GREEN MARKETING – OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES

 

BY

Miss. P. PIRAKATHEESWARI, Lecturer in Commerce,

Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem – 16.

“Progress is possible, No one can stop it, but obstacle is there, we have to face it.”

– Amartya Sen

Introduction

Yes, green marketing is a golden goose. As per Mr. J. Polonsky, green marketing can be defined as, “All activities designed to generate and facilitate any exchange intended to satisfy human needs or wants such that satisfying of these needs and wants occur with minimal detrimental input on the national environment.”

Green marketing involves developing and promoting products and services that satisfy customers want and need for Quality, Performance, Affordable Pricing and Convenience without having a detrimental input on the environment.

Meaning

Green marketing refers to the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in it or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service’s “greenness” as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product – an assumption that, in my opinion, has not been proven conclusively.

While green marketing is growing greatly as increasing numbers of consumers are willing to back their environmental consciousnesses with their dollars, it can be dangerous. The public tends to be skeptical of green claims to begin with and companies can seriously damage their brands and their sales if a green claim is discovered to be false or contradicted by a company’s other products or practices. Presenting a product or service as green when it’s not is called green washing.

Definition

According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Yet defining green marketing is not a simple task where several meanings intersect and contradict each other; an example of this will be the existence of varying social, environmental and retail definitions attached to this term. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing.

The legal implications of marketing claims call for caution. Misleading or overstated claims can lead to regulatory or civil challenges. In the USA, the Federal Trade Commission provides some guidance on environmental marketing claims.

Three keys to successful green marketing

Show potential customers that you follow green business practices and you could reap more green on your bottom line. Green Marketing isn’t just a catchphrase; it’s a marketing strategy that can help you get more customers and make more money. But only if you do it right.

For green marketing to be effective, you have to do three things; be genuine, educate your customers, and give them the opportunity to participate.

1) Being genuine means that a) that you are actually doing what you claim to be doing in your green marketing campaign and b) that the rest of your business policies are consistent with whatever you are doing that’s environmentally friendly. Both these conditions have to be met for your business to establish the kind of environmental credentials that will allow a green marketing campaign to succeed.

2) Educating your customers isn’t just a matter of letting people know you’re doing whatever you’re doing to protect the environment, but also a matter of letting them know why it matters. Otherwise, for a significant portion of your target market, it’s a case of “So what?” and your green marketing campaign goes nowhere.

3) Giving your customers an opportunity to participate means personalizing the benefits of your environmentally friendly actions, normally through letting the customer take part in positive environmental action.

Evolution of Green Marketing

The green marketing has evolved over a period of time. According to Peattie (2001), the evolution of green marketing has three phases. First phase was termed as “Ecological” green marketing, and during this period all marketing activities were concerned to help environment problems and provide remedies for environmental problems. Second phase was “Environmental” green marketing and the focus shifted on clean technology that involved designing of innovative new products, which take care of pollution and waste issues. Third phase was “Sustainable” green marketing. It came into prominence in the late 1990s and early 2000.

Why Green Marketing?

As resources are limited and human wants are unlimited, it is important for the marketers to utilize the resources efficiently without waste as well as to achieve the organization’s objective. So green marketing is inevitable.

There is growing interest among the consumers all over the world regarding protection of environment. Worldwide evidence indicates people are concerned about the environment and are changing their behavior. As a result of this, green marketing has emerged which speaks for growing market for sustainable and socially responsible products and services.

Benefits of Green Marketing

Companies that develop new and improved products and services with environment inputs in mind give themselves access to new markets, increase their profit sustainability, and enjoy a competitive advantage over the companies which are not concerned for the environment.

Adoption of Green Marketing

There are basically five reasons for which a marketer should go for the adoption of green marketing. They are –

• Opportunities or competitive advantage
• Corporate social responsibilities (CSR)
• Government pressure
• Competitive pressure
• Cost or profit issues

Green Marketing Mix

Every company has its own favorite marketing mix. Some have 4 P’s and some have 7 P’s of marketing mix. The 4 P’s of green marketing are that of a conventional marketing but the challenge before marketers is to use 4 P’s in an innovative manner.

