Marketing Ethics of Mecca Cola Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing Ethics of Mecca Cola - Case Study Example Marketing plans and strategies would be incomplete without paying much consideration to the customers. Customers will and should always be a part of the agenda in any marketing plan of any company. Because of the implications for profitability and growth, customer retention is potentially one of the most powerful weapons that companies can employ in their fight to gain a strategic advantage and survive in today's ever increasing competitive environment (Lindenmann, 1999). Marketing involves the buying, selling, and trading of goods and services and the subsidiary activities that make these exchanges possible. It is a social process, as well as an economic activity and a collection of physical tasks. Marketing takes place only in societies. Even a rather large, primitive family unit may engage in extensive production and consumption on a self-sustaining basis without becoming involved in activities that can be described as marketing. In organized societies, marketing activities are themselves important features of the social milieu, and changes in marketing practices may carry implications extending throughout the social structure. For example, the location of trading centers affects the modes and routes of transportation (Kotler and Armstrong, 200); advertising affects popular conceptions of tastes and life styles; and changes in distribution channels create and eliminate employment opportunities and ways of life. Appraisals of the performance of marketing activities within our society are commonplace. Marketing is said to be inefficient because there are "too many" gasoline service stations. It is said to be unfair because some firms are "making it impossible" for others to continue to exist in the market place. It is said to be unproductive because "too much" money is spent on advertising (Lun and Gupta, 2001). Generally comes off very well indeed. Businessmen do not hesitate to spend large sums in marketing their wares, and consumers show no great reluctance to pay the resultant charges embodied in what they buy The fundamental economic criterion for appraising marketing activities is the efficiency with which they are performed. Efficiency, or productivity, involves a relationship between effort and effect, sacrifice and reward, input and output. Efficiency is a relative concept (Neumann and Sumser, 2002). When we describe an activity as "inefficient," we mean that too much effort is being expended with too little effect; in other words, that the ratio of effort to effect is higher than necessary. And when we describe an activity as "efficient," we mean that the ratio of effort to effect is about as low as can be achieved. In general, economic activities that are more efficient are preferred to those that are less efficient and for a very simple reason. If there are two methods of accomplishing the same task and one of them requires a smaller expenditure of time, effort, and resources than the other, then by using that method one can accomplish the task and have time and materials left over. One may then either use these surplus resources to accomplish the task another time, or in a superior fashion, or may transfer these resources into some entirely different activity (Ohmae, 1990). So long as one's time and resources are of some value in some use including their use in leisure or in saving for the future