Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

22. Ethical Marketing in a
    Consumer−Oriented World:
    Appraisal and Challenges

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

636 Chapter 22

Amazon.com are making it

easy and economical for U.S.

customers to find and buy

thousands of other products

online. And if Americans are

less interested in shopping

for groceries online it may

just be because they’re think-

ing about instant gratification.

We expect the corner con-

venience store to have a nice

selection of frozen gourmet

dinners that we can prepare

in minutes in a microwave

oven. Or perhaps that’s too

much hassle. After all,

Domino’s will deliver a hot

pizza in less than 30 minutes.

And McDonald’s has our

Egg McMuffins ready when

we pull up at the drive-thru at

7 in the morning. We expect

everything from fresh tropical

fruits to camera batteries to

brand-name fashions to be

available when and where

we want them. In a relative

sense, few of the world’s

consumers can expect so

much_and get so much of

what they expect. All of this

has a price, of course_and

we, as consumers, pay

the bill.^3

When you think about

these contrasts, it’s not hard

to decide which consumers

are better off. But are we

making a straw man compari-

son? Is the first situation one

extreme, with the system in

England, the United States,

and similar societies just as

extreme_only in a different

way? Would we be better off

if we didn’t put quite so much

emphasis on marketing? Do

we need so many brands of

products? Does all the money

spent on advertising really

help consumers? Should we

expect to be able to order

groceries over the Internet

and have a van deliver them

to the front door? Or, con-

versely, do all of those retail

stores in shopping malls just

add to the price consumers

pay? More generally, does

marketing serve society well?

In other words, does market-

ing cost too much? This is a

fundamental question. Some

people feel strongly that

marketing doescost too

much_that it’s a waste of

resources we could better

use elsewhere.

Now that you have a better

understanding of what mar-

keting is all about_and how

the marketing manager

contributes to the macro-

marketing process_you

should be able to decide

whether marketing costs too

much. That’s what this chap-

ter is about.

Your answer is very impor-

tant. It will affect your own

business career and the econ-

omy in which you live.

Do car producers, for

example, produce lower-

quality cars than they could?

Do producers of food and

drug products spend too

much money advertising

trivial differences between

their brands? Should they

stop trying to brand their

products at all and instead

sell generics at lower prices?

Does marketing encourage us

to want too much of the

wrong products? Are there

too many retailers and whole-

salers, all taking “too big”

markups? Some critics of

marketing would answer Yes!

to allthese important ques-

tions. Such critics believe we

should change our political

and legal environments and

the world in which you live

and work. Do you agree? Or

are you fairly satisfied with the

way our system works? How

will you vote on your con-

sumer ballot?