Codes of practice

On top of the various laws that are in place, certain industries have drawn up codes of practice- sometimes as a result of political pressure- to protect consumer interests. The UK advertising industry, for example, has drawn up a self-regulatory Code of Advertising Standards and Practice designed to keep advertising 'legal, decent, honest and truthful'. Similarly, the marketing research industry has drawn up a code of practice to protect people from unethical activities such as using marketing research as a pretext for selling. However, many commentators are critical of the potential effectiveness of voluntary codes of conduct in industries like oil exploration and clothing manufacture.

Marketing management must be aware of the constraints on its activities brought about by the political and legal environment. It must assess the extent to which there is a need to influence political decisions that may affect operations; and the degree to which industry practice needs to be self-regulated in order to maintain high standards of customer satisfaction and service.

Physical forces

As we have seen, the consumer movement aims to protect the rights of consumers; environmentalists, in turn, aim to protect the physical environment from the costs associated with producing and marketing products and services. They are con­cerned with the social costs of consumption, not just the personal costs to the consumer. Six environmental issues are of particular concern. These are the use of environmentally friendly ingredients in products, recyclable and non-wasteful packaging, protection of the ozone layer, animal testing of new products, pollution, and energy conservation. Marketers need to be aware of the threats and opportunities associated with each of these issues.

Use of environmentally friendly ingredients

The use of biodegradable and natural ingredients when practicable is favoured by environmentalists. For example, ICI, the UK chemical group, has developed Biopol, which it claims is the first fully biodegradable commercial plastic. It states that the product's applications include disposable nappies, rubbish bags, and paper plates and cups coated with a thin plastic film. It is already being used in Germany to make bottles for Wella's Sanara shampoo, in the USA for Brocato International's Evanesce shampoo and in Japan for Ishizawa Kenkyujo's Earthic Alga shampoos and conditioners.

Recyclable and non-wasteful packaging

The past 20 years or so have seen significant growth in recycling throughout Europe. In Austria, used batteries, PCs, refrigerators and other products containing potentially dangerous wastes have to be returned by consumers and gathered by retailers; they are then recycled or treated centrally. Household waste is sorted into materials to be recycled: biological waste and the non-reusable rest. The fact that Austrians are environment conscious has led to an oversupply of recycled material, thus raising the price of waste disposal. As a result, consumers have put pressure on retailers and manufacturers to avoid overpackaging. Recycling is also important in Sweden where domestic industry has established a special company to organize the collection and sorting of waste for recycling, and in Finland where 35 per cent of packaging is recycled. Cutting out waste in packaging is not only environmentally friendly but also makes commercial sense. Thus companies have intro­duced concentrated detergents and refill packs, and removed the cardboard packaging around some brands of toothpaste, for example. The savings can be substantial; in Germany, Lever GmbH saved 30 per cent by introducing concentrated detergents, 20 per cent by using lightweight plastic bottles, and the intro­duction of refills for concentrated liquids reduced the weight of packaging materials by a half.