Avoiding academic irrelevance in the marketing discipline: the promise of the history of marketing thought

ABSTRACT

This paper offers a commentary on Hunt’s ‘Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: From promise, to neglect, to prominence, to fragment, (to promise?)’. We focus on three issues: (1) the historical origins of marketing strategy, (2) resource-advantage theory as a general theory of competition and/or a general theory of marketing and (3) the current state and future promise of doctoral training in the history of marketing thought.     

Scientific marketing management and the emergence of the ethical marketing concept

Abstract

Our objective in this paper is to recall the linkages between marketing and management thought. At the turn of the twentieth century, the two disciplines were connected via the work of Frederick Taylor and Percival White. As conventionally represented, Taylor was the father of scientific management and, by extension, the management sciences more generally. He is also frequently associated with a focus on production efficiency. However, a close reading of Taylor reveals his appreciation of the connection between production and consumption and thus the importance of the ultimate consumer. Taylor's ideas and the work, published in the Bulletin of the Taylor Society, which provided an outlet for the scholarship of early marketing thinkers, provide the linchpin between the production ethos of Taylor and the emergence of ‘scientific marketing’ exemplified in the work of Percival White. The latter demonstrated the ideological credibility of his scientific marketing system via its association with science and attributes such as objectivity. Importantly, in his work we find the first clear articulation of the marketing concept. Unlike present-day debates, which frequently treat it as a synonym for shareholder value, the early articulations of the marketing concept were underwritten by an explicit ethical orientation that placed limits on corporate behaviour, ideas that were again brought to prominence courtesy of the consumerist movement of the 1960s and 1970s.     

Advancing marketing strategy in the marketing discipline and beyond: from promise,to neglect,to prominence,to fragment (to promise?)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to advance the field of strategic marketing within the marketing discipline, which will in turn, the author argues, contribute to enhancing the discipline’s impact beyond the narrow confines of its own journals. Towards this goal, certain aspects of the history of marketing strategy need to be reviewed. However, though this article draws extensively on historical sources, it is not a history of marketing strategy. Rather, this article uses historical materials and arguments concerning the four ‘Eras’ of marketing thought to advance five major claims: the area of strategic marketing (1) had significant promise when the marketing academic discipline was founded in Era I (1900–1920), (2) was neglected in Era II (1920–1950), (3) rose to prominence in Era III (1950–1980), (4) has become a ‘fragment’ in Era IV (1980–present) and (5) has prospects that are both promising and problematic in the future ‘Era V’. Finally, a tentative prognosis for strategic marketing and the marketing discipline is suggested.     

Academic labour,journal ranking lists and the politics of knowledge production in marketing

In this paper, we engage with the rising importance of journal ranking lists. We explore the pressure these place on marketing academics and the politics of knowledge production, stressing academic game-playing, careerism, and paradigmatic homogeneity. We appreciate that scholars are disciplined by these lists, their line managers, and reaffirm list power through their own patterns of self-management. Nonetheless, marketing academics should avoid making the naïve assumption that the appearance of a paper in a highly rated journal necessarily serves as a proxy for ‘quality’. Publication in a particular outlet does not transform the ultimate contribution being made in any substantive fashion. We provide an extensive critique of the function and impact of journal lists. However, it is also recognised that these are very important for members of the marketing community. As such, we explain our reasons for contesting the recent regrading of the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM) by a prominent journal list and underline the changes that have been made to the Journal since the beginning of the current editorial term. Finally, the support of prominent scholars among our thought community for the policies being implemented is highlighted and we underscore the rigour of contributions to the Journal, the review process, the rising citations, downloads and truly global readership of the JMM.     

Relational marketing throughout the history of commercial exchange: Blind spots in marketing’s origin story

Abstract

Although marketing is commonly theorized to have originated at the dawn of exchange itself, few scholarly articles explore the history of marketing beyond this cursory recitation of the commonly accepted origin story of the field. The evolution of complex commercial exchange is presented as a natural outgrowth of the development of human society as opposed to the willful and intentional efforts of early merchants. Using disparate and archaic sources, this article synthesizes historical accounts and archival information to show that entrepreneurs have always practiced relational marketing from prehistoric eras and continued to do so throughout pre-industrial and post-industrial eras when the bulk of the literature claims that the scale of modern production rendered relational marketing ineffective and nearly obsolete. In doing so, we add to the virtually non-existent literature documenting entrepreneurial marketing in the early, pre-industrial history of commerce.     

