation that what is marketing today - with its principles of product, price, promotion, and physical distribution - was bom of what had previously been merely advertising and selling.

Throughout these earlier changes, however, the role of marketing remained essentially Concentrated on consumption. True, as time passed the nature of that consumption altered from being what the producer wanted to sell to more nearly what the consumer needed to buy. Nonetheless, it was still ever-increasing consumption that marketing sought to induce.

The emphasis on increasing consumption, however, brought expanding production and a concomitant mounting waste and depletion of natural resources. The net result has been that never before in modem marketing's 50-year history has it stood so low in public esteem. Indeed, historian Arnold Toynbee's indictment of the U.S. economy resounds to the discredit of marketing as it had been conceived up to the late 1960.

References

1. William Lazer, Marketing's Changing Social Relationships, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 (January 1969), pp. 3-9


2. Philip Kotler and Sidney J. Levy, Broadening the Concept of Marketing, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 33 (January 1969), pp. 10-15


3. Andrew Takas, Societal Marketing: A Businessman's Perspective, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 38, No. 4 (Oct., 1974), pp. 2-7


4. Russell Abratt and Diane Sacks, Perceptions of the Societal Marketing Concept, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 23, Issue: 6, Page: 25 - 33 (1989)


5. Andrew Crane and John Desmond, Societal marketing and morality, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36, Issue: 5/6, Page: 548 - 569 (Jun 2002)


6. Friedman, 1962 The social responsibility of business is to make a profit