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It is gratifying to note that nowa-
days a perceptible number of
business concerns have started accepting consumerism and
environmentalism in order to serve consumers and the society at large. This
new approach to marketing may be referred to as "enlightened
marketing". Truly speaking, enlightened
marketing comprises consumer-oriented marketing, innovative
marketing, value marketing, sense-of-mission marketing and socially
responsible marketing.
While consumer-oriented marketing stresses organizing a
company's activities from the viewpoint of consumers, innovative marketing
always seeks new and improved ways of marketing. In value marketing,
a company's investments are used for creating more value for consumers
- in terms of product quality, features, price and the like. Mission
marketing encompasses a company's mission in broad social terms, rather
than purely in business terms. The most prominent and visible component
of enlightened marketing, however, is socially responsible marketing.
Socially responsible marketing or societal marketing is based on
balancing among consumers' wants, the company's profit motives, and
the consumers' as well as the society's long-term interests. Here,
societal problems are viewed as business opportunities.
This type of marketing is not free from controversy. For instance,
as early as in 1985, John F Gaski, faculty at the Mendoza College of
Business in Notre Dame, Indiana, opined that the concept of societal
marketing is not only absolutely erroneous, but is also highly perilous. Again
in an interview in 1992, David Roderic, the then Chairman of US Steel,
remarked that the business of a business is to earn profits. This view
is also supported by the economist, Milton Friedman. In his view,
the only social obligation of a business is to comply with the law of the
land and maintain earnings, as profit indicates that the society's
resources are used efficiently and not wasted. |
