Marketing Theory

We offer an efficiency-based approach to derive
market partitions and respective benchmarks using Data
Envelopment Analysis. Product efficiency is measured as
an output to input value from the customer’s perspective.
Products offering a maximum customer value relative to
alternatives represent benchmarks for different sub-markets.
The framework is applied to data on compact cars.

In addressing skin this paper seeks to illuminate current research within consumer culture theory. Framing our discussion within a consideration of tattoo culture, we explore the double-sidedness of skin, its ambiguity and ambivalence. In this way, we examine the relationship between identity and consumption and throw into question many of the received ideas concerning embodied identity within consumer research. Utilizing three skin metaphors (skin as container, projection surface, and cover to be modified), we generate a ...

The assumptions Benjamin appropriated are dead on accurate. As uncannily prophetic his assumptions are -- his predictions are off. This comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of human nature.

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Hackley, C. (2010) “Theorizing Advertising: Managerial, Scientific and Cultural Approaches”, Chapter 6 in Pauline MacLaran, Michael Saren, Barbara Stern and Mark Tadajewski (Eds) The Sage Handbook of Marketing Theory, London, Sage, pp. 89-107 ISBN 978-1-84787-505-1.

This conceptual paper re-evaluates the concept of niches in tourism markets. As many regions are now attempting to address niche markets in tourism as a development strategy, understanding of the dynamics of niche markets is crucial. Current approaches are often limited to seeing niche markets as simple subsectors of larger consumer markets. We argue for a broader view of market niches as forms of social rituals involving both consumers and producers with a mutual focus of attention. Based on the work of Randall Collins we examine how interaction rituals are produced and maintained, and how these are also reflected in niche markets, such as backpacking. We illustrate the how backpacking produces a mutual focus of attention and boundaries to outsiders, helping to sustain the niche over the longer term. This analysis has implications for producers hoping to tap into niche markets, as they too need to become part of the niche community.

Published Date (Yayın Tarihi): 03/06/2017 ÖZ Günümüzde tüketici davranışları ve iş dünyası her geçen gün karmaşık hale gelmektedir. Bu karmaşıklığa bir açıklama getirebilmek, pazarlama çabalarını daha etkin kılmak ve daha hızlı ve doğru kararlar verebilmek için pazarlamanın bir teoriye ihtiyacı vardır. Teori bir fenomeni açıklarken aynı zamanda öngörü yeteneğine sahip sistemli yapılar aracılığıyla bilimsel anlayışı geliştirmektedir. Pazarlama teorisinin açıklanması ve formüle edilmesi pazarlama faaliyetlerinde ortaya çıkan sorunlara çok daha etkili olarak çözümler ortaya koymamızı sağlayacak ve bu sorunlara ilişkin temel nedenleri ortaya çıkarmamıza yardımcı olacaktır. Bu çalışmanın amacı pazarlama teorisi alanında tartışılan konuların ortaya çıkarılması ve pazarlama teorisine farklı bakış açıları kazandırmaya çalışan yaklaşımların incelenmesi ile pazarlama teorisi alanındaki temel görüşlerin ortaya çıkarılarak , bu görüşlere ilişkin temel argümanların özetlenmesidir.

Abstract The consumers' behaviours and the world of business is becoming more and more complicated. Marketing needs a theory to explain this complication, to make the efforts in marketing more efficient and to make quick and right decisions. While a theory is explaining a phenomenon, it is also developin g the scientific understanding via systematic structures with predictive ability. Explanation of marketing theory and formulation provide more efficient solutions to the problems appearing in marketing efforts and it helps to find out the basic causes of these problems The aim of the study is to reveal the issues discussed in marketing theory and to find out the basic opinions about marketing theory by examining approaches which gain different point of views along with summarizing the basic arguments on these views.

This paper reorients the conceptual architecture of marketing theory. It is proposed that marketing is the dynamic force that economists and sociologists seek to explain the centrality of habit in everyday life. Questioning the arguments proffered by these twin disciplines, we submit that these processes of habit formation are not ‘undesigned’ or ‘hidden’, but perfectly visible and articulated by theorists and practitioners alike. These debates are complex. We outline their ‘strategic logic’, tracking the constitutive function of the discourse of habit. We unravel the theorised processes of habit formation as these are emplaced at the subconscious level and conceptualised via the ‘subconscious self’. Theoretically, we account for these power relations by uniting the concepts of biopolitics and anatomo-politics in terms of ‘bio-anatomopolitics’. Marketing, therefore, must be considered a disciplinary vehicle oriented toward habit creation and the destabilisation of inertia.

