Welcome to Ethics and Public Policy!

October 25, 2010

Welcome!

• Today’s tasks:– Introduce ourselves– Go over the syllabus– Set the scene for the course

The big questions…

• What are some major consumer problems we face today?

• How might we (as consumer and as marketers) go about fixing them?

Consumer problems

• Obesity– Soon to be the number one preventable cause of

death in the country and then the world

Consumer problems

• Smoking– 20% of the adult population in the US smokes • 50 years ago, 50% of men smoked, 30% of women

– 1000 new smokers every day (90% start in high school)

– 60% of smokers will die due to smoking-related causes

– The current number one cause of preventable death in the world

Consumer problems

• Charitable giving– 89% of households give something – $1600 is average donation per year– Accounts for 2.2% of GDP

• An important question: – Who/what does the money go to?

Consumer problems

Consumer problems

Consumer problems

OR

OR

OR

Corporate problems

Corporate problems

Consumer problems• Nutrition

– School lunch programs, prepackaged food, affordable food• Medical decision making

– Pharmaceutical marketing, end of life decisions• Energy consumption

– Dependence on foreign oil, dependence on fossil fuels• Financial decision making

– Credit cards, retirement, savings• Poverty

– Children in poverty, welfare, food stamps, homelessness• Addiction

– Gambling, drugs, alcohol• Violence in the media

– Children and video games, movies, TV shows• And more…

– Product safety, organ donation, sweatshops, developing markets, allocation of resources…

What is TCR? CSR?

• Transformative Consumer Research• Research framed by a fundamental problem or

opportunity– Strives to respect, uphold, and improve life in relation

to the conditions, demands, potential, and effects of consumption

• Corporate Social Responsibility• Corporate decision making that takes public

interest into account– Honoring a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit

Mick, 2006

Shareholder marketing?

The firm

Shareholders

Stakeholder marketing?

The firm

Communities Customers

Employees

Suppliers

Financiers

Government

Media Competitors

Special-interest groups

Consumer advocate

groups

Meaningful work

• A year out of this program, what do you expect your job will be?

• What kind of job contributes the most to general well-being?

• Practicality aside, if you could be doing anything 10 years from now, what would it be?

In this course…

• Two main sections:

– How can we (as firms and as consumers) help consumers make better choices?

– How can we (as firms and as consumers) help firms make better choices?

Next time…

• Why do consumers make mistakes?

• What can marketing do to help?