Douglas Brownlie

The Four Ps of the Marketing Concept: Prescriptive, Polemical, Permanent and Problematical

A day rarely passes without there being discussion of the major changes which organizations in both the public and private sectors, are undergoing to become more effective. The case for change is often said to be driven by the imperatives of an increasingly demanding marketplace; and this case is often expressed in a seductive rhetoric which utilizes maxims and metaphors drawn from the ideological resource of the marketing concept. The authors believe that the current penchant for couching change initiatives in the language of marketing exposes some of the limitations of the marketing concept. Discusses these limitations and addresses the problems which constrain the use of the marketing concept as an ideological resource.

Beyond the one-dimensional marketing manager: The discourse of theory, practice and relevance

Abstract ‘Relevance’ is a quality widely attributed to research that closes the gap between theory and practice. It is an attribute well worth attracting these days. For some marketing scholars and practitioners closing this gap has assumed the proportions of an heroic and perennial struggle between the high-mindedness of marketing theory and the low deeds of marketing practice. Many different perspectives are offered by way of an analysis of the origins of this particular species. Yet, despite our best efforts to the contrary, the beast continues to prosper and to defy understanding. Through critically appraising the social location of marketing management and its ensuing rhetoric, this paper provides an alternative understanding of this gap and the ‘slings and arrows’ we suffer in our quest to achieve the ‘Holy Grail’ of closure. This understanding implicates the marketing academy in the perpetuation of the belief that the gap exists ‘out there’ and that it should and can be closed. Controversially, we suggest that, despite the marketing academys declared quest for ‘relevance’ through providing clues to better marketing practice, perhaps it is in the academys own interest to continue to perpetuate this particular marketing myth. We argue that if this is so, then the marketing management discourse is in danger of being trapped in the aspic of its own prejudices. The paper maps out the contours of this danger.

'Spinning' Warhol : celebrity brand theoretics and the logic of the celebrity brand

Abstract The paper takes as its subject celebrity and consumption and the cultural logic of the celebrity brand. It introduces the concept of celebritisation as the engine of celebrity culture, discussing ways in which celebrity brands operate as ‘map-making’ devices which situate consumers within networks of symbolic resources. We construct particulars via an investigative narrative that draws critically upon published accounts of the life and work of Andy Warhol, generating observations of signature practices and technologies of formation of Celebrity Brandhood. Within an inductive architecture we modulate to celebrity brands as transmediated marketing accomplishments which trade upon allure, glamour and charisma, constructed around rituals of transition, belonging, intimacy, and affect. We suggest that at the heart of the machinery of the cultural logic of the Celebrity Brand is the mediated spectacle as a field of social invention and transformation. In this way, the paper opens up pathways toward further interpretive analyses of celebrity brands, articulating the basis of accounts of Celebrity Brand Theoretics.

Prime Beef Cuts: Culinary Images for Thinking ‘Men’

The paper contributes to scholarship theorising the sociality of the brand in terms of subject positions it makes possible through drawing upon the generative context of circulating discourses, in this case of masculinity, cuisine and celebrity. Specifically, it discusses masculinity as a socially constructed gender practice (Bristor and Fischer, 1993), examining materialisations of such practice in the form of visualisations of social relations as resources for “thinking gender” or “doing gender”. The transformative potential of the visualisations is illuminated by exploring the narrative content choreographed within a series of photographic images positioning the market appeal of a celebrity chef through the medium of a contemporary lifestyle cookery book. We consider how images of men “doing masculinity” are not only channelled into reproducing existing gender hierarchy and compulsory heterosexuality in the service of commercial ends, but also into disrupting such enduring stereotyping through subtle reframing. We acknowledge that masculinity is already inscribed within conventionalised representations of culinary culture. In this case we consider how traces of masculinity are exploited and reinscribed through contemporary images that generate resources for rethinking masculine roles and identities, especially when viewed through the lens of stereotypically feminised pursuits such as shopping, food preparation, cooking, and the communal intimacy of food sharing. We identify unsettling tensions within the compositions, arguing that they relate to discursive spaces between the gendered positions written into the images and the popular imagination they feed off. Set against landscapes of culinary culture, we argue that the images invoke a brand of naively roughish “laddishness” or “blokishness”, rendering it in domesticated form not only as benign and containable, but fashionable, pliable and, importantly, desirable. We conclude that although the images draw on stereotypical premeditated notions of a feral, boisterous and untamed heterosexual masculinity, they also set in motion gender‐blending narratives which test the shifting limits of masculine discourse when set in the mediating context of culinary culture.

Managerial judgement in strategic marketing

Aims to delineate and explore the terrain of mainstream literature on strategic marketing management. Draws attention to the important role of judgement in almost everything that marketing managers do and for organizations. Considers the orthodox treatment of uncertainty and judgement in marketing management and strategy and concludes that it is restrictive in that it presupposes an approach to strategic decision making that is the exception, not the norm. Highlights the important role of the personal development and learning of top marketing managers as investments in the quality of marketing judgement.