This is another critique of arguments that call relationship marketing a new paradigm, perspective or fairly recent addition to the marketing toolbox or who claim to have discovered relationships or interaction in the 1960s and 1970s. This has now been challenged using sources from the the 20th century practitioner literature (Tadajewski, 2009), the 20th century academic literature (Tadajewski and Saren, 2009), 19th century case studies of specific retailing pioneers (Tadajewski, 2008), 18th-19th century cases of small business and retailer activities (Tadajewski, 2015b)  and this paper focuses on the work of Daniel Defoe from the 18th century.  I consider writing them a bit of a hobby and will keep prodding at the extreme ahistorical arguments put forward in support of RM. I might turn to Service Dominant Logic next.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide an historical analysis of an important early contribution to the history of marketing thought literature – the six-book series titled The Knack of Selling – which was published in 1913 and intended as an early training course for salesmanship. 

Design/methodology/approach: This research utilized a close, systematic reading of The Knack of Selling series and places it in the professional and intellectual context of the early 20th century. Books published about marketing are primary source materials for any study of the history of marketing thought. In this case, The Knack series constitutes significant primary source material for a study of early thinking about personal selling.

Findings: Echoing A.W. Shaw, Watson offers a more sophisticated interpretation of the “one best way” approach associated with Frederick Taylor. Watson’s advice did not entail the repetition of canned sales talks to each customer. His vision of practice was more complicated. Sales presentations were temporally and locationally relative. They were subject to ongoing evolution. As the marketplace changed, as customer needs and interests shifted, so did organizational and salesperson performances. To keep sales talks relevant to the consumer, personnel were encouraged to undertake rudimentary ethnographic research and interviews. Unusually, there is oscillation in the way power relations between marketer and customer were described. While relational themes are present, so are military metaphors. 

Originality/value: This is the first systematic reading of The Knack of Selling that has been produced. It is an important contribution to the literature inasmuch as this book set is not in wide circulation. The material itself was significant as an input into scholarship subsequently hailed as seminal within sales management.

Keywords: Marketing; Marketing Theory; Sales; Salesmanship; Power.     

 

The paper takes a detailed look at the segmentation of HNWIs in Japan, with a special focus on the "New Rich". Using a unique form of segmentation of the rich in Japan, which is based on the reach of their social networks, this paper introduces the "3-level luxury marketing model", the concept of "marketing exclusivity" and also gives an introduction of companies in the Japanese market that cater specifically to companies targeting rich people. The research is heavily based on deep interviews with the CEOs of these companies.

Foundations of Marketing Thought: The Influence of the German Historical School goes beyond the shallow chronicle of textbooks and university courses that has characterized much of the literature dealing with the history of marketing thought.  Wittgenstein reminds us, “One keeps forgetting to go down to the foundations. One doesn’t put the question marks deep enough down”.  In this book we have drilled down deeply to the foundations of the marketing discipline in order to understand the ideas, assumptions, and values of early marketing scholars and the intellectual influences on them. The research for this book draws extensively on the archives of those institutions that gave birth to the marketing mind.

This paper provides an overview of the development and application of focus groups. It rethinks the conventional history associated with this approach in at least four ways. We reinsert a forgotten pioneer of focus groups, Herta Herzog, into our narrative. Secondly, we trace the emergence of group-based research to the work of applied psychologists in the early twentieth century and argue that the conditions of possibility for the uptake of this method were contingent on the asking of “why” questions. We follow the thread of “why” questions from the applied psychologists through to motivation research and the promotion of focus groups by Herzog to practitioners. Exploring the literature on motivation research unearths a further novel contribution: we excavate the use of “interpretative focus groups” by this community of practice. In addition, our close reading of motivation research and focus groups permits us to problematise the distinctions made by Calder [1977. “Focus Groups and the Nature of Qualitative Marketing Research.” Journal of Marketing Research 14: 353–364]. We subsequently trace the uptake of this methodology in the tobacco industry as a means of making an epistemological and political argument for the greater use of focus groups. Initially, we do so by charting the rise of social constructionism and non-individualistic consumer research. This enables us to navigate the highways and byways of discursive psychology, interpretive research, Consumer Culture Theory and on to feminist and Critical Marketing Studies. The engagement with focus groups with respect to the latter traditions is woefully underdeveloped. Our political argument is that focus group methodology can speak to the interests of many constituents in marketing theory and practice. It is not wedded to any specific social or political agenda. This means that its potential contribution to the study of consumption, markets and culture is multi-faceted.

