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The Changing Face of
Marketing – The Societal Path
The concept of marketing
has been discovered thousands of year’s ago. One can argue on the usage of this
word" Discovered" ,here, it is because of the reason that the concept
of marketing is as older as the existence of mankind.
Let’s go few thousand years
back to have its brief look. Its the story of the ancient times when evolution
of human life took place i.e. when God sent first humans to earth as stated by
the Christian Mythology.
After
creating the world, God made a beautiful garden, called “Garden of Eden”. It
was a paradise full of animals, fruits and trees. At the centre of the garden,
there was a tree with a special power to give the knowledge of good and evil to
the person who ate its fruit. Adam was the first man created by God. God told ADAM
to look after the trees in the garden and warned him, “You may eat fruits from
any tree you like, but not from the Tree of Knowledge. If you do not obey, you
shall die:”
To give company to ADAM, God created a female from his
ribs, and named her EVE. Both ADAM and EVE lived naked in the Garden of Eden,
as they had no sense.
In the same garden, there lived a snake. It persuaded EVE to
eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge, and told her that if she ate the
fruit, she would become wise like God. Tempted by this, EVE ate the fruit and
made ADAM also eat it.
Next day, when God came to the Garden, ADAM and EVE hid
themselves from Him, as now they had gained knowledge.
God asked them, “Did you eat the fruit from the Tree of
Knowledge?” The two admitted. God became angry and punished them, saying, “You
did not obey me. So now, you will have to leave this Garden. You will have to
live on Earth. ADAM will have to work hard to grow crops and create food and EVE
will have to suffer the pain of giving birth.”
Let’s have a look at the
picture.
The story can be looked as a classic analogy of today’s marketing.
Taking the marketing route, let’s understand - Who persuaded EVE to eat that
apple!!!
Who you think that who is the marketer in this picture.....Can you
guess it!!!
Think!
Neither it’sADAM and nor its EVE.
It’s Snake! Snake persuaded EVE to eat the Apple.Snake lured her
to eat it.
Gone are those days when people used to believe only on three
Needs of life"Roti","kapda"aur"Makaan"(Bread,
Cloth& a Shelter to live in!!)
Marketer has changed this thinking of people....They communicated
and taught people to switch from needs to wants and from wants to demands.
“Marketers arose thrustin people regarding products. Marketers have
the power and ability to empower people’s mind. They trigger their purchasing
action.”
The one of the important aspect in marketing is"
Communication."
If you don't communicate and educate people about your product you
have made for them they are never ever going to know about it and if they will never
know about it, your product is never going to sell and the consequences will be
very worse like Unnecessary blockage of money, over head costs, financial
burdens and huge loses.
That's the purpose of a marketer and marketing as a strategy which
he uses.He
educates the consumer about the benefits of the product he is providing and
persuades them to give the product a try!!!Marketers say that we (they) have
got the solution to your problems.
Actually it is the marketer who pushes a product into the market.
But have you ever thought that how these things
have settled in your mind.
Who are the people who are behind this!
Yes!!!There are people behind the scene with a
proper strategy and those are Marketers.
Marketers are those people who are behind the
scenes and who drive the customers crazy about a product.
"Marketers are in the business of
making consumers to spend money which they
Donot
have,on the products they donot need,to create impressions that donot last
long,that too on the people that they really donot care about."!!!
Role of Marketer in Society:
A
marketers role is not limited to just identification and creation of demand in
the markets but most of the marketers are taking initiatives for the betterment
of the society as a whole,they contribute to the environment also apart from
their CSR initiatives.
It was
the marketer who introduced the concept of green marketing i.e using the green
products. Green products are those products which are friendly to the nature
and the environment and are not hazardous at all.They are also called
Eco-friendly products.
They
donot degrade the environment and are also not lethal for the human race thus ensuring
safety of the entire mankind and help in saving a lot of resources from being
exploited.
Marketer
has played a remarkable role in teaching the consumers the advantages of
following green marketing practices.
Marketer
acts as a teacher and as a communicator for the society.
It was
the marketer who taught consumers that there is an energy saving AC with a 5
star rating which if you use will reduce 90% of your monthly bill as well as it
is an environment friendly product,saves energy and can be identified by
star ratings.