 Product

The ecological objectives in planning products are to reduce resource consumption and pollution and to increase conservation of scarce resources (Keller man, 1978).

Price

Price is a critical and important factor of green marketing mix. Most consumers will only be prepared to pay additional value if there is a perception of extra product value. This value may be improved performance, function, design, visual appeal, or taste. Green marketing should take all these facts into consideration while charging a premium price.

Promotion

There are three types of green advertising: –

ü      Ads that address a relationship between a product/service and the biophysical environment

ü      Those that promote a green lifestyle by highlighting a product or service

ü      Ads that present a corporate image of environmental responsibility

Place

The choice of where and when to make a product available will have significant impact on the customers. Very few customers will go out of their way to buy green products.

Strategies

The marketing strategies for green marketing include: –

• Marketing Audit (including internal and external situation analysis)
• Develop a marketing plan outlining strategies with regard to 4 P’s
• Implement marketing strategies
• Plan results evaluation

Challenges Ahead

ü      Green products require renewable and recyclable material, which is costly

ü      Requires a technology, which requires huge investment in R & D

ü      Water treatment technology, which is too costly

ü      Majority of the people are not aware of green products and their uses

ü      Majority of the consumers are not willing to pay a premium for green products

Some Cases

ü      McDonald’s restaurant’s napkins, bags are made of recycled paper.

ü      Coca-Cola pumped syrup directly from tank instead of plastic which saved 68 million pound/year.

ü      Badarpur Thermal Power station of NTPC in Delhi is devising ways to utilize coal-ash that has been a major source of air and water pollution.

ü      Barauni refinery of IOC is taken steps for restricting air and water pollutants.

Conclusion

Green marketing should not neglect the economic aspect of marketing. Marketers need to understand the implications of green marketing. If you think customers are not concerned about environmental issues or will not pay a premium for products that are more eco-responsible, think again. You must find an opportunity to enhance you product’s performance and strengthen your customer’s loyalty and command a higher price.  Green marketing is still in its infancy and a lot of research is to be done on green marketing to fully explore its potential.

References:

1. Chopra, S. Lakshmi (2007), “Turning Over a New Leaf”, Indian Management, Vol-64, April-2007
2. Ottman, J.A. et al, “Avoiding Green Marketing Myopia”, Environment, Vol-48, June-2006
3. www.greenmarketing.net/stratergic.html
4. www.epa.qld.gov.au/sustainable_ industries

Source by P. Pirakatheeswari

Everyone seems to be into marketing these days and you have to wonder how marketing affects society nowadays.  From the young teenagers to the retirees, a lot of people want to get ahead of the competition by implementing a marketing strategy.  Because of the way we do business now, everyone is on equal grounds when starting.  So it doesn’t matter if you’re young, old, poor or rich.  If you’re into marketing, you’ll start where everyone started – at the bottom.

That’s one of the beauties of marketing.  It’s not like out there in the real world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.  Take a rich and poor person and have them compete against each other in marketing and you may be surprised at the results.  It’s a matter of knowing how to properly use resources.  That’s how marketing affects society – by promoting equality among people.

However, marketing is also like survival of the fittest.  Especially during these times of the Internet, you can easily fail if you don’t know how to utilize resources.  That’s why it’s a dog eats dog world in marketing.  There’s a lot at stake so it’s obvious that marketers will do anything to succeed.  A lot of people have their own businesses that they want to market.  You now have to be wary of marketers who use unfair strategies in order to get ahead.  On the other hand, competition also produces innovation.  That’s also how marketing affects society.  It promotes healthy and unhealthy competition.

Customers are now more vigilant as ever.  They know if you’re trying to pull a fast one on them by marketing something that isn’t worthy of all the big talks.  They are also more apprehensive by the older marketing strategies.  It just doesn’t work on them anymore.  If you’re still stuck in the old ways of marketing your business, they’ll see right through you and it will be easier for them to say no.  Our customers are now wiser because there are a lot of choices so they can easily say no.  You then have to think of another marketing strategy in order to capture their interest.  That’s another thing how marketing affects society.  It makes us improve on how we do our business.

