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Marketing and the quality of life
Journal of Economic Psychology 1 (1981) 283-301 North-Holland Publishing Company
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MARKETING AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE Johan A R N D T * Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Norway Received March 9, 1981; accepted June 16, 1981
This article explores the relationshil~ between marketing and quality of life. The first part develops a conceptualization of quality of life based on the idea that citizens are involved in exchanging resources to new resources or to ultimate satisfaction in a set of arenas of action. The so-called objective and subjective approaches to measuring quallty of life address different aspects of the exchange relationships and their context. The article claims that marketing at least indirectly has contributed to a higher quality of life by rendering work life possible and by providing the goods and services entering the consuming life arena. At the same time, marketing has had a negative influence by giving priority to short-term, materialistic needs. Necessary institutional changes in marketing are indicated. They've got enough food, sexual freedom and indoor toilets. Why the deuce aren't they happy? George Bernhard Shaw (about the English young)
Marketing and the quality of life Marketing in the Western world has contributed to the highest level of economic development ever enjoyed by the average man. Nevertheless, at the same time, marketing activities as well as the marketing philosophy have never been more questioned, criticized and even ridiculed. What is happening is that the criteria for evaluating marketing's performance are in a transition. There is a growing concern with quality rather than quantity, with a more humanized and self-actualizing life setting rather than with income and consumption, with what people do or should do rather than what they own, and with the responsible
* Author's address: Johan Amdt, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5035 Bergen-Sandviken, Norway.
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preservation of human and physical resources rather than with their exploitation. True to form, several alert marketing writers detected the value changes early (Clewett and Olson 1974; Fisk 1974; Henion and Kinnear 1976; and Reynolds and Barksdale 1978). Front-running textbooks such as Kotler (1976: 486) declare in no uncertain terms that maximization of life quality should be the goal of marketing. However, how this reshaping of marketing should occur is left unsaid. Hence, the purpose of this article is to discuss the potentials and problems of redirecting marketing to enhance the quality of life. (An earlier, shorter version was published in Arndt (1978b).) Before the issue of the new role of marketing may be constructively addressed, however, it is necessary to clarify what the "quality of life" actually implies.
Research on the quality of life
The term "quality of life" has obvious positive connotations. At the same time the term remains nebulous and overgrown with meanings. The identity of quality of life has so far not been adequately pinned down by any precise and widely accepted definition. There are several reports such as Liu (1975), Hudson (1977), and Mulvihill (1978) of abortive attempts to define and quantify quality of life. As a matter of fact, the very diffuseness and ambiguity of the quality of life notion may be an explanation for its universal attraction. On the other hand, the lack of a satisfactory conceptualization is a major obstacle for the committed and full-hearted implementation of the quality of life concept by decision-makers in government and industry. As long as different user groups are able to read their own views and interpretations into the term, concerted action is unlikely to follow. Clues to the identity of quality of life may be found by examining the emergence of the term.
The origin of the quality of life term Early empirical studies on the quality of life appeared already before World War ! I, for instance, see Thorndike (1939). The present research tradition, however, originated mainly with the social indicators move-
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ment in the 1960's (Bauer 1966). In several ways, this movement was a reaction to the alleged "economic philistinism" or "econocentrism" of the economics establishment in public planning and national accounting. To measure total well-being of society and its citizens, the charge was that the conventional economic "indirect" indicators as used in the national accounting systems were insufficient or even invalid. Instead, the only valid measures were those directly related to total life satisfaction. Biderman (1974: 27-28) has proposed a sociology of science explanation for the emergenc.e and later course of the social indicators movement. He suggests that economists, feeling threatened, have attempted to blunt the edge of the movement by partially incorporating it. However, the recent "conversions" by leading economists such as Samuelson (1973) and Scitovsky (1976) and even operations researcher Ackoff (1976) can hardly be dismissed as defensive reactions or attempts to maintain the best-selling status of textbooks. A strong original force stimulating the development of social indicators was the growing need of public administrators for information measuring the impact of government programs and the effect of public policies. Hence, initially, the work on indicators was spurred by a very pragmatic concern giving primary attention to formulating performance measures. A second force behind the social indicators movement was a growing desire among social scientists for more accurate and meaningful descriptive data measuring the general state of society. As noted by Stzhneider (1976) the mainstream of current social indicators research has tended to respond to this general explanatory need. The role of social indicators in the.administrative process has so far been neglected.
The measurement of quality of life As in the consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction area (Hunt 1977; and Day 1977), there are two main approaches to the study of the quality of life, the objective and the subjective indicators approach. There seems to have emerged a clear pattern of division of labor among the academic disciplines in their approach to quality of life studies. Researchers from economics and public administration have favored ob° jective indicators. On the other hand, behavioral scientists dominate the tradition of subjective measures. A prominent example of the objective social indicators studies is the
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attempt to measure the quality of life in different states of the U.S. by the Midwest Research Institute (Liu et al. 1973). More than 100 individual measures obtained from existing statistical sources were combined into nine main groups: (1) Individual status, (2) Individual equality, (3) Living conditions, (4) Agriculture, (5) Technology, (6) Economic status, (7) Education, (8) Health and welfare, and (9) State and local governments. The scores obtained for each state in the nine groups were combined into an overall quality of life index. Other major studies in this tradition are quoted in Liu (1975), Schneider (1976), and Hudson (1977). The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan has been a leading center for empirical research on the experienced quality of life, see Campbell and Converse (1972), Strumpel (1974), Andrews and Withey (1976) and Campbell et al. (1976). In contrast to the objective indicators tradition, this work has focused on the individual as the unit of analysis and used survey techniques to obtain measures of subjective well-being in a variety of domains. While objective indicators offer advantages of using secondary data, normally having sufficient reliability, such "surrogates" present nagging questions of construct validity. It is by no means self-evident that the operationalizations actually measure quality of life. The problems relating to the interpretations of divorce rates as an indicator are symptomatic of the confusion. In some cases high divorce rates are viewed as a negative factor, suggesting a high amount of "social tension". An opposite interpretation is that many divorces indicate "enlightened society" adding positively to quality of life, see Campbell and Converse (1972: 6) and Hudson (1977: 20). The subjective indicators approach to quality o f life studies promises higher potential validity of the measures used. At. the same time there are several problems associated with the approach. As the quality of life experienced depends on the relationship between the objective situation on the one hand and on the other, aspirations and expectations, it follows that the same objective quality of life level will be perceived differently by different persons. Hence, public policies geared to maximizing experienced quality of life can degenerate into a conservative orientation maintaining the status quo. More attention may be given successful, yet dissatisfied members of society who are captives of the "hedonic treadmill" than to unsuccessful members experiencing "a humble but happy life".