Adapting a book to make a film: how strategy is adapted through professional practices of marketing middle managers

Abstract

For an organisation to be competitive its strategy must be highly responsive to both environmental challenges and customers continuously shifting demands. Yet many organisations treat strategy making as an exclusively top management concern, even though the top management team is often remote from the daily interactions and communications taking place at the organisation, market, and customer interface. We challenge the assumption that strategy making ‘belongs’ to top managers and argue that marketing middle managers, possessing expert market and customer knowledge and insights, adapt top manager’s strategy to shifting customer demands in a changing environment. We explore this argument by adopting a strategy-as-practice perspective and analysing marketing middle manager’s practices across three case companies operating in a dynamic retail environment. Our research enables two key contributions. Our primary confirmation is to demonstrate that marketers are not passive implementers, but active adapters of top management strategy through three critical practices of sensing, challenging, and transmitting. We use the novel analogy of how adapting a book to make a film involves minor changes to the story line and characters to suit the new medium and to illustrate the strategically relevant and influential role marketing plays in adapting the strategy developed by the top management team for implementation. By demonstrating the value of the strategic practices of functional middle managers we also contribute to the growing debate of the need for greater inclusion and transparency in strategy making.     

Marketing Innovativeness on Marketing Performance: Role of Religio-Centric Relational Marketing Strategy

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study aimed at investigating the effect of marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities and customer relationship management on marketing performance. The researchers tried to develop and solve the problem of the gap between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance. The respondents of this study were 318. Some of them are leaders or owners of SMEs Muslim fashion in Central Java, Indonesia. Data was analyzed by using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results of the study show that marketing innovativeness (MI) has no significant effect on marketing performance (MP), while market sensing capabilities (MSC) and Customer Relationship Management Capabilities (CRMC) have a significant effect on marketing performance. Likewise, marketing innovativeness, market sensing capabilities, and CRM capabilities have a significant effect on the religio-centric relational marketing strategy. Furthermore, religio-centric relational marketing strategy (RRMS) is able to mediate the relationship between marketing innovativeness and marketing performance.     

Marketing (as) Rhetoric: paradigms,provocations, and perspectives

ABSTRACT

In this collection of short, invited essays on the topic of marketing (as) rhetoric we deal with a variety of issues that demonstrate the centrality of rhetoric and rhetorical considerations to the pursuit of marketing scholarship, research and practice. Stephen Brown examines the enduring rhetorical power of the 4Ps; Chris Hackley argues for the critical power of rhetorical orientations in marketing scholarship but cautions us on the need to work harder in conceptually connecting rhetorical theory and modern marketing frameworks; Shelby Hunt explains how rhetorical processes are incorporated in his inductive realist model of theory generation, using one of his most successful publications as an illustration; Charles Marsh demonstrates what Isocrates’ broad rhetorical project has to teach us about the importance of reputation cultivation in modern marketing; Nicholas O’Shaughnessy uses an analysis of Trump’s discourse to argue that political marketing as it is currently conceived is ill-equipped to engage effectively with the rhetorical force of Trump’s ‘unmarketing’; Barbara Phillips uses Vygotsky’s work on imagination to investigate the important of pleasure and play in advertising rhetoric; and finally, David Tonks, who in many ways started it all, reiterates the need for marketers to recognise the strength of the relationship between marketing and persuasion.     

Relevance,responsibility, critical performativity,testimony and positive marketing: contributing to marketing theory,thought and practice

In this commentary, I chart recent changes at the Journal of Marketing Management (JMM). These include the introduction of a senior editorial board, a revised main editorial board and a modified team of associate editors. The new deputy editor is welcomed. The exemplary performance of the JMM in scholarly league-tables is registered. From this, a case is made for the pluralisation of the concepts of relevance and impact. In doing so, the emergent literature on critical performativity is unpacked. I highlight a missed opportunity in this material, namely, the potential for academics to act as critical commentators on industry practice in the courtroom. Developing the ideas associated with critical performativity leads to the scrutiny of new concepts in marketing. One of importance is positive marketing. This regressive manoeuver is critiqued; as is macromarketing narcissism. Following Dunne et al., I make a plea for more responsible academic practice. Developing logically from these ideas, a number of new potential avenues for contributing to the JMM are sketched. These include special sections and research notes among others.     

