MARKETING DEBATE—Does Marketing Create or Satisfy Needs?
Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers’ needs and wants. Critics,however, maintain that marketing goes beyond that and creates needs and wants that did notexist before. They feel marketers encourage consumers to spend more money than they shouldon goods and services they do not really need.
Take a position
Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants versus marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers.
Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants versus
Marketing marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers.
What is your position?
Take a view minutes to formulate your arguments.
Next check below the suggested responses.
Suggested Response
Pro: With the vast amount of information available to marketers today and the emphasis onrelational marketing, marketers are in more of a position to suggest needs and wants to thepublic. Certainly, not all consumers have all the needs and wants suggested by society today.However, with the vast amount of exposure to these societal needs and wants via the media, asubstantial amount of consumers will, through mere exposure, decide that they “have” thesame needs and wants of others. Marketers by their efforts increase peer pressure, and groupthinking, by showing examples of what others may have that they do not. An individual’s freedom to choose is substantially weakened by constant and consistent exposure to a range ofneeds and wants of others. Marketers should understand that when it comes to resisting thepressure to conform, that individuals are and can be weak in their resolve. Marketers must takean ethical position to only market to those consumers able to purchase their products.
Con: Marketing merely reflects societal needs and wants. The perception that marketers influence consumers’ purchasing decisions discounts an individual’s freedom of choice and their individual responsibility. With the advent of the Internet, consumers have greater freedom of choice and more evaluative criteria than every before. Consumers can and do make more informed decisions than previous generations. Marketers can be
rightly accused of influencing wants, along with societal factors such as power, influence, peer pressure, and social status. These societal factors pre-exist marketing and would continue to exist if there was no marketing efforts expended.
How much did your opinion change?
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