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Expectedly, attempts to correlate data on objective and subjective quality of life indicators have tended to show weak relationships. For instance, Schneider (1976) concluded that the reported life satisfaction of U.S. citizens appeared to be largely independent of the physical conditions of the cities in which they live. Similarly, Allardt (1975) found only weak relationships between objective and subjective measures in a large-scale comparative quality of life study conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. To conclude, the apparent unresolved issues, the inconsistent results, and the so far limited practical use of the quality of life research are to a large degree the results of inadequate conceptualizations. As in the consumer behavior area, the preoccupation with measurement and quantification and the premature rush to the data have hindered progress in developing the proper conceptual foundatior/s of the subject matter. The next section presents some tentative ideas as to how quality of life may be conceived. Toward a conceptualization of quality of life
Here, siding with the University of Michigan school, quality of life is essentially viewed as a subjective, experiential concept. If the concept is to make phenomenological sense, the quality of life must ultimately be in the eye of the beholder and must reflect a person's evaluation of his or her life situation or specific parts of that situation. As Withey (1974) underscores, quality of life implies a value judgment. The quality of life perceived is anchored in individual standards of adequacy, feasibility and fairness and is not a simple correlate of objective conditions. For the time being, a theoreticall3) adequate and precise definition of quality of life seems still distant. And there does not seem to be much point in making the definition in words more precise than the subject matter it refers to. But the following tentative definition is offered:
Quality of life is the satisfaction of instrumental wants and final physical, social, and self-actualization needs from an individual's participation in the different arenas of action in human life. The analytical framework presented below has been adapted from Coleman (1971), who developed a similar scheme to analyze the situa-
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tion of black Americans. Another framework of this type has been proposed by Levy and Guttman (1975). The presentation here focuses on the concepts and the theorysentences, the postulated relationships among the concepts. The connections to the empirical world, the data-sentences, will be briefly dealt with at the end of the discussion. The essence of the framework is that actors in society are involved in exchanging resources to new resources (instrumental exchange) and/or to ultimate satisfaction (final exchange) by participating in a set of arenas of action. The framework is outlined in fig. 1. (For expository
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reasons, only a few of the causal relationships among the elements of the scheme are indicated.) Fig. 1 postulates that the quality of life experienced by an actor depends on: (1) the actor's input resources, (2) the arenas of action available, and (3)the structure or functional properties of the arenas. The following main groups of variables will be briefly commented on below: arenas of action, resources, needs, and satisfaction. Arenas of action
The arenas of action are the contexts of action through which the conversion of input resources to output resources a n d / o r final goal fulfillment occurs. These arenas may be in the form of a physical place (Work life), activity (Consuming life) or role (Neighborhood or Societal life). Hence, the arena concept coincides with Withey's (1974: 28) "domain", Levy and Guttman's (1975) "life area", or the "rolesituations" notion of Andrews and Withey (1974). The list of arenas in fig. 1" is meant to give examples of important domains. The categories are neither exhaustive (suggested by the dotted line) nor mutually exclusive. The arenas may be described by a set of attributes relating to the rate of exchange between inputs and outputs. For instance, salary and wage rates determine the monetary rewards for investing time and energy in the Work life arena. Resources
As in the case of the arenas of action, the list of resources in fig. 1 makes no claim of being exhaustive or mutually exclusive. Some of the resources (Energy, Intelligence, Education, Health, and Planning ability) are personal attributes; what people are. Others (such as Material possessions) refer to what people own, while Social contacts is a relational resource--whom people know. An important resource is Planning ability, referring to capacity to approach the various arenas in an efficient, goal-directed manner. Planning ability implies an understanding of the relationships between ends and means, which requires insight into the social structure of the arenas of action and the role of other actors in these structures. Political resources relate to the ability
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to influence political decision processes in society. More widely, this variable refers to capacity to effect changes in the structures of the arenas of action. There are different kinds of relationships among the resource types. For Education, for instance, completing high school (input resource) may be a necessary condition for college admission (output resource). Another dimension is the nature of the exchange of sources. Some exchanges, such as buying a car, mean an internal change in Material possessions (liquid assets are reduced, while durable goods are increased). Such exchanges are characterized by giving up some resource units in order to get others. However, in the Family life and Neighborhood life arenas, the social contacts are symmetrical. In mutual love, no party gives up anything. Relevant to the convertibility of resources is Foa's (1971) typology of interpersonal and economic resources. Foa proposes a classification system based on two coordinates of resource characterization: concreteness v e r s u s symbolism and particularism versus univer~alism. Giving an object is an example of concreteness, while language, a smile, or a gesture are symbolic behaviors. Second, sources differ in terms of the significance of the person providing the resource. Changing a bank teller does not make much difference for the client wishing to cash a check. At the other extreme, we are particularistic with regard to a friend, a spouse, or a mother. Foa distinguishes among the following six resource categories: love, status, information, money, goods, and services. Foa's (1971) experimental results show that love and money are extremes and positioned opposite on the particularism coordinate. Services and status are less particularistic than love but more than money. Resources perceived as similar elicit similar behavioral reactions. Furthermore, resources in close proximity such as money and goods are easily exchanged. For distant resources, conversion, exchange or substitution is more difficult. The modern industrial urbanized society (of which marketing is a part) seems to discourage particularistic exchanges, contributing perhaps to isolation and alienation. Needs
The need concept is ambiguous, diffuse, and problematic. Yet it is difficult or even meaningless to discuss welfare and quality of life without referring to the resolving of needs. In the discussion here, needs
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are viewed as the ultimate goals individuals are striving for. Hence, needs are of a finalistic nature. The most well-known and most frequently quoted need taxonomy is Maslow's hierarchy of needs model specifying the following five need categories: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Maslow 1954). Furthermore, these needs are arranged in a fixed sequence of hierarchy of prepotency in the order indicated. Despite its intuitive appeal, the theory is vague and partially confusing (Locke 1976: 1307-1309). This framework distinguishes between three broad classes of needs, as done by Allardt (1975): physical, social and self-actualizing. (The corresponding terms in Allardt's scheme are needs relating to Having, Loving, and Being.) These three dimensions should be sufficiently broad to capture the most important need components. The physical needs are essentially individual, material needs. They include not only the basic physiological needs for food, water, heating, air and a minimum amoul~t of safety, but also income, standard of home, employment situation, health, and education which are components included in Allardt's Having dimension. In contrast to physical and self-actualization needs which are mainly individual needs, the social needs refer to properties of human relationships. In modern complex society, fulfillment of the physical needs requires conscious social planning and marketing activities. However, the social needs are by their nature mostly resolved through decentralized, spontaneous processes. Social relations require understanding, empathy, and the existence of a common language. Hence, as noted by Allardt, these needs relate to the linguistic aspect of man as a member of society. Allardt's study used the following three components of social needs: neighborhood relations, family relations, and friendship relations. For the purpose of the present discussion, perhaps it is sufficient to note that the self-actualizing needs refer to relationships between the individual and wider society (in contrast, the social needs apply to relationships to specific individuals). Hence, in AUardt's scheme these needs cover the ontogenetic aspects of man as a member of society. Allardt observes that self-actualization is the opposite of alienation which occurs when human relationships are reduced to material entities and when individuals feel that they are viewed instrumentally--as labor inputs or good consumers. Hence, self-actualization is concerned with
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the uniqueness of the human being. Allardt formulated the following four components of his Being dimension: status or prestige, insubstitutability, political resources, and interesting leisure time pursuits (Doing). To this should be added that true self-actualization would also include solidarity with less privileged members of society and ecolocical responsibility.
