DE-MARKETING

BY:-

IQRA IMTIYAZ
Roll no. 22
MBA Ist Sem
 DE- MARKETING

The process of reducing the demand for a product or decreasing consumption is known as De-
marketing

Marketing aimed at limiting market growth; for example, some governments practice de-
marketing to conserve natural resources and organizations use a de-marketing approach when
there is so much demand that that are unable to serve the needs of all potential customers
adequately.

Definition

Efforts aimed at discouraging (not destroying) the demand for a product which (1)
a firm cannot supply in large-enough quantities, or (2) does not want to supply in a
certain region where the high costs of distribution or promotion allow only a too little profit
margin. Common de-marketing strategies include higher prices, scaled-down advertising, and
product redesign.

Marketers attempt to reduce the demand for a product when the demand for the product is greater
than the manufacturer's ability to produce it. De-marketing strategies involve raising prices,
reducing advertising or promotion activities, or eliminating product benefits. De-marketing does
not aim to destroy the demand but only to lower it to make it level with the ability to produce the
product.

Marketers sometimes practice selective de-marketing, which attempts to lower the demand for a
product in a particular market, usually where one market is less profitable than other markets for
the product. This is often done where the cost to manufacture, advertise, or promote the product
is greater in one market than in other markets.

Governments in many countries are experimenting with alternative methods for reducing car use,
including congestion charges, increased fuel taxation, and improved public transport. This paper
raises another possibility. Not only could public transport be marketed as an alternative to the
private car, but through targeted propaganda, the automobile could be de-marketed as a status
symbol and a convenient accessory of modern life. In contrast with other public information
campaigns, de-marketing would focus on people's self-image rather than their sense of public
duty.

The authors draw on established theory in putting forward alternative themes aimed at particular
categories of user and particular categories of journey, and briefly consider the strengths and
weaknesses of each approach. Peer group pressure could be an important factor in helping to
change attitudes among potential car users at the opinion-forming stage during their life cycle.
The agencies best positioned to deliver an effective national campaign are public transport
corporations, local authorities, health organizations, and environmental lobby groups; a co-
ordinate approach could bring about a modest contribution towards travel reduction at a
relatively low cost.

There are various factors through which the demand of a product or a service can be reduced
because of shortage in supply or to combat over-demand. One of the techniques through which
demand can be reduced is through de-marketing. In De-marketing, consumers are discouraged
for the use of a specific product or service like in India, IPCL sells its products and at the same
time it promotes "Save Oil, Save India".

De -marketing is a concept which means to discourage the use of some product or good in the
times of shortages. It is usually practiced by governments when shortage for any good or service
arise in short term. Businesses also tend to de-market their products in order to coup with the
shortages created in short run.

There can different reasons for the creation of shortage. It can be the fact that the
manufacturers of goods do not have enough resources to produce the goods hence in this case
demand becomes greater than the supply. When this situation arise where demand exceeds
available supply, prices tend to increase because more and more people will want to buy the
product which is already less than its demand.

Supply Demand gap can be created due to many reasons. One of the important reason may be
non-availability of raw materials to produce it. If raw materials are present, there may
be scarcity of qualified human resource which can produce the good so there are different factors
because of which de marketing is done deliberately by the companies.

Governments do it in order to discourage the price to rise beyond controllable levels or if there
are more serious social repercussions of the use of that good.

De-marketing is a little known concept, which aims at dissuading customers from consuming or
buying some things either because it is harmful or simply because the demand is more than the
supply. This could be on a temporary or permanent basis.

There could be general de-marketing where the company plans to reduce the total supply. The
company may have production problems and hence is facing temporary shortages,
or chronic over popularity where it cannot meet the demands or it may want to eliminate a
product. In selective de-marketing the company plans to discourage specific groups
of customers and in ostensible de-marketing demand is discouraged to increase situation.
There are various de-marketing strategies , which can be implemented depending on the
situation. Firstly, keep close attention to the time requirements of various customers. Secondly,
the product could be rationed by differentiating consumers on an equitable basis. Thirdly,
encouraging clients to use substitutes temporarily or allowing them to use products already
purchased by another client. All this helps to maintain customer good will even when the
customer's demands do not match the supply from the company. From the company's point of
view, the role of de-marketing is to make sure that the demand is at the same stage and
composition, which favors the long-term goals of the company.

