Marketing Theory recent issues

The past is a foreign country: amnesia and marketing theory

Tadajewski, M., Saren, M. — 2008-11-27

This paper introduces the special issue. Using the work of Connerton (2008) as our prism, we examine the role of amnesia in marketing theory, stressing its positive and negative benefits. Key Words • amnesia • critical marketing studies• structuring of marketing theory

Marketing the hegemony of development: of pulp fictions and green deserts

Bohm, S., Brei, V. — 2008-11-27

In this paper we analyze the role of marketing in the construction of what can be called the hegemony of development. Through an investigation of the marketing practices of the pulp and paper industry in South America and the resistances that are articulated by a range of civil society actors against the expansion of this industry, we problematize marketing as a political and contested discourse and practice. By using Laclau and Mouffe's (1985, 2001) theoretical framework, which is centered on the concept of `hegemony', we highlight the crucial role marketing plays in the social and cultural legitimation of the highly controversial development of the pulp and paper industry — regarded as one of the most polluting industries in the world — in South America. We build on existing `critical marketing' literatures to critique marketing's role in spreading `development' practices around the world, and we introduce Laclau and Mouffe's theories to the marketing field in order to understand better the way marketing helps to produce `development' as a hegemonic discourse in a particular social and cultural field. In this way we contribute to a growing understanding that critical marketing research is not only about exposing and analyzing the discourses and practices that drive consumption. Rather, we see marketing as an ontological discourse and practice that is crucial for the cultural and social legitimation of the development of entire industries and economic spheres.

Re-inventing Wroe?

Wooliscroft, B. — 2008-11-27

Marketing is a relatively young discipline and mainstream marketing education pays little attention to the discipline's development and history. While on the sidelines of the discipline there has been some criticism of the lack of a historical understanding of marketing's development, marketing too often produces theory without appropriate regard to past marketing theory. This paper considers the case of the `most important' paper on marketing theory in 2004 with reference to a leading marketing writer from the 1950s and 1960s. It finds support for the argument that the 2004 paper brings little novelty over the 1965 book to which it is compared.

Spinning the proverbial wheel? Social class and marketing

Henry, P., Caldwell, M. — 2008-11-27

Social class is one of the most fundamental dimensions of social organization, influencing almost every aspect of our lives, including market-mediated consumption. Despite this situation, the topic has a chequered history in marketing and consumer research. Significantly, a research program initiated by W. L. Warner in the 1930s in the United States, which emphasized the multifaceted nature of social class and highlighted concepts such as status, social networks, social comparison and class distinctive attitudes, was abandoned for over 30 years. Only relatively recently, consumer researchers (Allen and Anderson, 1994; Holt, 1998) revitalized this type of approach by highlighting the usefulness of Bourdieu's (1984) theory of social class and taste in explaining consumer behaviour. Strong parallels exist between the old and newer research programs, including similar conceptual underpinnings, matters of emphasis, and empirical findings. An intriguing question arises: `Why the hiatus in the study of social class in the consumer research field?' To answer this question, we examine the history of social class in marketing and consumer research.

An introspective genealogy of my introspective genealogy

Gould, S. J. — 2008-11-27

The thought surrounding my controversial introspective paper (Gould, 1991a) has formed a critical genealogy of its own. Here, I revisit the paper's writing and then consider readers' responses, including my own. In so doing, I find that the idea of erasure adapted from Derrida (1997) best describes what has emerged, namely a process of ignoring what I said or effacing/recasting it when ignoring was not possible.

The collective amnesia of marketing scholars regarding consumers' biological and evolutionary roots

Saad, G. — 2008-11-27

Despite the extraordinary advances in biology in the 20th century, along with the infusion of Darwinian theory across countless domains of human import, marketing and consumer scholars have doggedly forgotten, rejected, or ignored that consumers are biological beings shaped by a common set of evolutionary forces. Accordingly, this collective amnesia has yielded disciplines that largely focus on the disjointed and incoherent cataloguing of empirical findings, all of which operate at the proximate level. A complete and accurate understanding of any biological organism requires that it be studied at both the proximate and ultimate (in the Darwinian adaptive sense of the term) levels. Hence, at best, marketing and consumer scholars generate incomplete accounts of Homo consumericus and at worst they provide erroneous theories that eventually fall by the epistemological wayside. Should the collective amnesia persist, marketing and consumer scholars will further contribute to the sinking of our discipline into the abyss of irrelevant sciences, disconnected from the revolutionary work that is being conducted within the natural sciences.