So if you’re going to take a look at it, it affects society from both the side of the consumers and the marketers.  So what can you do?  Since we all have equal chances of succeeding, why not go into a business that is innovative?  Healthy competition is rewarding.  That is, if you’re on the winning side.  That means you have to improve your marketing strategy.  For example, check out SixFiguresPro.com to see an innovative product that constantly improves its marketing strategies.  You can check it out for free to see a leading home business opportunity to see how you can apply it.  If you’re still questioning how marketing affects society, check out that link to see how it can help improve yourself as a marketer so you can help society as well.

Source by Scott Whaley

The main aim of any organization is success.  In other words, what they really look for is to  increase their profits by way of satisfying the needs of the customers  providing them with goods and services that is up to their expectations. If the customers think that the goods and services are up to what they believe is value for  money, then this will not only increase the existing customers but also  the new customers as well. Increasing  the customers means, on the other hand increasing sales which will eventually pave way to increase the profits.

Why is Target Marketing Important ?

Today, with the limited amount of resources available for the business organizations, it is indeed very vital to use all  of their  resources, capabilities and capital effectively, in order to produce goods and services that the customers desire. Having said that,  in reality it is not an  easy task to do than say. In other means, producing goods and services to satisfy the entire market is not entirely  practical, and its only a waste of money. Not all people have the same desire for a single product or service.  Different people may want different products in order to satisfy their needs. As a result, it is thus important to target the customers who are likely to buy the products manufactured by the organization and concentrate the marketing efforts on those customers.  This will on the other hand help the businesses  to increase their profits while winning the hearts of the customers.  This is where the target marketing comes in to practice.

Target Marketing and Market Segmentation

Target marketing is all about concentrating on one or few segments of the market in order to develop products to satisfy those selected segments.  In other words, rather than trying to concentrate  on the entire market as a whole, the organizations tend to identify the customers who  are mostly likely to buy their products.  Upon identifying their targeted customers, then they produce goods or services so as to satisfy the customers within the target market. Target marketing basically involves  breaking down the market in  different segments in order to help the organization to identify its selected  customers effectively. This process is called market segmentation. This is very vital in identifying the target market. Generally a market is broken down into segments such  as,

• Demographic segments – this is all about sorting the market according to the age, gender, income, education , occupation, family size, family lifecycle ( bachelor, married ), nationality etc.
• Geographic segments – this basically includes identifying the market according to the region, country, neighbourhood etc.
• Psychographic segments – this usually involves identifying the market according to their lifestyle, activities, interest, opinions and attitudes etc.
• Behavioural segments – this is basically breaking the market according to the usage, brand loyalty, user status( first time buyer, regular ), benefits sought etc.

Having said that, the organizations basically  tend to focus on one or more segments of the market and thus develop  products that best meets the expectations of the consumers targeted. For example, an particular organization who tends to manufacture clothes  will want to produce cold weather clothes for both the boys and girls below the age of five and whose parents are in the middle income families. As  a result, once  they are aware of who their customers are,  the organizations are able to  use all of their resources only to produce what their customers are willing to buy. This basically minimizes the wastage which will  eventually lead to produce better quality products with cost effectiveness. This is due to the fact that, once the target market is identified  then the organizations can most probably concentrate their marketing mix to suit the customers identified.

Factors to Consider when Selecting the Target Market Segments

To say, it is not just enough to concentrate on  any one or few of the market segments  in order to form the selected target market for the organization’s products. In other words, there are basically two important factors that should be kept in mind when it comes to selecting the segments for the target market. First of all,  the selected segment/s should be attractive enough with regard to the size of the segment, growth rate of the segment, competition in the segment, brand loyal customers,  and the expected profit margins. For example,  there should be an attractive number of customers( not too big or not to small) in the segment/s, an  increasing growth rate, not too much competition, brand loyal customers with good profit margins.

Likewise, there should be a fit between the concentrated market segments and  organization’s objectives, resources and capabilities. This means that  the identified segment/s should be able  achieve the objectives of the organization, the organization should be able to offer value to its customers in the segments,  how accessible are the segments to their distribution channels and the organizations capital and the invested capital required to serve the segment/s. The better the market segments fits the organization and are entirely attractive, the greater the profits are.  

