Sensitive Groups And Social Issues Essay Many factors have contributed to the heightened awareness of sensitive groups and social issues where marketing is concerned. The article Sensitive Groups and Social Issues has brought to light the causes, pitfalls, pro-active strategies, and benefits of addressing these social issues. Due to the fact that consumer markets and values are constantly changing, it is important to address these issues head on. A few of the key issues discussed in the article that relate to the text readings are the marketing concept, social responsibility, and changing demographics.
Addressing such issues will not only satisfy the sensitive and social groups involved, but open new and potentially profitable opportunities for companies that do so. One of the main points that I found useful in the article was how marketing to sensitive and social groups paralleled that of the marketing concept. Successful companies have to fill the needs and wants of their consumers. Sensitive and social groups are part of every companies market. Each company’s products and services should be customized to that of their customers. This is called mass customization.
How a company defines its social responsibility is also part of the marketing concept. If a company does not care to be viewed as socially responsible, then they will not care how they market products to those groups and the company will suffer. Relationship marketing is a part of the marketing concept and strongly applies to this article. A company wants to build trust with its customers in order to build customer loyalty and a long-term bond.
This gives the customer a value-added feature of doing business with a particular company. In marketing orientated companies, the customer’s needs have to be targeted and different social classes or issues need to be taken into account. If a company does not take different sensitive and social groups into account when marketing, then they will not build a feeling of goodwill with the consumers. The consumer will think that the firm cares more about selling its goods than the consumer. The firm’s social responsibility should be taken into account and work hand-in-hand with the marketing concept.
A firm’s interests may not portray societies best interests. This is where the societal marketing concept comes into play. Our text states that the marketing concept can be work together with social responsibility. The firm must extend the breadth and time dimension of its marketing goals. A company has to realize that their market is anyone affected by their product or service.
This is known as the breadth of marketing goals. The time dimension of the marketing goals means that a company should view the long-term implications of their objectives. Firms that are able to do this will be satisfying various sensitive and social groups as outlined in the article. Consumer values certainly have changed over the past decade or so.
Companies need to pay special attention to ethics in marketing. Many consumers today are educated consumers. They cannot be swayed with deceptive advertising and unethical tactics. These types of tactics will destroy any trust or relationships that a company has built with the public or its consumers.
I myself feel offended when a company tries to use unethical tactics or advertising to get me to buy. Also, if I receive a product that does not meet my expectations based on the advertising, I will never buy from them again. Many people today expect good service and quality. The differential advantage comes with value added features. Changing demographics has played a significant role in the emergence of the sensitive groups and social issues. This is one reason that a company will need to perform a situational analysis before developing a marketing program.
The analysis will have to include the monitoring of environmental factors, as well as others. As the article states, the growth of cultural markets such as Asian American, African American, and Hispanics has played a large part in these changing demographics. These sensitive and social groups will force companies to market products and services correctly to them. Another contributing factor to this situation is the changing role of men and women.
More and more women are entering the work force, which adds to .