Satisfaction There are several theories about the relationship between goal fulfillment and satisfaction. Most of the writings on social indicators assume a monotonic relationship between the state of each indicator and welfare. Hence, people are better off if an indicator changes in a positive direction and other indicators remain the same (Schneider 1976: 298). Maslow (1954), on the other hand, suggests a fixed hierarchy of dominance, so that higher order needs have no motivational power until the more prepotent needs are satisfied. For resources such as Health, obviously it can be assumed that "the more, the better". However, for other resources such as Material possessions, Education, and Social contacts it may be more meaningful to assume that there is some kind of optimum balance. The satisfaction derived from Material posessions, for instance, depends on the state of other factors such as Social contacts and Health. The framework proposed distinguishes between two different forms of satisfaction: satisfaction relating to output resources and satisfaction relating to final goals. The first form of satisfaction is an instrumental one relating to the evaluation of the conversion of input resources to output resources. To illustrate, in fig. 1, Time, Energy, Intelligence, Education, Health, and Planning ability are inputs into the Work life arena affecting the output resources Material possessions and Social contacts. At the same time, participation at the Work life arena is intrinsically rewarding as the work experience provides satisfaction of final self-actualization needs. The quality of life perceived (or the total satisfaction derived) may be viewed as the result of a comparison process in which the Perceived state of the Micro environment or "objective situation" (the performance in each of the arenas of action) is compared with the Expectations. The relationships which are shown in fig. 2 parallel conceptualizations of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (Day 1977; and Hunt
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1977). The latter work, of course, only refers to a small sector of the quality of life being confined to the Consuming life arena. The Macro. environment in fig. 2 includes the state of the economy, social and political structure of society, and the existence of institutions such as hospitals and schools, and average income; all providing potentials for the quality of life. Most of the objective social indicators studies have been conducted at this level. The Micro environment refers to the objective situation for the individual. Here the concerns are with the income of the actor and whether there are hospitals and schools available in the area of residence and their performance. In Allardt's (1975) comparative analysis, data were collected at this level (as well as
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the subjective satisfaction level). The objective situation is next viewed as being filtered through perceptual mechanisms resulting in the Perceived state of the micro environment. The Expectations, in turn, are determined by Temporal comparisons (the extent of departure from past states) and Social comparisons (the difference between a person's own situation and that of "relevant others"). Finally, both the Perceived state of micro environment and the Expectations are influenced by Situational factors. There is a feedback relationship as the degree of satisfaction affects future expectations. The conceptual scheme presented above can be linked to the observational plane by the measurements earlier discussed, as suggested in fig. 2. The variable groups Objective micro environment and Macro environment may be measured by indirect objective indicators at the aggregate level, often available through secondary statistics. Variables in the Objective micro environment group may be measured also at the individual level, through self-reports by individuals or households as in the Allardt (1975) study. The variables in the upper boxes, however, can only be meaningfully approached by subjective and perceptual measures at the disaggregate level. Hence, subjective and objective indicators are not really two different alternative approaches to measurement. They are complementary approaches as they measure different, yet interrelated aspects of quality of life. An important conclusion from the framework above is that the quality of life is not only determined by what people have, but also by what they do and the social context of their activities. This has important implications for marketing.
Impact of marketing on the quality of life Practitioners as well as students of marketing appear to have surprising difficulties in comprehending the overall societal system of which marketing is a part and the particular role played by marketing in this system. Obviously, marketing should not be viewed monolithically. While all societies have marketing, the social mechanisms created to implement marketing functions differ from society to society. Of interest here are the marketing institutions and the marketing ideology found in modern Western society and their consequences. Relevant for the analysis are marketing practices as they objectively occur, not as
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prescribed in the idealized and sterile, but well-intentioned textbook world (which may have the same relationship to market reality as the Bible to the Inquisition). Second, not only intended short-term effects of marketing should be investigated. Of even more importance for the present discussion are the long-term cumulative, partly unintended latent functions of marketing. The latent functions of marketing can perhaps be interpreted in terms of the four tenets of Marketism--the ideology of marketing: (1) the belief in growth, (2) a materialistic value system, (3) an instrumental view of the consumer, and (4) the postulate of a lack of conflict of interest between consumers and producers, see Arndt (1978a). It is difficult, if not meaningless, to disentangle the effects of marketing activities from the impact of the comprehensive economic and political system of which marketing is a part. Yet there is much reason for crediting marketing for having contributed significantly to the unprecedented levels of economic growth through urbanization, extensive division of labor, big organizations, and a high degree of geographical and occupational mobility. Hence, marketing has had strong positive indirect influence on the materialistic component of the quality of life by rendering Work life possible and by providing the goods and services entering the Consuming life arena. The earlier discussion in this paper suggests that the Consuming life arena in the future may have a shrinking relative importance in the creation of total life satisfaction. Results of the survey studies reported by Andrews and Withey (1976) and Campbell et al. (1976) suggest the same. It seems likely that the Work life arena will be increasingly important as a contributor to social and self-actualizing needs through organizational reforms such as job enrichment and codetermination for employees. Furthermore, political processes occurring in the Societal life arena may be more significant than market processes even for fulfilling physical needs. On the negative side, marketing has been a biasing force by emphasizing products designed to meet short-term private, materialistic needs instead of long-run needs (Arndt 1978a). Through its economic growth and materialistic imperative and its insistence on offering market solutions to almost all problems, marketing has given priority to materialistic needs at the cost of social and self-actualization needs, needs which perhaps are best met by spontaneous processes. In the terms of Foa (1971), marketing may be hypothesized to "universalize"
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Table 1 Suggested direct impact of marketing in the various arenas of action. Work life Consuming life Family life Neighborhood life Leisure life Societal life
Little direct influence Highly positive influence Provides material foundations for happy family life, but at the same time excessive commercialization threatens family life Mainly negative influence Some positive, but mainly negative influence Weak, but mainly negative influence
resources such as 1.ore and status by suggesting marketing solutions to the underlying needs. Hence, marketing may contribute to modem man's alienation by inducing individuals to view their relationship with one another as marketing or exchange relationships (Amdt 1978a). The tendency of advertising to show idealized situations of successful citizens only, may furthermore heighten the feelings of relative deprivation of disadvantaged segments. Finally, as Kangun (1974) argues, the growth ideology of marketing brings it in conflict with the principles of ecology. Hence, while pushing for growth of the economy, marketing leaves in its wake pollution, depletion of scarce resources, and solid wastes. These conclusions are summarized in table 1.
