Q.What is the societal concept of marketing?

The societal concept of marketing is an extension of the marketing concept that adds an ethical and social dimension. While the marketing concept focuses on satisfying customer needs to achieve company goals, the societal concept insists that this satisfaction must also preserve or enhance the consumer's and society's long-term well-being.

Under this view, a company must balance three often conflicting considerations: company profits, consumer want-satisfaction, and public interest. For example, a fast-food chain might satisfy customer hunger (consumer want) and earn profits (company goal), but if its products harm public health or the environment, it fails the societal test. …

To understand the societal concept, you first need to see where it fits in the evolution of marketing thought. The NCERT Class XII Business Studies textbook traces five competing concepts under which organisations design and carry out their marketing activities: the production concept, the product concept, the selling concept, the marketing concept, and finally the societal marketing concept. Each one represents a different philosophy about what should drive a business.

The earlier concepts were narrow. The production concept assumed consumers favour products that are widely available and inexpensive — so the firm focuses on high production efficiency and mass distribution. The product concept believed consumers will favour products that offer the most quality, performance, or innovative features. The selling concept assumed consumers will not buy enough unless the company undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort. Then came the marketing concept, which was a genuine revolution: it said the key to achieving organisational goals is to be more effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value to your target markets. In other words, find what customers want and give it to them.

But even the marketing concept has a blind spot. It focuses entirely on satisfying the immediate wants of the customer. What if what the customer wants today harms them or society tomorrow? A fast-food chain that gives people exactly what they crave — cheap, tasty, high-calorie meals — is following the marketing concept perfectly. Yet the long-term consequences for public health, and for the environment from packaging waste, are serious. This is where the societal concept steps in.

The societal marketing concept holds that the organisation’s task is to determine the needs, wants, and interests of target markets and to deliver the desired satisfactions more effectively and efficiently than competitors, in a way that preserves or enhances the consumer’s and the society’s well-being. It is the most enlightened philosophy because it adds a third dimension: society’s long-term interests.

So the societal concept asks marketers to balance three considerations simultaneously:

• Company profits — the business must survive and grow.
• Consumer satisfaction — the product must meet genuine needs and wants.
• Societal welfare — the product and its production must not harm the community, the environment, or future generations. …