To conclude de-marketing is marketing in the opposite direction so that product, price and
company policies deflate demand and limits growth.

How much is too much? Generally, this is a question that marketing managers of a company do
not ask when it comes to the net sales. Depending on the sector and the kind of product, perhaps
they should.

The concept

De-marketing is a concept that endorses the line of thought mentioned above. The concept came
to fore back in 1971 when Kotler and Levy defined it as ““discouraging customers in general or
a certain class of customers in particular on either a temporary or a permanent basis”. In further
expositions on the same topic, many Marketing Gurus defined de-marketing as the “reverse of
marketing” which was contested by others like Beeton and Benfield (2002) who claimed de-
marketing to be an intrinsic aspect of marketing management. The crux of the concept still lies in
the 1971 paper of Kotler and Levy which goes on to state that: “in practice excess demand is as
much a marketing problem as excess supply [. . .] The tasks of coping with shrinking demand or
deliberately discouraging segments of the market call for the use of all the major marketing
tools. As such, marketing thinking is just as relevant to the problem of reducing demand as it is
to the problem of increasing demand.”

De-marketing thus is a concept that favors pin-pointing upon the most profitable consumers and
staying away from the costly consumers. As Mary Frances Luce, a marketing professor at Duke
University’s Fuqua Business School says,” If you can’t say who your customers aren’t, most
probably you can’t say who your customers are.”

The Practice

Let us start with a very obvious example. Auto insurance industry is one industry most prone to
the effect that wrong consumers can have on the bottomlines. Insurers hence, generally demarket
their product from the potentially costly consumers. One example is Progressive Inc (the third
largest auto insurer of USA) which screens its consumers based on their responses to a
questionnaire. Apart from insurance, health care and tourism are two such areas where the need
for demarketing is felt the most. Demarketing is effectively used by cities which need to keep
away a set of visitors to preserve their separate feel. A place like Ibiza which markets itself as a
place for singles and the young might actually discourage the people of other age-groups from
visiting. However, demarketing is not limited to the profitability aspect only. It is also used in
cases of products like alcoholic beverages, tobacco and for products which are made out of finite
resources. A case in point would be the example of IPCL (Indian Petrochemicals Corporation
Limited) which demarkets its own product saying “Save Oil Save India”. The impetus here is not
to stave away the consumers, it is the fact that oil being a finite resource product should be used
carefully to maximize its utility.
Another example worth noting is from the technology side. Experts feel that Apple has done a
good job of demarketing its products. For that, it has used pricing as a strategic tool to keep its
product safely inside its target consumer segment. Though the prices of iPhone were brought
down to $399, Apple can still lower the prices which it chooses not to do. Not surprisingly, there
is a 4P of demarketing too which is based on the exclusivity of the product, place, price and
promotions.

Summary

In most of the examples above and in general practice, de-marketing can often be confused with
focused target marketing with the line of difference being blurred occasionally. However as a
rule of thumb de-marketing can be considered as a set of activities which discourage the non-
target consumers and target marketing can be considered as a set of activities which encourage
the core target consumers.
To summarize, de-marketing can be of the following three forms:

i. General De-marketing – This is employed when a company needs to reduce demand in