`Don't forget the fruit gums, chum': marketing under erasure and renewal

Patterson, A., Bradshaw, A., Brown, S. — 2008-11-27

The world's best marketers are blessed with a peculiar inventiveness that stems from experiencing the world as a novelty, which is why the marketing discipline in general has a good memory for forgetting. In this paper then, we contend that amnesia in marketing academia is perfectly healthy, and indeed functions as a key component of our creative, ideas-laden discipline. We argue that the marketer's natural inclination towards erasure and renewal, towards always wiping the slate clean, should be encouraged, not cured. In marshalling the evidence in favour of forgetting, we pull apart the dialectic of remembering and forgetting, demonstrate how forgetting is integral to the academic sensibility, and question how much of the marketing literature is worth remembering in the first place.

Final thoughts on amnesia and marketing theory

Tadajewski, M. — 2008-11-27

In this paper I selectively reflect on the contents of the special issue, focusing on the structuring of the academy and the society in which we operate. I examine the epistemological structuring of marketing in relation to what counts as a contribution to knowledge, the effects of the way we use particular theory to sensitize ourselves to the wider world, and how this theory in turn restricts how we think about marketing theory and consumer practice, especially in less `developed' countries.

Weaving a web: subaltern consumers, rising consumer culture, and television

Varman, R., Belk, R. W. — 2008-08-07

Cultivation analysis suggests that television influences local cultures through its complex repertoire of images and narratives, which constitute a representation. Through a discursive analysis of television content in India we contend that rising material aspirations and consumer culture are significantly influenced by this medium. Dialectics of turmoil and tranquility mark this development for the working class population. On the one hand, there is domestication of unrest among subaltern groups, as they withdraw from collective political struggles to narrower and more tranquil forms of emulation and economism. On the other hand, these attempts at emulation have resulted in the poorer sections of society devoting their limited resources to aping a lifestyle well beyond their reach and further compromising their quality of life. The other pole of the dialectic is the increase in turmoil that results from tearing the traditional social fabric and support systems. This turmoil progressively manifests itself in increasing materialism and greater monetization of relationships for these subaltern groups.

Paradoxes of consumer independence: a critical discourse analysis of the independent traveller

Caruana, R., Crane, A., Fitchett, J. A. — 2008-08-07

The ideology of independence lies at the very core of the marketing agenda. For the free market to operate as a legitimate means of social organization, the right to be independent and to be free to enact ostensibly independent choices is to all intents and purposes sacred. Independence is an especially critical concept for marketing academics and practitioners to understand given the need to reconcile consumer demand for a sense of individuality, freedom and self, with an organization's need to commodify consumption activities in order to realize market growth. This paper examines the ways in which a sense of independence is successfully offered to consumers within paradoxically mass-market communications. The study investigates what it means to be an independent traveller by implementing a critical discourse analysis of alternative guidebooks. Findings suggest that guidebooks construct independence by reifying inaccessibility, interpreting value, and constructing inauthenticity for consumers. This promulgates a powerful myth of the independent traveller as someone who defies inaccessibility, hunts for bargains, and avoids inauthenticity. Crucially, each of these cultural practices also acts to engender an implicit relation of dependency between the text and the tourist that is found to contradict, but ultimately not threaten, the whole notion of independence that the consumption experience itself is predicated on.

Incommensurable paradigms, cognitive bias and the politics of marketing theory

Tadajewski, M. — 2008-08-07

This paper examines the treatment of paradigm incommensurability in marketing theory. It is not the first to tackle the issue, although I will argue that existing attempts to negotiate the incommensurability thesis fail on their misunderstanding of Kuhn's work. I then highlight Kuhn's own shifting position regarding the incommensurability thesis. Despite Kuhn's proposal that incommensurability can be overcome, such a strategy would be risky in an environment where cognitive bias indicates a continued subscription to logical empiricism and behavioural scientific modes of inquiry.