Finally,  it should be said that when it comes to target marketing, this however  involves only a certain proportion of the entire market. But still this helps to increase the profit of the organizations thus paving way for success, rather than trying to satisfy the entire market which is of course is not practical in today’s turbulent and competitive environment. What actually means by this is that by trying to produce goods for a large market, the organizations basically have to face a lot of competition, a lot of wastage  trying to market to the wrong customers ,and is also difficult to produce good quality product or services that the customers demand for. That is why target marketing is one of the important strategies that should be taken into account and carried out properly in order to achieve success.

By Shameena Silva

Source by Shameena silva

The Development and Structure of a Marketing Plan: Towards the Development of Marketing Strategies

1. The Situation Analysis

In the planning process there are steps that must be taken prior to the development of the marketing strategies; the first one is conducting a situation analysis. A situation analysis is “the overall process of collecting and interpreting internal, competitive and environmental information.” It presents a summary of these environments and summarizes the company’s current marketing objectives and performance in the market. Through the situation analysis business is provided with a systematic way of viewing marketing activities by analysing the customer, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) in relation to the competition. The situation analysis according to Gartrell includes internal, external and customer analyses, also known as the product, position, and prospect analyses.

The product analysis includes a review of the current objectives, strategies, and company performance. Product capabilities are examined as well as the limitations of the tourist product. The whole destination and its facilities are examined to determine what is there to be offered to the potential traveller. This analysis eliminates poor performance since through this the marketing goals and objectives are reassessed in order to determine their effectiveness.

Second is the position analysis, which addresses issues such as how the destination is “perceived” by the market, an analysis of the strength and weakness and how these can be compared to the threats and opportunities in the external environment, as well as the previous success of the destination shown in statistical reports. Also, the position of the destination in relation to the marketplace, the competitors’ products, services and their position in the market are examined. Position is important, since marketing strategies are developed based on the kind of image that the company expects to maintain in the eyes of the customer.

Next is the prospect analysis also known as the customer analysis, which involves the selection of the best target markets, likely to increase the usage of the destination’s products and services. In this analysis factors like potential demand in certain markets, the criteria for selecting the competition, emerging markets, and what political, social and economical factor may influence the markets are examined.

It must be noted that one of the major steps for conducting the situation analysis is the collection of research. Research is pertinent because it is the tool that allows the organisation to become aware of the customer needs, wants and preferences. Marketing research “monitors and evaluates marketing actions and performance, and communicates the findings and implications to management”. Its importance is even more highlighted since it allows for the collection of the necessary data and information to conduct a thorough prospect analysis. In an effort to thoroughly collect accurate and up-to-date data and information from the external environment, an organisation should also have strong marketing intelligence. Marketing intelligence includes “everyday information about developments in the marketing environment that helps managers prepare and adjust marketing plans and short-run tactics.”

Besides, the product, position and prospect analyses, Gartrell speaks of a fourth, known as the promotional analysis, which examines the image of the destination in comparison to the competition and the allocation of resources of the two destinations. The bureau’s marketing budget, sales material and marketing programs are also compared to that of the competition.

On completion of the situation analysis, this information is fed into the SWOT analysis, which provides a framework for viewing the company’s actual strategic position and developing appropriate marketing strategies. When performed correctly, “it can be especially useful in uncovering strategic advantages that can be leveraged in the firm’s marketing strategy”.

2. Program Planning: Development of Marketing Objectives and Strategies

After analysing the information presented in the situation analysis, the next step is to develop effective marketing strategies and in order to do so, marketing objectives must be developed first. This step is a very vital part of marketing planning because without set objectives the marketer is unable to “measure their success in fulfilling the marketing strategy”.

Marketing objectives according to Malcolm H.B McDonald are generally concerned with the 4P’s. Therefore, marketing objectives should be set for each one of these variables of the 4P’s and then the most effective strategies or means of achieving the marketing objectives should be developed for each variable of the marketing mix.

The first variable, “product”, focuses on developing the right product and satisfying the needs of the target market. A product is “anything that can be offered to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that might satisfy a want or need. It includes physical objects, services, places, organisations, and ideas.” In the tourism industry, the product is “intangible, variable, inseparable and perishable”. The product is more of an experience put together in a package.