Culinary tourism: An exploratory reading of contemporary representations of cooking

In Levi‐Straussian terms cooking marks the “transition between nature and culture”. Yet the study of cookbooks as placed cultural artefacts is largely neglected by consumer researchers. This essay seeks to address this oversight, setting out to explore the potential contribution of a turn to cookbooks for enriching our understanding of the character of contemporary consumer culture. It weaves a line of argument that asserts the value of treating cookbooks as cultural products, as objectifications of culinary culture, as constructed social forms which are amenable to textual analysis. In this respect it declares that, rather than simply being understood as reflections of contemporary consumer culture, cookbooks should be understood as artefacts of cultural life in the making. That is, cookbooks contain not only recipes but inscribed cultural tales which can be understood as productive of the culinary culture that they pretend only to display, and performative in their attempt to do things with us. We reveal cookbooks to be sites of aestheticised consumption.

Cultures of consumption of car aficionados: Aesthetics and consumption communities

The purpose of this paper is to explore the virtual consumption communities which cohere around the object of the car. Focusing upon the cultural practice of debadging, the paper intends to reveal forms of connectivity and resistance within communities of car customization. Design/methodology/approach - A netnography in the form of non-participant observation is used to explore the talk of car aficionados around issues of customization and affiliation. Findings - The paper discusses the importance of internet discussion boards as forums for the exchange of information and advice, but also as a site to express their passion for cars and their affiliation with like-minded others. The research reveals that the question of aesthetics is a significant one for car aficionados. This enables us to theorize such consumers as akin to designers for whom the discussion boards exist as key reference points. Research limitations/implications - This is an exploratory study and its primary limitation is one of scope and method. Netnography provides access to web-based communication. In this sense, a novel channel of access to new forms of expression and ways of doing social relations is employed. Clearly, the insights generated from this study are mediated by the character of the empirical site and the limits of non-participatory netnography. Originality/value - The originality of the paper resides in its attempt to theorize the significance of the cultural practice of debadging as a key constituent in community-formation.Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the virtual consumption communities which cohere around the object of the car. Focusing upon the cultural practice of debadging, the paper intends to reveal forms of connectivity and resistance within communities of car customization.Design/methodology/approach – A netnography in the form of non‐participant observation is used to explore the talk of car aficionados around issues of customization and affiliation.Findings – The paper discusses the importance of internet discussion boards as forums for the exchange of information and advice, but also as a site to express their passion for cars and their affiliation with like‐minded others. The research reveals that the question of aesthetics is a significant one for car aficionados. This enables us to theorize such consumers as akin to designers for whom the discussion boards exist as key reference points.Research limitations/implications – This is an exploratory study and its primary limitation is one of sco...

Beyond ethnography: Towards writerly accounts of organizing in marketing

This paper is about marketing accounting. It is about reading marketing writing and writing marketing reading and what calls them into being. It is about our “ab‐outing” practices; those signifying practices by means of which we week to capture a piece of the world and show it off, wrapped in a suitable tale of discovery, in a cabinet in the museum of marketing knowledge. You may wonder why should we bother, since without those representation practices and textual conventions how could we be sure that the objects on display were real, not fakes; that our representations were true images of objects in the real world, not mere simulations of simulations? Do you find comfort in the view that marketing discourse organizes in such a way as to sustain the convention that objects in the marketing world “out there” are antecedent to our images of them? And does it discomfort you to recognize the ideas of Garfinkel (1967) being used to suggest that marketing accounts are constituent features of the settings we make observable? Whatever your answers, how textual organization persuades and makes real is a point worth considering. I think this is a timely project, as we warm to qualitative methods, especially ethnography, on the (mis)understanding that they can reveal truer, deeper, thicker insights into the real world. For it is not possible to avoid the problem of representation in this way, as Geertz (1973) reminds us in his invitation to reflexive ethnographic inquiry.

High minds and low deeds: on being blind to creativity in strategic marketing

In mapping out the twists and turns of the evolving research agenda in strategic marketing, some of the diversity and energy brought to discussions of process and practice in the area, has been captured in recent discussions. This paper sets out to bring the idea of ‘managerial judgement’ to those discussions. In doing so, it draws on work which argues with some foresight that there is a need to examine processual aspects of marketing management and develop appropriate analytical tools for achieving this. The paper considers the value of managerial judgement as such an analytical tool and finds that it provides a useful way of focusing on marketing managers’ creative accomplishments, rather than their rational limitations in the face of inadequate or inconsistent information. In doing so, it reasserts the value of the word ‘policy’ in marketing, at a time when it has almost disappeared from our vocabulary to be replaced by the word ‘strategy’, with its connotations of instrumentality, functionality and li...

Management theory and practice: bridging the gap through multidisciplinary lenses

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue that critically examines topics informing long-standing disputes concering the status of theory and practice in management studies. Contr ...