9. How Marketing Makes for Better Democracy

Abstract

Over the years, marketing has increasingly been viewed as a major cause for many social and environmental problems. The role of marketing has been widely perceived to be prospering at the expense of society. Marketing decisions taken primarily to increase market share and profits have had a great impact on society at large and thus have significant implications. The concepts of marketing and society have become trendy and almost every organization is beginning to embrace some responsibility towards bringing business and society back together. Greater Good: How Marketing Makes for Better Democracy is one of the recent attempts to connect marketing and society with the argument that marketing is like democracy and that citizens should be treated more like consumers. This builds the context for understanding how marketing performs an essential societal function because marketing is more democratic than politics. It also reflects how people may benefit if the political and public realms are guided by the best of practices of marketing. With a multitude of concepts from marketing, the author goes on to explain that citizens can learn from the customers and governments can learn from marketers.