The lack of or failure of a regulatory system creates havoc as can be attested by the poor traffic flow caused mainly by not implementing the regulations that were meant to avoid the situations now pertaining . It would be expensive if not impossible to correct many of these oversights .
Then our guest dropped a bomb on us by asking what were the marketing professionals doing about this situation ? We were a bit bamboozled by the question as we did not exactly see how the state of our city ’ s poor planning had to do with the marketing profession .
Marketing drives business which in turn drives the country , he quipped , how was it then possible to not have the marketing voice on the planning table when the decisions of the city are being wooven . Where were the marketing professionals when the chaos was being created ?
As an example our guest explained that it was marketing that defined London as a historical tourist destination and at present the visitor ’ s flow has been hit hard by the corona epidemic but rest assured that it is marketing that will define the eventual new normal and appeal to would be visitors . The revival of the tourism business in the UK will be determined by the marketing effort that is carried out to convince the public that it is now safe to congregate or to find other ways of delivering the experience without contravening health protocols .
As far as he was concerned it was on the shoulders of the marketing professionals to package the country as a tourist , investment and conference destination . From the time he arrived that is what we were doing , wasn ’ t it also our job to ensure that what is said and what is seen match .
The country ’ s image abroad is shaped my marketing professionals and they must be the arbiters to ensure that the reality on the ground corresponds to the perception otherwise the image will be adjudged a lie and the whole country suffers when negative perceptions prevail .
In developed countries marketing fraternities are powerful lobbies and are in a pivotal position to influence policy and processes that ensure that the country has the necessary infrastructure and the necessary level of development consistent with the image that country desires .
The developed countries go a step further to ensure that the private businesses are empowered to operate in a free but responsible manner . Businesses need to maintain independence and creativity yet ensure the professionals are pulling in the same direction .
This is usually done by passing legislation that enables marketing professionals to operate in free enterprise within a framework that supports the overriding objective which the government has formulated in consultation with the same professionals .
Our guest was speaking with the assumption that we have vibrant and influential marketing institutions that ensure that the country is presented in the best possible light and that businesses operate within a broad but clearly defined framework that ensures the country ’ s interests are paramount .
With the advent of social media this role of the institutions has become very necessary as many people in the shadowy corners of technology can distort and misrepresent the image that the country wishes to portray as we had experienced with our guest .
We decided to inform our guest that we actually did not have in place a regulated marketing framework run by the business fraternity and to which all subscribe . This surprised and amazed him but he pointed out that he now understood the chaos in the city .
Anything left to itself has a tendency to deteriorate into chaos since everyone operates in their selfish individual best interests and not for a common good . Everyone for himself style of running anything produces sub-optimal results hence the real administrative need to organize and cooperate .
The conversation now turned on how we manage as a country to operate without a regulatory system for marketers , since there are a multitude of benefits that accrue to the country by having the marketing professionals follow a code of conduct and adhere to a code of practice .
It is to a country ’ s advantage to set up a set of mutually beneficial standards which are obeyed by those that carry the marketer ’ s titles . They are able to communicate efficiently with the government through bodies that have interests of marketers and the whole business environment at heart .
The existence of a cadre of professionals subject to the same set of rules and regulations promotes fairness in business dealings and provides a point of reference should there be a dispute or an activity that may need to be resolved to determine whether it is fair and / or acceptable .
The existence of the regulations also guard against false and deceptive claims in the provision of products and services . There are many occasions that it is not very clear when a company makes claims that may not be entirely true just to promote sales .
It naturally follows that this is an excellent and cost effective way to minimize and control fraud . There will always be companies and individuals that will push the limits of credibility when it comes to the provision of their product or service but a regulatory body keeps them in check .
There is also the tricky and thorny issue of intellectual property issues . We are aware that many a people with brilliant business ideas are not necessarily savvy to the legal implications or their rights to an idea . A regulatory body looks into such details .
Technological advances have created a dicey regulatory environment in that many organizations are in a position to collect a lot of data on their clients and other business associates . The ever expanding storage capacity and retrieval therein has opened new cans of worms .
Chief among these is the legal question on privacy and the secondary use of the collected data for marketing purposes . Individual privacy is guaranteed by law but technology has turned this principle upside down and it is at present in a very grey area .
In the past the main complaints on delivery channels that were used by marketers included door to door high pressure salespeople , telemarketing and cold calls and the unsolicited spam e-mails that would bombard the consumer .
But with the advent of the internet and data mining techniques this type of marketing has gone to a whole new level as the analytics are able to map a consumer behavior and preferences that a marketer
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