World society has been formed as a single interactive network in our time. Universal means of communication are now available to give expression to universal ideas. This essay explores the role of markets and money in the human economy. They are intrinsic to the extension of society from the local to a global level. By calling the economy human we put people first, making their thoughts, actions and lives our main concern. 'Humanity' is a moral quality of kindness and, since theoretical abstraction is impersonal, economic anthropology should pay attention to the personal realm of experience. But 'humanity' is also a collective noun, meaning all the people who have existed or ever will. So the human economy is inclusive in that sense too, requiring us to engage with society in its impersonal dimensions. Money mediates the personal and impersonal extremes of social existence. These reflections lead us to Kant's Anthropology from a pragmatic point of view. 'Anthropology' is indispensable to the making of world society. It would then mean whatever we need to know about humanity as a whole if we want to build a more equal world. This usage could be embraced by students of history, sociology, political economy, philosophy and literature, as well as by some anthropologists.

Consumer behavior theory prior to the Second World War was based on accepted economic theory of the "rational man" model of decision making. The central idea of economics is that people make decisions by weighing costs and benefits in a rational manner. The consumer's objective is therefore to select a set of product quantities that maximize satisfaction (or utility), subject to available income. Utility in this context means the ability of a product to meet functional needs. The consumer then expends their income (budget) and selects specific amounts of the two products. Product prices and income are predetermined and, consequently only the quantities of the two products purchased are varied to maximise utility.

Current approaches suggest that behavioral underpinnings in consumer decision processes are beyond pure rational dimensions and stem from both innate and acquired needs that involve a complex combination of conscious and unconscious processes as well as rational and emotional factors. (Lambkin, Foxall, Van Raaij and Heilbrunn 1999)
Wilson (2000) states that consumer rationality is mediated by dynamics such as personal paradigms and perceptual distortion, risk tolerance, and power relations which in turn are subject to cultural and intellectual prejudices such as gender, age, and ethnicity. This contributes to the notion of marketing as a normative discipline with elements of art rather than science in its practice. This behavioral component allows marketers to identify prospective customers' needs and wants, and influence the exchange, perception, and satisfaction dynamics of the purchasing decision process. (Foxall, 1993)
Understanding the buying behavior of the target market is the essential task of the marketing manager under marketing concept. But the study of consumer behavior is the most dynamic of all marketing activities as the consumer preferences rapidly change and are affected by the multiplicity of the factors at a given time of point which are difficult to analyze. Therefore it is necessary to  continuously study, analyze and understand it and monitor this understanding to the marketing manager so that the effective decision can be taken in respect of product’s price, promotion and distribution. A marketer who understands how consumer will respond to different product features, prices, and advertising appeals and so on will have an enormous advantage over these competitors. When a buyer takes a decision to buy, there is no rigid rule to bind him. Sometime the decision is taken on the spot or after evaluating various alternatives available and reassuring himself with the opinion of those who have already purchased the product. The buyer is also influenced by the social environment in which he lives- his family, society, neighbors, friends and colleagues. Every component of social environment leaves an imprint on him and influences his buying behavior. It is amply clear from above that the buyer behavior is complex to understand.  Over the years several models put forward with the intension of explaining buyer behavior. All the social sciences like economics, psychology, sociology and anthropology have influenced the buyer behavior studies.
Marketers seek to influence consumer behavior. Much ill health and many social problems are caused by human behavior. Social marketing puts these two phenomena together and uses marketing insights to address social behaviors. Social marketing’s understanding of both the commercial and social sectors puts it in a unique position to provide realistic critiques of marketing and identify intelligent solutions. The paper concludes that social marketing will flourish by exploiting its twin understanding of the good and the bad that marketing can bring to society.
The paper begins by presenting the underlying theoretical bases of marketing that are often borrowed from the disciplines of economics, sociology and psychology. These practical applications highlight some of the shortcomings of established frameworks for the study of marketing, and the reader is encouraged to formulate alternative frameworks.
Recently there has been substantial interest in developing models of individual consumer choice. Two of the most popular types of models are large-scale models of buyer behavior of the type proposed by Nicosia (1966) and Howard and Sheth (1969). This paper will begin by summarizing the current state of research in these areas.
Models of consumer behavior have gained much acceptance since the early sixties. The purpose of this article is to examine the state of the art by reviewing the often cited models: Nicosia, Howard-Sheth, and Engel-Blackwell-Kollat. Specifically, a major objective is to consider these models from their practical utility standpoint, i.e., whether the models can be tested and used by marketers. To accomplish this, a set of criteria is developed for evaluation of models in general, and consumer/buyer behavior models in particular. The criteria used for evaluating the state of the art in consumer behavior models are largely derived from model building sources in various fields. The results indicate that although the models are quite impressive in scope, they are inherently weak to be of much help to the marketing practitioner. Indeed, none of the models have been tested as a whole in their original form because they lack specificity and thus are difficult, if not impossible, to operationalize.
Key words: Marketing theory, Applications of theory, consumer behavior

The aim of this paper is to propose a marketing-oriented definition of the tourist product as well as a classification system of its components based on an extensive review and analysis of tourism marketing literature. Tourist products satisfy the tourist needs and are the objects of the transactions between tourists and businesses.