The “place” element on the other hand, refers to the channel distribution. It is imperative that a product be available to the customer and in order to do so there must be a channel of distribution that will bring the customer to the product as opposed to taking the product to the customer. This channel usually consists of “travel agents; tour wholesalers; specialists; hotel representatives; national, state and local tourist agencies; the global distribution systems; the internet; and concierges”. They must be very knowledgeable about the destination because they represent the main source of information for the tourists.

In order for a traveller to know of product offerings of a destination and make the decision to travel to that destination, continuous communication with present and potential travellers is necessary. On developing effective communication strategies, the target audience must be understood and the most important communication channels for this audience must be known. Secondly, communication objectives must be developed. The response sought from the target market must be identified through objectives.

It is believed that since the tourist product is intangible and cannot be tested beforehand, promotion “acts as the product as far as the potential tourist or leisure consumer is concerned” since through this, the customer receives a mental image of the destination, as its experiences are promoted. Images are portrayed through advertising and promotion as the only means of pushing the potential tourist to make a purchase decision. Therefore in tourism marketing heavy interest is placed on the promotional efforts of the bureau.

Ferrell & Hartline make reference to the classic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) model, which sets the basis for the development of the communication or promotional objectives. The model holds that the first goal of the communication campaign is to attract the attention of the target audience. Interest in the product must then be built through telling the customer about the components of the product. If the product matches the needs of the customer, desire for the product is stimulated, which pushes the customer toward actually purchasing the package.

After setting the communication goals, the product must be shown to the target audience and the ways to do so are as follows:

1) Advertising – This refers to the use of information to “persuade consumers to take a desired action toward a particular product”. The main purpose of the advertising plan is to ultimately increase profits and sales for the company and also “to provide information that will change consumers’ mental and behavioral responses in a manner favored by the advertiser”. When setting advertising objectives, the overall marketing objectives must be used as a base.

2) Public Relations – This refers to “the process by which we create a positive image and customer preference through third party endorsements.” The major activities of public relations include, press relations, product publicity, corporate communications and counselling.

3) Sales Promotion – This concerns “short-term incentives to encourage the purchase or sales”

Other communication strategy options include travel, trade shows, presentations, non-print media advertising, familiarisation tours, event hosting, site inspections, cooperative advertising and direct sales. In sum, for each communication medium selected, measurable objectives and detailed strategies must be developed.

The final variable of the marketing mix is price. Price refers to that of the overall package that has been put together for the market and includes issues like car rentals, hotel rates, transportation rates and possibly air fare.

3. Implementation

After the marketing strategies have been developed the programmes must be coordinated in an effort to achieve the plan’s goals and meet its objectives. Timing is a vital factor of consideration during the implementation stage. It “affects the placement of advertising and the degree of impact the marketing effort will have on the targeted market”.

Evaluating Marketing Strategy Effectiveness

4. Evaluation

After careful planning and implementation of the marketing strategies, they must be evaluated in order to determine how successful they have been in achieving the expected or projected. The strategies must be thoroughly examined so that appropriate adjustments may be made. Should marketing strategies prove to be ineffective, the redevelopment of objectives and or new positioning strategies may be necessary.

During the evaluation process the firm “tracks results and monitors new developments in the environment”. Constant changes in the environment might also force the marketer to adjust the marketing strategies in order to better attract the traveller.

Gartrell states that in evaluating marketing strategies employed in a marketing plan, first results must be quantifiable. In addition, weekly, quarterly, or monthly results should be used as benchmarks for evaluating the plan’s effectiveness. Besides meeting the objectives of the plan, there are a set of measurement criteria that must be used in order to determine the effectiveness of the programs implemented. These include: “total number of visitors to area, average length of stay, room nights booked / used, total economic impact and the total room-nights”.

In addition, other measurements known as process variables like: “number of trade/travel shows attended, number of prospects/leads, quantity of brochures distributed, consumer reaction to brochures, number of familiarisation tours, number of participants at familiarisation tourism, number of ads placed, number of travel agents contacted, total number of visitor inquiries, number of direct mail programs, distribution of visitor inquiries, number of media kits mailed, number of editorial inches in publications and total number of direct mail pieces distributed.

