Marketing and its discontents

Marketing people are often suspected of attempting to get people to want things they do not need. Ironically, the driving force of modern marketing is the marketing concept, the basic principle of which is that business succeeds by giving customers what they truly want. The social discontents and et...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Harvard business review 1989-11, Vol.67 (6), p.148-154
Main Author: Star, S H
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
Clusters
Consumer Behavior
Consumer goods
Ethics
Health administration
Hospital Administration - methods
Market segmentation
Market segments
Marketing
Marketing of Health Services - methods
Marketing Planning
Product Line Management - methods
Target markets
United States
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Summary:Marketing people are often suspected of attempting to get people to want things they do not need. Ironically, the driving force of modern marketing is the marketing concept, the basic principle of which is that business succeeds by giving customers what they truly want. The social discontents and ethical issues associated with marketing stem not from greed and deception but from functional limitations on the implementability of the marketing concept. Developing a marketing program involves identifying 3 groups of consumers: 1. the market segment - people with a specific need, 2. the program target - people in the segment with the best-fit characteristics for the product, and 3. the program audience - all people who are exposed to the program. These 3 groups are then divided into 6 meaningful clusters. The best marketing program will not reach all members of a target, and it will reach people with no interest in the product. The marketing concept has positive and negative effects that must be seen as trade-offs.
ISSN:0017-8012