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Introduction
The promotion of alcoholic beverages is one of the “highly regulated“(Kline, 2009) form of marketing, and in some countries of the World the direct marketing of alcoholic beverages are completely banned. Scientific researches have proved that advertising of alcohol is not responsible for the higher consumption rate of alcohol. Basically the marketing is targeted only to increase the awareness of the customers and their brand locality. Some times the marketing of alcohols is targeted to increase the market share of the producers (Mele, 2008).
Over the years the target audience of alcoholic products has changed extensively. Conventionally there are some types of drinks which are termed as male drinks, and all the other brands can be consumed by both the male and female alike. According to financial reports, it has been counted that the total spending of the alcohol industry over marketing throughout the World is $2 billion. To be more specific, beer, a special type of alcoholic drink, was market worldwide in a year and the total money spend was $785 million in the financial year 2000 (Mele, 2008). In the year 1999, the Federal Trade Commission, the regulating body of the Alcohol industry in the United States of America, has issued the following statement concerning marketing of alcohol, “While many factors may influence an underage person’s drinking decisions, including among other things parents, peers and the media, there is reason to believe that advertising also plays a role” (Jones, 2005).
Other than the marketing aspect there are other factors that affect a person’s addiction to alcohol, like his environment, his formative years and like that. By the strict orders of the two international councils, European Union (EU) and the World Health Organization (WHO), the promotion of alcoholic products are to be controlled in a worldwide scale. The European section of WHO has taken a special initiative which has clearly drawn a frame work for the Alcohol Policy in the whole region, and they have issued five guidelines in the case of alcohol advertising. All the alcohol companies have to follow these guidelines to their very words, unless they will be penalized and even can be stripped off their license. The guidelines are as follows:
It may not be aimed specifically at minors or, in particular, depict minors consuming these beverages; It shall not link the consumption of alcohol to enhanced physical performance or to driving; It shall not create the impression that the consumption of alcohol contributes towards social or sexual success; It shall not claim that alcohol has therapeutic qualities or that it is a stimulant, a sedative or a means of resolving personal conflicts; It shall not encourage immoderate consumption of alcohol or present abstinence or moderation in a negative light; It shall not place emphasis on high alcoholic content as being a positive quality of the beverages (Hughes, 2006).
Background Section
In the United States of America, The Federal Trade Commission recently investigated the impact of alcohol advertising (along with the marketing of other flavored malt beverages) on the underage persons. They examined the marketing plans and advertising strategies and blue prints of different alcohol manufactures. They even recorded the age composition data of the companies for the numerical records. This is one of the most important analyses of recent times, which is entirely based on the marketing of the alcoholic products. After the survey is over, the commission issued a statement which said that in most of the cases the alcohol manufactures target the adults as their potential customers. As per marketing goes alcohol marketing has a niche in the sphere. But there is no direct evidence that shows that the companies target the underage population as a potential customer base (Kline, 2009).
In some of the states of United States, the rules that regulate the marketing procedure of the alcohol based products are said to be contradicting with the “First Amendment Free Speech Rights” (Hughes, 2006) as told in the United States Constitution. The state of Tennessee has banned any type of marketing of alcoholic beverages in the state. And also in many cases where the advertisements are still broadcasting, the authorities are editing out the names of the dealers, or the wholesalers and even in some cases the name of the product too. The State of Pennsylvania banned all the paid form of advertising on the alcoholic products in any type of newspapers that can reach the hands of the underage (Mele, 2008).
Analysis
However, still is it is true that marketing of alcoholic products increase the intake of alcohol? There are some facts that clearly prove the statement wrong.
Earlier in the essay it was important to mention that the Federal Trade Commission approved the fact that alcohol advertising and marketing does not promote alcohol consumption.
The Senate Sub-Committee of United States of America mentioned that they have not found any evidence on the fact that marketing of alcohol encourages non-drinkers to start drinking.
It is a proven fact that there is no direct relationship between alcohol marketing and alcohol consumption.
Though in recent times the expenditures for marketing and advertising of alcoholic beverages have increased significantly, but the price of the traffic facilities that are directly related to alcohol have dropped significantly (Jones, 2005).
It is a clear fact in the point of discussion that advertising and marketing do not increase the consumption of alcohol, and so there comes a very important question in the aspect, and that is why it is important to market the alcoholic beverages. But the answer is quite simple of the question, the production companies always want to increase their market share and so they aggressively market their products. As per the product category concept in marketing, alcohol is considered among the “mature” products. These types of products are slightly different from the other products. The consumers of alcohol always know about the product and the basic characteristics. So it is futile to address them about the products (Hughes, 2006).
Rather than increasing the amount of consumption the marketing of alcohol is directed towards increasing brand loyalty and also in some ways encouraging the consumers to switch their brands. The most important thing is that the effective marketing of alcohol is basically directed towards gaining market share. This ultimately gives the producer a great incentive to increase their market share, and this is the sole reason for the producers to focus of the establish customers and not try to make new customers. The products try to strengthen their customer base with loyal customers as well as try to take customers who earlier preferred other brands (Jones, 2005).
However, in this context it should be noted that on a social platform a well-formulated health system is required in every locality with a proper policy to check the aspects of drinking. “The goals for health systems are good health, responsiveness to the expectations of the population, and fair financial contribution” (Hughes, 2006). In other words health care systems should have a quality, efficiency and acceptability on one dimension and equity on another. But in this context the job would not just end in providing care but building a conscious environment would be equally important (Mele, 2008).
Conclusion
Alcohol marketing is a fascinating subject and eventually a really complex one too. In the United States the alcohol production companies have started to follow the ethical standards that are set by different regulatory bodies, so that their advertisements must not face any music after wards. All the marketing should be placed in the media where more the 70% of the viewers or audience or readers are mature persons (Hughes, 2006). The marketing must not allow any cartoon figures in the process. And most importantly, all the advertisements must contain all the statutory warnings and must strongly discourage irresponsible drinking. It is known Worldwide that alcohol is injurious to human health, but still alcohol is a very important part of today’s human society. There are some cardiovascular benefits of drinking alcohol too, and some alcoholic drinks have protective effects on diseases like stroke and all the diseases that are basically linked with artery.
In the final analysis it can be stated that all the companies that produce the alcoholic beverages have a huge impact of the World economics. In many countries they are the market leaders in the aspects of share market. So it is rally very important that the alcohol marketing should carry on. There are many different regulations on the marketing aspects throughout the World, and many countries try to burden the alcohol companies with unnecessary conditions for marketing. With a very careful look at the society, the companies can still market the products and not disturb any conditions of the society (Jones, 2005).
References
Hughes, A. (2006). Learning to trade ethically: knowledgeable capitalism, retailers and contested commodity chains. Geoforum, 37(3), 1008- 1020.
Jones, T. M. (2005). Instrumental stakeholder theory: a synthesis of ethics and economics. Academy of Management Review, 52(1), 345-357.
Kline, M. (2009). Ethics for International Business. Oxon: Routledge.
Mele, E. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the territory. New York : Routledge.
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