Necessary changes in marketing For business it should be clear that it is to its advantage and self-interest to contribute to a higher quality of life. As Drucker (1969: 33) has appropriately pointed out, a healthy business and a sick society are not compatible. A healthy community is a prerequisite for successful and growing business. For society as a whole the position, however, is not quite clear. Dissatisfaction with the quality of life experience may be a necessary (but not sufficient) cause of revolution and other drastic forms of social change. Hence, to the class or party in power, it may be expedient to lower persons' expectations and increase satisfaction with the status quo by using "You-have-never-had-it-so-good" propaganda. The opposition, on the other hand, may feel that a high degree of satisfaction with the situation is bad because it legitimizes and stabilizes an unjust system. Therefore, as Olander (1977: 426) notes, when satisfaction is
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observed it may reflect a well-functioning system, but it may also result from resignation on the part of disadvantaged members of society. Public decision making should not be based on measures of subjective well-being--perceived quality of life only. It may also be useful to measure Expectations and Perceived micro-environment, using the terms in fig. 2. When discussing the adaption of business to the quality of life demands, it is obvious that the changes required are very fundamental. If an all-out effort was to be made to gear business conduct to the quality of life, it is difficult to think of any aspect of the business which will not have to be widely changed. Earlier changes in marketing, the transitions from "Selling" to the "Marketing" concept (Kotler 1976: 13-16) and to the "Broadened" (Kotler and Levy 1969) or "Societal Marketing" (Kotler 1976: 16-18) concepts and the development of the Social Marketing tradition (Kotler and Zaltman 1971; and Laczniak et al. 1979), have been changes in degree rather than kind, better or new applications of marketing technology. The changes advocated can apparently be implemented leaving the existing value system, ideologies, ownership patterns, and institutions mostly intact. The present situation may call for more drastic changes. As observed by Wilson (1974: 179-180), the quality of life orientation questions the "seven pillars of business" in the capitalistic or mixed economies: (1) the concept of economic growth as an unqualified good, (2) the belief in technology, (3) the notion that profits is a satisfactory statement of purpose of business, (4) the legitimacy of unqualified managerial or corporate authority, (5) the emphasis on internal technical efficiency, (6) the belief in "hard work", and (7) the concept of company loyalty. Hence, the changes necessary really affect the whole organization of business and economic affairs. From a Marxist view-point, current marketing operations as well as quality of life perceived are a part of the "superstructure" of society which in turn is determined by the "substructure" of society, the class and ownership structure. Such a reasoning may lead to the conclusion that the only way of achieving true changes in the quality of life is a fundamental change in economic structure of society, with workers and consumers taking economic and political control. In the ensuing new order, there would be little need for marketing activities as applied up to now.
Barring revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, there are
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several ways in which marketing if reformed may contribute to a higher quality of life. First, marketing may gain by exercising more self-restraint and good taste and tact. By natural instinct, marketing tends to be tempted to colonize further non-traditional marketing spheres under the flag of convenience of "Social Marketing" or "Broadened Marketing". There is little doubt that marketing may enrich the Leisure life and Family life arenas by bringing out the appropriate products and services. For instance, supply of do-it-yourself articles is compatible with the active view of quality of life argued for here. However, there are need categories which are not necessarily best resolved through markets--for instance needs relating to religion, personal achievement, and social relationships. Letting the money changers take over the temple may bring marketing on a collision course with other institutions and with public opinion. Hence, for these reasons marketing should be cautious when entering new territory such as in the health area. A proposed marketing solution to the resolving of health needs may, for instance, draw on ideas from distribution system management to optimize what is called the "health delivery system". But it may also be argued that health is not a product that is packaged, priced, promoted and distributed. Instead, good health is to some extent a "reward" for a physically active and sound life style. Reliance on "marketing" criteria such as doctors' or hospitals' "sales" or "market shares" may contribute to unnecessary hospitalization and surgery. Second, in the interest of survival, marketing will have to adapt creatively to the new demands by giving more systematic attention to its social and ecological responsibilities. For instance, for how long will society tolerate the rough rule of thumb formulated by Jean Mayer, the nutritionist, that the nutitional value of a food varies inversely with the amount spent to advertise it? As argued forcefully by Richman and Macharzina (1974), the new orientation requires a change in corporate values and goals. Quality of life goals must be built into the objective function of business rather than be viewed as a set of constraining factors. And achievement of such goals must be an explicit part of corporate incentive systems, rather than being relegated to uncommitting "social responsibility" concerns. Ex ante, marketing research may be called on to ascertain primary, secondary, and third order impacts of marketing activities. A challenge to marketing research will be the development of concurrent control systems such as the continual monitoring of marketing impacts on
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different interest groups and ex post controls such as social audits (Dierkes and Bauer 1973; and Rosenberg and Czepiel 1977). In the latter respect, it may be distinguished between audits conducted for internal management purposes and those meant for public reporting. It is important that public audits are done by independent auditors in order to avoid degenerating into public relations documents in the interest of top management. Marketing with a "human face" must give more attention to the Doing and Being dimensions of human life. True satisfaction does not come from unstimulating passive ownership of material possessions, but from participation, from social relationships, and from the experience of steady progress toward distant goals. To close with Orson Welles' dialogue for his character Harry Lime in the 1949 film The Third Man: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they have brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
References Ackoff, R.L., 1976. Does quality of life have to be quantified? Operations Research Quarterly 27, 289-303. Allardt, E., 1975. Att ha, att alska, att vara. Lurid: Argus. Andrews, F.M. and S.B. Whithey, 1974. Developing measures of perceived life quality. Social Indicators Research 1, 1-26. Andrews, F.M. and S.B. Withey, 1976. Social indicators of well-being. New York: Plenum Press. Arndt, J., 1978a. 'The marketing thinking of tomorrow'. In: G. Fisk, J, Arndt and K. Grernhaug (eds.), Future directions for marketing. Cambr!dge, MA: Marketing Science Institute. pp. 4-27. Arndt, J., 1978b. 'The quality of life challenge to marketing'. In; F.D. Reynolds and H.C. Barksdale (eds.), Marketing and the quality of life. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. pp. 1-10. Bauer, R.A. (ed.), 1966. Social indicators. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press. Biderman, A.D., 1974. 'Social indicators--whence and wither'. In: R.L. Clewett and J.C. Olson (eds.), Social indicators and marketing. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. pp. 27-42. Campbell, A. and P.E. Converse (eds.), 1972. The human meaning of social change. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Campbell A., P.E. Converse and W.L. Rodgers, 1976. The quality of American life. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. Clewett, R.L. and J.C. Olson (eds.), 1974. Social indicators and marketing. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Coleman, J.S., 1971. Resources for social change. New York: Wiley.