Pre-Production Relationship Marketing

Abstract

The benefits of relationship marketing and customer relationship management have been well documented in the marketing literature and in business practice. Relationship marketing instruments (RMIs) are specific methods that can help bring about those benefits. The authors describe a unique type of RMI, one that can be used prior to product or service production. Designed to market season tickets for new or remodeled professional football stadiums before the stadium is built, Permanent Seat Licensing has been used effectively over the past decade for nine National Football League teams. The authors propose that this type of pre-production RMI has possible application for marketers of other products and services .     

Call for Book Reviews and Review Essays

ABSTRACT

The Journal of Business to Business Marketing, an important thematic journal within the field of marketing, serves as a vital venue for both academicians and practitioners interested in business-to-business marketing phenomena. Articles cover a broad spectrum of topics related to business marketing management.

A subject-based listing classifies these articles into 16 categories according to their key research issues. Those categories are: Advertising and Communication, Brand Management, Buyer-Seller Dyad and Relationships, Channels, Customer Relationships, Education, International Issues, Literature Reviews, Methodology, Networks and Strategic Alliances, Organizational Buying Behavior, Pricing and Value, Product Development, Segmentation, Selling and Salesforce Management, Technology.

After the subject listing, titles and abstracts of all articles appearing in the first ten volumes of JBBM are listed in volume/issue order. We hope that this index will provide a useful tool for academicians and practitioners who are interested in business-to-business marketing research.     

A marketing perspective on the rise of China: monopoly,politics and value

Abstract

As researchers in the social sciences seek an understanding of the spectacular rise of China, the seemingly counterintuitive stance of an autocratic regime attaining such sustained economic performance challenges multiple analytical frames. The relatively ponderous responses of the United States and Europe to recent global conditions, and the democratic uprisings in Arabic states, further represent a glaring contrast. While the marketing literature is rich in the particulars of specific management issues in the China market, no analysis from the discipline has attempted to provide a broad, distinctly marketing contribution to the China phenomenon. Choice is a fundamental construct underpinning theories of politics, economics and marketing, though it is notably absent from Chinese politics. The changing relationship between markets, business and government reveals a question that is clearly important to marketers, and China is a challenging boundary case for marketing management.     

Women over 40, foreigners of color,and other missing persons in globalizing mediascapes: understanding marketing images as mirrors of intersectionality

ABSTRACT

Media diversity studies regularly invoke the notion of marketing images as mirrors of racism and sexism. This article develops a higher-order concept of marketing images as “mirrors of intersectionality.” Drawing on a seven-dimensional study of coverperson diversity in a globalizing mediascape, the emergent concept highlights that marketing images reflect not just racism and sexism, but all categorical forms of marginalization, including ableism, ageism, colorism, fatism, and heterosexism, as well as intersectional forms of marginalization, such as sexist ageism and racist multiculturalism. Fueled by the legacies of history, aspirational marketing logics, and an industry-wide distribution of discriminatory work, marketing images help to perpetuate multiple, cumulative, and enduring advantages for privileged groups and disadvantages for marginalized groups. In this sense, marketing images, as mirrors of intersectionality, are complicit agents in the structuration of inequitable societies.     

How professional service firms compete in the market: an exploratory study

Abstract

This study investigates how professional service firms (PSFs) compete in the market. Drawing on strategic marketing literature, a managerial rather than customer perspective is adopted. The study investigates the competitive positions sought by professional service providers and the specific marketing activities actually undertaken to achieve these positions. Thirty-seven depth interviews with senior management from a range of PSFs indicate that firms seek to differentiate themselves by developing long-term relationships, providing better service quality and greater value, and developing brands with strong reputations. Organisations typically seek such interrelated competitive positions simultaneously. A list of marketing activities used by the PSFs to achieve these competitive positions offers practical insights into the specific activities needed to achieve the various competitive positions sought.     

Exploring the Role of Product Development Capability for Transforming Marketing Intelligence into Firm Performance

ABSTRACT

Purpose: This study examines the role of product development capability for transforming marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Methodology/Approach: The authors apply structural equation modeling to analyze survey data from 342 industrial manufacturing companies.

Findings: Results reveal that sales integration and holistic macroeconomic view are particularly important features of the marketing intelligence capability on industrial markets to gain additional insights in order to develop products successfully. Results also reveal that product development capability transforms the marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.

