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Ethics in marketing
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These days marketing is seen in a negative light; for some critics, it is connected with a hedonistic lifestyle. Hedonism is a moral framework that assesses the quest for delight as the most important thing. This paper underlines association between the consumer society, hedonism, and the ribbon of marketing being mindful or not for exploitative conduct among consumers.
This paper examines the claim that the present consumer society is hedonistic, due to a great extent of modern day marketing. A consumer society is characterised as one coordinated generally by the gathering and utilisation of material goods. In any case, hedonism is viewed as the appealing element of Western society to some extent. For example, “doing one's own particular
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Hedonism, is typically regarded as a form of egoism where pleasure is the only thing considered good. With regard to consumers, no serious attempt is made to determine the full consequences of action but are rather they assumed to only ask: “Does it feel good?” This is narrow hedonism, which is considered the trait of the present consumer society. Thus, (Bourdieu) views fun ethic as being the norm in modern society due to the ethic of hard work being replaced by narrow hedonism; searching for delight with the verifiable thought of overabundance. Due to marketers exploiting this trend by focusing on selling through emotive words and images instead of product substance.
Critics of the consumer society consider hedonism to be a part consumer society as it is viewed as a driver for pleasure-seeking, and the concept of its absorbing nature is contained in criticisms of consumerism. Hedonism is not considered on the same level as addiction but above an ideology that exploits consumers, even though they may recognise the
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There are similarities in the development of both consumerism and marketing, yet the studies cannot provide an affirm confirmation. However, neither is their clean enough evidence to be disprove.
When choosing the marketing strategy an organization needs to recognize that the essential point of marketing is building profitable relationships with the target consumer, however, the organisation has numerous choices in planning their marketing strategy. A considerable number of corporations in the world define marketing as knowing the requirements/needs of the target market and convey through a different medium the idea that their product fulfils the consumer’s need better than the competition.
In light of the theory which suggests that there are significant resemblances in the ascent of the hedonistic consumer and sophistication in the power of marketing efforts, the moral advertisers would be advised to move towards the societal marketing concept, a concept that recommends the marketing strategy to convey value in a way that it works in the favour of both the consumer and the society. If executed correctly this strategy could reap long-term profits by protecting both the society and the consumer inside a framework designed purely for this
The chosen article is Two Cheers for Consumerism by James Twitchell. In this article he talks about consumerism, commercialism, and materialism. He argues the stand point of consumers and the role they live by every day. In other hands the critics, Academy, gives the consumers and overview description to their consumers.
Consumerism is the idea that influences people to purchase items in great amounts. Consumerism makes trying to live the life of a “perfect American” rather difficult. It interferes with society by replacing the normal necessities for life with the desire for things with not much concern for the true value of the desired object. Children are always easily influenced by what they watch on television. Swimme suggests in his work “How Do Kids Get So Caught Up in Consumerism” that although an advertiser’s objective is to make money, the younger generation is being manipulated when seeing these advertisements. Before getting a good understanding of a religion, a child will have seen and absorbed at least 30,000 advertisements. The amount of time teenagers spend in high school is lesser than the amount of advertisement that they have seen (155). The huge amount of advertisements exposed to the younger generation is becomi...
There are many people who are driven by consumerism and many people who wish they can get in touch with that type of world. Consumers are often promoted to advertise more of the products that they are buying to get more people to buy more products. Hari Kunzru, author of “Raj, Bohemian,” creates a narrator who is obsessed with maintaining his individuality and free will in a world that is overcome with consumerism. Believes that the world takes away individuality when consumerism comes into play and how hard it is to maintain their true self. In her LA Times article “Teen Haulers Create a Fashion Force,” Andrea Chang writes about the phenomenon of teenage Youtube users who make videos that publicize their latest shopping binges. She expresses
Hedonism is a way of life that is rooted in a person’s experiences or states of consciousness that can be pleasant or unpleasant. The ethical egoist would state that a person should maximize his or her pleasant states of consciousness in order to lead the best life. Act Utilitarian on the other hand would state that these enjoyable states of consciousness should be maximized by one’s actions for everyone in order to attain the most utility. On the surface, this appears to be a good way to live, however, as Nozick states through his example of the experience machine that living life as a hedonist can be detrimental. It is a hollow existence that will ultimately be unsatisfactory because of the lack of making real decisions and relationships which are important to living a fulfilling life.
