The Import of Responsibility in Marketing Practice

Ayoola Ajanaku-

Marketing has great power to bring about change in virtually any area to which it is applied, but that power brings responsibilities with it and that means marketing practitioners should deliver all the trappings of Brand promise.

The sphere of marketing should expect a growing tide of community resistance, government restrictions and prescriptions, and enforcement.

The marketing profession is also associated with all kinds of social ills that bedevil the society. This has prompted anti-marketing activists, human rights and anti-poverty campaigners to put pressure on governments to ban marketing messages of tobacco, restrict advertising and distribution of alcohol, ban advertising of fast foods and anything that targets kids. The marketing machinery is accused of inhumane marketing tactics associated with the fierce competition at the saturated markets, utilizing everything at their disposal, including media and celebrities, to influence consumers’ behaviour. It is also accused of manipulating social values to create consumerism, promoting waste and environmental degradation in the process.

The marketing profession is the backbone of every business and economy. It discovers consumer needs and drives new product development that satisfy such needs including products that enhance society’s quality of life, gathers meaningful consumer insights, builds brands, promotes sales, increases promotion, creates jobs, lowers prices, creates wealth, emphasizes and ensures good customer care, while ensuring quality services and products.

Within society, marketing conveys positive messages such as anti-smoking and drugs consumption, road safety, healthy lifestyles, environmental conversation, development, democracy, freedom of choice, engagement, partnerships, and information exchange. The fact of the matter is that marketing has the power to facilitate the advancement of democracy, contribute in the improvement of standard of living and national economic development, while spearheading product innovation and new business development.

In politics, marketing delivers benefits that are similar to the pillars of democracy as it provides consumers with information, offers choice, engages voters, promotes inclusivity and mutual exchanges with voters. The Obama campaign in America readily comes to the mind in this regard. Through political marketing, political parties develop policies and programmes that satisfy voters’ needs and improve their welfare. Political marketing helps politicians to view citizens, not as occasional voters, donors and taxpayers but as their customers, whose loyalty and patronage are necessary to sustain enterprise. Therefore, people would benefit if the realms of politics and marketing were based on sound marketing principles and practices.

The marketing endeavour is the business function that interacts most frequently with the public consequently, what the public knows about an organization is determined by their interaction with marketing practitioners. Therefore the marketing endeavour is the supposed voice of consumers through promoting mutual communication, promoting understanding and trust between their companies and consumers, gathering meaningful customer insight, adopting marketing innovation, development of new products and services based on consumer demands, measuring marketing effectiveness and raising awareness of brands.

The basic principles of marketing ethics dictates that marketing practitioners focus on learning current and emerging consumer needs and wants and develop relevant products.

Place specific importance on protecting those who are vulnerable to manipulation, namely the elderly and children.

Take responsibility and accountability for their products, services, decisions and outcomes.

Respect consumers’ rights of redress, access to information and privacy. Balance and fairness in business dealings with partners and customers are also important.

Ayoola Ajanaku is the Client Service Manager, at MarketingMix Ltd, A brand Communications Agency based in Ikeja, Lagos.