general. This can happen when the company is still in process of scaling up its
production or plans to produce its product in limited quantity. The key concern here is
to keep focus on the channel and keep the good dealers and distributers happy by
allocating the products intelligently.
ii. Selective De-marketing – This form of de-marketing discourages a particular set of
consumers from using the product or service. An interesting example for this might
be the case of Quebec City which discouraged people from visiting it during the
Summit of Americas in 2001. The purpose was to keep protesters at bay, who were
expected to mar the proceedings by demonstrations. The method employed was that
of feeding stories to the popular media and through word of mouth. The impression
carried was that Quebec was a menacing place with only prisons having the place to
sleep. It discouraged many commoners from visiting the place during that time thus
easing the job of police.
iii. Ostensible De-marketing – This form of demarketing is employed when a firm wants to
create shortage of the product to increase consumer appetite. Much of this can be
found with many products which command higher demand due to the perceived or
actual scarcity of the product. Many gulf nations are blamed of doing the same with
their oil reserves to increase oil prices. Other than these, there are other forms of
demarketing too, as already mentioned in the article.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Demarketing is an attempt or device to reduce or limit demand for consumption of a

specific product or service on a permanent or temporary basis. This attempt can led to an
outcome of excessive demand which may have some effects on the objectives of an organization.
Therefore, demarketing is able to be applied on both private or public sector goals. Marketing is
basically dealt with the problem of increasing or stimulating demand in terms of over supply.
The use of the 4P's of the marketing concept, however, becomes the focal point of this objective.
Marketing focuses on the defining the firm's goals, recognized the important market, and
understand the needs and desires of the customers. A firms, at the same time, might be
hampered with the problem of customer mix and marketing mix decision.

De-marketing can be used as a device to decrease or reduce total demand, or types of

demand and uses in relation to a particular stage of supply. Once a firm acknowledges that de-
marketing is a must, then all the marketing approaches can be applied. Marketing has been
suggested as importance to the dilemma of decreasing demand as well as to the dilemma of
increasing demand. De-marketing should not be classified as mere marketing in the opposite side
where the 4P's of the marketing are used to reduce demand. If de-marketing is implemented
appropriately, then firm is able to enjoy a viable future and a more secure, predictable short run.

Introduction

De-marketing, the methods that have been used to reduce market demand for a particular
item or product. De-marketing usually involves the alterations of marketing mix variable to
effect lesser demand when it is bigger than an organization can or able to tackle the situation.
Oftentimes, de-marketing methods involve raising prices, reducing advertising and promotion
expenditures, or deleting product benefits. Usually, de-marketing may be intended to decrease
demand either for a shorter period or forever. In selective de-marketing, a company may try to
decrease demand in a specific or particular market such as the one that is considered to have less
profitable than others. This can be classified as an appropriate planning when a company is
encountered with an overfull demand state.

De-marketing is considered to be the reverse of marketing. The version of de-marketing

became a very hot issue in the early period of 1970's especially with the popular incident when
the supply of a variety of items became very limited. According to Phillips and Sidney, de-
marketing is basically defined as: "... attempts to discourage customers in general or a certain
class of customers in particular on either a temporary or permanent basis." (1971)

DEMARKETING STRATEGY
 De-marketing strategy is able to be implemented in various forms such as keep close
attention of the time requirements of different customers or clients. De-marketing can be
expressed as a rationing supplies by differentiating customers on an equitable basis. The third
strategy of de-marketing is explained as recommending to customers to utilize a substitute
product temporarily in terms of de-marketing. The final de-marketing strategy is to divert a
customer with a spontaneous need or requirement for the item to another customer in which the
company or firm has already supplied or provided the item recently and who the customer is
unlikely to use the item until a certain period of time in the future.

De-marketing strategy has been focused toward maintaining customer goodwill at the
times when the demands of the customer do not match appropriately. On the other hand, de-
marketing strategy may probably lead to improved revenues in the long run.

The famous concept of marketing is to deal with the dilemma of expanding need or
demand. This concept is related with the rising period of items that are over supply. However,
marketing has a strong relation of identification with the dilemma of buyer markets. In reality,
excess demand is more or less the same in situation as excess supply. In addition to this problem,
a company may encounter a major difficulty in terms of customer mix and marketing mix
decisions in times of over demand. The duties and responsibilities of de-marketing in the long
run is to ensure that the demand have to be at the same stage and composition which suits the
objectives and goals of the company.

