Question

marketing management

explain societal and environmental concerns in marketing and societal responses to these concerns

provide examples

1- materialism

2- short-termism

Answer 1

Materialism

Marketing promotes consumption. One of the key purpose of marketing is to sell products and services. Due to this fact, the whole idea of marketing is based on the concept of consuming more products and services and thus expend more resources. Considering this, there are always societal and environmental concerns with marketing.

The key societal concern is that marketing creates trends and habits in society that may not be exactly beneficial. Consider the fast food consumption industry in USA and we have a good example how the society in USA has been closely woven with fast food items. However, this is not a good practices for the society as a whole.

The next concern is environmental. Consider all the brands that manufacture products and sells across the world. They cause various environmental impact such as deforestation, rise in CO2 and depletion of ozone layer. These causes the environment to destabilize.

Thus there are serious societal and environmental concerns when it comes to materialism and this is often due to marketing efforts.

Short-termism

Often the purpose of various marketing campaigns is to gain popularity in short term. Due to this, marketers and organizations adapt various means to gain short term benefits. This is especially true for newly launched products, new strategies, new campaigns and other short term goals. In order to achieve short term goals, the companies and marketers often overlook the long term implications in society and environment.

One example of this is that the paint used for various printing campaigns that cause pollution in the environment. In addition to this, short term campaigns often start a fad in the society that may be harmful in the long run. Consider the violent video games as an example of these kind of product.