Marketing and Social Responsibility
One of the major objectives of marketers is to increase profits for businesses while ensuring customer satisfaction through providing quality products at the right place and price. When marketing services, marketers are also faced with the need to provide pertinent information to customers and establish a suitable environment for the delivery of their services. However, marketing of products that are legal but potentially harmful is characterized by criticism from the society and concerned stakeholders, especially when the manufacturer increases profits (Buchanan, Elliott & Johnson, 2009). These criticisms emerge from ethical concerns and increased pressures for such organizations to operate in a socially responsible manner. While companies manufacturing potentially harmful goods have the legal rights to market their products, they face increased pressures to do so in a socially responsible and ethical manner because of the probable impact of their products on the society.
In light of these pressures and concerns, marketers need to go beyond legal parameters to become role models of social responsibility while successfully marketing their products. This would entail developing and executing a socially responsible marketing plan through which ethical issues are taken into consideration when marketing such products. The marketing plan should incorporate definition of ethical marketing for the business, ethical approach to marketing, and costs/benefits of ethical marketing to the business (Anastasia, 2015). Secondly, marketers should constantly monitor trends and changes in societal beliefs and values. The trends and shifts should in turn be utilized as the premise for formulating marketing plans and messages for the potentially harmful goods. Third, marketers should incorporate social responsibility and ethical characteristics in their operations such as honesty, transparency, ethical pricing, safety, and respect for customer privacy.
References
Anastasia. (2015, February 6). Social Responsibility and Ethics in Marketing. Retrieved August 1, 2017, from https://www.cleverism.com/social-responsibility-ethics-marketing/
Buchanan, J., Elliott, G. & Johnson, L.W. (2009). The Marketing of Legal but Potentially Harmful Products and Corporate Social Responsibility: The Gaming Industry View. The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences, 4(2), 81-97.
