Marketing in the Catholic Life - Literature review Example

Marketing in the Catholic Life Marketing strategies and approaches have some elements that may be challenged especially by religion. The Catholic Church, for example, has remained conservative to many contemporary issues. The role of the Church, unlike the role of a business, is not to maximize profits. Its role is to champion for value systems that are in line with the dogmas of the religion. For that reason, Catholic Church stands opposed to many approaches used in marketing. As longs as they conflict with the teachings and morals of Christianity, the Catholic Church will always opposes such issues. Marketing in the Catholic life is an approach that takes into consideration moral principles of Christian living as opposed to profit maximization. Marketing is a strategic management tool, which is employed, by people, businesses, companies, organizations and government for the purposes of making their products, services and ideas known to the consumers and with the intention of selling these products, services and ideas to them. Marketing involves the use of various strategies such as advertising, brand naming, product differentiation and pricing in order to make a product or service more desirable and preferred by a consumer. The strategies employed in marketing especially advertising contain non- materials ideas, which are sold to the viewers together with the main product being, marketed (Richard, pp.86- 88). These non-material ideas found in advertisements have the ability to influence the moral behaviors and culture of the society especially the vulnerable groups like children and adolescent. The values and ideas passed through advertisement can influence our live either positively or negatively depending on the moral nature of the value being passed. The role of Catholicism in marketing is to provide guidance on the extent in which one should go when undertaking marketing (Tanner 25). Catholicism is concerned with ensuring that the marketing strategies employed uphold the sacredness and dignity of every person (Bishops US, PP.8-10). While employing marketing alone as a strategy of promoting and selling products to consumers, some aspects of the human beings such as spiritual and religious needs might be ignored or forgotten. Catholicism tries to bring these aspects to light. The moral and social impacts of advertisements are sometimes not considered in but by introducing religion into marketing it makes it possible for the negative impacts of marketing to be reduced. Religion demands that marketing be carried in a way that will not affect the morality of the viewers. It dictates that marketing be such a way, which will provide respect for all human beings. Catholicism dictates that when undertaking marketing activities beginning from the point of manufacturing products, pricing, promotion, and selection of place of sale a consideration needs to be made on the general effect, which these activities will have on the society. It requires that while creating products and coming up with different lifestyles, it will be important if these products and lifestyle encourage and support the search for truth, beauty, goodness for all and communication with others. Catholicism expects that all products and services produced be done so with the intention of growth for the whole society. The intention of growth for all is used as the basis of all consumer, savings and investments decisions made in accordance with Catholicism. In the above light, it can be noted that Catholicism is against consumerism. Consumerism is an act of having materialistic attachments to possessions (Abela, 2006, 57). Consumerism is normally because of advertisements making certain products and lifestyle be considered better and superiors to others and consequentially leading to consumers having an obsession towards these lifestyles. Consumerism is discouraged in the Catholic faith because it is believed to divert the attention of people from God and leads to worshipping of false gods in this case material possessions (Abela, 2007, 19). Emphasis made on the superiority of certain lifestyles while carrying out marketing is, as a result not encouraged. The main reason for marketing is to enhance the performance of a business and generation of profits. Catholicism dictates that profit making should not be the major reason for undertaking production and marketing. Production of a business according to the Catholic faith should be because of the desire of providing goods and services to the community. Profits are acknowledged and considered morally upright if the organization is providing some essential products and services that are required to satisfy certain needs in the society (John Paul 36). The products an organization intends to sell will also be considered under the Catholic faith. Before undertaking any form of production, it is required that one ascertains that the products will cover a wide range of a people’s material needs. The products should also be able to enhance and result in the growth of a person’s intellectual capacity, moral values, spiritual and religious life (John Paul 38). Only products that cater for the above-named needs are encouraged to be produced according to Catholicism. Catholicism is against the production of trivial and wasteful products. It does not matter if the products are harmless or even if people are willing to purchase them. It demands that the products to be sold should be able to benefit the greatest number of people in the society and should be guided by human needs and nothing else. Production of programs and products for entertainment which either encourage violence, lead to anti-social behaviors or uses human sexuality to pass forward their content is not allowed according to the Catholic faith. Such programs and products are considered as perversion, which influences the behaviors of mostly children and adolescents who watch them leading to deterioration of moral values in the society. The products and programs produced should be able to build up character and uphold morality. The pricing of products should be just. A just price is one that has been settled upon through free bargain. Catholicism condemns any deviation from fair price. Products should not be charged at a higher value than the value derived by consumers otherwise it would be considered as unjust even if there were no complaints arising from the consumers. Charging lower prices below the market value with the intentions of driving other companies out of business, and to attain the largest share of the market is also considered as unjust and is discouraged. Acquiring property from others, even if they do not contradict the law or charging them when you should not be doing so is considered as an act of stealing, is not allowed in accordance with Catholic morals. Catholicism does not prefer promotion strategies such as advertisements that employ the use of imagery to differentiate between products of competing firms. This is because they normally end up distorting the message being passed. It happens so when they use of irrational motives such as sex appeal, fashion, brand