Research Implications: This study offers new insights on marketing theory by extending and concretizing the concept of market orientation to a broader concept of the marketing intelligence capability for industrial markets. Further, this research reveals that the product development capability serves as a mediator to business performance.

Practical Implications: This study’s systematic and tangible outline of the dimensions of marketing intelligence and its link to the product development capability helps firms to better understand how to capitalize on market orientation’s potential values.

Originality/Value/Contribution: This research (a) reveals the relevant dimensions of marketing intelligence on industrial markets and (b) shows how the product development capability tranforms marketing intelligence activities into firm performance on industrial markets.     

Commentary on “Business-to-Business Marketing Textbooks: A Comparative Review”

ABSTRACT

The proposal by Backhaus, Muehlfeld, and Okoye (2002) to design a business marketing text around a framework of customer-relationship types is provocative and spawns a useful debate on the issue of what should actually be taught in the business marketing course, particularly at the undergraduate level. We believe that the approach may increase the attention given to relationship marketing but do so by sacrificing coverage of core content that students and informed business marketing managers need to know. In the end, we opt for a more comprehensive approach in exploring strategy making for the business market while they chart a narrower and more specialized path.     

Marketing strategy and the hunt for era V

ABSTRACT

This paper is a response to a recent special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management in which Shelby Hunt celebrates the achievements of 40 years of marketing strategy. In noting the passing of the ‘old guard’, Hunt calls on a new generation of scholars to meet the challenges confronting marketing and to develop new theories and frameworks to advance Marketing Strategy into Era V. We take for our inspiration Hunt’s own words, specifically his reference to the ‘promising’ and ‘problematic’ that he uses to characterise the current and latent state of marketing strategy. To build our vision and map out our agenda we offer an alternative reading of this discipline through the idea of Marketing Strategy as Discourse (MSAD). Within the paper, we outline the role that discourse can perform as a resource to reconfigure our appreciation of marketing strategy.     

Performance implications of market orientation,marketing resources,and marketing capabilities

Abstract

Drawing on the competitive capability theory, this paper examines how market orientation, marketing resources, and marketing capabilities contribute to firm performance. The empirical results show that being market oriented influences the level of marketing resources firms possess and the capability to deploy such resources. The findings show marketing resources and marketing capabilities are significant drivers of firm performance, and their impact is greater when they are complementary to each other.     

Conceptualization and Integration of Marketing Intelligence: The Case of an Industrial Manufacturer

Purpose: The primary goal of this article was to conceptualize a systematic marketing intelligence process for industrial manufacturers because, up until now, such concepts have only been focused on consumer goods settings. Hence, this article investigates how marketing intelligence activities are developed and managed effectively in industrial markets.

Methodology/approach: The authors conducted a case study of Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen, a German based manufacturer of regulation technology for power transformers.

Findings: We found that a systematic marketing intelligence process should be based on the resource- and market-based view of strategy as well as on the market orientation construct. When implementing marketing intelligence, the integration of the sales force within the whole process is the crucial lever for an industrial company. The formalization of the process is necessary to ensure its continuity and acceptance; however, the varying intensity allows the necessary flexibility of the process.

Research implications: The constraints of the decisive process steps of marketing intelligence have to be further enhanced for industrial markets. It is important to find out how the integration of the sales force can best be designed to incorporate reward systems and motivation structures, and how to establish a corporate marketing-minded culture throughout the organization.

Practical implications: The important steps for a well implemented marketing intelligence process are a preparation phase, followed by the gathering, analysis, and dissemination of information. This article highlights the success factors for each process step. Above all, managerial and organizational commitment is necessary for the implementation of the whole process.

Originality/value/contribution: By focusing on the industrial manufacturing business, this study provides deep insights into a neglected area of research. Light needs to be shed on marketing intelligence in industrial markets, where the lack of traditional market research has to be compensated.     

Boris Artzybasheff and the art of anthropomorphic marketing in early American consumer culture

Abstract

This paper undertakes a critical historical review of the role of anthropomorphism in marketing and advertising in American consumer culture from the 1940s onwards. We review the art of the acclaimed illustrator Boris Artzybasheff who among other artistic achievements created images that regularly featured on the covers of Life, Fortune, and Time. As well as working in media, Artzybasheff also produced advertising images, and imagery for propaganda. One of the characteristic features of Artzybasheff’s commercial art is the use of anthropomorphism, especially with technology industries and products. His art spans the periods prior to, during and after World War II, as well as the Cold War era and the onset of modern consumer culture in America.