thank you

We face immense problems

Problems caused by our own behaviour

solutions

thank you

We face immense problems

Problems caused by our own consumption behaviour

Marketing is heavily implicated in these

problemssolutions

The need to rethink commercial marketing

A study of marketing as if people (and the planet) mattered

Marketing in a Post‐Consumer Society

ISM Institute for Social Marketing

Gerard Hastings

Social Business Conference

Anadolu University

Eskisihir

11-13th June 2015

structure

1. A crisis for marketing

2. Marketing re-examined

3. Marketing as if people and the planet mattered

The reassuring rhetoric of marketing

‘The shift in focus to services is a shift from … the producer perspective to the utilization of the customer perspective.’

(Gummesson, E 1995)

The ‘application of specialized competences (knowledge and skills) through deeds, processes, and performances for

the benefit of another entity’ (Vargo & Lusch 2004)

‘value co-creation’, ‘equality of resource integration’ ‘empowered customers’, ‘integrating value to make our

lives better’ (Ischia 2013)

All very gratifying (especially for us with plenty of money)

But then I remember other realities…

this is co-creation as nightmare

negative equity

financial crisis

public health

The holy trinity of public health: food, alcohol and tobacco

shortened lives

2/3rds of Americans are now overweight or obese – this will take 1 in 5 health $s by 2018

(Lang and Rayner, 2012)

1 in 2 smokers are killed by their smoking -

8 million a year by 2030 (Doll and Peto 1992; WHO)

4th greatest cause of premature death – even tho half the world don’t

drink (WHO)

The holy trinity of public health: food, alcohol and tobacco

The unholy trinity of corporate marketing

The obvious truth that this marketing has an effect

shortened lives

These companies are consummate marketers

where is the ‘the customer perspective’?

Industrial Epidemics

‘The concept of an epidemic associated with the commercialization of a dangerous product ….diseases of consumers, workers and

community residents caused by industrial promotion of consumable products …. In each instance, public health oriented policies run the risk of being opposed by industrial corporations

in a health versus profit trade-off.’(Jahiel and Babor 2007)

How is this for the ‘benefit of another entity’?

Profits and pandemics: prevention of harmful effects of tobacco, alcohol, and ultra-processed food and

drink industries (Moodie et al 2013 The Lancet)

financial crisis

public health

children

Targeting Children

‘Children are important to marketers for three fundamental reasons:

1.They represent a large market in themselves because they have their own money to spend.

2.They influence their parents’ selection of products and brands

3.They will grow up to be consumers of everything; hence marketers need to start building up their brand consciousness and loyalty as early as possible.’

Foxall and Goldsmith (1994) Consumer Psychology for Marketers p203

88% of smokers start as children

Surgeon General (2012)

How can this be called ‘integrating value to

make our lives better’?

The Scandal of Infant Formula

‘I shouldn’t be standing in front of you, on the 25 year anniversary of the Code, telling you so little

has changed and that companies continue toencourage mothers to spend money they don’t have on manufactured food most of them don’t

need. I shouldn’t be standing in front of you because it shouldn’t still be happening. But it is, because the voluntary code clearly isn’t working,

and children are dying as a result’Jasmine Whitbread, CEO, Save the Children UK (2007)

play has become just another marketing tool

The game recruits new Krave Facebook fans…and provides current fans with new content. It

engages fans with the brand and brings to life the core ad concept underpinning Krave – the character’s relentless pursuit of chocolate

How young can branding go?

Are these really ‘empowered customers’?

financial crisis

public health

children

inequalities

Segmentation, targeting and viability

to those who have is given more

‘Of the 1,400 new drugs developed between 1975 and 1999, only 13 were designed to treat or prevent tropical diseases and three to treat tuberculosis. In the year 2000, no drugs were being developed to treat tuberculosis, compared to 8 for impotence or erectile dysfunction and 7 for baldness.’ (Bakan 2004)

inequalities

The source of so much hardship in our society…

£2.26 per kilo

£17 per kilo

£185 per kilo

Up to £450 per kilo

inequalities

financial crisis

public health

children

inequalities

materialism

'I got a Dyson but I don’t even know if I want it'

Materialism

“Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations”

(Rabindranath Tagore)

financial crisis

public health

children

inequalities

materialism

the big one…

planet earthevery increasing

growth every increasing

consumption=

this is leading to catastrophe….

good service(gets us shopping;

stops us questioning)

Unlocked by melting ice-caps, the great polar oil rush has begun

Independent 6/9/11

…it is an ecosystem from hell

It is a problem of consumption – not just too much of the wrong stuff, but too much of all stuff

