Critics of Marketing

Critics of marketing often claim that marketers make people buy products or services they do not want. How would you refute this criticism? You should use the marketing concept in answering this question and support your position using information found in the text (Note: this is not to be a rewrite of the text but rather interpretation of concepts and principals). Information to support your position can be found throughout the book in various chapters that we have covered.

Customers are people who buy products and services from other people usually companies of one sort or another. What customers think and feel about a company and/or its products is a key aspect of business success. Attitudes are shaped by experience of the product, the opinions of friends, direct dealings with the company, and the advertising and other representations of the company.

Irrespective of whether a business' customers are consumers or organizations, it is the job of marketers to understand the needs of their customers. In doing so they can develop goods or services which meet their needs more precisely than their competitors. The problem is that the process of buying a product is more complex than it might at first appear.

Customers do not usually make purchases without thinking carefully about their requirements. Wherever there is choice, decisions are involved, and these may be influenced by constantly changing motives. The organization that can understand why customers make decisions such as who buys, what they buy and how they buy will, by catering more closely for customers needs, become potentially more successful.

Philosophy that guides all marketing activities is the marketing concept, the idea that an organization should try to satisfy customers' needs through coordinated activities that also allow it to achieve its own goals. The marketing concept suggests that a business should find out what consumers need and want develop the product that fulfills those needs or wants, and then get the products to the customer. The business must also continually alter, adapt, and develop products to keep pace with changing consumer needs and wants. Although customer satisfaction is the goal of the marketing concept, a company must also achieve its own objectives, such as boosting productivity, reducing costs, or achieving a percentage of a specific market. To implement the marketing concept, a firm must have good information about what consumers want, adopt a consumer orientation, and coordinate its efforts throughout the entire organization; otherwise, it may have too many products that consumers do not want or need.