Page 103 - Foundations of Marketing

70 Part 1 | Strategic Marketing and Its Environment

Socially Responsible Products
Many car companies are
embracing the electric car as
a long-term, socially respon-
sible benefit to their product
offerings.

AP Images/PRNewsFoto/Audi of America, Inc.

Socially responsible efforts such as IBM’s have a positive impact on local communities;
at the same time, they indirectly help the sponsoring organization by attracting goodwill, pub-
licity, and potential customers and employees. Thus, while social responsibility is certainly a
positive concept in itself, most organizations embrace it in the expectation of indirect long-
term benefits.
Socially responsible organizations strive for marketing citizenship by adopting a strategic
focus for fulfilling the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic social responsibilities that
their stakeholders expect of them. Companies that consider the diverse perspectives of stake-
holders in their daily operations and strategic planning are said to have a stakeholder orienta-
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tion, an important element of corporate citizenship. A stakeholder orientation in marketing
goes beyond customers, competitors, and regulators to include understanding and addressing
the needs of all stakeholders, including communities and special-interest groups. As a result,
organizations are now under pressure to undertake initiatives that demonstrate a balanced
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perspective on stakeholder interests. Pfizer, for example, has secured stakeholder input on
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a number of issues, including rising health-care costs and health-care reform. As Figure 3.2
shows, the economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic dimensions of social responsibility can
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be viewed as a pyramid. The economic and legal aspects have long been acknowledged, but
ethical and philanthropic issues have gained recognition more recently.

Economic Dimension
At the most basic level, all companies have an economic responsibility to be profitable so
that they can provide a return on investment to their owners and investors, create jobs for the
marketing citizenship
The adoption of a strategic community, and contribute goods and services to the economy. How organizations relate to
focus for fulfilling the economic, stockholders, employees, competitors, customers, the community, and the natural environ-
legal, ethical, and philanthropic ment affects the economy.
social responsibilities expected Marketers also have an economic responsibility to compete fairly. Size frequently gives
by stakeholders companies an advantage over others. Large firms often can generate economies of scale that

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