‘we need to consume less*. A lot less. Less food, less energy, less stuff. Fewer cars, electric cars, cotton T-shirts, laptops, mobile phone upgrades. Far fewer.’ (Stephen Emmett 2013)

‘every decade global consumption continues to increase relentlessly’ (ibid)

…‘we are fucked’ (ibid)

* esp we in the global north

structure

1. A crisis for marketing

2. Marketing re-examined

3. Marketing as if people and the planet mattered

structure

1. A crisis for marketing

2. Marketing re-examined: Fiduciary imperative: who is in charge? Consumers or citizens? What is the purpose of marketing

3. Marketing as if people and the planet mattered

The contradiction at the heart of marketing

In a world governed by the fiduciary imperative, consumer sovereignty is treason

Perpetual dissatisfaction (the satisfied stop shopping)

Even were it real, consumer sovereignty is a dangerous concept: •It assumes we know what we want (‘May all you dreams come true’ is a Chinese curse)•That we are in full possession of the facts and economists are right: we make rational decisions•That we don’t need adversity

Fiduciary imperative

Consumers or citizens?

‘unwarranted influence - economic, political, even spiritual’ ‘felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the

Federal government’….‘we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all

involved. So is the very structure of our society.’ Eisenhower (1961)

‘only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry’

‘military industrial complex’

Critical thinking

Consumers Earn money to buy stuff to meet their own needs

Address life’s challenges by shopping

Guiding principles: consumer satisfaction & ‘caveat emptor’

CitizensThink of the collective as well as their own needs

Solve life’s challenges by self-production, exchange, reusing and abstinence as well as shopping

Guiding principle: responsibility and critical analysis

Consumers or citizens?

What is the purpose of marketing?

Moving beyond consumption‘the idea of conducting the entire economy on the basis of greed’

‘Needless to say, wealth, education, research and many other things matter for any civilisation, but what is most needed today is a revision of the ends these means are meant to

serve. And this implies above all else, the development of a lifestyle which accords material things their proper, legitimate

place, which is secondary and not primary’ (Schumacher 1993)

Marketing is about much more important matters than the mere acquisition of stuff

What is the purpose of marketing?

Co-operation“If human beings had not been able to cooperate in this way

they would probably not have survived the rigours of the savannah – or subsequently of regions much colder. At best

our lives would have been, as Thomas Hobbes put it, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short. We survived because our genes gave us the ability to cooperate.” Richard Layard (2005)

Marketing is the timeless protocol behindthis vital human cooperation

What is the purpose of marketing?

It is surely not to produce megalithic companies that now dwarf countries:

World Bank data from 2011 shows that 110 of the 175 largest global economic entities in 2011 were

cor porations, not countries …

…the revenues of Royal Dutch Shell, Exxon Mobil and Wal-Mart each exceed the combined GDP of

the 110 poorest countries (Pingeot 2014)

structure

1. A crisis for marketing

2. Marketing re-examined

3. Marketing as if people and the planet mattered

Marketing as if people and the planet mattered

Three suggestions:

•Marketing should be a privilege not a right

•Regulation (learn from health and safety: independent & statutory)

•Helping us cooperate: encouraging collective responsibility not individual satisfaction

How would this work in practice?

Marketing as if people and the planet mattered: the four Ps

Promotion

Marketing communications should be designed to help us make ethical and sustainable choices

The downsides as well as the upsides

Loi Evin:

Adults only

Stick to the facts

A Loi Evin for all

products?

Marketing as if people and the planet mattered: the four Ps

Place and price

We marketers know just how susceptible people are to these drivers

As with promotion they should be designed to help us make ethical and sustainable choices

A system that sees a third of the UK veg crop left in the field because it is too ugly, and another third thrown away because BOGOFS have made us buy too much has to change (UK Institute of Engineers 2014)

Marketing as if people and the planet mattered: the four Ps

Product

Handguns: we restrict production when needed

Externalities – the EU tobacco solution [€100 billion per annum direct health costs 25% fewer smokers and 45,000 saved lives (Tiessen et al 2010)]

As for the smoker’s lungs, so for the planet: we should calculate the externalities, and either make sure the producer pays them - or decide they are simply not affordable

conclusion

We face immense problems

Marketing as currently conceived is driving these

Social marketing can play a role in reducing this harm

But its mother discipline needs fundamentally rethinking if we are turn the tanker around

conclusion

Over to you

Do you agree with my analysis?

Do we have a problem?

Are the solutions tenable?

What do you think?