Marketing's Impact on Other Businesses
Critics also charge that companies' marketing practices can harm other companies and reduce competition. Three problems sire involved: acquisition of competitors, marketing practices that create barriers to entry, and unfair competitive marketing practices. Critics claim that firms are harmed and competition reduced when companies expand by acquiring competitors rather than by developing their own new products. In the car industry alone there has been a spate of acquisitions over the past decade: General Motors bought the British sports-ear maker, Lotus; Ford acquired 75 percent of Britain's Aston Martin, which makes hand-built, high-performance cars, and Jaguar; Fiat absorbed Ferrari; BMW has taken over the Rover Group; Volkswagen controls Skoda." These and many large international acquisitions in other industries, such as food, telecommunications, and pharmaceuticals have caused concern that more arid more competitors will be absorbed and that competition will be reduced.