The reflexive consumer

Beckett, A., Nayak, A. — 2008-08-07

Drawing on a detailed reading of the work of Peppers and Rogers (1993, 1997, 2004, 2005), this paper argues that their work offers an emblematic problematization of traditional mass marketing, which articulates a new mentality of marketing — collaborative marketing. Collaborative marketing, implemented through the practices of CRM, reframes the role and identity of the individual consumer within producer—consumer relationships, transforming them from sovereign chooser to active collaborator, or as they are termed here, reflexive consumers. Using Foucault's concept of governmentality the paper articulates the achievement of this transformation and the central role of reflexivity in this transformation of the consumer. We conclude that in redefining the nature of marketing, RM and CRM form new relays of power linking producer and consumer and that these relays re-interpret the antagonism between freedom and subjugation that lie at the heart of producer—consumer relationships.

Hull-Spence Behavior Theory as a paradigm for consumer behavior

Rossiter, J. R., Foxall, G. R. — 2008-05-28

In this paper, which takes a much broader perspective than is now usual, we state the case for the return to a grand, all-encompassing theory of the type that was popular initially in consumer behavior. This theory, a paradigm really, is Hull-Spence Behavior Theory (HSBT). The theory is introduced here in detail with reference to consumer behavior. HSBT is shown to be a very generally applicable theory, not just `middle range', with a rich set of variables that can accommodate the new micro-phenomena toward which our field has gravitated. As a grand theory, HSBT provides the `context' necessary to fully understand, explain, and predict consumer behavior.

Writing Russell Belk: excess all areas

Brown, S., Schau, H. J. — 2008-05-28

Russell Belk is one of the most distinguished thought leaders in marketing and consumer research. He is also one of its most distinctive. This paper examines the distinctiveness of Russell Belk's remarkable writing style, arguing that it exemplifies the `academic gothic'. Five characteristically gothic traits are found in his published corpus — excess, monstrosity, irony, supernaturalism, doubling — and the implications for writing marketing research are considered.

Death of a metaphor: reviewing the `marketing as relationships' frame

O'Malley, L., Patterson, M., Kelly-Holmes, H. — 2008-05-28

The frame marketing as relationships is central to contemporary marketing thought and informs both research and practice in marketing. It is underpinned by the `interpersonal relationship' metaphor, which at the superordinate level relies upon social exchange theory (SET) and at the subordinate level reinforces the ideological values of Judeo—Christian marriages. The current pervasiveness of the marketing as relationships frame suggests that this view of marketing has become commonsensical, taken-for-granted and recognized by marketers as simply part of their discourse. In this paper, we trace the evolution of the marketing as relationships frame and analyse its current position. Using insights drawn from conceptual metaphor theory and critical discourse analysis, we argue that it is necessary to reactivate this metaphor in order to investigate whether it is relevant to current theory and practice in marketing.

Heuristics revisited: implications for marketing research and practice

Merlo, O., Lukas, B. A., Whitwell, G. J. — 2008-05-28

The marketing literature has devoted limited attention to the nature and scope of heuristics in marketing theory development and in marketing-related decision-making processes. This is of concern because the use of heuristics can profoundly influence managerial choices and, in turn, the ability of firms to compete. The authors analyze heuristics, first in general terms by providing a review of the concept and its mechanics, and then more specifically by exploring the use of heuristics in the discipline of marketing. The market orientation and marketing concept constructs are discussed as examples of marketing tenets that, over time, have been enriched through the incorporation of heuristics. The following findings are derived from the analysis: heuristics signal the maturing of a theoretical concept; heuristics act as a measure of a discipline's impact; heuristics do not exist in isolation; effective heuristics are balanced and established; and effective heuristics evolve and adapt. Overall, the purpose of this study is to improve the understanding of the value of heuristics to marketing theory and practice and to renew research interest into heuristics in a marketing context.

Can public sector organizations be coherent corporate brands?

