Question

'Blindly following the goal of customer satisfaction has led to many social and environmental ills'.
Do you agree? What should be done?

Answer 1

The marketing concept leads to customer satisfaction only and does not give any importance to the fact that it might create social and environmental ills. For example, if a drug producing company engage in selling drugs only for the satisfaction of the customers it will lead to a social ill if that drug causes harm through over dosage or abuse. Hence, any activity which satisfies human needs but is detrimental to the interests of the society at large cannot be justified. Hence, The business orientation should, therefore, not be short sighted to serve only consumers’ needs. It should also consider large issues of long-term social welfare, as illustrated above.