There are three different forms of de-marketing. The very first is called the general de-
marketing. This form is needed especially when a company plans to reduce the amount of total
demand. The second step is known as the selective de-marketing. This step takes place when a
company decides to discourage the demand occurs from specific groups of customer. The final
type of de-marketing is referred to as an ostensible de-marketing, which includes the feature of
planning to discourage demand that acts as a device for the purpose of increasing the situation.

General de-marketing can be sub-categorized as temporary shortages, chronic over

popularity, and product elimination. In the case of temporary shortages, many companies
possess the problem of misfortune and fortune especially in searching for specific products or
items in over demand. The superior in the management level may either making an
underestimated demand or overestimated the production.

Here are some of the cases that have been drawn back for temporary shortages. In the
early 60's, Eastman Kodak launched its Instamatic camera, however, this company realized that
they were hampered with the problem of runaway demand. Also, in the same period of time,
Wilkinson Sword came out with its latest stainless steel blade. Due to this introduction, this
company was being criticized by both regular and new dealers for supplies as none of them felt
that they were satisfied.
 Sometimes in the late 1960's, the company named Anheuser-Busch was underestimating
the growth level in demand for its famous Budweiser beer. This company then discovered that it
has to ration supplies to its good dealers and market. The last case of the temporary shortages
occurred in the period of early 1970 between the savings and loan associations in which they
were hampered with problem of oversupply of savings in relation to their ability to invest the
funds and at the same time to discourage the savings customers.

The above-mentioned cases referred to as temporary shortages where the company

enables to bring forward enough plant expansion. There are various steps being used to
encourage de-consuming such as reduce sales promotion expenditure, cut back salesmen's selling
time on the items and their activities budgets, increase the price and other criteria of sale for the
beneficial of the marketing company, and finally, reduce product quality or content which may
result in de-market at a slower phase.

In addition to the above situation, marketing management needs to develop a good and
reliable plan of product allocation. Management should be able to allocate the products in a
situation of first come first serve in which the dealers and customers should receive their stocks
according to their ordering. Also, management can practice the allocation of the product by
emphasizing on proportional demand basis. In addition, a company might also allocate supply
toward a favored customer only or a company can put the product demand on the highest bid
basis. However, the policies for allocating supply are necessary for top level management to play
an essential part in giving advise concerning the impact on the alternatives that might take place
in the long run.

The second sub-category of general de-marketing, chronic over popularity, where an

organization is facing with this problem right now in which it is trying to bring the demand down
to a permanently lower level. There are two factors involved for chronic over popularity. Firstly,
the product's present popularity seems to be the biggest drawback to the long run quality of the
item. Secondly, over popularity can be considered as a problem as more management do not
want to hold responsibility on all of the demand.

The last topic of general de-marketing is product elimination in which a deft de-
marketing is needed especially when a company plans to eliminate a product or service in which
the regular and loyal clients might still needed or desired of the item.

The second form of de-marketing which has been mentioned earlier is known as selective
de-marketing. Selective de-marketing can be discussed into two different ways. First, it refers to
a deliberate decision of segments that need to be avoided, and secondly, a particular way of
selection to drive off the unrequited clients. Usually for selective de-marketing, the company has
no choice of refusing the rights of sales, as a result, companies tries to figure out ways to
discourage demand from the unwanted customers. This can be practiced in a situation when a
company markets or focused its attention to only one group of segment of the public. It is most
likely to discourage those that need the product or item desperately. In some situations, marketer
is not given the choice to charge a discriminatory price especially to those unwanted group.

Oftentimes, when a company plans of discouraging, it actually is hoping for product

availability. In relation to this, a company might offer a bad service to the undesirable clients or
group of customers. Besides, a company may also put pressure for these undesirable clients to
figure out the way for product channels or information. However, an organization needs to have
the freedom of choice or defense its important customers in a situation where revenues are the
main issue. On the reverse side, an organization should not be prejudiced or biased against
potential buyers who do not possessed the criteria that the organization is expecting, and
discrimination needs to be avoided completely.

