Marketing as a Societal Process

Marketing as a societal process can be defined as a process that facilitates the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers in a society. At this level, the emphasis is on issues such as:

• What institutions are involved in the societal marketing system?
• What activities do these institutions perform?
• How effective is the marketing system in satisfying consumer needs?
• How efficient is the marketing system in providing consumers with desired goods and services?

A society’s marketing system is closely related to its political and economic systems. These close relationships are vividly illustrated by the tremendous changes that continue in Eastern Europe. Countries that operated under a communist political system with centrally planned economies did have some sort of marketing system, because products and services were provided to consumers. The marketing systems, however, were woefully ineffective and inefficient, largely because most “marketing” decisions were made centrally by government bureaucrats. With little consideration of customer needs, these officials decided what to produce, in what quantities, how products were to be made available to consumers, and at what prices.

Ineffective marketing systems contributed to the overthrow of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe, and these countries continue to struggle with developing democratic political systems and market-based economies. A market-based economy requires an effective and efficient marketing system that can identify and satisfy consumer needs for products and services. Although transforming political, economic, and marketing systems is painful and difficult in the short run, the changes promise to improve the standards of living in these countries in the long run.

However, the transformation process is often slow and the benefits from a market economy are not distributed equally. There may be different results from the move to a market economy and new marketing system. Over time, people are likely to benefit from these changes, but market economies and market systems are not perfect.

Important relationships exist between marketing at the organizational and societal levels. People moving from a planned to a market-based economic system must learn and implement basic marketing practices. The success of a society’s marketing system depends on the ability of individuals in organizations to identify and respond to consumer needs effectively and efficiently. These individuals face the following problems, as expressed in a study of managers in several Eastern European countries:

• Becoming more market-oriented and consumer-responsive.
• Improving product quality.
• Changing product design, assortment, finishing, and packaging.
• Increasing communications efforts such as personal selling and point-of-purchase sales.
• Increasing merchandising efforts.
• Using competitive pricing.
• Instituting promotional pricing and price discounts.

Marketing as an organizational philosophy and a societal process are related to the way marketing is performed by organizations and individuals.

Comprehension questions:

1. How can marketing as a societal process be defined?

2. What is a society’s marketing system closely related to?

3. What does a market-based economy require?

4. What are the results from the move to a market a market economy?

5. What does the success of a society’s marketing system depend on?