Marketing for a Better World

Introduction

Marketing has evolved as a management discipline to be the interface between a firm and the potential customers of its products. The practice of marketing has since permeated every aspect of society, and it has a pervasive impact on the quality of life of both current and future generations.  This course will provide a critical examination of the extent to which welfare, individual happiness, social cohesion, and sustainability are impacted by marketing and consumption, both favorably and unfavorably.  We will draw from insights developed in psychology, sociology, economics and the academic marketing discipline itself. 

The course has two major objectives within the program portfolio.  First, it tries to make students familiar with critical perspectives and scientific findings about the impact of their profession on society as a whole. Second, it tries to highlight how they can use the marketing expertise they develop in the program to not only to help firms make profits, but also help to create a better world.

Course content

Issues covered in the course:

• Marketing’s positive contribution to society. 
• Corporate social responsibility as a marketing practice
• Negative consequences of marketing for the world:  materialism, sexual stereotyping, overconsumption, exploitation, impulsive & compulsive buying.
• Marketing, self-control, and the pursuit of happiness
• Evolutionary origins of unsustainable consumer behavior
• Social Marketing
• Behavioral economics:  Nudging of sustainable consumer behavior.
• Moral balancing and rebound effects
• Political orientation and consumer behavior.
• Marketing and the sharing economy. 
• Recyling - circular economy - upcycling