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Day, R.L. (ed.), 1977. Consumer satisfaction, dissatisfaction and complaining behavior. Bloomington, IN: School of Business, Indiana University. Dierkes, M. and R.A. Bauer (eds 0, 1973. Corporate social accounting. New York: Praeger Publishers. Drucker, P.E., 1969. Business and the quality of life. Sales Management 102 (March), 31-35. Fisk, G. (ed.), 1974. Marketing and social priorities. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Foa, U.G., 1971. Interpersonal and economic resources. Science 171,345-351. Henion, K.E., II and T.C. Kinnear (eds.), 1976. Ecological marketing. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Hudson, D.R., 1977. Measuring the quality of life. Atlanta Economic Review 27 (May-June), 15-21. Hunt, H.K. (ed.), 1977. Conceptualization and measurement of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute. Kangun, N., 1974. 'Environmental problems and marketing: saint or sinner?' In: J.N. Sheth and P.L. Wright (eds.), Marketing an~dysis for societal problems. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois. pp. 250-270. Kotler, P., 1976. Marketing management. (3rd ed.) Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Kotler, P. and S.J. Levy, 1969. Broadening the concept of marketing. Journal of Marketing 33 (Jan.), I0-15. Kotler, P. and G. Zaltman, 1971. Social marketing: an approach to planned social change. Journal of Marketing 35 (July), 3-12. Laczniak, G.R., R.F. Lusch and P.E. Murphy, 1979. Social marketing: its ethical dimensions. Journal of Marketing 43 (Spring), 29-36. Levy, S. and L. Guttman, 1975. On the multivariate structure of wellbeing. Social Indicators Research 2, 361-388. Liu, B.-C., 1975. Quality of life: concept, measure and results. American Journal of Economics and Sociology 34 (Jan.), 1- 13. Liu, B.-C., R. Gustafson and B. Macy, 1973. The quality of life in the United States. Kansas City, KS: Midwest Research Institute. Locke, E.A., 1976. 'The nature and causes of job satisfaction'. In: M.D. Dunnette (ed.), Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. Chicago, IL: Rand MacNally. pp. 1297-1349. Maslow, A.H., 1954. Motivation and personality. New York: H:trper and Row. Mulvihill, D.F., 1978. 'The quality of life and a new definition of marketing'. In: P.D. White and C.C. Slater (eds.), Macro-marketing: distributive processes from a societal perspective, an elaboration of issues. Boulder, CO: University of Colorado. pp. 67-81. Olander, F., 1977. 'Consumer satisfaction--a sceptic's view'. In: H.K. Hunt (ed.), Conceptualization and measurement of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute. pp. 409-452. Reynolds, F.D. and H.C. Barksdale .(eds.), 1978. Marketing and the quality of life. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. Richman, B.M. and K. Macharzina, 1974. Contributions of the corporation for improving the quality of life: some programmatic thoughts. Management International Review 14, 87-96. Rosenberg, L.J. and J.A. Czepiel, 1977. 'Auditing corporate consumer affairs to increase consumer satisfaction'. In: H.K. Hunt (ed.), Conceptualization and measurement of consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Cambridge, MA: Marketing Science Institute. pp. 365-381. Samuelson, P.A., 1973. Economics. (9th ed.) New York: MacGraw-Hill. Schneider, M., 1976. The 'quality of life' and social indicators research. Public Administration Review 36 (May-June), 297-305. Scitovsky, T., 1976. The joyless economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Strumpel, B. (ed.), 1974. Subjective elements of well-beixlg. Paris: OECD. Thorndike, E.L., 1939. Your city. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. Wilson, I.H., 1974. 'Toward a new American paradigm: its significance for business'. In: R.L. Clewett and J.C. Olson (eds.), Social indicators and marketing. Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association. pp. 169-180. Withey, S.B., 1974. ~Values and social change'. In: B. Strumpel (ed.), Subjective elements of well-being. Paris: OECD. pp. 21-32.
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MARKETING AND THE QUALITY OF LIFE Johan A R N D T * Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Norway Received March 9, 1981; accepted June 16, 1981
This article explores the relationshil~ between marketing and quality of life. The first part develops a conceptualization of quality of life based on the idea that citizens are involved in exchanging resources to new resources or to ultimate satisfaction in a set of arenas of action. The so-called objective and subjective approaches to measuring quallty of life address different aspects of the exchange relationships and their context. The article claims that marketing at least indirectly has contributed to a higher quality of life by rendering work life possible and by providing the goods and services entering the consuming life arena. At the same time, marketing has had a negative influence by giving priority to short-term, materialistic needs. Necessary institutional changes in marketing are indicated. They've got enough food, sexual freedom and indoor toilets. Why the deuce aren't they happy? George Bernhard Shaw (about the English young)
Marketing and the quality of life Marketing in the Western world has contributed to the highest level of economic development ever enjoyed by the average man. Nevertheless, at the same time, marketing activities as well as the marketing philosophy have never been more questioned, criticized and even ridiculed. What is happening is that the criteria for evaluating marketing's performance are in a transition. There is a growing concern with quality rather than quantity, with a more humanized and self-actualizing life setting rather than with income and consumption, with what people do or should do rather than what they own, and with the responsible
* Author's address: Johan Amdt, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Helleveien 30, N-5035 Bergen-Sandviken, Norway.
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preservation of human and physical resources rather than with their exploitation. True to form, several alert marketing writers detected the value changes early (Clewett and Olson 1974; Fisk 1974; Henion and Kinnear 1976; and Reynolds and Barksdale 1978). Front-running textbooks such as Kotler (1976: 486) declare in no uncertain terms that maximization of life quality should be the goal of marketing. However, how this reshaping of marketing should occur is left unsaid. Hence, the purpose of this article is to discuss the potentials and problems of redirecting marketing to enhance the quality of life. (An earlier, shorter version was published in Arndt (1978b).) Before the issue of the new role of marketing may be constructively addressed, however, it is necessary to clarify what the "quality of life" actually implies.
Research on the quality of life
The term "quality of life" has obvious positive connotations. At the same time the term remains nebulous and overgrown with meanings. The identity of quality of life has so far not been adequately pinned down by any precise and widely accepted definition. There are several reports such as Liu (1975), Hudson (1977), and Mulvihill (1978) of abortive attempts to define and quantify quality of life. As a matter of fact, the very diffuseness and ambiguity of the quality of life notion may be an explanation for its universal attraction. On the other hand, the lack of a satisfactory conceptualization is a major obstacle for the committed and full-hearted implementation of the quality of life concept by decision-makers in government and industry. As long as different user groups are able to read their own views and interpretations into the term, concerted action is unlikely to follow. Clues to the identity of quality of life may be found by examining the emergence of the term.
The origin of the quality of life term Early empirical studies on the quality of life appeared already before World War ! I, for instance, see Thorndike (1939). The present research tradition, however, originated mainly with the social indicators move-
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ment in the 1960's (Bauer 1966). In several ways, this movement was a reaction to the alleged "economic philistinism" or "econocentrism" of the economics establishment in public planning and national accounting. To measure total well-being of society and its citizens, the charge was that the conventional economic "indirect" indicators as used in the national accounting systems were insufficient or even invalid. Instead, the only valid measures were those directly related to total life satisfaction. Biderman (1974: 27-28) has proposed a sociology of science explanation for the emergenc.e and later course of the social indicators movement. He suggests that economists, feeling threatened, have attempted to blunt the edge of the movement by partially incorporating it. However, the recent "conversions" by leading economists such as Samuelson (1973) and Scitovsky (1976) and even operations researcher Ackoff (1976) can hardly be dismissed as defensive reactions or attempts to maintain the best-selling status of textbooks. A strong original force stimulating the development of social indicators was the growing need of public administrators for information measuring the impact of government programs and the effect of public policies. Hence, initially, the work on indicators was spurred by a very pragmatic concern giving primary attention to formulating performance measures. A second force behind the social indicators movement was a growing desire among social scientists for more accurate and meaningful descriptive data measuring the general state of society. As noted by Stzhneider (1976) the mainstream of current social indicators research has tended to respond to this general explanatory need. The role of social indicators in the.administrative process has so far been neglected.
