 occur is to use Marketing Partner like P&G did to match their product up with an option for the Happy Meal at McDonalds. High Pressure Selling would have benefits of getting the product to the target market to over come some of the educating needs for the consumers.
Section #4 – Shoddy or Unsafe Products Vitango product development so far has had a long lead time. Studies on how the product has improved the attentiveness of the children have been done in a control environment. Other issues have also been consider such as the availability for clean fresh water. This has also caused another delay to getting the product to market. A need now to develop the Vitango fortified beverage in liquid form must now occur to meet the objective to provide a safe and consistence product. With the time that Coke-Cola has invested, this company is not going to turn out a product that does not meet the standards.
Question 3 (15 marks)
Identify three criticisms of marketing’s impact on society. Describe how GAIN and the Vitango case might be subject to these criticisms. Support your answers with examples from the Vitango case. Divide your answer into three sections, one for each criticism.
Section #1 – Consumerism Gain mandate to assist companies in lobbying for favourable tariffs and tax rate and along with speedier regulatory reviews of new products in targeted countries. They also give money to Local Governments to increase the demand for fortified foods. This includes large scale Public relation campaigns or a Government “Seal of Approval”. In Vitango case, Gain is there to assist with $70 million over a 5 year period starting in 2002. Consumerism here is driven by Gain and how it assists companies like Coke-Cola develop and deliver to market in developing countries fortified foods to the target markets. Here Gain will also help deliver the Vitango Product to the children that most need it. This will be done through programs like available in schools for free and other nutritional programs. Gain will also encourage the basic pricing to be more competitive with what the consumer can afford. Consumerism is how Gain will make a difference in this Marketing Project.
Section #2 – Environmentalisms Environmentalisms is not quite evident is this case. Coke-Cola would need to package the Vitango product some how. There would be a need to look at how the packaging would effect the environment as poor countries may not have a good recycling program. Here Gain could support by providing money to develop the packaging to be environmentally friendly whether recyclable or bio degradable. Another aspect is the fact that a balance diet is still required in conjunction to Vitango product. Vitango fortified beverage does not contain any juice and is intended as a supplement.
Section #3 – Public Actions to Regulate Marketing Gain, Coke-Cola and others deal with public actions to regulated marketing. In the case with Vitango product, Critics has said the selling or giving out fortified foods will not solve the malnutrition problem of poverty stricken families. This also does not teach them to choose a balance diet. Another criticism is that product like Vitango will contain large amounts of fat, sugar and salt which could lead to obesity. Again others claim that teaching them to grow the fruits and vegetables would be better than provide fortified foods. At any rate a combination of these criticisms need to be considered and use the marketing plans. One instance is the education to go with the product that encourages a well balanced diet from the fruits and vegetables the critics pointed out. Public actions to Regulate Marketing in an area are what Gain and Coke-Cola need to pay attention to.
Question 4 (25 marks)
Consider the five principles of enlightened marketing. Could the Vitango case be considered enlightened marketing?
Divide your answer into five sections, one for each principle. Section #1 – Consumer-Oriented Marketing Vitango fortified beverage product is definitely is Consumer-Oriented Marketing. The market that was defined for the product is