Limitations and Constraints of Marketing Essay

In this assignment I will describe the limitations and constraints of marketing for Barclays. Within this I will discuss legal Acts that Barclays have to comply with when advertising, collecting data and market researching. Any and every organisation has limitations and constraints that they have to submit too within marketing, when it comes to market research, advertising or collecting data there are three laws every business has to obey. These laws are: Data Protection Act 1998 Trade Description Act 1968 Consumer Credit Act 1974 Data Protection Act 1998 The Data Protection Act controls how your personal information is used by businesses or the government. People who are responsible for using data have to follow strict rules called Data Protection Principles. This means they must make sure the information is used fairly and lawfully, specifically stated purposes and used in a way that is acceptable, relevant and not excessive. All information has to be accurate and kept safe and secure. Any companies that keep information on living and identifiable people, all must comply with the Data Protection Act; this has to apply to any computerised or manual records containing personal information about people.  Barclays Bank will use this information, with them having accounts on students etc. they will use their information to send out any type of services or offers the bank is promoting, this is a form of advertising. Barclays may also use this information for market research, for example if the bank wants a review of consumer’s opinions on a new service or if they would be interested in a new service, they can send questions, surveys to the information they have. Trade Description Act 1968 Merchandise Marks laws were replaced with The Trade Descriptions Act this came into place on 20 November 1968, the laws and this new Act dealt with mis-description of goods and its particular job is to ensure that organisations tell the truth about goods, prices and services. This Act makes it an offence if a company uses false trade descriptions to any of their goods and services, this Acts purpose is stop businesses advertising goods or services with false proposition. This Act covers a lot from the quantity, size or measure of goods; how they were made or processed; what they are made of; when they were made; their fitness for purpose; strength, performance, behaviour or accuracy and any other physical characteristics. Barclays will have to obey to this law, they cannot sell, promote a service with false intent. The Student Additions Account’s will have to meet to their description alongside the features included into the account have to be accurate and precise. Consumer Credit Act The Consumer Credit Act was put into effect in 1974, it requires organisations that loan money to consumers or offer merchandise or services on credit or participate in certain additional credit activities, have to be licensed by the OFT. If a company traded without a license, it would then lead to court case, not having your license or following this act is a criminal offence and can result in a fine or imprisonment. This act regulates consumer credits and insures content and form of credit agreement, procedures relating to events of default, termination or early settlement, credit advertising, method of calculating annual percentage rate (APR) and section 75 which gives consumers extra protection on items that cost over  £100 and up to  £30.000 paid by credit card. Before Barclays give out their services to consumers they will assess their  creditworthiness, they will use sufficient information obtained from a customer and a credit reference agency. Once a regulated agreement is in place, Barclays Bank will comply with the law and follow the act. Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) The ASA are an industry that deals with most types of ads, they deal with peoples complaints about advertisements, anything that people may find inappropriate, offensive, irresponsible or potentially harmful. Once a complaint has been made the ASA will do all it can to get the advertisement removed or changed. The types of ads they deal with include: Magazine and newspaper advertisements Radio and TV commercials Television Shopping Channels Advertisements on the Internet. Commercial e-mail and SMS text message ads Posters on legitimate poster sites Leaflets and brochures Cinema commercials Direct mail Door drops and circulars Ads on CD ROMs, DVD and video, and faxes Sales promotions, such as special offers, prize draws and competitions wherever they appear. The ASA will help businesses like Barclays produce adverts that will not be misled and will meet principles and meet standards to a fair nature, these ads should be truthful and responsible. When a company produces any type of advertisement they have to make sure images, scripts they use are acceptable otherwise there ads could be removed or told to change. There are certain things that the ASA do not find acceptable alongside consumers, such as binge drinking, concerns of obesity, smoking all markets should be aware. Pressure groups are people who all have a strong opinion on something and act upon it; if an organisation produced something a pressure group did not agree with it would have a negative impact against the company. Consumerism Consumerism is a movement for people; consumerism protects the customer against useless, inferior, or dangerous products, misleading advertising and unfair pricing. It is rights for all customers to have their say, before 1960 consumers had very little rights, now the law has changed and consumers have a lot more. This was put into place because of consumers wanting to be heard, they wanted a right to choose and to be informed. There are certain things consumers can find offensive or unacceptable, when a marketer makes advertisement they have to be careful about use of language, blasphemy, subjective humour and false sayings. When an organisation like Barclays produces any type of advertising they have to comply with all laws and consumerism, businesses will do this for their own safety as well as customers.