Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e- Ethical Marketing in a
Consumer−Oriented World:
Appraisal and Challenges
Text © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2002638 Chapter 22
In the U.S., banks provide all kinds of special services to meet customer expectations. In Russia, consumer expectations about banks are
different, so Rikk uses TV ads to emphasize that it’s not going to do anything unusual, it’s just going to be a solid bank.
Since consumer satisfaction is our objective, marketing’s effectiveness must be
measured by how wellit satisfies consumers. There have been various efforts to meas-
ure overall consumer satisfaction not only in the United States but also in other
countries. For example, a team of researchers at the University of Michigan has cre-
ated the American Customer Satisfaction Index based on regular interviews with
thousands of customers of about 200 companies and 34 industries. The 2001 index
was lower than it was when the effort started seven years earlier. Similar studies are
available for member countries of the European Union.This sort of index makes it possible to track changes in consumer satisfaction meas-
ures over time and even allows comparison among countries. That’s potentially useful.
Yet there are limits to interpreting any measure of consumer satisfaction when we try
to evaluate macro-marketing effectiveness in any absolute sense. One basic issue isCan Consumer Satisfaction Be Measured?
Satisfaction depends
on individual
aspirations
be said for Canada, Great Britain, and most other countries in the European Union.
However, for focus we will concentrate on marketing as it exists in American society.
Therefore, let’s try to evaluate the operation of marketing in the American
economy—where the present objective is to satisfy consumer needs as consumers see
them. This is the essence of our system. The business firm that ignores this fact is
asking for trouble.