Empowering the American Consumer: Corporate Responsiveness and Market Profitability

Citation

Goldsmith, E. (2002), "Empowering the American Consumer: Corporate Responsiveness and Market Profitability", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 171-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2002.19.2.171.3

Without any doubt, the economy is in trouble and everyone is wondering how we got into this fix. A. Coskun Samli, Research Professor of Marketing and International Business at the University of North Florida, presents some answers in Empowering The American Consumer: Corporate Responsiveness and Market Profitability. As the author or coauthor of 12 books, more than 250 scholarly articles, and 30 monographs he is a prolific writer and distinguished scholar who enthusiastically shares his point of view.

His latest book has 13 chapters with titles such as “The plight of the American consumer”, “The environment infrastructure and consumer empowerment” and “Macro and micro economic growth strategies”. It covers a range of topics that could be categorized as politics or public policy, marketing, and economics. The audience for the book, according to the jacket cover, includes policy makers in the public and private sectors, and academics interested in how business, government, and society interact.

The book’s basic premise is that a laissez‐faire attitude is not working and that in today’s free economy things are not going well. One of the author’s solutions is to provide better customer service, which is not a new concept (look at any number of marketing texts and journals for a similar message). Probably more novel is the notion of asking corporations to reconsider their headlong rush to merge, thereby decreasing competition. He warns that a lot of business effort/strategy in this country is misguided and in the long run it will not be in the best interests for either consumers or businesses.

In the Preface, Samli sets the pace by writing: “Some years ago in the preface of one of my earlier books I stated: ‘It is my hope that this controversial book will raise many issues and be instrumental in the emergence of numerous decisions, debates and, above all, socially responsible marketing decisions that will benefit society as a whole’. It is totally the same sentiment in which the present book is written. Only the stakes are higher and the issues are more far‐reaching” (p. ix).

In the Introduction, he proposes that the market is not sacrosanct and if left alone, it does not function in an all‐beneficial and corrective manner. The body of the book explains this concept further. He is critical of the US economy (but not of capitalism, in general) and foresees imminent deterioration. As this review is being written, we are in the midst of an economic slowdown, so Samli’s views may be more timely than even he predicted. Apparently, when he wrote the book the boom was still on, because he says on page 3, “At this time, the American economy appears to be alright. However, deep down a sinister derailment of American markets is going on”. The book is also dated in that it compares Adam Smith’s Market to Bill Clinton’s Current Market in Exhibit 4‐1. Although it is always a problem trying to write on such rapidly changing subjects as politics and the economy, Samli is to be congratulated for giving it his best shot. Also, it should be noted that certain subjects that he discusses are not time bound, such as the on‐going debate presented in Chapter 6 on federalism versus states’ rights.

References are for the most part business books and magazines written for the general public such as Business Week and the New York Times Magazine, but he also cites marketing and management journals as well as famous figures such as Lester Thurow, John Kenneth Galbraith, Peter Drucker, and John F. Kennedy.

The book seesaws back and forth between widely held truisms such as the USA has a mixed economy to controversial views. For instance, he suggests, “It does not matter if it is communism, Nazism, socialism or capitalism, the reason for existence of any economic‐political system is to provide the populace with the best possible level of economic well‐being so that they can have better than just a tolerable quality of life. This better‐than‐tolerable quality of life is related to how much freedom of choice consumers have, and how much consumer education, consumer protection and consumer information exist in society” (p. 2). This is rather naïve, given that under communist and Nazi rule not only was consumer choice strictly curtailed, but millions of lives were in jeopardy. But, marching on, not only does he take on government, he criticizes business for merger mania and other disreputable behaviors. He believes “Piracy is illegal anywhere else in the world, but is legal on Wall Street” (p. 8). In the Preface he said he was going to be controversial and he delivers on that promise. It is easy to picture the lively debates that go on in his classrooms. He says in the Acknowledgments that “Hundreds of my graduate students listened, reacted, argued and sometimes disagreed with me about many points that are made in this book” (p. xiv).

On a more conventional level, Samli adds to the literature on value marketing, which he describes as creating greater consumer value, and he encourages business to try to retain loyal and satisfied customers. In the concluding chapter, he notes: “It is not the size of government, it is not who has the upper hand in government or the private sector, it is the empowerment of consumers so that the total populace can have a better quality of life” (p. 181). Consumer advocates would applaud this notion and Samli’s attempt at tackling the bigger picture.

In the last paragraph he writes: “All in all, there is a major philosophical message throughout the book and in this chapter: instead of letting the present form the future haphazardly, we must try to form the present based on key future goals. This is everybody’s business. We must all be involved” (p. 190). In essence he says that we would all benefit from a kinder, gentler market which in the end would prove more profitable than present approaches. Who can argue with that?