About the authors

Calls for the banning of tobacco advertising rely heavily on the belief that advertising contributes towards children starting or continuing the habit. A number of research studies which claim to demonstrate this connection have been reviewed. Some of these studies have been extensively quoted in anti-smoking literature. This paper is based on a detailed review.

The review found that the studies tended to show a degree of correlation between awareness/approval of advertising and propensity to smoke, but failed to establish a causal link, relying instead on emotive language to convey the impression of cause and effect. From evidence quoted in the studies themselves, it can be demonstrated that, even if advertising can lead children to smoke (which can neither be proved nor disproved), it is likely to be an influence of only minor importance, and much less relevant than other factors such as family environment and peer pressure.

There is no evidence in any of the studies to suggest that, if advertising were banned, it would make the least difference to the propensity of children to smoke. The major weakness of the studies reviewed is that they pay virtually no attention to the more important question of what, in fact, motivates the minority of children who start to smoke. It is hard to resist the conclusion that advertising is selected for attack mainly because it is a relatively easy target.     

About the authors

Targeting young people in their early teens before they have established a smoking habit may be critical to reducing smoking rates. Mass-media campaigns can play an important role in reaching large numbers of young people directly with prevention messages. Given the current level of debate in this area regarding which message theme is most appropriate, this study was conducted to explore young people’s views, attitudes and behaviours towards smoking, and examine young people’s response to different types of message appeal. A qualitative research design was employed and a total of 12 focus groups and 18 friendship pairs were conducted in England with 11-14-year-olds, half of whom were smokers and half of whom were experimenting with smoking. The results indicate that no single anti-smoking message appeal is likely to have universal appeal and that young people’s response to message appeals is mediated by the values they attach to smoking. Implications for future youth smoking prevention campaigns targeting young people in England are discussed.     

About the authors

The European Commission's proposed consultative document on ‘Commercial Communication within the Internal Market’ should focus on policy objectives. It is only when there is clarity as to the purposes of control that sensible decisions can be made as to the respective roles, across the European Community, of regulation and self-regulation. In the UK, the EC Misleading Advertising Directive has been implemented with the Office of Fair Trading providing a safety net beneath both legal instruments and self-regulatory mechanisms. If self-regulatory mechanisms are to be considered at the EC level, there must be awareness of the strengths and weaknesses. A number of features are identified for self-regulation to be successful. A balance must also be drawn between activity at the EC level and activity at member state level. Standards and enforcement practice should be as consistent as possible, but there is also a need to respect legitimate national, regional and local diversity. The main options are reviewed. There may be a case for a variant of the home authority principle, which has been developed to co-ordinate the domestic ‘cross-border’ work of UK trading standards authorities, to be developed at EC level. The recently formed International Marketing Supervision Network may be a step in that direction.

The forthcoming consultative document will be a vehicle for taking these issues forward. The broad objective should be to secure maximum freedom, transparency and confidence in the market. Effective arrangements, in which both businesses and the public have confidence, are essential for the development of the internal market.     

About the authors

It is argued in this paper that marketing theory and practice has reacted largely ineffectively to many of the fundamental challenges posed by developments in other disciplines, illustrated in recent years by total quality management (TQM) and business process re‐engineering (BPR). The urgency of addressing the need for responsiveness to paradigm shifts in other disciplines is underlined by the newest cross‐disciplinary challenge of this kind, which comes from the emergence of “lean thinking” and the conceptualisation of the “lean enterprise”. The goal in this paper is to identify the ways in which lean thinking relates to the marketing process in terms of both conflicts and synergies, and to set an agenda for a productive and timely response from the marketing discipline to the advent of lean thinking.     

About the authors

The uncertain market conditions in Eastern Europe pose new challenges for marketing planning. Techniques such as risk analysis and matrices may not be applicable in assessing the attractiveness of markets, which are subject to discontinuous change. This paper analyses 15 cases of entry into Ukraine by western Multi‐national Corporations. The process whereby they assessed the risks and opportunities of operation in the market are studied. The implications of the findings of this study are discussed.     

About the authors

This paper has the implicit theme that there are changes afoot in both the marketing and accounting professions. Explicitly, how changes in the accounting area may affect marketing people is explored. The particular focus is brands, especially their capitalization in the balance sheet of some companies. The controversy around this practice is discussed, and suggestions for the possible impact on marketing outlined. Many companies are already reviewing the way that they manage their brands, and some are. restructuring accordingly. This may be the beginning of many such changes.

The brand valuation and capitalization debate is reviewed from the late 1980s to date. The Accounting Standards Board (ASB) has now released Financial Reporting Standards that relate to the discussion, but do not, as one might hope, conclude it. The standards deal with intangible assets generally, rather than brands specifically. Hence the treatment of brands remains ambiguous and open to interpretation.

Financial reporting systems, which still seem to focus brands as short‐term propositions, are far removed from the way that many marketers and some accountants believe brands should be managed. Therefore, it is concluded to be unlikely that these ASB pronouncements will have created a new order.     

About the authors

The article deals with the problem of diagnosing cultural change necessitated by a shift in market strategy and the measurement of adaptability of an existing corporate culture. Starting from the proposition that there has to be a fit between strategic goals, goal‐relevant norms of behaviour followed by the employees, and their attitudes concerning the contents of the norms in order to be able to successfully implement a new market strategy, the authors develop an approach for measuring discrepancies between these variables. Describing an empirical study run in a middle‐sized Austrian company they show how the approach may work in practice. The degree of cultural change required is delected and located. An evaluation of the existing culture's adaptability clearly indicates that necessary changes may encounter higher risks of failure.