The measurement of quality of life As in the consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction area (Hunt 1977; and Day 1977), there are two main approaches to the study of the quality of life, the objective and the subjective indicators approach. There seems to have emerged a clear pattern of division of labor among the academic disciplines in their approach to quality of life studies. Researchers from economics and public administration have favored ob° jective indicators. On the other hand, behavioral scientists dominate the tradition of subjective measures. A prominent example of the objective social indicators studies is the
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attempt to measure the quality of life in different states of the U.S. by the Midwest Research Institute (Liu et al. 1973). More than 100 individual measures obtained from existing statistical sources were combined into nine main groups: (1) Individual status, (2) Individual equality, (3) Living conditions, (4) Agriculture, (5) Technology, (6) Economic status, (7) Education, (8) Health and welfare, and (9) State and local governments. The scores obtained for each state in the nine groups were combined into an overall quality of life index. Other major studies in this tradition are quoted in Liu (1975), Schneider (1976), and Hudson (1977). The Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan has been a leading center for empirical research on the experienced quality of life, see Campbell and Converse (1972), Strumpel (1974), Andrews and Withey (1976) and Campbell et al. (1976). In contrast to the objective indicators tradition, this work has focused on the individual as the unit of analysis and used survey techniques to obtain measures of subjective well-being in a variety of domains. While objective indicators offer advantages of using secondary data, normally having sufficient reliability, such "surrogates" present nagging questions of construct validity. It is by no means self-evident that the operationalizations actually measure quality of life. The problems relating to the interpretations of divorce rates as an indicator are symptomatic of the confusion. In some cases high divorce rates are viewed as a negative factor, suggesting a high amount of "social tension". An opposite interpretation is that many divorces indicate "enlightened society" adding positively to quality of life, see Campbell and Converse (1972: 6) and Hudson (1977: 20). The subjective indicators approach to quality o f life studies promises higher potential validity of the measures used. At. the same time there are several problems associated with the approach. As the quality of life experienced depends on the relationship between the objective situation on the one hand and on the other, aspirations and expectations, it follows that the same objective quality of life level will be perceived differently by different persons. Hence, public policies geared to maximizing experienced quality of life can degenerate into a conservative orientation maintaining the status quo. More attention may be given successful, yet dissatisfied members of society who are captives of the "hedonic treadmill" than to unsuccessful members experiencing "a humble but happy life".
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Expectedly, attempts to correlate data on objective and subjective quality of life indicators have tended to show weak relationships. For instance, Schneider (1976) concluded that the reported life satisfaction of U.S. citizens appeared to be largely independent of the physical conditions of the cities in which they live. Similarly, Allardt (1975) found only weak relationships between objective and subjective measures in a large-scale comparative quality of life study conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. To conclude, the apparent unresolved issues, the inconsistent results, and the so far limited practical use of the quality of life research are to a large degree the results of inadequate conceptualizations. As in the consumer behavior area, the preoccupation with measurement and quantification and the premature rush to the data have hindered progress in developing the proper conceptual foundatior/s of the subject matter. The next section presents some tentative ideas as to how quality of life may be conceived. Toward a conceptualization of quality of life
Here, siding with the University of Michigan school, quality of life is essentially viewed as a subjective, experiential concept. If the concept is to make phenomenological sense, the quality of life must ultimately be in the eye of the beholder and must reflect a person's evaluation of his or her life situation or specific parts of that situation. As Withey (1974) underscores, quality of life implies a value judgment. The quality of life perceived is anchored in individual standards of adequacy, feasibility and fairness and is not a simple correlate of objective conditions. For the time being, a theoreticall3) adequate and precise definition of quality of life seems still distant. And there does not seem to be much point in making the definition in words more precise than the subject matter it refers to. But the following tentative definition is offered:
Quality of life is the satisfaction of instrumental wants and final physical, social, and self-actualization needs from an individual's participation in the different arenas of action in human life. The analytical framework presented below has been adapted from Coleman (1971), who developed a similar scheme to analyze the situa-
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tion of black Americans. Another framework of this type has been proposed by Levy and Guttman (1975). The presentation here focuses on the concepts and the theorysentences, the postulated relationships among the concepts. The connections to the empirical world, the data-sentences, will be briefly dealt with at the end of the discussion. The essence of the framework is that actors in society are involved in exchanging resources to new resources (instrumental exchange) and/or to ultimate satisfaction (final exchange) by participating in a set of arenas of action. The framework is outlined in fig. 1. (For expository
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reasons, only a few of the causal relationships among the elements of the scheme are indicated.) Fig. 1 postulates that the quality of life experienced by an actor depends on: (1) the actor's input resources, (2) the arenas of action available, and (3)the structure or functional properties of the arenas. The following main groups of variables will be briefly commented on below: arenas of action, resources, needs, and satisfaction. Arenas of action
The arenas of action are the contexts of action through which the conversion of input resources to output resources a n d / o r final goal fulfillment occurs. These arenas may be in the form of a physical place (Work life), activity (Consuming life) or role (Neighborhood or Societal life). Hence, the arena concept coincides with Withey's (1974: 28) "domain", Levy and Guttman's (1975) "life area", or the "rolesituations" notion of Andrews and Withey (1974). The list of arenas in fig. 1" is meant to give examples of important domains. The categories are neither exhaustive (suggested by the dotted line) nor mutually exclusive. The arenas may be described by a set of attributes relating to the rate of exchange between inputs and outputs. For instance, salary and wage rates determine the monetary rewards for investing time and energy in the Work life arena. Resources
As in the case of the arenas of action, the list of resources in fig. 1 makes no claim of being exhaustive or mutually exclusive. Some of the resources (Energy, Intelligence, Education, Health, and Planning ability) are personal attributes; what people are. Others (such as Material possessions) refer to what people own, while Social contacts is a relational resource--whom people know. An important resource is Planning ability, referring to capacity to approach the various arenas in an efficient, goal-directed manner. Planning ability implies an understanding of the relationships between ends and means, which requires insight into the social structure of the arenas of action and the role of other actors in these structures. Political resources relate to the ability