Undoubtedly, in order to make marketing programs a success, large funds must be invested into the communication strategies plan. This is why Gartrell highlights that for bureaus, “return on the investment” is yet another variable for measuring the success of marketing programs. The best way then to measure effectiveness is to examine the end result of the marketing campaign by using indicators of success generated by a plan, like “visitor expenditures, economic impact assessment and tourism employment”.

Simon Kirby and Mark Richardson from the University of Central England mention that measuring effectiveness in marketing, calls for an analysis of the effectiveness “of each element of the marketing communication mix…”

The communication mix as mentioned, involves communication vehicles such as advertising, public relations and sales promotion activities. In order to evaluate advertising effectiveness, since Nylen believes that advertising leads to sales, tourist arrivals in this case, then the more advertising done the more “sales” there should be. Therefore, increased tourist arrivals can be used as a measurement of advertising effectiveness. Since print or broadcast media can also be part of the advertising plan, Nylen adds that although the impact of this kind of advertising might be difficult, it is still pertinent to set “expected performance levels that can serve as evaluation standards”.

It is also believed that the effectiveness of the promotional tools in the communication mix also varies with the stages of the “Tourism Area Life Cycle” (TALC). In other words, at certain stages of the TALC certain communication strategies will naturally be ineffective. With the TALC, it is believed that the tourist destination, “moves from evolution through involvement, development, consolidation before reaching stagnation”. In other words, during the introduction stage, advertising and sales promotion are extremely pertinent in creating an extremely high level of awareness. In the growth stage on the other hand, advertising and public relations are to remain considerably high, while slightly decreasing personal selling. Next is the mature stage, during which sales promotion is again of great importance as compared with advertising. In the last stage, known as the decline stage, sales promotions must be kept strong and “advertising is kept at a remind level”. Managers and marketers must therefore be aware of which stage they are at in the tourism product life cycle when developing communication strategies, in order to be more competitive and improve the sustainability of the industry.

Clearly, companies have control over the development of effective marketing strategies, but as mentioned, in other instances, the external environment literally weakens this control. The external environment of marketing consists of the microenvironment and the macro-environment. The microenvironment is that part of the external environment which directly influences the organisation. The macro environment on the other hand, “refers to the broad environment outside an organization’s industry and market. It is generally beyond the influence of the individual organization” as it contains technological, economical, environmental and political influences that “affect the level and patterns of demand” for prodcuts.

Source by Vicki L. Olton

Introduction

Marketing ethics is an area that deals with the moral principles behind marketing. Ethics in marketing applies to different spheres such as in advertising, promotion, pricing. However, for purposes of this essay, the ethics of advertisements will be dealt with especially in relation to children. (Mohandeep, 2001))

Many marketers and analysts have agreed that children are marketer’s best friend. This is backed up by evidence from watch groups such as Media Channel. In the year 2007, they highlighted the fact that in the United States, close to two billion dollars was spent on advertisements to children. It was also revealed that children greatly affect the commodities their parents buy. Estimates done in this field show that projects tailored for children in the year 2006 totalled fifty two billion dollars. (McGee and Heubusch, 1997)

Regardless of all this potential returns that children can give manufacturers and their marketers, there are key ethical issues that arise in the discussion. For example, do children have the capability of understanding some of the intricate marketing tactics? Do children posses the final buying power? Do marketers need to get permission from their parents? And do children understand the negative effects of some of the products advertised to them? These key questions will be analysed in relation to business pressures then recommendations will be made.

