SL paper 2, section C, sample F
SL 8. With reference to one organization organization that you have studied, studied, discuss the importance of innovation and of ethics in marketing. My chosen organisation is Safaricom, a K enyan mobile network operator. Safaricom has clearly been innovative in its marketing approach since its initial launch in the Kenyan market. However, its marketing campaigns have also had its fair share of ethical issues. This essay will examine the importance of innovation in the marketing of Safaricom’s products and will also look at the ethical concerns that arise from its marketing. Marketing is the process of researching into identifying consumer needs and employing appropriate price, product, place and promotion strategies in order to satisfy these needs profitably. Innovation on the other hand refers to the development of new products, processes and services by firms, so as to meet the demands of consumers. Ethics refers to the practices that are acceptable and have no harm to different societies around the world. In order to remain competitive Saf aricom has come up with a number of innovative practices that has made it gain a competitive advantage over other mobile providers providers in the country. One such product is the M-Pesa or also known as the “mobile “mobile money”. M-Pesa has made made it very easy for Kenyan consumers to send and receive money from any corner of the country. Therefore, in addition to being able to communicate via mobile phone, this product enables one to make financial transactions without needing to have a bank account. Since one of the requirements is that you need to have an account with T-com this has enabled the company to reach out to a vast majority of the Kenyan people and therefore expand their customer base. This was both a product development and diversification strategy in reference to the Ansoff matrix. Firstly, because it was introducing a new product to the existing market (product development) and secondly it introduced a new product to new customers (diversification). However, regarding ethics this innovative product had a number of concerns. Many financial institutions have raised concerns regarding its ease of transferability and argued that it could be an avenue to send fake money because of its less tight checks of verifying the money’s authenticity as well as its recipients. On the other hand, many small scale producers have welcomed this idea and said that it has eased the way business is done and has led to increased business profitability and growth. Safaricom has also come up with a number of ways of ensuring that their products reach their customers. One such way is by using language that appeals to the youth known as “Sheng” (which is a combination of English and Swahili language). For example, “bamba 50” (airtime (airtime worth 50 shillings). However, some conservative conservative consumers have felt that this is not an appropriate way to market market ones’ product because of their association with “Sheng” speakers and the type of cultural context they represent. Safaricom has also been known known to use some bait and switch approaches approaches that seem a bit too good to be true. For example, offering prices of some products that are quite low for a limited period of time and when a customer gets to the shop to buy them in some cases you are told that the stock they had just got finished. This therefore makes one to buy the other more expensive offers on stock. So the question is, was there really an offer as Safaricom suggested? To continue its innovative approach, approach, Safaricom has a very good training program for its employees and has allocated a large budget for its sales and marketing department to ensure this happens. In addition to this Safaricom has been able to reach many parts of Kenya due to its Corporate So cial Responsibility (CSR) programme. In this effort it has championed the initiative of integrating the use of mobile phones in learning through its e-learning project in many parts of rural Kenya. However, since this programme makes extensive use of the internet in its applicability, issues regarding authenticity do arise in its implementation. In conclusion, Safaricom has undoubtedly been innovative in its approach to reaching its target market and provided a much needed product to the Kenyan consumer. However, ethically they have had some issues in their attempt to market their products. Clearly, they are doing something about this and currently as it stands their innovative practices have provided more good than harm to the Kenyan stakeholders.
Business management teacher support material
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