NAME : RADHIKA PATEL

ENROLLMENT NO : IU1955550057

SEMESTER : MBA SEM - 4

SUBJECT : CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MARKETING

WHAT IS CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN MARKETING ?

 DEFINATION :

Contemporary issues have political, economic, social, historic and geographic

components. Approaches to addressing global and regional issues reflect historical
influences and multiple perspectives. Students can impact global issues through service
learning and senior projects.

A contemporary issue refers to an issue that is currently affecting people or places and

that is unresolved.

A geographic issue refers to a topic, concern or problem, debate, or controversy related to

a natural and/or cultural environment, which includes a spatial dimension.

Food fraud - a global issue on a global scale

Both food fraud and lack of traceability are direct consequences of the production issue. As
there's such a strong demand compunded by a lack of supply, inevitably - and regrettably -
there's a major growth in food fraud cases.

The statistics alone give significant cause for concern; as an example, every year:

 There are ten times more olive oil from Italy than the country could actually produce.
 We know that 30% of the fish is incorrectly labelled and you are not getting what is on
the packaging

Lack of traceability

Global and fragmented supply chains can result in a lack of traceability; multiple small
stakeholders – often with no barriers to entry - mean that in some networks, anybody can
produce food.
So this fragmented market can result in very low levels of visibility; any big food brand will
have a pretty good understanding of their tier one suppliers. However, when it comes to tier two
it's more complicated and tier three's can have up to 18 or 20 different layers. This results in a
lack of transparency across the entire food supply chain. So that's a big problem as well and it's
global and it's international.

Environmental and social responsibility

Perhaps the biggest responsibility for all of us is our environmental impact and social
responsibility. We need to recognise that our food system has a degree of responsibility for an
explosion of non-communicable disease including obesity, diabeties, autism and cancer. We’re
the first ones to acknowledge that our food system is partly responsible for this explosion of
modern slavery, yes - modern slavery. There are 25 million people in a state of modern slavery
today; 25 million that is twice more than over the 300 years of human traffic between Africa and
America. We’re talking about child labour, forced labour, human trafficking and so forth.

So what can we do about it, what is the point? At LR, we deliver audits on responsible
sourcing to make sure that organisations are doing what it takes to slavery free products. We
should all be curious, look at what's behind the brand, look at what this label means because
you've got the power to change it. You are the driver of the change. In the food system clearly
you are the driver; each time you eat and drink you vote for the world you want.

Affordability

Another issue is low income and margins; food needs to be affordable. In France and Western
Europe, average share of revenue per household dedicated to food moved from 25% to 8%
within 40 years. This in turn creates the problem of investment in the food supply chain and the
balance in the revenue from food production. To put this into context, out of the 800 million
people that are starving to death today, 700 million of them are farmers. So those who can and
who should produce the food are the ones who are starving; that's a problem.

Social media and brand reputation

 As an example, let me remind you that back in 2011, there was an E.coli outbreak in
north Germany. The German health authorities, without results of ongoing tests,
incorrectly linked the O104 serotype to cucumbers imported from Spain. Later, they
recognised that Spanish greenhouses were not the source of the E. coli and cucumber
samples did not contain the specific E. coli variant causing the outbreak. Spain
consequently expressed anger about having its produce linked with the deadly E. coli
outbreak, which cost Spanish exporters US$200 million per week. Russia banned the
import of all fresh vegetables from the European Union from early June until 22 June
2011. This example illustrates the viral nature of social media and the impact it can have
with companies often going bankrupt, simply because of what was a one-week rumour on
the internet.
 Many forward thinking organisations serving the food sector see social media as an
opportunity. Let's take Nestlé as an example; they have 600 people dedicated to
monitoring and influencing discussions on social media. They recognise that it's their
responsibility to be able to define what is true or fake in these online discussions and help
to ensure that they keep their brand - and consumers - safe. It's a huge opportunity for all
of us because we have direct access to these organisations; we have a direct access to the
food industry and our voices can be heard.