A contrast without a named firm

The assignment asked the writer to find one firm’s marketing that takes account of a generational difference, then to read that case through three of five ethical views: a theory of duty, a theory of rights, a utilitarian view, a theory of justice, and relativism. The essay never names a firm, and no year is given for a campaign. It stays with a general contrast, and then with the ethics.

Interest in generational difference, the writer says, has grown in recent years, at home and abroad, because each generation forms its own values and its own experience, and those shape thought and conduct. Baby boomers, in the contrast the page draws, tend to prize traditional values and stability, and economic security and a family-centred life; millennials tend to put personal development, a lived experience, and a social participation first, and may give a high priority to an environmentally friendly product. Generation Z, treated as a digital native, is at ease with technology and stresses the importance of online platforms. New technology and economic insecurity, the essay adds, also shape a generation’s habits of spending. A firm that does not take such differences into account, the writer says, can fail to meet a need, can even cause a refusal, and can lose a competitive position.

Social media for one generation, a family event for another

Marketing that takes account of a generational difference, on this page, is treated as a central strategic element now. Campaigns aimed at the so-called MZ generation and at baby boomers are, in this telling, designed around their characteristics and their values.

The MZ generation — millennials and Generation Z together — is described as digitally native, with a high ease around technology and an easy access to information on an online platform. Firms, the writer says, have been strengthening digital marketing aimed at that group: advertising on social-media platforms, influencer marketing, personalised recommendations, and events meant to draw a person in. Baby boomers, who in the essay’s contrast tend to prize stability and tradition, are approached through more traditional media, through family-centred events, and through an emphasis on a product’s reliability and quality, in order to win their trust. The writer expects marketing that takes such differences into account to remain a competitive element for firms. Because no firm is named, the contrast is left as a general practice, not as a single documented campaign.

Duty, a consumer’s rights, and a justice that includes a generation

The ethical reading begins with duty. A theory of duty, as the essay uses it, asks what a firm owes society. A firm may pursue a profit and still has a social responsibility; the examples given are a duty to lessen environmental harm and to create social value, and so to help a sustainable development. A theory of rights asks whether marketing respects a consumer’s rights: a right to information in the course of a purchase, a right to a safe product, and a right to a remedy when harm is done. A strategy, the writer says, should develop in a direction that protects those rights and a consumer’s interest.

Utility, as the page characterises it, is treated as a standard of fairness and of social justice, rather than as a simple greatest-happiness rule. Marketing, on that reading, should avoid discrimination among consumers, should give every consumer a fair and equal chance, and should take account of the interest of groups already at a disadvantage, so that the activity considers the good of a society as a whole and carries a social responsibility. Duty, rights, and utility are then gathered as criteria for whether a firm’s conduct is socially responsible, and marketing is not to be seen only as a means to a profit.

A later section treats justice as a reason to take generational difference seriously. If a campaign does not understand a generation’s experience and values, it may fail to meet a need and may even cause a refusal. A campaign that respects the difference, the writer says, helps to build trust, to raise a loyalty to a brand, and to keep a long relation; a campaign that ignores it may lose that trust, and a consumer may look to a competitor. In the same justice-based reading, such marketing is also a part of social responsibility: a firm is to respect variety and inclusion, and to act as a responsible member of a society. Relativism is used, in the close, to name both a value and a potential risk in marketing that follows a generation’s own values — a risk the heading on the page already flags. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. Korean class essay on marketing that takes account of generational difference, and on reading that practice through a theory of duty, a theory of rights, a utilitarian view as the essay characterises it, a theory of justice, and relativism.
2. The assignment asked for one firm’s case; the essay does not name a company or a dated campaign, and none is invented here.
3. The general contrast between approaches aimed at the so-called MZ generation and approaches aimed at baby boomers, as the page describes them.

Last updated: 14 November 2026