Determining the tourist products is most helpful for social scientists interested in understanding the aforementioned transactions and the benefits derived by consuming these products. This proves to be a challenging task, though, due to the lack of a common understanding among the authors who have explored this issue as well as due to the different levels of tourist products and their complex nature.

For instance, tourist products can be determined on two distinct levels:

➢ The total tourist product comprises a combination of all the elements, which a tourist consumes during his/her trip.

➢ The specific products are components of the total tourist product and can be sold as individual offerings such as accommodation, transport, attractions and other facilities for tourists.

This paper focuses on the total tourist products, that can be understood as bundles of tangible and intangible components, based on an activity at a destination. It is the consumption of such a bundle that allows engaging in specific activities at the destination(s) and that creates the travel experience of each individual. Thus, the tourist product can be equated with the total travel experience.

Tourist products are characterised by their complex nature. They consist of numerous components ― most of which constitute products themselves ― with each one playing a distinct functional role in this “amalgam of tangible and intangible elements”. These components complement each other, i.e. they are functionally interdependent as each one provides only a part of the total sum of benefits sought by tourists.

Psychoanalytic concepts and theory have long served studies of consumption, from exposing unconscious motives to elucidating contemporary consuming desire. Sharing with psychoanalysis an interest in symbolic meanings, anthropological approaches have also contributed to the study of contemporary consumption and social life. In this article, we draw on both Freudian psychoanalysis and Douglas’s structural anthropology to examine the field of non-consumption or the ‘choice’ not to buy. Based on detailed interpretations of interview data, we argue that consuming less at the individual level is not always the result of purposeful acts of ideological, anti-consumption protest or the outward expression of countercultural sentiments. Rather, forms of non-consumption can have deeper psychological origins that are located in a view of consumerism as a threatening force and a potent source of toxic contamination to mind and body, ‘dirt’ in Douglas’s conceptualization. We argue that this outloo...

This paper reviews 30 years of interdisciplinary scholarship that deals
with marketing history or the history of marketing thought. We have ranged across the humanities and social sciences to review the very best scholarship that these domains have produced which speaks to issues likely to concern the readers of the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM). These domains include: the history of marketing management, history of market research, history of market segmentation, product management history, retailing and channels
history, promotion history, advertising history, the history of marketing
thought, and marketing and the management of subjectivity, among others. Given obvious page limitations we have nevertheless tried to appeal to the paradigmatic span of the readers of the JMM. With this in mind, we have critically reviewed material that will be of interest to managerially oriented academics, as well as those who subscribe to consumer culture theoretics and critical marketing studies.

As in all disciplines of social sciences, it is not possible to exclude social and cultural context of different perspectives in marketing science, also. All branches of social science are influenced from social and cultural context while they present their hypothesis, definitions and concepts. For today’s marketing literature it is important to discuss to what extent Anglo-Saxon (Transactional) and Alp-Germen (Relational) marketing approaches differ in cultural context. Anatolian approach which is presented as a distinct approach to marketing and originated from Akhisim (Ahilik) tradition is also discussed in this study. Purposed in this study is that in general science, in particular the science of marketing is related
to culture and society and different social and cultural codes constitute different approaches. In this respect, a comparison of three different marketing approaches’ social-cultural
dimensions has been made and analyzed the cultural context of different approaches’ origins.