The last or the third type of de-marketing is called the ostensible de-marketing. Here, it
creates the feature of refusing a large amount or number of customers by hoping that the product
seems to be more valuable than the customers themselves. Most marketers decide upon the
principle or concept that people need what they feel may probably not that easy to achieved or
feel happy if they were being ignored by the seller.

Marketers need to integrate the changes in the business environment which include
several factors such as effective new product, pricing, distribution, and promotion strategies.
These factors are often called the 4P's of marketing concept. Usually, de-marketing involves in a
changing of marketing orientation. "Recent changes in the business environment have focused
attention on a wider range of marketing tasks which include that of reducing overfull demand, or
de-marketing." (Phillips Kotler & Sidney J. Levy, pg. 74-80). According to marketing
management strategy, marketing will stay as an important position of management decision
making and turn out to be the best form of choice.

In terms of integrated approach, marketing has long been recognized as the changing
management in relation to the opportunity assessment in the market as well as in the integration
of change into organizational decision procedures. This implementation of marketing planning
required both attention for long term and short term effects. As for the de-marketing position, it
needs to understand that a firms knows more about the consequences of its action in related to
the customers. However, for marketers whose products are heavily depended upon derived
demand, there is a need to be more aware with the problems and trends in the ultimate market.

In de-marketing, most or oftentimes marketers are encountered with the social change
that is, the shifting of social values and attitudes away from the excessive consumption to the
limited consumption. However, it is not that easy to obtain changes in direction than it is to
launch existing attitudes and behavior. Here, a marketer needs to understand the concept of
marketing problem that is; a problem to one organization is a chance or an opportunity to
another.
 De-marketing is considered to be an integral component of general marketing and needs
to be positioned from a very wider prospect instead of a limited point of view. Marketing
management needs to be more aware of the situations of marketing mix elements in terms of
marketing environment shifts from excess supply to over demand.

In developing a substitution strategy, it is the marketer’s responsibilities to ensure the

possible alternatives through evaluation in terms of supply trends, price trends, technical
compatibility, product quality acceptability, time interval to achieve change, cost of change, and
political stability. However, the impact of substitutes on product quality needs to focus on special
consideration. Product demand has a connection with the level of quality and consumer
expectations.

"Market research, on the other hand, has put more attention on the growing profiles of
purchase behaviors and styles. Also, researchers have to be more aware in terms of making
progress in their ability to assess for the coming behavior and need to continue observing the
trend approach that offers interesting potentials." (Jack J. Honomich, pg. 30-31)

During the times of oversupply, the pricing strategies have been developed to achieve
sales volumes as a mean for corporate profitability and then focused the attention on the
penetration price levels. While marketers recognized the basic essential of keeping prices at a
lower level, the shortage situation has been connected with the fast changing cost that need to be
reconciled if the product or item plans to stay on a profitable position.

"Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation recently bowed out of a price war with
Texas Instruments for two control modules for Polaroid Corporations SX-70 camera, because the
profit margin would not be sufficient given the new business environment." (Business Week, pg.
42-46). Marketers are able to reduce demand for their product by increasing or putting an
extremely higher price. However, this method is basically narrowed down both by control
regulations and by the nature of competitive price levels and consumer expectations. As a result
of this method, companies have to offer a range of service factors concerning their products in
order to receive a better position of the sales growth in the market.

