Marketing and Society Influencing Consumer Decisions - Essay Example

? Topic: The study of marketing and society influencing consumer decisions. Marketing is not just advertising, promotion and selling. It is the management process which identifies consumer wants, anticipates their future wants and then goes about satisfying them profitably. Marketing activities include the development of a product, finding out what sort of customers might buy the product, what packaging should be used, what price should be charged and the appropriate place to sell it. Marketing usually means going out and finding what consumer requirements through market research are because if the consumer is not satisfied, products will not be sold and the business will be unlikely to make any profits. The extensive research made into studying marketing and its strategies has helped us; consumers tend to develop more informed decisions. If the marketing department is successful in identifying customer requirements and predicting future customer needs, it should enable the business to not only increase its sales revenue, profitability and market share but also to maintain and improve the image of its products and bring variety and innovations to existing ones to facilitate the consumer at the end of the day. The product itself is probably the most important element in the marketing mix. The product must fulfill a want. Consumers buy products for pleasure, satisfaction or benefits they provide. If it does provide the satisfaction, the good will not be purchased. The level of satisfaction achieved may differ. For example, some products are bought because they satisfy a basic need, like food which stops hunger. Other products like a refrigerator, in addition to keeping food cool, would be expected to be reliable and last a long time. An expensive perfume would give a certain image to the consumer when they used it and it would be expected to be of high quality. Informed and aware customers will pay a price that is worthy of the quality of the product. The design that is the performance, reliability and quality should all be consistent with the product’s brand image. The marketing should be capable of stimulating new wants from the consumers. It must give something very distinctive that makes it appear different to encourage brand loyalty. Competition amongst businesses in an economy in terms of the prices of goods and services being set has also helped consumers make the right buying decisions. Demand is not just what people want to buy but they must also have the money to be able to purchase the product. The market price is determined by the demand and supply of that particular good and various factors affect these such as, change in income, taste and fashion, advertising and prices of other products. The pricing strategy should be such that it should provide good value for money to consumers. They will not unnecessarily pay a high price for a good of low quality or which serves no purpose. Consumers are in search of best deal for money for example, economy packs, bulk-buying and discounted products. (Titley, 2008) Packaging is another part of marketing mix that influences consumer decisions. Consumers consider suitable packaging because it has to give protection to the product and not allow it to spoil. It also has to allow product to be used easily. It is no good having hair shampoo in a tin that would not allow the liquid to pour out easily. Packaging is also used for promoting the product. It must appeal to the consumer because it is usually the packaging that catches the eye and the product inside! Consumers will prefer to buy products with packaging carrying vital information about its use, storage and its ingredients. Recyclable packaging is most preferred by the society. Getting the best value for money is what any rational consumer would want. Advertising as part of marketing and promotion will influence consumers to quite an extent. Advertisements which give information to the public are known as informative advertising. It increases consumer choice by making consumers aware of the range of goods and services available to them. While persuasive advertising is designed to create a want for a product that consumers would not necessarily buy. It is vital that any such advertising must not be racist or sexist on any way and must not make meaningless statements and convey the right message to the buyer. The target audience or the potential buyers of any product or service are informed and made aware of the product through various means like television, radio, newspapers and magazines, posters/billboards, cinemas, leaflets, direct mail as well as promotions such as price reductions, gifts/free samples, competitions, point of sale display and personal selling. All of these aims to serve the purpose that consumer continue buying that product instead of a competing brand. Some people work as retail cooperatives to facilitate and help other members of society. In our country when the supply of sugar became short and the price rose to an unreasonable level, then some people bought large quantities of sugar (bulk-buying) from wholesalers and sold sugar to their community people in discounted prices. These volunteers do not have any profit motive behind; instead they just provide service to others. Over a hundred years ago, there was very little consumer protection, but now even the government enforces consumer protection laws such as The Sale of Goods Act 1979, The Food Safety Act 1990 and Weights and Measures Act to name a few. This is to protect consumers from dishonest traders. With so many billions of goods and services on sale it is impossible for consumers to have all of the technical knowledge needed to inspect goods, such as computers, cars and electrical appliances or be aware what standard of service to expect in, for example, hotels or hospitals. More than ever before consumers must rely on firms for information and advice on what to buy. (Borrington, Stimpson. 