It was
the marketer behind the scene who persuaded the people to use CFL bulbs to
minimize their bills instead of using normal bulbs.
|
CFL Bulb that minimises bill and saves energy. |
But
still most of the people are not using Green products may be due to their negative
perception regarding the green products or ,distrust regarding the green
products or they think that green products are not efficient and are of low
quality or we can say sub standardized or
because of the reason that they are over priced.
Marketers
have to persuade people to use greener products by communicating the benefits
of using them and no doubt one time try can never do it but the “Power of repetition
‘is something which is eventually going to work here. No doubt, the people have
started caring more about the environment now but when it comes to
affordability if these items are priced higher then they may not buy it.
So
marketers should not be so myopic regarding making a product greener and
greener i.e so greener that it becomes so costly that a normal customer can’t
afford it.
People
want the best value for the money they actually paid for!
If a
marketer offers them a green product then it should be able to meet customer’s
expectations. Generally a consumer looks for Product Performance, Reliability, DurablityAvailablity, Serviceability, Affordability and Quality in a product. If
the perceived quality of a customer is higher than the expectations he is
having from a normal product he will feel delighted and would like to buy an another
green product for his next use. Adhering to specified specifications and
commitment will not only increase the customer base of an organization but also
will promote the positive image of the company thru the effective promotion
techniques like words of mouth and other promotional mediums.
Customers
are even willing to pay extra in case of Quality products but to add value and
to add an another feather to his cap the marketer should have to add value to his
core productby practicing and endorsing Green marketing.
It is
the marketer who can build trust among the masses towards the usage of the
green products i.e. environment friendly products. If a genuine and a good
product is delivered to the customer, his satisfaction level will be high.
No
doubt that business is not for charity. If an organization is pumping in their
billions of rupees, they also want a better return from it often termed as ‘Return
on Investment’ and they expect it to be higher.
But
being myopic to profit earning, it will be the greatest blunder from the marketer’s
side if he overlooks the expectations of the end customers and also remain care
free regarding the environment.
The
biggest thing in today’s world of dynamic environment is sustainability as sustainability
will eventually lead to the more and more customer association and loyalty.’Loyality
is something which can’t be purchased or bought, it has to be earned.’
As the
firms who produce or manufacture a certain product over utilize the scare
natural resources and degrade the environment.
It is
the marketer who himself planted the seed of ‘conspicuous consumption ‘
in the mindset of a consumer and by keeping on practicing it he has unknowingly
or knowingly exploited and contaminated the environment.
Like he gave people a Refrigerator, though it served the
purpose of quenching their thirst with cold water but the harmful Chlorofluorocarbons ( CFC’s) that were emitted by it
are so harmful that depletes the ozone layer in our atmosphere as these CFC’s
when emitted react with the ozone in the atmosphere and deplete it and
depletion of Ozone layer is so lethal that if completely depleted ,it will
create an ozone hole and all the cosmic rays which are harmful for the entire
life will penetrate the earth’s atmosphere and will wipe up the entire life
from the earth.(as happened in Antarctica around 80’s.
Due to the same reason the glaciers have started melting away and floods arise
due to the rise in water level.
So the damage that a marketer has caused to this nature, he
is the one who is liable to get it rectified but its not only him alone who can
do it but it is possible with the mutual efforts of the marketers and the consumers.
The more the Marketer Educate the people, the more awareness will spread
regarding the cause.
So it
becomes the utmost duty of these organizations to show their indebtedness to
the earth as a planet to save it from getting contaminated.
No doubt today’s marketer is smart and sooner he has realized his mistake and
is trying to rectify it with green marketing concepts. By understanding the
seriousness of this crisis, he has adopted green practices like he came out
with technology which replaces CFC’s with Hydro fluoro carbons (HFC’s) which are
less toxic and environment friendly.
But we
should always keep in mind that nature remains in balance and when there is an
unwanted change in the natural composition of anything, strange and dreadful
things occur. So marketer can make use of his tactic to persuade people to
follow green practices so as to ensure that their loved ones get a happier,
safer and a healthier life to live…
“Let’s
together make the world-a beautiful place to live in….”