Social aspect in marketing
Introduction:
What is marketing?
Marketing, more than any other business function, deals with customers. Understanding, creating, communicating, and delivering customer value and satisfaction are at the very heart of modern marketing thinking and practice.
What is societal marketing or social aspect in marketing?
Societal Marketing is basically a marketing concept that is of the view that a company must make good marketing decisions after considering consumer wants, the requirements of the company and most of all the long term interests of the society.
Societal Marketing is actually an offshoot of the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainable development. This concept urges companies to do more than having an exchange relationship with customers, to go beyond delivering products and work for the benefit of the consumers and the society.
Meaning:
The societal marketing concept embodies a higher and more enlightened plane of marketing thought and practice. The concept has an emphasis on social responsibility and suggests that for a company to only focus on exchange relationship with customers might not be in order to sustain long term success. Rather, marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way that maintains or improves both the consumer's and the society's well-being.
Most companies recognize that socially responsible activities improve their image among customers, stockholders, the financial community, and other relevant publics. Ethical and socially responsible practices are simply good business, resulting not only in favorable image, but ultimately in increased sales.
The societal marketing concept:
The 1980s & 1990s saw the emergence of Societal Marketing concept. The Societal Marketing concept calls upon marketers to build social & ethical values into their Marketing practice. It states that firm should not just make consumer satisfying goods but