Marketing is a rather complicated phenomenon. However it forms a very important part of the corporate strategy (Davidson, 2002). Indeed, it can determine the business success or failure depending on how the players handle it. The marketing functions are equally diverse and require adequate planning and careful implementation. In addition, it is a very dynamic discipline with changes having been and still continues to be experienced every other day.
To be effective in marketing today, the marketer does not only need to meet the customers expectations in terms of products quality or providing them with products that in the very best way meet the market needs but also needs to develop a social touch with the market (Murphy et al., 2004). As a result, corporate social responsibility and marketing ethics have solidly entrenched themselves in the corporate marketing strategy and have become part of the day to day marketing activities in most business organizations.
Ethics and cooperate social responsibility goes hand in hand (Davidson, 2002). As a result is important for marketers to consider the ethical issues while undertaking corporate responsibility. In case the corporate social responsibility strategy lacks ethics chances are that the undertaking will have counterproductive effects (Murphy, P et al 2004). Similarly, the objectives of an organization’s corporate responsibility vary widely. For instance, the strategy act as a way of rewarding the customers for their continued support to the firm, being responsible to the environment and customers and others are purely marketing campaigns (Gould, Sep 2004).
In this case, it is difficult to accurately judge the objective of the car manufacturer. Indeed, offering to fund the students marketing projects is quite helpful to the students’ academics. Taking the students to compete in a project involving strategy of marketing cars is unarguably the best stage to enhance the students’ practical corporate marketing skills. In so doing, the car manufacturer does not only presents the students with an opportunity of taking their marketing perspective corporate while still in school but also seeks to enhance the highest level of creativity and innovativeness from these young marketing minds.
In my opinion, such projects are ideas for training exceptional marketers since they orientate students in creative marketing at this early stage of training. It should in fact be encouraged because it uplifts the level of practical marketing skills on the part of students. As a result the car manufacturer could have had social responsibility idea with an objective of enhancing the students marketing and creativity skills in developing practical marketing strategies.
However, the move by the manufacturer to target students is in itself suspects. Ideally, the car manufacturer having realized the creativity potential of the students intended by sponsoring this project to take advantage of the youngsters creativity to generate the best car marketing strategy for the company. Perhaps this can be explained by the presence of the company’s sales representatives and loans officer.
In my opinion they could have been brought to take note of the best and the most creative strategy that the project generates and apply them later in practical car marketing. Nevertheless, they are marketing expatriates hence their presence could have been the intention to use them as guides and evaluators of students in the project. Whatever the reason they were present, the sales representatives needed to be there since this presence is solidly consistent with the intent of the whole project.
Students are not potential market for cars hence it is not logical to view the project as direct car marketing campaigns. However, the car manufacturer may have in mind that people within the students’ background can be a potential such markets hence the sponsoring of the project could have been a manufacturer indirect marketing strategy, targeting teachers, the immediate communities and students’ parents.
Although it appears a good corporate social responsibility strategy and move, the ethical considerations appear limited in my own opinion. First, the manufacturer targets students’ who form part of the young and most vulnerable social group uses food and entertainment to lure them to participate in the competition.
In addition, the issue of funding the projects as a competition does not only have the potential to generate unhealthy rivalry within the students’ fraternity but also could consume a big chunk of their time for other scheduled schooling activities. Anyway that is the nature of marketing and corporate social responsibility where community gains in the same way as the organization. Nevertheless, marketing ethics must be part of it otherwise it may never achieve the intended objective.
References
Davidson, D. (2002). The Moral Dimension of Marketing: Essays on Business Ethics. South-Western Educational.
Murphy, P et al (2004). Ethical Marketing. Prentice Hall.
S.J.Gould, (2004) Sexuality and ethics in advertising: A research agenda and policy guideline perspective, Journal of Advertising. Web.