Responsibility of marketing services industry

What's marketing responsible for when we consider its social implications? A little while back, an inquiry came along for us from a maker of therapeutic products. The brief was to provide ‘branding’ for a product that this MNC was about to introduce in India that was priced 5-8 times more than indigenous versions that did the same job. The prospective client was frank enough to acknowledge that there was no difference in performance and precisely for this reason they were looking at a brand strategy since the global pricing could not be questioned.

Needless to say, all of us felt a little uncomfortable at the prospect of exploiting people’s anxiety around a health issue and justify a seriously expensive option in their minds. It brought into focus something we do not think about very often- our professional identity. As marketers or brand-building specialists, what are the values, standards and practices that justify our work in the society. As compared to say doctors, lawyers or architects, what purpose are we there to serve and for whom. We are certainly paid by our clients and our job is to forward their interests but should that be at the cost of the customers’ interest? Isn’t the epitome of brand building supposed to be relatively frivolous products like colas, perfumes, confectionery etc. where the best marketing minds design ever ingenious ways to justify the prices and consumption of products that one could easily do without? In the case of a therapeutic product the choice is still relatively easier but what if the product is a pizza with extra cheese and the target is kids? The answers may not be that straightforward.

Discussions on morality and ethics are always tricky and one has to go by what ‘feels right’ in most cases but for me, if I find it hard to recommend that pizza to my own kids given the kind of sedentary lifestyles they have, I will find it hard to develop a compelling brand strategy as well. And those for me are grounds enough to decline an assignment of that nature, unless ofcourse I see a possibility to influence the client towards revisiting the product itself.

The format of the blog does not allow for the amount of space a topic like this requires but suffice to say, we as stakeholders in the marketing services industry, owe it to ourselves and to others to extricate the image of the marketing man as a manipulative salesman who will go to any length to make you desire and buy something that may not be that critical for your life. The starting point of that question has to be to articulate the central purpose of the marketing function and to me the core purpose of this profession should be to defend interests of the customer towards building a long term relationship between the client and the customer. Brands at their best embody trust and simplify choice for customers and if with every decision and action, we as marketers can add to that pool of trust and simplification of life choices, we can look forward to a future of not only riches, but more importantly respect from the society we are a part of. In the absence of this sense of responsibility of marketing services industry, there is a danger of this profession being seen as nothing more than a bunch of touts that customers need to watch out for rather than look up to.