Emerging themes in contemporary marketing practice

Marketing

Consider the broad changes occurring in marketing today and identify themes that you believe are emerging from these changes. The most fundamental change in marketing today is that it has become increasingly consumer-driven (Lake, 2011). The marketing and advertising ploys popular in the days of the "Mad Men" advertising agencies don't work well with the sophisticated consumers who are networked to each other, access information online with ease, and -- following round-after-round of corporate fraud and betrayal -- have reached the apex of suspicion with regard to corporate behavior (Lake, 2011). Furthermore, consumers want to be engaged with brands in a new way (Lake, 2011). Consumers are looking to have conversations with brands in which they feel respected as knowledgeable individuals who spend some effort to stay informed (Lake, 2011). Marketers and advertisers are finding that they must take a different tact with consumers by inviting participation in the brand at many different levels, the most fundamental of which is social media networking. Hence, the themes that have emerged are: (1) Consumer loyalty comes at the price of establishing an ongoing and meaningful conversation with customers, and (2) Consumers are highly knowledgeable -- which drives a certain degree of circumspection -- and conversant in the language of branding. Can these themes and changes be related to societal forces? How? Yes, the themes and changes are not only related to societal forces, but they are driven by them (DeVault, 2012). The influence of the digital age is everywhere present in marketing, advertising, and media publishing (DeVault, 2012). Consumer advocates and social media influencers have a profound impact on the success of products and services, both those being launched and those that have been around for some time (DeVault, 2012). The advertisements for Old Spice that took up considerable band width in the last year or so is a prime example of this force -- the creative Old Spice ads went viral and the brand resurfaced with vigor (DeVault, 2012). Provide examples of societal changes and how these changes have impacted the way marketing activities are conducted. Mobile marketing has become "the new black" in the field of advertising (DeVault, 2012). It is no longer novel -- it is a basic and fundamental way for consumers to gain information about products and services (DeVault, 2012). The ubiquitous presence of digital media has spawned a new form of advertising called wait marketing (DeVault, 2012). Wait marketing in which consumers who must be in a holding pattern or waiting for something to happen, but are place-bound, receive advertisements on their mobile phones or see them on media displays, say, waiting in line at the bank for a turn with the teller (DeVault, 2012). Fewer and fewer people watch television programs at the time of their airing (DeVault, 2012). Movies and television shows are downloaded for consumption at a later time (DeVault, 2012). This places a particular pressure on advertisers and marketers to give the ads the capacity to cross the bounds of airing time and context. For example, breakfast food ads seem wholly appropriate when aired on a morning talk-show broadcast. But watching cold cereal ads at 7:00 PM on an airplane, has less appeal. These changes in how and where people consume entertainment media have helped to shape ads that are entertaining in and of themselves -- and more to the point -- are conscious of the audience demographics and personas due to the capacity of digital platforms to perform trackbacks and use cookies to probe into the everyday interests of consumers (DeVault, 2012).

Marketing has often been defined in terms of satisfying customers' needs and wants; however, marketing critics argue that marketing can be unethical by creating needs and wants that did not exist before. Marketing can encourage customers to spend money on goods and services they really do not need or want. Take a position on the following ethical dilemma: Do you think marketing merely reflects the needs and wants of consumers, or that marketing creates unnecessary customers' needs and wants?