Marketing and Society Essay

ASSESSMENT 2: INDIVIDUAL ESSAY (2,500 words, 80% weighing)

Overview of the Task:

You are required to show your understanding of the (evolving) role of marketing in addressing current day’s societal needs. The assessment therefore requires you to apply the appropriate

theories relevant to sustainable marketing, to argue for and against the role of marketing in addressing the needs of today’s society. Your essay must include the following sections:

• COVER PAGE: Include a cover page with all the relevant identifying detail
• INTRODUCTION (25%): Discuss the evolving role of marketing, including for example why sustainable marketing has become more important, how marketing mixes, branding decisions have been modified to address the pillars of sustainability etc.
• EVOLVING SOCIETAL NEEDS AND ROLE OF MARKETING (55%): Include a discussion that demonstrates your understanding of what today’s societal needs are and how marketing is meeting/not meeting them. To do this, you will need to apply the triple bottom line concepts and relate them to the UN SDGS to help you highlight such needs in more depth, ensuring that you tie these to the role of marketing. Also provide some justification why marketing is/is not able to address these needs, rather than just listing the examples. Examples of how you could structure this section will be explored in more detail during the seminars.
• CONCLUSION (20%): Include a conclusion summarizing your view of the role of marketing in today’s society, based on your previous discussion
• EXAMPLES: You must use examples throughout the discussion
• LIST OF REFERENCES: Remember to reference within the text as well as provide a reference list at the end of the essay. Use Harvard referencing style. https://www.kent.ac.uk/search/?q=harvard+style+guide+

Required Readings

You must read and cite at least 8 academic peer reviewed journal articles. It is also expected that you will consult other sources of information including textbooks, market reports, reputable newspapers, among others. Please do not use non-academic resources like ‘Wikipedia’. Start off with journal articles such as these:

Gordon, R., Carrigan, M., & Hastings, G. (2011). A framework for Sustainable Marketing.

Marketing Theory, 11(2), 143-163.

Mitchell, R. W., Wooliscroft, B., & Higham, J. (2010). Sustainable Market Orientation: A New Approach to Managing Marketing Strategy. Journal of Macromarketing, 30(2), 160-170.

Peattie K. and Crane A (2005) Green Marketing: Legend, Myth, Farce or Prophesy? Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 8 (4): 357-370

Sheth, J. N., & Sisodia, R. S. (2005). A Dangerous Divergence: Marketing and Society. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 24 (1), 160–162

Wilkie, W. L., & Moore, E. S. (2012). Expanding Our Understanding of Marketing in Society.

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(1), 53-73.

P/S: The suggestions offered on what read are not exhaustive; you should use them as a starting point. However do note that these papers do discuss some of the key ideas and themes of discussion that contribute to getting a good grade in the essay.

Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is a form of academic misconduct. Plagiarism may be committed in a number of ways, including:
  • Copying another person’s work or ideas. This includes copying from other students and from published or unpublished material such as books, internet sources, paper mills, computer code, designs or similar

• Submitting previously submitted or assessed work of your own without attribution

• Submitting work solicited from (or written by) others

• Failing to adequately reference your sources

• Also ensure that you reference appropriately. Every time you state an argument or information from a source in your own words you have to provide a reference. Current Harvard Reference Guidelines are available at: https://www.kent.ac.uk/search/?q=harvard+style+guide+

See more of these guidelines in Section 2 (pgs. 8-9) of the Module Guideline (Uploaded on Moodle)

Specific Assessment Guidelines on Presentation and Structure

1. This is an individual assignment that counts towards 80% of the module assessment.
2. Exceeding to the word count limit will be penalized.
3. Please note that anything within the body of the essay (discussions, references, headings, subheadings, words in diagrams and tables) will be included in the word count.
4. The essay should be written Times New Roman size 12 font, with 1.5 line spacing.
5. Ensure that your paper is well structured; use numbered headings and subheadings; any diagrams/tables used must also be numbered and labelled. When you use diagrams ensure that the diagrams used are not just copied and pasted from other sources, they must be your own depictions of the ideas you discuss in the essay, and related to the case/context.
6. Discussions must flow coherently and be grammatically correct, and sections interconnected logically. Avoid direct quotes; use your own words and provide a well- thought out argument. Poorly structured papers that do not flow coherently will score less than those that flow better and that have better structure.
7. All readings should be clearly referenced in-text using the ‘Harvard Style. Unless you can provide sources for your data the basis on which you made your decisions and recommendations will be questioned.
8. Furthermore a full reference list must be provided at the end of the document, with references alphabetically arranged and all relevant details provided of the resources used. (e.g. for a journal article: Gordon, R., Carrigan, M., & Hastings, G. (2011). A framework for Sustainable Marketing. Marketing Theory, 11(2): 143-163.) Poor referencing in-text and in the reference list will be penalized.
9. DO NOT include any appendices section; your discussion must all be within the main body.