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

Ethical Marketing in a Consumer-Oriented World: Appraisal and Challenges 637

As we saw in Chapter 1, it’s useful to distinguish between two levels of marketing:

the microlevel (how individual firms run) and the macrolevel (how the whole sys-

tem works). Some complaints against marketing are aimed at only one of these levels

at a time. In other cases, the criticism seemsto be directed to one level but actually

is aimed at the other. Some critics of specific ads, for example, probably wouldn’t be

satisfied with anyadvertising. When evaluating marketing, we must treat each of these

levels separately.

Different nations have different social

and economic objectives. Dictatorships,

for example, may be mainly concerned

with satisfying the needs of society as seen

by the political elite. In a socialist state,

the objective might be to satisfy society’s

needs as defined by government planners.

In a society that has recently broken the

chains of communism, the objective may

be to make the transition to a market-

directed economy as quickly as possible—

before there are more revolts.

In the United States, the basic objective of our market-directed economic system has been

to satisfy consumer needs as they, the consumers, see them.This objective implies that

political freedom and economic freedom go hand in hand and that citizens in a free

society have the right to live as they choose. The majority of American consumers

would be unwilling to give up the freedom of choice they now enjoy. The same can

How Should Marketing Be Evaluated?

We must evaluate at

two levels

Nation’s objectives

affect evaluation

Consumer satisfaction

is the objective in the

United States

Planetfeedback.com is a website that makes it easy for consumers to give feedback to companies. Of course,

some feedback is clear from customers’ choices in the marketplace. For example, Camry marketing managers

gain very positive feedback from the fact that Camry is the number one selling car and that it has more repeat

buyers than any other car.