loyalty and status to attract the viewers and results in ignorance of rational basis of choosing between products such as quality and price. Apart from good quality products missing a chance to get the market share it deserves, commercials also contribute to the increased levels immorality in the society when the use of sexual appeal is employed. Marketing can become dangerous to the society. This happens when it passes ideas, values and ideals that are destructive to the society. It is, therefore, necessary that marketing be guided by religious values to prevent it from being a threat to the society. An instance where marketing has been seen to be dangerous to the society is when it encourages eating habits that lead to disorders such as anorexia. This is fulfilled by the use of commercials, which over time have been using slender and slim models to portray beauty and success. This has resulted in the distortion of the society’s perception making them consider being slender as the perfect shape for a woman. Slender women are seen to be attractive compared to other women of bigger body sizes. This impacts negatively on children and adolescent girls because they are under the pressure that they need to be slender to be beautiful. That leads to low self-esteem that makes girls develop bad eating habits such not eating at in order to lose weight and attain a slim figure. That eventually leads to them suffering from anorexia. The marketing of fast foods has increased greatly over time. Many fast food companies are heavily investing in advertisements. The advertisements are being aired on television on found in magazines and can be seen through movies portray the food as healthy and delicious by use of attractive images. Children, adolescents, and even grownups end up being exposed to such advertisements that eventually influences their perception of fast food and they end up consuming more of them. In reality fasts food are very unhealthy and they result in a number of health conditions. One of the major effects of fast food is obesity. A good number of children are currently suffering from obesity due to consumption of fast food. Fast foods also lead to high blood pressure, shortness of breath, insulin resistance, depression and dental distress. All this negative impacts that result from consumption of fast food are not communicated to the consumers. This makes marketing a dangerous management tool to the society. Marketing is employed to make people indulge in behaviors such as smoking of cigarettes and drinking of alcohol, which are well-known vices in the society. The effects of smoking cigarettes are well known to the society, but tobacco-processing companies will still undertake marketing in order to attract consumers. Tobacco is mostly portrayed in the commercials as a form of lifestyle and image. They use public figures such as actors and actresses who have a large audience of people trying to be like them as a platform for marketing their products. Other strategies used include depicting cigarette smoking as a way of being liberated and independent. It ends up depending on people’s insecurities and weaknesses as a source of the market. Marketing, in this case, is dangerous because it used to sell health hazards to other members of the society. Application of marketing and religion together ensures that marketing is not only guided by the objective of satisfying particular needs and wants of consumers. It ensures that it also considers the impacts of the products such as promotion of growth and development in the society and enhancement of the moral values held. While applying religion in marketing, one is expected to avoid the promotion of any worldview that is inconsistent with the Christianity teachings (Naughton et al., 43). Application of both marketing and religion provides an understanding that a person is made up of different parts, which are physical, mental and spiritual, which all need to be considered while carrying out marketing. Marketing should be able to satisfy the needs and demands of all these sections of a person efficiently. Marketing is an important management strategy that cannot be ignored. For any business, organization or company to succeed in whatever ideas, products or services they are selling they have to market themselves efficiently. In the light of this, it can be stated that marketing is everything. Successful marketing is highly dependent on the image that is being passed forward to the consumers and society at large using the selected marketing strategies. The image perceived by the masses about the products and services is important. An organization or business should ensure the marketing strategy applied does not lead to misinterpretation of the main message being delivered or should not suggest any misappropriate value. Successful marketing requires the strategies employed to be respectful to all members of the society without discriminating against age, sex, race and status. If this is observed while carrying out marketing the products being sold will be held with high regards and lead to success and respect for the firm. Catholicism introduces the elements of morality, spirituality, and religious beliefs into marketing and integrates them with the objective of satisfying consumers’ needs and wants. Marketing can be dangerous to the society because it has the ability to distort the perceptions of members of the society and making them believe in false beliefs. Use of Catholicism in marketing entails promoting only values that are supported by Christian doctrines and encourage the development and growth of a person’s full range of needs from the materialistic ones to the spiritual and religious needs. As seen, marketing in Catholic life calls for much attention since one has to approach marketing from a religious perspective. Such kind of marketing would be concerned with morality and spirituality as opposed to profit maximization. Such marketing would go the extra mile to ensure that the physical and spiritual health and well-being of the people is not overtaken by consumerism, propagation of violence and wasteful living amongst others. Marketing in the Catholic life is an approach that takes into consideration moral principles of Christian living as opposed to profit maximization. Works Cited Abela, Andrew V. "Marketing and Consumerism: A Response to OShaughnessy and OShaugnessy." European Journal of Marketing (2006): 40. Abela, Andrew V. "The Price of Freedom: Consumerism and Liberty in Secular Research and Catholic Teaching." Journal of Markets and Morality 10.1 (2007): 7-25. Bishops, US Catholic. "Pastoral Letter on Catholic Social Teaching and the US Economy."1986. Print. John, Paul II. Centesimu Annus. Boston,MA: St Paul Books and media, 1991. Johnson Sheehan, Richard. "Chapter 8: Rhetorical Analysis." Writing Today. London: Longman Publishers, 2012. Print. Naughton, Michael, Thomas Bausch, John Fontana and Ernest Pierucci. Business Education at Catholic Universities: An exploration of the role of Mission Driven Business Schools. 2008. Print. Tanner, Norman P. The Church and The World. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2005. Read More