The best method for the growing of the channels of distribution has put a lot of
emphasizes on time, and in relation to this, there is controlled flexibility for short term changes.
However, the concept of mass distribution is hampered by the pressure in the present
environment, and also, marketers need to realize of the opportunity and the potentiality for the
overall planned restructuring of the distribution channel. Since marketers focus more attention
on reducing consumer demand, this might enable marketers to implement the strategy of target
segment distribution. However, the problem that the marketing management is encountering
today, basically, deals with the questions of how to allocate the available product supplies and
how to maintain the goodwill of the distributors and customers.
 One area or field of uncertainty and insecurity is the evaluation for the cost effectiveness
especially for promotion program. Here, quite a large number of marketers plan to reduce
advertising and sales force budgets in relation with the situation of declining in supply. As a
tradition and custom, sales force performance has been based on sales volume and quota
requirement. "In the present market environment, however, an extension of performance criteria
is necessary and should include service orientation and marketing intelligence. The service focus
requires that salesmen solve their customers' supply problems and be well informed on the
product availability and allocation procedures." (Business Week, pg.54-61). The attention in
advertising need to be on creating new trends and waves that have connection with the emerging
social value patterns and that specify action alternatives for customers if there is a needs or
requirements in developing important changes in consumer behavior and orientation.

Here are several ways of assessing and implementing the strategies of de-marketing. De-
marketing strategies include a wide range of applications. Marketing strategies are changing due
to various factors such as scarcity of materials, problem of inflation, and higher cost in every
aspect of a business. De-marketing can become a more commonplace since resources turn out to
be more scarce and higher priced as well as governments place more pressure on marketers.

Marketing strategy needs to accommodate changing environmental and internal

influences. A de-marketing strategy quite often has been referred to as a reaction to actual or
threatened shortages of raw materials. In order to coincide or match with supply, the marketer is
required to reduce or ration demand. As supply of resources become increasingly strained, the
growth and development of the market expansion especially for the strategies seemed to be a
major difficulty to implement. So far, a few numbers of efforts have been implemented in order
to identify different categories of de-marketing which had been explained earlier such as general,
selective, and ostensible de-marketing that referred to as a same term of trying to discourage
demand. Basically, the breakdown of de-marketing is based on the portion of the market that is
affected by the strategy.

Cullwick (1975) mentioned two different types of de-marketing strategies. "A de-
marketing strategy will either ration demand or reduced demand. When rationing demand, the
marketer attempts to spread limited supply of products throughout the market. When reducing
demand, active efforts are made to lower the overall demand for the product."

De-marketing strategies can be grouped according to the degree of which they reduce or
control demand. De-marketing strategies include passive de-marketing, active de-marketing, and
complete de-marketing. Passive de-marketing is being identified as a situation where consumers
may not use the product but still it available to those consumers unpersuaded by the de-
marketing strategies. However, as for active de-marketing, it would use the marketing mix to
ration, decrease, or restrict demand in several or every market segment. The third strategy is
called the complete de-marketing which will cease sales of the product.
 Consumerists and marketing critics have putting some pressures on marketers to be more
socially responsible. If there is demand occurred for the product, then the marketer could
probably be in a no-win predicament. Consumers will switch to competing brands if the marketer
discontinues marketing the product or item unilaterally. On the other hand, if marketers plan to
continue to market the product, then special government agencies could place a tremendous
pressures or regulations on the firm. Another alternative is to have trade association practice self
regulation.

"There are two specific objectives for a passive de-marketing strategy. Firstly, consumers
would be educated as to the negative impact of the product on society, the economy of the
environment and, if the alternative products and behavior to that product. The company would
continue to keep the product on the market so as to maintain sales to consumers unaffected by
the de-marketing effort. Secondly, special interest groups, regulatory agencies, and executives of
the firm wanting the firm to be more socially responsible would be evidence that the firm is
moving in a positive direction. If the marketing effort is successful, pressure on the firm will then
be reduced." (Stern, 1971).

The investment in a de-marketing campaign could led to a reduction in sales if there is no

alternative product is available to consumers. However, the de-marketing effort must be able to
satisfy the critics of the firm. Those who expect the firm to act in more socially responsible
attitudes and behavior must put a total confidence that the firm is trying its very best effort to
adjust the behavior of the consumers. Besides influencing customers, de-marketing effort needs
to be conducted especially when there is a chance or opportunity to success.

