On this grey and wet Saturday morning, I would like to share with you a few ideas on marketing. I was motivated to write this because an interesting report on beer and marketing from Russia was brought to my attention:
For a long time, the Russian government has been trying to find ways to reduce the alcohol consumption of the Russian people. One of the things they did was forbid adverts for alcohol. The ban was for the hard stuff like vodka, but the beverages that contain less alcohol, such as wine and beer, were not included.
Almost two years ago, they decided to rate beer, too, among the “alcoholic beverages”. This meant that now beer could no longer be advertised in the media and on public places.
Ever since then, successful new foundations of medium-sized breweries have been on the incline in Russia. On the other hand, the big breweries that used to control the entire market have lost considerable shares.
This might well prove my thesis that marketing is a weapon for the “big ones” to use successfully in order to maintain their supremacy and eliminate small competition from the market. Or else to weaken said competition to such a degree that they can buy them.
And I feel strengthened with my idea that marketing, too, is one of the themes that might benefit from being regarded critically.
Marketing is certainly not a God-given element of our economy. Perhaps it is just a necessary evil of our over-heated late capitalism? Are we talking an economic system that no longer feels socially responsible for the people and the community?
Is it possible that our consumption behaviour is manipulated by marketing in a way that has nothing in common with liberty?
And, to top it all, is it perhaps marketing that generates this consumption society that seems to shamelessly tend towards a modern version of the “Cargo-Kults”?
Well, I find many small issues that surprise me. For instance the public radio stations massively using our fees in order to advert in various media. Or the adverts the Federal Ministries put online in order to tell us all how well they work.
I stopped watching TV programmes that get interrupted by adverts a long time ago. And on the internet, I use adblock (which I gladly recommend to all of you).
But what annoys me even more is how private companies fight each other on the market using up a lot of money. Sometimes they use up half of their entire turnover – or even more – just to pay for sales and marketing. Mind you, we are not talking the production or development of their products, but just manipulating people towards buying the product!
Take, for example, the telecom and pharmaceutics industries. More often than not, the main cost in these sectors is what they spend on sales and marketing. In other words: if the consumer (we) pay for getting a product or service, half of our money is used just for manipulating us towards buying said product. …
🙂 Except with the tobacco industry (Tabakindustrie). It is different in that sector. They say that the profit is 40% of the turnover!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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