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to influence political decision processes in society. More widely, this variable refers to capacity to effect changes in the structures of the arenas of action. There are different kinds of relationships among the resource types. For Education, for instance, completing high school (input resource) may be a necessary condition for college admission (output resource). Another dimension is the nature of the exchange of sources. Some exchanges, such as buying a car, mean an internal change in Material possessions (liquid assets are reduced, while durable goods are increased). Such exchanges are characterized by giving up some resource units in order to get others. However, in the Family life and Neighborhood life arenas, the social contacts are symmetrical. In mutual love, no party gives up anything. Relevant to the convertibility of resources is Foa's (1971) typology of interpersonal and economic resources. Foa proposes a classification system based on two coordinates of resource characterization: concreteness v e r s u s symbolism and particularism versus univer~alism. Giving an object is an example of concreteness, while language, a smile, or a gesture are symbolic behaviors. Second, sources differ in terms of the significance of the person providing the resource. Changing a bank teller does not make much difference for the client wishing to cash a check. At the other extreme, we are particularistic with regard to a friend, a spouse, or a mother. Foa distinguishes among the following six resource categories: love, status, information, money, goods, and services. Foa's (1971) experimental results show that love and money are extremes and positioned opposite on the particularism coordinate. Services and status are less particularistic than love but more than money. Resources perceived as similar elicit similar behavioral reactions. Furthermore, resources in close proximity such as money and goods are easily exchanged. For distant resources, conversion, exchange or substitution is more difficult. The modern industrial urbanized society (of which marketing is a part) seems to discourage particularistic exchanges, contributing perhaps to isolation and alienation. Needs
The need concept is ambiguous, diffuse, and problematic. Yet it is difficult or even meaningless to discuss welfare and quality of life without referring to the resolving of needs. In the discussion here, needs
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are viewed as the ultimate goals individuals are striving for. Hence, needs are of a finalistic nature. The most well-known and most frequently quoted need taxonomy is Maslow's hierarchy of needs model specifying the following five need categories: physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Maslow 1954). Furthermore, these needs are arranged in a fixed sequence of hierarchy of prepotency in the order indicated. Despite its intuitive appeal, the theory is vague and partially confusing (Locke 1976: 1307-1309). This framework distinguishes between three broad classes of needs, as done by Allardt (1975): physical, social and self-actualizing. (The corresponding terms in Allardt's scheme are needs relating to Having, Loving, and Being.) These three dimensions should be sufficiently broad to capture the most important need components. The physical needs are essentially individual, material needs. They include not only the basic physiological needs for food, water, heating, air and a minimum amoul~t of safety, but also income, standard of home, employment situation, health, and education which are components included in Allardt's Having dimension. In contrast to physical and self-actualization needs which are mainly individual needs, the social needs refer to properties of human relationships. In modern complex society, fulfillment of the physical needs requires conscious social planning and marketing activities. However, the social needs are by their nature mostly resolved through decentralized, spontaneous processes. Social relations require understanding, empathy, and the existence of a common language. Hence, as noted by Allardt, these needs relate to the linguistic aspect of man as a member of society. Allardt's study used the following three components of social needs: neighborhood relations, family relations, and friendship relations. For the purpose of the present discussion, perhaps it is sufficient to note that the self-actualizing needs refer to relationships between the individual and wider society (in contrast, the social needs apply to relationships to specific individuals). Hence, in AUardt's scheme these needs cover the ontogenetic aspects of man as a member of society. Allardt observes that self-actualization is the opposite of alienation which occurs when human relationships are reduced to material entities and when individuals feel that they are viewed instrumentally--as labor inputs or good consumers. Hence, self-actualization is concerned with
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the uniqueness of the human being. Allardt formulated the following four components of his Being dimension: status or prestige, insubstitutability, political resources, and interesting leisure time pursuits (Doing). To this should be added that true self-actualization would also include solidarity with less privileged members of society and ecolocical responsibility.
Satisfaction There are several theories about the relationship between goal fulfillment and satisfaction. Most of the writings on social indicators assume a monotonic relationship between the state of each indicator and welfare. Hence, people are better off if an indicator changes in a positive direction and other indicators remain the same (Schneider 1976: 298). Maslow (1954), on the other hand, suggests a fixed hierarchy of dominance, so that higher order needs have no motivational power until the more prepotent needs are satisfied. For resources such as Health, obviously it can be assumed that "the more, the better". However, for other resources such as Material possessions, Education, and Social contacts it may be more meaningful to assume that there is some kind of optimum balance. The satisfaction derived from Material posessions, for instance, depends on the state of other factors such as Social contacts and Health. The framework proposed distinguishes between two different forms of satisfaction: satisfaction relating to output resources and satisfaction relating to final goals. The first form of satisfaction is an instrumental one relating to the evaluation of the conversion of input resources to output resources. To illustrate, in fig. 1, Time, Energy, Intelligence, Education, Health, and Planning ability are inputs into the Work life arena affecting the output resources Material possessions and Social contacts. At the same time, participation at the Work life arena is intrinsically rewarding as the work experience provides satisfaction of final self-actualization needs. The quality of life perceived (or the total satisfaction derived) may be viewed as the result of a comparison process in which the Perceived state of the Micro environment or "objective situation" (the performance in each of the arenas of action) is compared with the Expectations. The relationships which are shown in fig. 2 parallel conceptualizations of consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction (Day 1977; and Hunt
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1977). The latter work, of course, only refers to a small sector of the quality of life being confined to the Consuming life arena. The Macro. environment in fig. 2 includes the state of the economy, social and political structure of society, and the existence of institutions such as hospitals and schools, and average income; all providing potentials for the quality of life. Most of the objective social indicators studies have been conducted at this level. The Micro environment refers to the objective situation for the individual. Here the concerns are with the income of the actor and whether there are hospitals and schools available in the area of residence and their performance. In Allardt's (1975) comparative analysis, data were collected at this level (as well as
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the subjective satisfaction level). The objective situation is next viewed as being filtered through perceptual mechanisms resulting in the Perceived state of the micro environment. The Expectations, in turn, are determined by Temporal comparisons (the extent of departure from past states) and Social comparisons (the difference between a person's own situation and that of "relevant others"). Finally, both the Perceived state of micro environment and the Expectations are influenced by Situational factors. There is a feedback relationship as the degree of satisfaction affects future expectations. The conceptual scheme presented above can be linked to the observational plane by the measurements earlier discussed, as suggested in fig. 2. The variable groups Objective micro environment and Macro environment may be measured by indirect objective indicators at the aggregate level, often available through secondary statistics. Variables in the Objective micro environment group may be measured also at the individual level, through self-reports by individuals or households as in the Allardt (1975) study. The variables in the upper boxes, however, can only be meaningfully approached by subjective and perceptual measures at the disaggregate level. Hence, subjective and objective indicators are not really two different alternative approaches to measurement. They are complementary approaches as they measure different, yet interrelated aspects of quality of life. An important conclusion from the framework above is that the quality of life is not only determined by what people have, but also by what they do and the social context of their activities. This has important implications for marketing.