Key ethical issues in marketing to children

Involving psychologists in market research

Some companies have become notorious for the utilisation of psychologists in their advertising and marketing campaigns. Normally what such companies do is that when trying to create marketing strategy, they will involve psychologist to tell them about tactics that they can use to influence children. Since psychologists understand the way child’s mind works, they can help marketers create campaigns that will be directly aimed at them and those ones that can easily influence their choices. This trend has becoming so alarming that the American Psychological Association has raised an alarm about it. They have set up a committee to estimate the effect that the involvement of psychologists in the marketing process of children’s products has on them. The group has asserted that no psychological principles should be used when marketing to children. They are also recommending that there should be some sort of strategy to protect the young ones from exploitation though the use of psychological ploys. (Beder, 1998)

The basic framework which steers marketing ethics revolves around three main issues. These are;

• values
• stakeholders
• processes

Marketing ethics that are done on a value inclined framework are those one that involve the analysis of the kind of value that the marketing idea creates. So advertisements may instil in their target audiences positive or negative attributes. This all depends on their implementation. For example, an advertising targeting a child may become a problem if it violates the right to privacy, transparency, honesty or autonomy. By using psychologists in the process of creating advertisements for children, marketers are imposing upon children’s right to autonomy and transparency. They try studying children’s behavioural trends and then use this to exploit those children. This is quite unethical.

The process oriented framework in marketing ethics is founded on the basis of analysing marketing ethics through the categories that marketers use. For example research, promotion and placement must be done in an ethical manner. This is something that marketers have chosen to ignore because their research is not done in an ethical manner. Their research involves using psychological experts who may use their knowledge to take advantage of children who belong to vulnerable groups (Lizabeth, 2001)

Targeting children alone

Marketers who create marketing campaigns that are just directed towards children only are engaging in unethical marketing practices. This is because children are naive. They are at a stage of development called proximal development. At this stage, children simply take up elements of what they perceive in the world around them and then use it in various aspects of their lives. There is a certain level of trust that children have over and above than one of adults. They lack the ability to weigh arguments in a sober and even sometimes a cynical way. Consequently, this makes them very vulnerable to exploitation. (Murphy et al, 2004)

Examples of advertisements that are directed towards children alone are those ones that have cartoon characters and are seen as specifically meant for children. At that point, children will feel like they are the only ones with the ability of purchasing the item yet it is their parents who have to foot the bill. Unethical advertisements are those ones that do not involve getting consent from parents. Most of the time such advertisements are usually aired in the afternoon during kid’s programming sessions. They usually create desires in children to have those advertisements at all costs. When advertising is done without parental consent; that is when children are watching shows on their own then it become unethical. Children are too young to realise the manipulations that are going on through television or media advertisements. They also do not realise the financial pressures that come with the purchase of items. It would therefore be unethical for marketers to leave parents out of their marketing strategies. Normally, ethical advertisements are those ones that require children to get their parents involved in the marketing place. This can be achieved by stating it directly in the advertisement. It can also be achieved by limiting some children’s products in parental magazines or targeting families in general instead of just children. (Waymack, 2000)

Advertisements targeting children alone have shown their effects in a number of ways. In the year 2007, it was found that about fifty eight percent of all the items purchased by children (through their allowances) are sweets and toys were the next highest items to be purchased by children. This took up a whooping thirty percent. Toys and candy are all items that are advertised directly children hence the staggering statistics. (Davidson, 2002)

Advertising to children alone brings out very fundamental ethical issue. It highlights the power analysis issue in marketing. Any form of marketing that claims to be ethical must adhere to the power balance principle. The scales must not be tipped towards the consumer neither should they favour the marketer either. When marketers target vulnerable markets, they tend to make the situation favour them. This is what is called caveat emptor in marketing. It is an unfair scenario and is also exploitative in nature. (McGee and Heubusch, 1997)

Types of products, manner of advertisements and other qualities can indicate whether or not an advertisement is targeting children. It should be noted that there are certain elements that if conducted by marketers may be deemed unethical for example, when an advertisement is made in such a manner as to imply that it is meant for children. Some elements to watch out for are;

• music
• images
• voices
• colour

These are all elements that are meant to draw on children’s attention. Besides this, there may be certain activities expected to captivate children such a drawing, then those advertisements may be meant for them. Besides that, some advertisements may have characters that are designed for that demographic group. Sometimes some advertisements may be placed in publications that are usually read by children alone. They may also be placed in areas that have children. (Murphy et al, 2004)

All these features can be deemed unethical if they will be seen or heard by children exclusively, For example, if the advertisement is placed in a publication that is read by children alone then this is unethical because there is not parental consent there or if it is broadcast at times when children could be watching without parental consent. (Lizabeth, 2001)

Sometimes the kind of content in the advertisements matters too. Advertisements that are created in such ways as to make children feel less about themselves if they lack that product may be deemed unethical. Also advertisements that will promote harmful products to children are also unethical. For example, there were certain toys from China that had an excess of chemical elements and exposed certain risks to children who were playing with them. If advertisements posses those characteristics, then they may be considered unethical.

