“Marketing, Consumerism, Materialism and Ethics: the Modern Marketing Conundrum”
INTRODUCTION
Gone are the days when “buyer beware” was the trend. The sellers used to dictate their terms as the competition was less. But after the Liberalization, Globalizations and Privatization in 1991, more companies entered into India. This changed the situation form “Buyer’s beware” to “Sellers beware”. It became more difficult for the companies to sustain in the cut throat competition. They had to shift their focus from product centric to customer centric. Companies had to think smart instead of working hard. There was a need of decisive plan of action to survive in the market.
The quality of the product was taken for granted by the customer and with competition heating up companies had to differ themselves from their competitors on the basis of quality of service. So the focus shifted from quality to service. Later the concept of ethics came into existence. Companies had to market their products in an ethical and responsible manner. This created more pressure on the companies. To tackle this problem the companies had to resort to aggressive marketing strategies. Companies knew that materialism is considered very important in a market like India because all people want physical possession of the products that they buy. So they resorted to unethical marketing. Yet they are successful in their businesses.
Making profit at the expense of consumers is called as unethical marketing. But certain enactments like Consumer Protection Act 1986, Competition Act 2002 etc have put some barriers on companies.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The objective behind this research is to throw light on marketing, ethics and consumerism and how these concepts are misused in a high consumption and materialistic economy like India to deceive end cheat or deceive the consumers.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is based on secondary sources like reputed newspapers, magazines, journals and articles from authenticated sources like EBSCO, recognized research papers, internet etc…
Gone are the days when “buyer beware” was the trend. The sellers used to dictate their terms as the competition was less. But after the Liberalization, Globalizations and Privatization in 1991, more companies entered into India. This changed the situation form “Buyer’s beware” to “Sellers beware”. It became more difficult for the companies to sustain in the cut throat competition. They had to shift their focus from product centric to customer centric. Companies had to think smart instead of working hard. There was a need of decisive plan of action to survive in the market.
The quality of the product was taken for granted by the customer and with competition heating up companies had to differ themselves from their competitors on the basis of quality of service. So the focus shifted from quality to service. Later the concept of ethics came into existence. Companies had to market their products in an ethical and responsible manner. This created more pressure on the companies. To tackle this problem the companies had to resort to aggressive marketing strategies. Companies knew that materialism is considered very important in a market like India because all people want physical possession of the products that they buy. So they resorted to unethical marketing. Yet they are successful in their businesses.
Making profit at the expense of consumers is called as unethical marketing. But certain enactments like Consumer Protection Act 1986, Competition Act 2002 etc have put some barriers on companies.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The objective behind this research is to throw light on marketing, ethics and consumerism and how these concepts are misused in a high consumption and materialistic economy like India to deceive end cheat or deceive the consumers.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This research is based on secondary sources like reputed newspapers, magazines, journals and articles from authenticated sources like EBSCO, recognized research papers, internet etc…