Marketing in developing countries: The new frontier

The macro role of marketing is widely viewed as one of promoting economic growth, and macromarketing as being concerned with designing an efficient and fair marketing system to facilitate an economy's flow of goods from producers to consumers and accomplish the objectives of society. While empirical evidence is generally supportive of numerous economic and societal benefits resulting from marketing activities, concern regarding the underdeveloped state of marketing systems in Third World countries, and their inability to fully exploit the potentialities of marketing as an instrument for economic development has been widely expressed in marketing literature. In light of the above, the merits in viewing marketing as a formative influence on economic development and the potential role of the government in improving marketing systems and processes in Third World countries are discussed in this paper.