Recommendations

Responsible marketing

The issue of marketing itself has two main components. The first group is made up of the abolitionists and the second are the libertarians. The abolitionists believe that all advertising to children is wrong and that it should be completely eliminated. But this is something that is unrealistic and cannot be feasible in today’s fast paced and commercial world. The other extreme is held by the liberalists who believe that advertisements to children should be left as they are. They insist that society shapes advertisements and that advertisements do not change moral values. But this is denying the obvious. The fact that children in the UK and even in other parts of the world spend the largest portion of their leisure time watching television implies that they will pick up some of the habits depicted on their screens. (Waymack, 2000)

In light of the above facts, it is important to come up with a compromise on the issue through taking up responsible marketing. Children can still be considered as a target audience for marketing of retail products, however, this should be conducted in such a responsible and socially sustainable manner.

There are three main alternatives available for marketers targeting children and these are;

• viewing children as docile consumers
• viewing children as non- consumers
• viewing children as informed consumers

Choosing the non-consumer part would not be very market friendly because as it has been seen from earlier parts of the essay; children have substantial levels of buyer power. It is would therefore be uneconomical not to tap this very valuable market resource. On the other hand, viewing children as docile consumers causes a lot of ethical controversies that have been raised earlier. Consequently, the most sustainable form of marketing should be viewing children as informed consumers. Marketers need to advertise and market their products in such a way that there will still be room for them in the future. This will be effectively achieved by informing children about marketing ideas. This will enlighten them and give them a very valuable asset; choice. (McGee and Heubusch, 1997)

Informing children about the intricacies of marketing at an early age will go a long way in ensuring that children can understand the fundamentals of the commercial world. It will mean that children’s naivety will not be taken advantage of and that they will have the power to decide for themselves whether or not products are good for them. The ethical issues that have been brought forward stem from the fact that children are too young to understand the main reasons behind marketing displays. Informing them about this will drastically reduce those ethical concerns and will at the same time still allow marketers to go about marketing their products. (Beder, 1998)

It should be noted that some countries like Sweden have argued that children can understand the effects of commercial marketing after reaching the age of twelve; some have suggested four and others ten. They claim that at that point, be it 4, 10, or 12, children can understand the commercial world and the exploitation tendencies that their worlds present them. Consequently, human rights groups claim that marketers should not target children that fall below that group. But that debate can be eliminated if children below those established ages are made aware of the commercial world.

Regulations

This is something that is already in place, but still needs more emphasis. Advertisements should not be aired during children’s programming as they are likely to be unsupervised at that point. Governments should institute statutory regulations on television advertisements. Advertisements should also be edited such that they do not seem to appeal to the child directly. They should be made in such a way that they will involve the parent or family. (Mohandeep, 2001))

Conclusion

Advertisements to children have sparked off lot of controversy resulting in various reactions in various countries. However, experts agree that unethical marketing occurs when advertisements are directly aimed at children without getting consent from parents. Organisations can go about this issue through regulating their content, changing their times and embarking on a consumer education to make their young audiences aware. (Waymack, 2000)

Reference:

Beder, S. (1998): Marketing to Children, University of Wollongong Journal

Lizabeth E. (2001): Marketing With A Conscience: Sales and Ethics; Journal for the US Dept. of State

Mohandeep S. (2001): Ethics in Marketing; Encyclopedia of Business and Finance

Davidson, D. (2002): The Moral Dimension of Marketing; South-Western Educational Journal

Murphy, P. et al (2004): Ethical Marketing; Prentice Hall

Waymack, M. (2000): The ethics of selectively marketing the Health Maintenance Organization, Journal of Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, Issue 8, Volume 11, Pages 301-309

McGee, T. and Heubusch, K. (1997): Getting Inside Kids’ Heads; American Demographics, Vol. 19, No. 1

Source by Carolyn Smith