Wildlife Viewing: A Management Handbook

Rating:
Summary: Leave Marketing to the Markets
Review: Someone recently sent me a copy of a chapter from this book entitled: 'Marketing Wildlife-viewing Experiences.' As an economist working and applying economic theory and principles to fish and wildlife management, I was of course intrigued and excited by this title. Marketing in the public sector is usually a misnomer at best, and more often than not, an ill-conceived idea of someone with no economic or marketing background.

I have to be honest and say that I was disappointed to find this chapter equally ill-conceived. There are only two significant marketing references cited. I also wonder if any economist or marketing person was consulted. Although early in the chapter the authors pointed out that marketing is a very misused term and concept, they proceed to demonstrate how little they themselves know about marketing and economics. Once again, this chapter points out the obvious ' biologists should stay with biology (or go back to school for a long time!).

I've never understood why fish and wildlife management agencies wish to rely on biologists to serve all the needs of the agency ' business manager, accountant, economist, marketer, ' Most corporations either hire appropriate professionals or make sure the necessary training is provided for the job responsibility. I for one do not go to my auto mechanic for relief from acute appendicitis; nor do I design a critical public survey without consulting my statistician.

I will not go into all the misconceptions and misuses of marketing spelled out in this chapter. I think a couple examples should suffice. 'Marketing is simply a process, '' is a common distortion made by public sector organizations attempting to apply marketing. Methodology has to some extent replaced substance as the content of marketing knowledge. Specifically, the authors' definition of marketing as a process rather than in terms of outcomes, e.g. exchanges, reduces marketing to mere methodological status. Buying and selling are the ultimate outcomes of marketing, not the completion of some process.

Also, forms of decision making have become more important than the knowledge of the subject about which decisions are made. The author's continually replay their opinion that marketing helps agencies make better decisions as a process, but not in terms of seeking and obtaining better information about which one must make a decision. For example, is the investment in wildlife viewing justified? To first answer this question, one must know the value of wildlife viewing. It is possible to obtain this information, but not easy or cheap, and one needs this information before building a marketing program for wildlife viewing. As Enis (1973) pointed out, transactions where the exchange cannot be accurately determined should be excluded from the marketing domain.

The misuse of price is also disappointing. Administrative fees used to cover costs, partial costs, or manipulate participation have little to nothing to do with the market and market price. Unpriced values of wildlife viewing do exist, but have little relevance to administrative entrance fees. And yet, price is central to the market concept. A market is where willing sellers sell to willing buyers at prices mutually acceptable. When they say price can be manipulated by 'actual cost', what is actual cost? Is it total cost, average cost, or marginal cost? Just another example of misusing marketing and economics.

In conclusion, this is a good chapter for designing and understanding the importance of a good plan, e.g. a Public Relations Plan. Or, the importance of good outreach and education. The success of any of these depends greatly on a good planning process, which the authors have described. This is not, however, marketing. Currently the American Marketing Association defines marketing as: 'The process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchange and satisfy individual and organizational objectives.' Much of this chapter deals with several aspects of this definition, but it does not address the true role of prices and the ultimate exchange outcome of production and marketing. I suggest leaving marketing to the profit-minded business world and use less romantic terminology to define our public relations and education efforts in the public sector.