Marketing Does Not Manipulate Consumers

Marketing is the management procedure in which the product or service is moves from concept to the customer. It includes the co-ordination of the 4 P’s of marketing: product, price, placement and promotion. [tutor2u.net]

in the eyes of a typical person they believe that it is unethical to target uninformed consumers

It is wrong and unethical to target uninformed consumers. it is unethical, because it misleads consumers into buying something that isn't entirely what they are told, it can cause a loss of business for the company or producer, and it is an abusive power.

The truth is that as consumers we are prone to being taken advantage of and more specifically, ripped off. How this occurs is quite simple. It is the technique of persuasion that forces people to do things, believe things and in this case purchase things that are not necessary. Tactics to persuade people can range from rhetoric devices to the structure of the message itself. Rhetoric devices, such as logos and pathos, and the structure of the message come together to ultimately persuade people to buy into things that they normally wouldn’t buy. Pathos appeals to emotion and logos describes the idea of logical reasoning. Then comes the structure of the message itself which enhances an idea to its full potential. The main purpose of these techniques in literature is to serve as writing strategies to convey an idea in words. Two examples of authors utilizing writing strategies to persuade readers that stores and advertisers manipulate shoppers take place in “The Science of Shopping” by Malcolm Gladwell and “Attention, Shoppers: Store Is Tracking Your Cell” by Clifford and Hardy. The author of “Attention Shoppers” uses the writing strategies of pathos, logos and the structure of the writing better than the author of “The Science of Shopping” to persuade readers that stores and advertisers are manipulating shoppers.

A. Marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of customers. B. Marketing shapes consumer needs and wants.

Marketing is a management function which involves creating, communicating and delivering value for an organisation’s customers (Kotler, Brown, Burton, Deans & Armstrong (2010). Although many earlier academics define marketing as merely a process of satisfying customer needs in order to gain profits, more recent developments of the definition include its inherent connection with delivering superior value to customers in order to maintain ongoing relationships (Webster, 1992).

Marketing is a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others.(Kotler, Armstrong, Saunders, Wong page 5)

Marketing is the performance of the business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from the producer to the consumer or users.

Marketing is a process of identifying and satisfying the consumer needs and wants by creating or exchanging product.

Consumption is a process of acquiring, using and disposing of goods and services. Emotions play a very large role in consumer behavior. This behavior and emotions are affected and created by the society and the culture in which the consumer lives. For example, an American may approach the purchase of a costly car with relatively less pressure than a person in a developing country where a car could be a high unaffordable luxury. The customer will comprehend brands, offers and the meaning of the product based on the understanding that he or she has of similar brands and their experience by analogy or by hearsay from peers and form an opinion. For example a new soft drink from Pepsi may not be very informative in its advertisement but that it is from the stable of PepsiCo makes the users of Pepsi brands take it in without much research. Such an opinion is not based mostly on the complete set of facts. Where there are many alternatives or the information is scarce the customer has to make a lot of effort or 'high effort' to reach a decision and such a situation could be a turnoff. On the other hand the customer may not be inclined to devolve deep into facts in case where the brand value is established and may make a decision on little or even sometimes no information. (Hoyer;

“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (AMA 2007, cited in Baines et al. 2011, p. 6).

Prior to this class, although I have some experience in a marketing type role, I thought of marketing as the process that was activated post product development and the vehicle to product/service promotion and advertisement to the marketplace. Through this class, I have a greater understanding of marketing, and realize promotion and advertisement is just a fraction of it, and has much more depth. Marketing begins at the beginning, and is integrated through to the end of the life cycle. It has a significant impact on the development stages as well as delivery to the marketplace. Marketing is a set of procedures facilitated in businesses for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers. Furthermore, marketing is about

* The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchange that satisfy the perceived needs, wants, and objectives of the customer and the organization. Effective

Different tactics have proven over the years to draw consumers in. These tactics have proven that there is not a bright future for mass marketing. The idea behind successful marketing now, is to not tell someone that a product will make them happy, but it is about showing them how a product will make them happy. An example of how this shift in marketing has occurred is with what Samsung did for its’ customers at random airports. Samsung didn’t put up giant billboards and come up with a catchy song to draw any and every person to their product, they instead targeted those who

American Management Association: Marketing (management) is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organisational goals.