Impact of marketing on the quality of life Practitioners as well as students of marketing appear to have surprising difficulties in comprehending the overall societal system of which marketing is a part and the particular role played by marketing in this system. Obviously, marketing should not be viewed monolithically. While all societies have marketing, the social mechanisms created to implement marketing functions differ from society to society. Of interest here are the marketing institutions and the marketing ideology found in modern Western society and their consequences. Relevant for the analysis are marketing practices as they objectively occur, not as
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prescribed in the idealized and sterile, but well-intentioned textbook world (which may have the same relationship to market reality as the Bible to the Inquisition). Second, not only intended short-term effects of marketing should be investigated. Of even more importance for the present discussion are the long-term cumulative, partly unintended latent functions of marketing. The latent functions of marketing can perhaps be interpreted in terms of the four tenets of Marketism--the ideology of marketing: (1) the belief in growth, (2) a materialistic value system, (3) an instrumental view of the consumer, and (4) the postulate of a lack of conflict of interest between consumers and producers, see Arndt (1978a). It is difficult, if not meaningless, to disentangle the effects of marketing activities from the impact of the comprehensive economic and political system of which marketing is a part. Yet there is much reason for crediting marketing for having contributed significantly to the unprecedented levels of economic growth through urbanization, extensive division of labor, big organizations, and a high degree of geographical and occupational mobility. Hence, marketing has had strong positive indirect influence on the materialistic component of the quality of life by rendering Work life possible and by providing the goods and services entering the Consuming life arena. The earlier discussion in this paper suggests that the Consuming life arena in the future may have a shrinking relative importance in the creation of total life satisfaction. Results of the survey studies reported by Andrews and Withey (1976) and Campbell et al. (1976) suggest the same. It seems likely that the Work life arena will be increasingly important as a contributor to social and self-actualizing needs through organizational reforms such as job enrichment and codetermination for employees. Furthermore, political processes occurring in the Societal life arena may be more significant than market processes even for fulfilling physical needs. On the negative side, marketing has been a biasing force by emphasizing products designed to meet short-term private, materialistic needs instead of long-run needs (Arndt 1978a). Through its economic growth and materialistic imperative and its insistence on offering market solutions to almost all problems, marketing has given priority to materialistic needs at the cost of social and self-actualization needs, needs which perhaps are best met by spontaneous processes. In the terms of Foa (1971), marketing may be hypothesized to "universalize"
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Table 1 Suggested direct impact of marketing in the various arenas of action. Work life Consuming life Family life Neighborhood life Leisure life Societal life
Little direct influence Highly positive influence Provides material foundations for happy family life, but at the same time excessive commercialization threatens family life Mainly negative influence Some positive, but mainly negative influence Weak, but mainly negative influence
resources such as 1.ore and status by suggesting marketing solutions to the underlying needs. Hence, marketing may contribute to modem man's alienation by inducing individuals to view their relationship with one another as marketing or exchange relationships (Amdt 1978a). The tendency of advertising to show idealized situations of successful citizens only, may furthermore heighten the feelings of relative deprivation of disadvantaged segments. Finally, as Kangun (1974) argues, the growth ideology of marketing brings it in conflict with the principles of ecology. Hence, while pushing for growth of the economy, marketing leaves in its wake pollution, depletion of scarce resources, and solid wastes. These conclusions are summarized in table 1.
Necessary changes in marketing For business it should be clear that it is to its advantage and self-interest to contribute to a higher quality of life. As Drucker (1969: 33) has appropriately pointed out, a healthy business and a sick society are not compatible. A healthy community is a prerequisite for successful and growing business. For society as a whole the position, however, is not quite clear. Dissatisfaction with the quality of life experience may be a necessary (but not sufficient) cause of revolution and other drastic forms of social change. Hence, to the class or party in power, it may be expedient to lower persons' expectations and increase satisfaction with the status quo by using "You-have-never-had-it-so-good" propaganda. The opposition, on the other hand, may feel that a high degree of satisfaction with the situation is bad because it legitimizes and stabilizes an unjust system. Therefore, as Olander (1977: 426) notes, when satisfaction is
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observed it may reflect a well-functioning system, but it may also result from resignation on the part of disadvantaged members of society. Public decision making should not be based on measures of subjective well-being--perceived quality of life only. It may also be useful to measure Expectations and Perceived micro-environment, using the terms in fig. 2. When discussing the adaption of business to the quality of life demands, it is obvious that the changes required are very fundamental. If an all-out effort was to be made to gear business conduct to the quality of life, it is difficult to think of any aspect of the business which will not have to be widely changed. Earlier changes in marketing, the transitions from "Selling" to the "Marketing" concept (Kotler 1976: 13-16) and to the "Broadened" (Kotler and Levy 1969) or "Societal Marketing" (Kotler 1976: 16-18) concepts and the development of the Social Marketing tradition (Kotler and Zaltman 1971; and Laczniak et al. 1979), have been changes in degree rather than kind, better or new applications of marketing technology. The changes advocated can apparently be implemented leaving the existing value system, ideologies, ownership patterns, and institutions mostly intact. The present situation may call for more drastic changes. As observed by Wilson (1974: 179-180), the quality of life orientation questions the "seven pillars of business" in the capitalistic or mixed economies: (1) the concept of economic growth as an unqualified good, (2) the belief in technology, (3) the notion that profits is a satisfactory statement of purpose of business, (4) the legitimacy of unqualified managerial or corporate authority, (5) the emphasis on internal technical efficiency, (6) the belief in "hard work", and (7) the concept of company loyalty. Hence, the changes necessary really affect the whole organization of business and economic affairs. From a Marxist view-point, current marketing operations as well as quality of life perceived are a part of the "superstructure" of society which in turn is determined by the "substructure" of society, the class and ownership structure. Such a reasoning may lead to the conclusion that the only way of achieving true changes in the quality of life is a fundamental change in economic structure of society, with workers and consumers taking economic and political control. In the ensuing new order, there would be little need for marketing activities as applied up to now.
Barring revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, there are
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several ways in which marketing if reformed may contribute to a higher quality of life. First, marketing may gain by exercising more self-restraint and good taste and tact. By natural instinct, marketing tends to be tempted to colonize further non-traditional marketing spheres under the flag of convenience of "Social Marketing" or "Broadened Marketing". There is little doubt that marketing may enrich the Leisure life and Family life arenas by bringing out the appropriate products and services. For instance, supply of do-it-yourself articles is compatible with the active view of quality of life argued for here. However, there are need categories which are not necessarily best resolved through markets--for instance needs relating to religion, personal achievement, and social relationships. Letting the money changers take over the temple may bring marketing on a collision course with other institutions and with public opinion. Hence, for these reasons marketing should be cautious when entering new territory such as in the health area. A proposed marketing solution to the resolving of health needs may, for instance, draw on ideas from distribution system management to optimize what is called the "health delivery system". But it may also be argued that health is not a product that is packaged, priced, promoted and distributed. Instead, good health is to some extent a "reward" for a physically active and sound life style. Reliance on "marketing" criteria such as doctors' or hospitals' "sales" or "market shares" may contribute to unnecessary hospitalization and surgery. Second, in the interest of survival, marketing will have to adapt creatively to the new demands by giving more systematic attention to its social and ecological responsibilities. For instance, for how long will society tolerate the rough rule of thumb formulated by Jean Mayer, the nutritionist, that the nutitional value of a food varies inversely with the amount spent to advertise it? As argued forcefully by Richman and Macharzina (1974), the new orientation requires a change in corporate values and goals. Quality of life goals must be built into the objective function of business rather than be viewed as a set of constraining factors. And achievement of such goals must be an explicit part of corporate incentive systems, rather than being relegated to uncommitting "social responsibility" concerns. Ex ante, marketing research may be called on to ascertain primary, secondary, and third order impacts of marketing activities. A challenge to marketing research will be the development of concurrent control systems such as the continual monitoring of marketing impacts on
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different interest groups and ex post controls such as social audits (Dierkes and Bauer 1973; and Rosenberg and Czepiel 1977). In the latter respect, it may be distinguished between audits conducted for internal management purposes and those meant for public reporting. It is important that public audits are done by independent auditors in order to avoid degenerating into public relations documents in the interest of top management. Marketing with a "human face" must give more attention to the Doing and Being dimensions of human life. True satisfaction does not come from unstimulating passive ownership of material possessions, but from participation, from social relationships, and from the experience of steady progress toward distant goals. To close with Orson Welles' dialogue for his character Harry Lime in the 1949 film The Third Man: In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder, bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they have brotherly love, 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.
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