2006) Now we will talk about how the study of marketing and society has helped me consume and influence my decisions. We have seen how the consumers of today are aware of what is morally and rationally right or wrong in terms of buying habits. Ethical marketing is believed to be good marketing, because it satisfies and help develop a good relationship with customers. Being dishonest and misleading to customers will only result in short term profits but not assist in building a successful business. A firm has to take into account its social responsibility and work in the interest of its stakeholders who include employees, customers, society and the environment in a broader prospect. "Man should consider himself, not as a separated or detached entity, but as an inhabitant of the world, an associate of the vast commonwealth of nature and to the interest of this great community, he ought at all times to be willing that his own little interest should be sacrificed." Adam Smith (Theory of Moral Sentiments, 1790, p.140) Adam Smith also clarifies that self-interest must not be the only objective behind running the business. Caring for the environment and people, practicing ethical behavior and concern for the society in general is all part of a business’s corporate and social responsibility. Caring for the consumer must be the most important part of the social responsibility because it is believed that consumer is always right. You have to care for their rights. If I am not given the right to choose, to be heard and the rights to safety and information, I will never buy the product. It also comes under consumerism. I will boycott the products of a certain firm who does not care for the environment at all. If a firm is known for its illegal business practices degrading the environment, wasting limited natural resources, increasing land and noise pollution, harming the endangered animals and marine life and illegal control of land, it will earn a very bad reputation amongst consumers. The firm must pay more heed to issues like reuse and recycle and cater towards green marketing or producing ecologically safe products. Consumers are eager to pay more for a green product, for example when Toyota launched their hybrid cars; it became popular and successful among people. Social marketing can be refined and explained as the, "the utilization of marketing principles and techniques for influencing a target audience to voluntarily take, deny, change, or discard an activity for the advantage of individuals, groups, or society as a whole." (Roberto, Lee and Kotler. 2006). The purpose of social marketing is to shove people away from harmful goods such as drugs and alcohol and guide them towards adapting useful products and habits. It is entirely upon the customer to select, purchase and consume whatever goods and services he likes for the satisfaction of his wants. If we study the consumer behavior we come to realize that the consumer first tries to discover that what would he like to buy and consume. Then he only selects those goods and services that offer greater utility or maximum, level of satisfaction. He also has to consider the available money he has to satisfy his want. Last but not the least, he evaluates the current general prices of products in the market and decides to buy the best deal available. Marketing activities are devised in a manner catering to different cultural and social factors that influence the consumer buying pattern and decisions. Every society is categorized into different social classes and cultures. Therefore marketers segment the market into such groups and market accordingly because the buying behavior of one social class and lifestyle is different from another. Marketers tend to market products according to attitudes and behavior as well as roles and status. Such classification leads them into buying more like some products just become a status symbol in the society for example Mercedes car or a Hermes bag. The occupation of a person and his salary also affect a consumer’s buying pattern. The current economic situation can force consumers into purchasing more or less commodities than usual. This might include inflation or a government tax policy. The consumer will only purchase more if he has enough money to buy expensive products regardless of any marketing strategy or persuasive advertising. Situations and circumstances alter for everyone. I might buy a new car if I get a pay rise and will cancel the order of a designer dress in case of a redundancy. Similarly some consumers feel that a particular brand of a product can only satisfy their want. For example I would only like to buy a particular brand of coffee for the success of a dinner party. This can be of no importance to some other consumer who will buy any brand of coffee available. Marketers try to motivate consumers into buying a particular product or service. A rational consumer will only choose to buy those commodities that have the highest degree of need. Marketer try to attract consumer attraction and make the product appealing and of utmost need because they just have to make money and sell their products caring less for others. Consumers perceive commodities differently as they have different beliefs and attitudes. Marketers change their perceptive by launching special campaigns and promotional strategies in this regard. So, whatever marketing strategies are used by firms, it is the consumer who makes the final decision and must adopt a organization buying behavior and habits. It is imperative to realize that how important is it to buy the product, at what quantity, price and from whom. If an engineer identifies the need for a specific part of the machinery, it has to be approved by a manager and only a purchase manager can make the final purchase by analyzing and finding the best deal available. References: Roberto, Lee, and Kotler. (2006) Social Marketing:  Improving the Quality of Life. Sage Publications. Karen Borrington and Peter Stimpson. (2006) IGCSE Business Studies. London, John Murray publishers. Brian Titley and Dan Moynihan. (2008) Economics: a complete course. Oxford University Press. Cetina, K. K. and Preda, A. (2005). The sociology of financial markets. Oxford University Press  Dembinski, P. H., Lager, C., Cornford, A., & Bonvin, J.-M. (Eds.). (2006). Enron and World Finance: A Case Study in Ethics. New York: Palgrave. Markham, J. W. (2006). A financial history of Modern US Corporate Scandals. New York: M.E. Sharpe  Escobar, A. (1995). Encountering Development: The Making and Unmaking of the Third World. 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