A consumer education program for de-marketing strategy can be effective if it follows

some of the steps mentioned below. "A reasonable segment of consumers should be receptive to
an educational program and will be likely to alter their behavior. A program must have an
existing attitudinal base to be effective. An education de-marketing campaign will meet with
more success if it is conducted in conjunction with other de-marketing efforts. The de-marketing
effort should not be viewed as a short run strategy. The support within the firm should be
substantial before a campaign is begun." (MAJOB, pg. 36)

In order to reduce demand for a product or service, a marketer needs to use an active de-
marketing. Active de-marketing is a strategy that is used in an attempt to limit and decrease
demand in order to match supply. In addition to this, active de-marketing can be utilized when a
firm identifies less profitable products in its product mix. Besides, active de-marketing can target
both the entire market or at specific market segments. The marketer is enable to create rationing
or short-run active de-marketing strategies when temporary developments take place with no
significant long run effort. To have a clear understanding, active de-marketing program can or
enable to limit the sales of a product which could focus on a market segment or on the entire
market. This strategy has been used in several situations and companies such as chemical firm,
utilities for electricity, and water shortages.
 In order to adopt an active de-marketing strategy, some guidelines need to be followed
before this strategy can be performed such as image of the firm, personnel impact, legalization,
elasticity of marketing mix, and segmentation.

The final strategy of de-marketing is referred to as the complete de-marketing. Complete

de-marketing can be implemented if a marketer feels that the product is no longer necessary to be
utilized or the consumers are not required to buy the item. In addition to this situation, forced
complete de-marketing would be carried out if the complete de-marketing program was being
enforced due to the outside pressure. Good example of the force de-marketing program is
government recalling for the products as these products are not suited to be in the market. One
of the incidents that took place was the Proctor and Gambles. This company had to withdraw one
of its products called Rely tampons. Beside withdrawing the product from the market, this
company also has to convince the customer of not to buy the product through promotional
campaign and the product needs to be returned to the retailer.

A cost benefit dilemma is encountered when implementing a voluntary complete de-

marketing program which include the dollars to recall the product, the opportunity cost of
spending resources for recalling the product, facing the image problem, and reactions from the
directors and stockholders. If the product is not suitable to be used, customers should not use the
product. Then, the customers are highly protected. Once the product is removed quickly from the
market, then the legal problems can be minimized.

CONCLUSION

To conclude this hot issue of de-marketing, it is not difficult to expressed that de-
marketing is only marketing in the opposite situation that includes product, price, place, and
promotion policies which can be used to discourage demand. However, there is the danger of
excessive reducing short run demand rather than increasing the demand excessively. On the other
hand, the functions of marketing are basically to regulate the standard and shape of the demand
so that it enables to conforms for both organizations current supply position and long run
planning and goals. Besides, marketing possesses a part in terms of excess demand that is the
challenge which is to de-market appropriately and wisely.

Marketers need to recognize marketing as the management of change for the growth of an
environment of shortages reinforcement. De-marketing strategy is considered as an integral part
of overall marketing and it is important to strongly emphasize on decreasing or rationing
demand. In addition to this, marketing research needs to pay more attention on social and
technological trend analysis in relation with the historical background of sales and purchase
behavior. By this, it can offer early signal of warnings especially with the changes in the market
environment as well as launching sensitive strategies to acknowledge with the mentioned
changes.
 Once marketing strategies become more cautious, then de-marketing strategies enable or
managed to be increased. The passive de-marketing aims to persuade customers from using the
product, but at the same time keeps the product to be available in the market. Active de-
marketing attempts to reduce overall demand. Finally, complete de-marketing takes place
especially when the marketing of a product slowly become diminish, and the customers are
informed carefully of not to use the product. Here, the marketers need to be aware of the
dilemma that they will probably have to face with. In order to overcome the dilemma, different
factors should be taken into account, different questions should be brought forward, and
traditional goals of de-marketing are always changeable and easily altered.