Michael J Baker

Emeritus Professor of Marketing

*Marketing and the ‘social good’

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Aim: To persuade people that ‘marketing’ is an Academic discipline and a professional practice with an

emphasis on the social good

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The ‘social good’ may be defined as the elimination of poverty and the improvement of human welfare

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Marketing is both a philosophy of business and a professional function/practice

Like other professional practices it is also a

‘synthetic’ discipline

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Synthesis: “the process or result of building up

separate elements especially ideas, into aconnected whole, especially into a theory

or system”

(Concise Oxford Dictionary)

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Marketing is concerned with the behaviour of people and organisations (demand)

interacting with other people and organisations (supply) pursuing their self-

interest to their mutual benefit

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“Consumption is the sole end and purpose of production”

Adam Smith (1776) – the “father” of free markets and modern economics

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Honest producers have always striven to deliver customer satisfaction based on

understanding their needs and behaviour

BUT, in the 19th. Century neo-classical economists, driven by ‘physics envy’,

adopted an abstract notion of ‘rational’ behaviour to overcome the difficulty of

predicting real world ‘reasonable’ behaviour

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In hindsight marketing paid too much attention to individuals and instant

gratification

In the 1960s the negative effects of the emphasis on economic growth and materialism gave rise to

consumerism

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International recognition of the need for concerted action was prompted by the Brundtland Report (1987). Its Key Recommendations were:

• Reviving growth• Changing the quality of growth• Meeting essential needs for jobs, food,

energy, water and sanitation• Ensuring a sustainable level of population• Conserving and enhancing the resource

base• Reorienting technology and managing risk,

and• Merging environment and economics in

decision making

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Effectively, Brundtland took up Shumacher’schallenge “Small is beautiful” with its theme

“Economics as if people Mattered”

Simultaneously (1987), Lutz and Lux published

Humanistic Economics that challenged mainstream Economics, with its emphasis

on quantification to the neglect of qualitative factors that influence human behaviour, and proposed the notion of

the ‘dual-self’

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Put simply, the dual-self recognises that basic physiological needs are moderated by social and psychological factors identified in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, viz:

Higher Self Growth Needs Lower Self Deficiency NeedsSelf-actualisation Ego-aggrandisementTruth seeking Self-interest seekingReasonable Rational (economic)Principled behaviour Instrumental behaviourAltruism and love SelfishnessObjective SubjectiveTranspersonal Personal (individual)

‘Some Basic Characteristics of the Dual-self’ (Lutz and Lux Table 1.1, page 17)

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The Prisoners Dilemma

and

The Golden Rule

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Social responsibility - ‘Nil nocere’

Beneficence vs Maleficence

Enlightened vs Selfish self-interest

Freedom vs Regulation

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Populist view – ‘Business is to blame’

In reality, we are ALL to blame and need to take more responsibility for

our behaviour

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While public policy has a role to play I believe that ‘business’, and especially marketing, have a greater potential to change behaviour for the social good

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Commercially, marketing has been very effective in increasing efficiency and productivity by means of :

• Market research• New product development and

Innovation• Effective communications• Efficient distribution

The creation of Time, Place and Possession utility

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The sub-field of Social Marketing has shown how the techniques and practices used by commercial

Marketers can be used to encourage and shape behavioural change

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The barriers are not insubstantial:

Inertia and resistance to change – I know what I like and I like what I know

Implementation often frustrated by the misguided advocacy and interventions of

minority and unrepresentative special interest groups

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To progress we must:

• Stimulate the interests of the silent minority• Develop a circular economy• Promote citizenship over materialism• Treat all stakeholders equitably• Enable the re-distribution of wealth• Encourage and reinforce self-help• Promote the view that “Social business is

Good Business”