It has been known that all ethical consumerism practises have actually gained an increased supremacy over the last couple of years. Consumers have found that the tendency to inform their customers of the ethical consumerism plays a rather vital part as this results in informed purchase decisions through references to ethical as well as moral principles. (The Guardian, 2014).
Mill’s qualitative hedonism of pleasures faces problems because of its lack of clarity in its description of pleasures, mainly because it seems that his idea of pleasure seems to encompass such a wide range of mental states. He also loses credibility with his controversial competent judges, and especially the inconsistency with a more textbook view of hedonism.
Marketing is a system of business activates designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying products, services and ideas to customers in order to achieve business objectives. Consumer law protects consumer’s rights in the marketplace as well as fair trading, competition and accurate information. On the other hand, ethical aspects of marketing are about making marketing decisions that are morally right. However, consumer law and ethical aspects of marketing have a lot of advantages and disadvantages in the marketplace, which impacts business 's sales and growth like it happened to: Harvey Norman, Nurofen, apple, etc.
The marketing revolution promises a golden age when social institutions and markets are systematically organized to maximize human happiness. One of marketing’s strongest features is its empiricism. What science does for perception, marketing does for production. It tests intuition and insight against empirical facts. Henry Ford thought he knew what people wanted from a car: cheap, reliable, and black.
"In today’s consumer society, "I am what I have" is the active classification of itself. Consumerism is often viewed as a negative aspect towards society’s lives and purchasing behaviors, which predictably leads to materialism. If one steps back and look at the positive aspect that consumerism has been a certain positive characteristics in today’s society. Consumerism creates mass market, cultural attitudes and economic development.
‘Moral principles and values that govern the actions and decisions of an individual or group. A particular action may be within the law and still not be ethical’ . There may be comprehensive codes of ethics, company cultures, and behaviours which actually influence the manner in which a company behaves. The most important ethics in the world of advertising is not to deceive the customer of the content and the essence of the product. The two theories of Dickson , principle of utility and theory of situational ethics provide the reasoning behind ethics. In the former principle, the utilitarianism is emphasized wherein the good of all is to be looked into. In the latter principle, he emphasizes the questioning of the self, that if everyone did the same act, would it be right? And does the existing social fabric provide for it? And what are the effects on the one on the...
Sassatelli, R. (2007). Consumer Culture: History, Theory and Politics, London: Sage, Page 30, Page 126, Page 132, Page 133
Weijers, Dan. "Hedonism." Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 8 Aug. 2011. Web. 29 Nov. 2013. .
Illich introduces the idea of living in a culture of conviviality versus consumerism, where certain tools and structures i.e. rational tools, which is anything that humans create, contribute to consumerism. Before the idea of conviviality can be understood, the culture and concept and consequences of consumerism must be acknowledged. William T. Cavanaugh addresses consumer culture as not a culture of traditional greed in but as a culture of detachment. This detachment comes from an obsession with efficiency. This detachment breeds apathy and detachment from the producers, the means of production, and the products themselves.
When exploring consumerism it’s important to remember that people in today’s modern society can easily get caught up in consumer debt, which can cause much strife in people’s lives. People have a tendency to want their merchandise now, rather than waiting until they can afford it Wonderful post! Overall, consumerism is a mark of a capitalistic society but that does not mean that it represents healthy behavior. The desire for consumables is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can breed an addiction that is never quenched. Again, good post!
Commodity fetishism refers to the Marxian concept of the decontextualization and mystification of the social relations of production in the process of commodification. In consumer culture this concept often highlights the characteristics of advertising brand discourse which tend to overlook the production of commodities especially in large scale productions. They ignore the social and environmental cost and instead focus on creating additional meanings and symbolic agency around brands. In this paper, I would like to analyze commodity fetishism by taking into account the Marxists theory of commodity fetishism and the notion that commodity culture is intricately related with the idea that we construct our identities through our consumption