Social Criticisms of Marketing and Deceptive practices
Marketing receives much criticism. Some of this criticism is justified; much is not.2 Social critics claim that certain marketing practices hurt individual consumers, society as a whole, and other business firms.
Marketing's Impact on Individual Consumers
 Consumers have many concerns about how well marketing and businesses, as a whole, serve their interests. Consumer advocates, government agencies, and other critics have accused marketing of harming consumers through high prices, deceptive practices, high-pressure selling, shoddy or unsafe products, planned obsolescence, and poor service to disadvantaged consumers.
• High Prices
Many critics charge that marketing practices raise the cost of goods and cause prices to be higher than they would be if clever marketing were not applied. They point to three factors: high costs of 'distribution, high advertising and promotion costs, and excessive mark-ups.
HIGH COSTS OF DISTRIBUTION.
A long-standing charge is that greedy intermediaries mark up prices beyond the value of their services. Critics charge either that there are too many intermediaries, or that intermediaries are inefficient and poorly run, provide unnecessary or duplicate services, and practice poor management and planning. As a result, distribution costs too much and consumers pay for these excessive costs in the form of higher prices. How do retailers answer these charges? They argue, first, that intermediaries do work that would otherwise have to be done by manufacturers or consumers. Second, the rising mark-up reflects improved services that consumers themselves want - more convenience, larger stores and more assortment, longer store opening hours, return privileges, and others. Third, the costs of operating stores keep rising, forcing retailers to raise their prices. Fourth, retail competition is so intense that margins are actually quite low: for example, after taxes, supermarket chains are typically left with barely 1 percent profit on their sales. If some resellers try to charge too much relative to the value they add. other resellers will step in with lower prices. Low-price stores and other discounters pressure their competitors to operate efficiently and keep their prices down.