At its most basic, we can understand critical marketing studies as interested in challenging the status quo, that is, it questions the way marketing activities are represented by academics and observers interested in legitimising the role of marketing in society (Tadajewski, 2010a). When scholars legitimise – when they justify and underline only the positive contributions made by marketing scholarship and practice – they present a partial and distorted image of the discipline and the practical effects of this group on the world around them. Critical marketing does not necessarily deny the contributions marketing can make to the quality of life some people enjoy. Rather, it asks us to consider all of the ramifications of marketing, including its praiseworthy and negative effects. 
Research adopting a critical marketing perspective has often been undertaken via close readings of key marketing concepts. Typically, the question being asked is whether they accurately represent what practitioners do in reality. Put differently, critical marketing accounts highlight the disparities and inequity inherent in the capitalist system. This representation of marketplace reality is juxtaposed against the ‘equality’ (Bagozzi, 1975) or ‘win-win’ (Gummesson, 1999) arguments all too frequently found in mainstream perspectives which claim that all benefit from marketplace exchange. These are false generalisations which do not stand up well when juxtaposed against the lived experiences of various groups (Falchetti, Ponchio, & Botelho, 2016). 
Nor are the marketing concepts being taught in business schools neutral ways of describing the world. They represent the views of specific interest groups constituted by people who have a reason for describing the world in certain ways and not others. Marketing concepts, like relationship marketing, present the activities of practitioners in positive terms. As such, we might want to view them as counterpoints to the accusations of manipulation that are frequently targeted at the discipline and practice. Indeed, academics are often explicit in presenting their work as a response to depictions of the discipline which position it as a detrimental force in the social world (O’Donohoe, 1994). 
So, marketing theory, the concepts which accompany it, and the practices associated with the subject, are all political, rather than neutral. They are fundamentally concerned with encouraging people to think about their existence in circumscribed ways. At the most basic level, the logic of marketing is driven by consumption. When we look at any textbook or mainstream journal article the refrain is almost identical.  Practitioners are praised for enabling people to access a vast array of goods and services; marketing’s role as a mechanism of information gathering and distribution is applauded; and its function in manufacturing demand (Webster, Malter, & Ganesan, 2005) is linked to job creation and contributions to gross domestic product (Wilkie & Moore, 1999). Those who represent marketing in this way are not nefarious characters. They are advocates for their beliefs. It is when this affirmation leads to the elision of the dark-side of marketing practice that we should be concerned. When we focus on the beneficial contributions of an academic discipline or industry practice, we often fail to pay attention to alternative ways of thinking about how the economic system could function; ways that hold out the potential to benefit more people, more equally, than present methods of providing goods and services. 
Questioning the role of marketing in society is an exercise in ‘ontological denaturalisation’ (Fournier & Grey, 2000). This grand term simply refers to the fact that we do not take the present representation of marketing or the current economic ordering of society as the only way we can think about it. When we denaturalise something, we make it seem less natural. We stop taking it for granted. We ask questions about how the economic system has taken the shape it has, how it was constructed, by whom, and for what purpose. Importantly, we focus on the issue of who benefits from existing marketing and distribution methods. This encourages us to think about the economic system in terms of power relationships. Given the present structure of the economic system, who is really in the driving-seat? Do consumers really direct producers? Do manufacturers really listen to the consumer and produce what they need and want? Or do they try to shape human behaviour by creating and stimulating desire?
Of course, asking questions about power relations can sound negative. To some extent this is accurate. When we look at the marketplace, critical research often finds that the consumer is not as powerful as mainstream scholars like to claim. Even so, the fact that we are seeking to engage in ontological denaturalisation means that we are effectively assuming that the power relations that shape producer and consumer behaviour can be changed. Critical marketing studies is therefore underwritten by an optimism that all too often passes unacknowledged. 
If our current reality (our ontology) is not predetermined, then alternatives are available and possible (i.e. we can make the world look unnatural and change subsequently becomes more desirable). In other words, the extant economic and marketing system is not, from the perspective of critical marketing, necessarily the best way of achieving our distribution and provisioning requirements. Accepting this, we must continue to treat marketing theory, its associated concepts and the practical activities of business people with a sceptical eye, asking whether they are preventing us from thinking differently or working in ways more consistent with the aim of achieving distributive justice for all. 
This chapter engages with mainstream concepts in marketing – the marketing concept, consumer sovereignty and exchange. We will leverage our understanding to offer a critical evaluation of their assumptions and effects in practice. As any new student is told, marketing goes back many thousands of years. As a university subject, its history is more recent. It is a product of the early twentieth century. When approaching the development of marketing we need to be on our guard. Misrepresentation is rife. It is frequently accompanied by a very positive narrative which basically refers to the various ways in which practitioners seek to assist the consumer. Reading these accounts, one would be hard pressed to understand why marketing practice has ever been presented in negative terms (i.e. as selling snake-oil or engaging in hard-selling). In this chapter we will remove our tinted glasses and look at the marketing system with fresh, critical eyes.

In this paper we acknowledge the politics of marketing pedagogy. Given recent neoliberal developments and the turn against critical perspectives in some quarters, it is proposed that those scholars taking a critical approach to their pedagogic labours might want to consider reframing them as fostering ‘resistant curiosity’. We outline the parameters for a resistant (or critically curious) marketing pedagogy using the latest research from curiosity studies. Encouraging and scaffolding the development of resistant curiosity promises to facilitate reflexivity in lifelong learning and potentially opens the door to the social change that this world requires if it is to approach a basic level of intergenerational justice.