Chapter 16: Sustainable Marketing: Social Responsibility and Ethics

Question 1

The marketing concept

Answer 1

is a philosophy of customer value and mutual gain. Its practice leads the economy by an invisible hand to satisfy the many and changing needs of consumers.

recognizes that organizations thrive by determining the current needs and wants of target customers and fulfilling them more effectively and efficiently than competitors do.

Question 2

Sustainable marketing

Answer 2

socially and environmentally responsible actions that meet the present needs of consumers and businesses while also preserving or enhancing the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Question 3

societal marketing concept

Answer 3

considers the future welfare of consumers

Question 4

strategic planning concept

Answer 4

considers future company needs

Question 5

sustainable marketing concept

Answer 5

considers both slides 4 + 5

Question 6

High Prices 

Answer 6

Many critics charge that the marketing system causes prices to be higher than they would be under more “sensible” systems.

Question 7

Deceptive Practices 

Answer 7

Marketers are sometimes accused of deceptive practices that lead consumers to believe they will get more value than they actually do.

Question 8

Deceptive practices fall into three groups:

Answer 8

promotion, packaging, and pricing.

Question 9

Deceptive promotion

Answer 9

includes practices such as misrepresenting the product’s features or performance or luring customers to the store for a bargain that is out of stock

Question 10

Deceptive packaging

Answer 10

includes exaggerating package contents through subtle design, using misleading labelling, or describing size in misleading terms

Question 11

Deceptive pricing

Answer 11

includes practices such as falsely advertising “factory” or “wholesale” prices or a large price reduction from a phony high retail “list price.”

Question 12

puffery

Answer 12

innocent exaggeration for effect

Question 13

High-Pressure Selling

Answer 13

Salespeople are sometimes accused of high-pressure selling that persuades people to buy goods they had no thought of buying. It is often said that insurance, real estate, and used cars are sold, not bought

Question 14

Shoddy, Harmful, or Unsafe Products

Answer 14

Another criticism concerns poor product quality or function. One complaint is that, too often, products and services are not made well or do not perform well. A second complaint concerns product safety.

Question 15

Planned Obsolescence 

Answer 15

Critics also have charged that some companies practise planned obsolescence, causing their products to become obsolete before they actually should need replacement.

Question 16

perceived obsolescence

Answer 16

continually changing consumer concepts of acceptable styles to encourage more and earlier buying.

Question 17

Poor Service to Disadvantaged Consumers 

Answer 17

Finally, the Canadian marketing system has been accused of poorly serving disadvantaged consumers. For example, critics claim that the urban poor often have to shop in smaller stores that carry inferior goods and charge higher prices

Question 18

Critics also charge that a company’s marketing practices can harm other companies and reduce competition. They identify three problems:

Answer 18

acquisitions of competitors, marketing practices that create barriers to entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices

Question 19

Consumerism

Answer 19

is an organized movement of citizens and government agencies to improve the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers

Question 20

Traditional sellers’ rights include the following:

Answer 20

The right to introduce any product in any size and style, provided it is not hazardous to personal health or safety, or, if it is, to include proper warnings and controls

The right to charge any price for the product, provided no discrimination exists among similar kinds of buyers

The right to spend any amount to promote the product, provided it is not defined as unfair competition

The right to use any product message, provided it is not misleading or dishonest in content or execution

The right to use buying incentive programs, provided they are not unfair or misleading

Question 21

Traditional buyers’ rights include the following:

Answer 21

The right not to buy a product that is offered for sale

The right to expect the product to be safe

The right to expect the product to perform as claimed

Question 22

Environmentalism

Answer 22

is an organized movement of concerned citizens, businesses, and government agencies designed to protect and improve people’s current and future living environment.

Question 23

environmental sustainability

Answer 23

is about generating profits while helping to save the planet

Question 24

pollution prevention

Answer 24

This involves more than pollution control—cleaning up waste after it has been created. Pollution prevention means eliminating or minimizing waste before it is created.

Question 25

product stewardship

Answer 25

minimizing not only pollution from production and product design but also all environmental impacts throughout the full product life cycle while at the same time reducing costs.

Question 26

design for environment (DFE) and cradle-to-cradle practices

Answer 26

This involves thinking ahead to design products that are easier to recover, reuse, recycle, or safely return to nature after usage, thus becoming part of the ecological cycle.

Question 27

sustainability vision

Answer 27

which serves as a guide to the future. It shows how the company’s products and services, processes, and policies must evolve and what new technologies must be developed to get there.

Question 28

Under the sustainable marketing concept, a company’s marketing should support the best long-run performance of the marketing system. It should be guided by five sustainable marketing principles:

Answer 28

consumer-oriented marketing, customer value marketing, innovative marketing, sense-of-mission marketing, and societal marketing.

Question 29

Consumer-Oriented Marketing

Answer 29

means that the company should view and organize its marketing activities from the consumer’s point of view. It should work hard to sense, serve, and satisfy the needs of a defined group of customers—both now and in the future.

Question 30

Customer Value Marketing

Answer 30

the company should put most of its resources into customer value–building marketing investments.

Question 31

Innovative Marketing 

Answer 31

requires that the company continuously seek real product and marketing improvements. The company that overlooks new and better ways to do things will eventually lose customers to another company that has found a better way.

Question 32

Sense-of-Mission Marketing

Answer 32

means that the company should define its mission in broad social terms rather than narrow product terms.

Question 33

Societal Marketing

Answer 33

a company makes marketing decisions by considering consumers’ wants, the company’s requirements, consumers’ long-run interests, and society’s long-run interests

Question 34

Deficient products

Answer 34

such as bad-tasting and ineffective medicine, have neither immediate appeal nor long-run benefits.

Question 35

Pleasing products

Answer 35

give high immediate satisfaction but may hurt consumers in the long run. Examples include cigarettes and junk food

Question 36

Salutary products

Answer 36

have low immediate appeal but may benefit consumers in the long run, for instance, bicycle helmets or some insurance products.

Question 37

Desirable products

Answer 37

give both high immediate satisfaction and high long-run benefits, such as a tasty and nutritious breakfast food.

Question 38

corporate marketing ethics policies

Answer 38

broad guidelines that everyone in the organization must follow. These policies should cover distributor relations, advertising standards, customer service, pricing, product development, and general ethical standards.

Question 39

Excerpts from Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the Canadian Marketing Association (CMA)

Answer 39

On this chapter

marketing ethics and sustainable company

Question 40

triple bottom line:

Answer 40

people, planet, profits