Social responisbility and marketing ethics

work: Social responsibility and marketing ethics I totally disagree with the ment that “ A firm’s onlyresponsibility to society is to earn a fair profit.” Thus a firm has got both legal and moral responsibilities. Society generally agrees that corporations are capable of various responsibilities and that they must adhere to the regulations of business outside those that are codified into a legal act . Much as a firm wants to make fair profits, it must also be aware of and protect the environment in which it operates-customers today anticipate and require more from what they buy, including safety, value as well as quality (Bryan, 2010).
Employees also require more than just a paycheck and the society generally requires the firm to be a better corporate citizen, employ from the community, take care of the environment and so on. Regulators require the firm to tow the legal line and communities expect firms to be philanthropic enough and give back by reaching out to the community and assisting them in what they do. Milton Friedman, who was an American statistician, economist as well as a writer is accredited with the above statement. Some examples of socially responsible product decisions include; the Body Shop created a lasting business model by virtue of investing in the development as well as encouragement of products that shun animal testing in addition to using ingredients that are environmentally friendly. The second is decision by Lush Fresh Handmade Cosmetics –spent 3 years on research and development to come up with a soap not made from palm oil (Bryan, 2010).
The concept of sustainability is a step in the right direction and that businesses should embrace since it creates the potential to maintain a system functioning indefinitely without necessarily depleting resources, maintains economic viability as well as nourishing the requirements of not only the present but also future generations. Though there are rising indications that many American businesses at present are not sustainable, there have been efforts to make others sustainable. A number of visionary business managers and owners are already assisting create consensus by building and maintaining organizations that are sustainable (Steven, 2013).
To those who feel that marketing is manipulating the consumer, the answer would be that they need to realize that marketing exists since there is a product developed by a company that it needs to sell to people. A company therefore will use any possible means to make sure that consumers are aware of the product so they can go out and buy the same. This is quite obvious, and that is why you will see adverts featuring fancy clothing, maybe a yummy meal or some other product that you really do not necessarily require at all. Basically there are all types of advertisements and generally their main objective is to keep consumers from thinking, thus making their buying options on the basis of an emotional response instead (Steven, 2001).
I do agree with the above statement and that in fact many advertisements are designed in such a way that their core objective is to persuade consumers so that they can buy a particular product. Marketing campaigns exist so that they can inform or rather tell consumers about a certain product made by a certain company. Adverts can be as simple as “ Brand P detergent cleans your clothes” or “ Restaurant W serves food.” It is common knowledge to consumers that when there is cut throat competition in a particular market, the advertisements witnessed seem to be more descriptive so as to set the given products apart. Thus for instance, one restaurant may offer a sensibly tasty, though unhealthy hamburger in just less than one minute, but why would consumers choose their hamburger instead of another? This is simply because they told them so!
Clearly then marketing is all about manipulating consumers, and the one who excels in this not only wins many souls but also reaps a lot of returns from the same.
References
Bryan, H. (2010). Corporate Social Responsibility in the 21st Century: Debates, Models and Practices Across Government, Law and Business. Massachusetts: Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
Steven, C. (2013). Sustainability Management: Lessons from and for New York City, America, and the Planet. New York; NY: Columbia University Press.
Steven, S. (2001). Consumer Economics. New York; NY: M. E Sharpe, Inc.