The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty - Pearson

Part 1 Marketing nowBAE extricated themselves from troubled Airbus, but the French and German governmentsare at loggerheads over troubled EADS – Airbus’s maker. Nicolas Sarkozy launched hispresidency with a friendly dinner in Berlin with German chancellor Angela Merkel. According tothe Financial Times, it went well until the new French president served up the tricky subject ofEADS. Mr Sarkozy wants to resolve the infighting between the French and German camps at theEuropean aerospace group. He appeared ready to talk tough to the Germans and unlikely toaccept any more diplomatic dithering. The French themselves helped create the current crisis atEADS and its Airbus affiliate. The scandal surrounding the disgraced former French boss ofEADS and Airbus – Noël Forgeard – was largely due to Paris political interference. 21Industries and other pressure groups have a right to representation in Parliament and themass media, although their influence can become too great. Fortunately, many powerful businessinterests once thought to be untouchable have been tamed in the public interest. For example, inthe EU and the US, consumerism campaigns have resulted in legislation requiring the carindustry to build more safety into its cars and cigarette and food companies to put health warningson their packages. Also, because the media receive advertising revenues from many differentadvertisers, it is easier to resist the influence of one or a few of them. As with politics, freedom ofthe press is an essential counterweight to powerful organisations. In a free society, too muchpower tends to result in counter-forces that check and offset these powerful interests.Let us now take a look at the criticisms that business critics have levelled at companies’marketing practices.Marketing’s impact on other businessesCritics charge that marketing practices can harm other companies and reduce competition.Three problems are involved: acquisition of competitors, marketing practices that create barriersto entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices.Critics claim that firms are harmed and competition reduced when companies expand byacquiring competitors rather than by developing their own new products. The large numberof acquisitions and the rapid pace of industry consolidation over the past two decades havecaused concern that vigorous young competitors will be absorbed and that competition will bereduced. In virtually every major industry – retailing, financial services, utilities, transportation,motor vehicles, telecommunications, entertainment – the number of major competitors isshrinking.Consider the recent feeding frenzy of acquisitions in the food industry – Unilever’s buyingBestfoods, Philip Morris’s snatching Nabisco, Nestlé buying Gerber, Danone buying 49 percent of Denmark’s Aqua d’Or and declaring it is placing ‘more emphasis on acquisitions as away of growing faster’. 22Acquisition is a complex subject. Acquisitions can sometimes be good for society. Theacquiring company may gain economies of scale that lead to lower costs and lower prices.84