Question 1
In the land of free trade, consumers do not view all industries as equal. They believe that some industries are harmful to consumers. The pharmaceutical industry is one of these industries and continues to be a disaster to the public with their evil practices aimed at maximizing revenues. Even though some believe that consumers must be responsible for their own decisions, in the pharma industry, this would be unfair. This industry goes past its way to entice and prescribe to consumers medications that do not work (Elliott, 2010).
Companies within this industry have numerous types of administrators, which provide consumers with the capacity to choose what they want. This is right because at least consumers are able to have the opportunity to choose what they like and abandon what they do not want. Sadly, I believe the pharma industry is unethical because for the most part simply because of the great percentage of medications which it prescribes to the consumers. Personally, most of these medications do not work and some of them are prescribed based on hearsay (Goldacre, 2013). In the same vein, I think this industry is evil and does not care about the life of its consumers; for the most part, it is only interested in making money (Brody, 2008). In often cases, the industry prescribes and administers to consumers some medications and treatments which are deadly.
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I think consumers should be given an opportunity to make their own decisions as this would give them complete responsibility for their choices (Goldacre, 2013). Even so, the challenge is that in this industry, this is not the case. The pharma industry is among the most aggressive advertisers in the country. It uses the strongest form of appeals to reach the intended target people. The main issue is that though the industry understands the main dangers of prescribing medications and treatments, which have a deadly effect; it still continues to lure the public into its offerings (Lindenmeier et al. 2012). Even the knowledgeable consumers are aware of this form of deception but still continue to downplay the severity of the harmful effects caused by these products. It must be agreed that even with knowledge about the detrimental effects of the pharmaceutical products; consumers are unable to resist them. Companies within this industry deploy ground breaking advertising and marketing campaigns for their products and services (Goldacre, 2013). They use campaigns, which make their products, and services appealing in such a manner that, consumers cannot avoid (Levy & Grewal, 2015). These campaigns are intended to make the public vulnerable and as a result, render them impossible to avoid these products and services. Eventually, they disregard caution and successfully hook consumers to their products (Brody, 2008).
Question 2
In my view, I think it is possible for a company to cater to both its best interest and that of the consumer conjointly. The main reason is that all businesses are working towards achieving specified business goals and objectives (Goldacre, 2013). In fact, most businesses seek to achieve the primary goals of maximizing profits, maximizing production and maintaining customers. These three are the main interests of the company. The company generates profits through selling its products and services to the public. Even so, for consumers to return and buy more they must not only be impressed but the company must also meet their needs and interests (Buchan, 2013). If the company does not satisfy the consumers, then, they will not purchase their products and will incur reduced sales, which translate into reduced revenues. This will be a huge loss for the company. That said, for the company to achieve its goals of increasing sales, production and maintains customers; it must first satisfy the interests of its consumers. In so doing, it will automatically cater for the interests of the company and consumers.
References
Brody, H. (2008). Hooked: Ethics, the medical profession, and the pharmaceutical industry . Lanham [Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.
Buchan, J. (2013). Franchisees as consumers: benchmarks, perspectives and consequences .New York, NY, Springer. http://site.ebrary.com/id/10624852.
Elliott, C. (2010). White Coat, Black Hat . [Place of publication not identified], Beacon Press. http://api.overdrive.com/v1/collections/v1L2BMAAAAM0GAAA19/products/985dd72b-1752-4e7e-b5b6-0360a1257f28.
Goldacre, B. (2013). Bad pharma: How drug companies mislead doctors and harm patients . New York, NY: Faber & Faber.
Levy, M., & Grewal, D. (2015). Proceedings of the 1993 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference .Cham: Springer International Publishing.https://link.springer.com/openurl?genre=book&isbn=978-3-319-13158-0.
Lindenmeier, J., Tscheulin, D. K., & Drevs, F. (June 01, 2012). The effects of unethical conduct of pharmaceutical companies on consumer behavior: Empirical evidence from Germany. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, 6, 2, 108-123.