Waeraas, A. — 2008-05-28

This article discusses the potential challenges of introducing corporate branding in public sector organizations. While the corporate branding ideal is to seek a precise and coherent definition of the organizational identity and achieve message consistency in the organization's self-presentation, public organizations are often characterized by contradictory and inconsistent values and multiple identities. This makes the ideal of consistency difficult to achieve. It is argued that public organizations will benefit more from branding on the basis of inconsistent values and multiple identities rather than trying to promote one set of values and one identity at the expense of others.

Market practices and forms: introduction to the special issue

Araujo, L., Kjellberg, H., Spencer, R. — 2008-02-19

Calculation, qualculation, calqulation: shopping cart arithmetic, equipped cognition and the clustered consumer

Cochoy, F. — 2008-02-19

This paper investigates how such a trivial device as a shopping cart may surprisingly contribute to shaping exchanges in supermarkets. First, the shopping cart completely modifies consumers' calculations. It does so by leading them to accomplish particular gestures, by transforming a budgetary constraint into a volumetric one, and by providing them with true calculative tools. Second, shopping with a cart also implies some `planned' cognitive processes. These processes concern interplay between family needs, selection equipment (such as a shopping list) and market information (packaging, for example). The combination of these elements moves the consumer from mere calculation (price-based computing) to `qualculation' (i.e. quality-based rational judgements). Third, and in particular, since it favours the transformation of the individual consumer into a collective one (or `cluster', i.e. a small group of people gathering around the same device), a shopping cart functions as a scene or as a frame for collective `calqulation' (from the French verb `calquer', i.e. adjusting one's standpoint to that of another, and vice versa).

Making and exchanging a second-hand oil field, considered in an industrial marketing setting

Finch, J. H., Acha, V. L. — 2008-02-19

Marketing researchers have begun exploring actor network theory as a way of understanding how marketers and marketing concepts contribute to the shaping and developing of markets. This paper strikes out in a new direction by considering the development of a market in an industrial setting, namely for mature or second-hand oil and gas fields, especially in the UK, since the mid-1990s. The market is thin and has no standard mode of exchange. Buyers and sellers develop valuations only in part because oil and gas fields are objects in markets, also representing them as situated in networks of production. Hence, different versions and valuations persist throughout an episode of exchange. The paper suggests that in industrial settings, concerns of production are taken into account in order to support something like a market exchange, rather than spilling over and becoming potential sources of later surprise and upset to otherwise well-ordered exchanges.

The configuration of actors in market practice

Andersson, P., Aspenberg, K., Kjellberg, H. — 2008-02-19

This paper addresses three conceptual challenges concerning actors and agency that arise when taking interest in market practice: i) how agency is awarded in practical situations, ii) how actors are preconfigured, and iii) how actors are represented. These issues are explored in three empirical scenes taken from a case study of the introduction of an e-procurement system at an international transport and logistics company. First, we suggest that practical interaction can be fruitfully regarded as a process of interdefinition involving prescriptions and subscriptions between acting entities, or actants . Second, we employ the term inscription to address efforts to affect in advance the configuration of such actants. Third, we suggest that actors are entities to which actions are ascribed, ex post. Through this secondary process a number of actants may be subsumed under a common actor label, thus offering a way of accounting for agency as part of a practice perspective. We conclude by discussing implications of the proposed vocabulary for multiplicity, reflexivity and market agency.

Marketing mobile futures: assembling constituencies and creating compelling stories for an emerging technology

Simakova, E., Neyland, D. — 2008-02-19

This paper engages with the marketing of an emerging technology: Radio Frequency IDentification (RFID). It is based on a lengthy ethnographic field study with a marketing team in a hi-tech corporation. We argue that building market relations for this emerging technology involves three closely intertwined activities: the identification of relevant people and things which can form a constituency into which the product can be launched; the narration of a tellable story which articulates and renders accountable relations of people and things; and the development of a compelling version of this story to provide a basis for ongoing engagement of the putative constituency. Identifying potential members for the constituency, convincing them of the compelling nature of the mobility based story, managing access to the constituency and maintaining internal relations between the marketing team and the rest of the corporate organization are all ongoing aspects of this market building activity. The paper forms a contribution to marketing theory by bringing ideas of constituencies, tellable and compelling stories from science and technology studies research together with insights from the literature on marketing.