Social Critics Have Maintained That Marketing Leads People to Buy

Social critics have maintained that marketing leads people to buy products they neither want nor need. However, the failure rate of new products is reportedly as high as 80 percent. Which of the following best reconciles these two seemingly opposite views of marketing?

A) The social critics are simply wrong. People are not influenced by marketing.
B) Though consumers are highly influenced by marketing, most failed products have technical flaws.
C) Marketing does have an influence on consumers, but marketers simply do not know enough about people to manipulate them any way they please.
D) Purchase is a function of marketing, but business failure is unrelated to marketing.