Frederick E. Webster

Understanding the relationships among brands, consumers, and resellers

This article examines the historical evolution of the relationships among brands, consumers, and resellers in a world increasingly dominated by very large retail organizations with substantial power within the marketing channel. It is widely believed that manufacturers brands are becoming less important as major retailers are becoming more powerful. This view is based on the mistaken assumption that brands are relationships with consumers, not resellers. Arguments about the decline of brands are often confused with arguments about changes in the brand management function. As major firms redefine their customer as the reseller, not the consumer, there are substantial implications for brand management and the role of the brand manager. Marketing strategy implementation will require increasingly careful coordination of marketing programs with sales strategy to achieve the necessary coordination of reseller- and consumer-targeted communications to maximize the value of the brand to both the retailer and the end user.

Triad lessons: Generalizing results on high performance firms in five business-to-business markets

Abstract Significant differences are known to exist among organizations operating in different countries due to different national and organizational cultures, strategic orientations, and management styles. Less clear, however, is whether there are significant patterns of differences in how marketing-related factors drive performance in the most successful firms regardless of country. Building on a previous study of major Japanese firms [Deshpande et al., 1993. Journal of Marketing 57, 22–27], an exploratory study compared samples of business-to-business relationships of Japanese, English, French, German, and US companies. We found the expected significant differences in organizational cultures, but found no country-specific slopes or intercepts in regressions relating factors such as innovativeness, organizational climate and culture, and market orientation to business performance. Successful firms appear to transcend differences in national culture and develop a common pattern of drivers of success which include primary focus on organizational innovativeness, a participative work climate, and an externally oriented organizational culture.

A Stakeholder-Unifying, Cocreation Philosophy for Marketing

Marketing thought and practice is continuing its evolution from a largely goods-dominant logic to a service-dominant (S-D) logic. The authors argue that an S-D grounded logic is especially useful in a highly networked world. In a network world and organization, it is critical for enterprises to realize and operate as if marketing is no longer simply a separate business function but also a general management responsibility within a broad network enterprise where the interests of many stakeholders need to be unified with the customer and the enterprise. Furthermore, a value cocreation concept of strategy becomes increasingly relevant because it views value as not created by the business but by customers as they integrate resources. Importantly this includes firm-supplied resources, as well as other resources at the customer’s disposal in order to improve their well-being by helping them develop or codevelop solutions to problems. Consistent with the S-D logic of marketing, the firm has to think not about optimizing the sales and/or profit of the firm and its activities but how to support customers in their resource integration and value cocreation activities. All enterprises should strive to be an effective and efficient service support system for helping all stakeholders, beginning with the customer, become effective and efficient in value cocreation.

The Role of the Industrial Distributor in Marketing Strategy

T HE industrial distributor is an important institution in the American marketing system, yet he has received little attention from researchers. Trade association surveys have generally yielded small responses and have often been designed primarily to promote the image of the industrial distributor. Changing census definitions of this position and conflicting definitions used by different trade associations have made it virtually impossible to analyze trends in industry sales volume, degrees of specialization, firm size, and the like. Yet manufacturers who sell to other manufacturers, and the industrial distributor himself, have a vital interest in the pressures and trends affecting this marketing channel. This is especially true in the current environment of materials shortages, depressed industrial production, tight money, and rising costs, since the industrial distributor may offer the manufacturer major opportunities for improved marketing effectiveness and physical distribution efficiency. In an attempt to get an in-depth look at the industrial distributor, a field study of distributors and manufacturers was conducted in the summer

A Replication of the "Shopping List" Study

quoted pieces of research in marketing.1 That study, reported in 1950, supported three general conclusions. First, many products (such as instant coffee) have meaning and significance for consumers that go far beyond the physical attributes of the products themselves. Second, these hidden values in products are a major influence on the consumers purchase decisions. Third, the identification and assessment of such motives require indirect approaches, such as projective techniques. To these conclusions drawn by Professor Haire can also be added the observation that convenience foods, such as instant coffee, carry a certain opprobrium. However, if asked directly why they did not purchase instant coffee, people had been found to say I dont like the flavor. This is a much more acceptable explanation than People will think I am lazy and not a good wife. The authors hypothesis was that the differences between the Maxwell House (Drip Grind) housewife and the Nescafe Instant housewife which Haire identified in 1950 would not be found in 1968. There is strong evidence that convenience foods in general and instant coffee in particular have become much more acceptable to the American housewife. Soluble (i.e., instant) coffee sales have increased from less than 20% in 1955 to over 30% of total U.S. coffee sales in 1965. Well over half of the products on grocery store shelves in 1968 were not available to the consumer in 1957. The majority of new products offered to the housewife have been convenience items such as boil-in-the-bag frozen foods, baking mixes, prepared foods, snacks, canned meats, and dietetic foods.2

Marketing for managers

This is, like most marketing books, a product of a USA writer with a USA reader in mind. If it were a UK product perfectionists might question the title in the light of The Trade Descriptions Act because it is not a book for most managers but rather for those managers who have an above average interest in marketing. Indeed, if a significant proportion of those who call themselves managers studied their speciality in this depth the current criticism of UK managerial performance would probably not be made. The problem of addressing the generalist is referred to in the preface and the minimisation of footnotes is a great help but the author, clearly an enthusiast, has not entirely succeeded in living up to his excellent ideals.

Social aspects of marketing

Professor Websters stated objectives concern the need for synthesis, systematic analysis and analytical structure in the social-environmental area. Against most of these objectives, his book measures up exceptionally well. In terms of content and readability, it may well be the best available book of this type. Yet the opportunity to build a comprehensive, integrative, conceptual framework was missed and the book is somewhat fragmented. In fairness, there is considerable implicit conceptualizing and parts of chapters include significant synthesis not previously available. The discussion is comprehensive except for the unfortunate omission of social issues related to pricing, distribution, and marketing research. The initial chapter, although adequate, is unfortunately the books weakest section. Consumerism as defined here is too broad, and different aspects of consumerism overlap with the causal forces. As an overview, the chapter is fragmented. Chapter 2, The Consumer, although not well integrated into the book, presents a very good and concise treatment of changing consumer socioeconomics. It includes a good statement about disadvantaged consumers, although, overall, the book pays little attention to the ghetto marketplace. The third chapter reviews and evaluates the critics charges against advertising, uses a buyer behavior model to evaluate advertising, and reviews current trends in advertising regulation. The defense of advertising may be overdone, and an already excellent chapter could be improved by discussing the role of personal selling in marketing communication. Chapter 4 is an excellent chapter with comprehensive coverage of product-related social issues such as resource utilization, quality and safety, and product disposal. An important strength is the use of the previously reported concept of a socio-ecological product, emphasizing the need to consider the long-run stream of product-related costs and benefits to society. The author takes a position on controversial issues, assumes risk by suggesting trends, and cites numerous implications for marketers. The fifth chapter is a very good, example-filled review of the literature related to marketing in notfor-profit organizations. Causal forces behind the growth of nonbusiness marketing are cited, a fragmented list of approaches to the topic is given, and generic marketing is discussed and then abandoned for a more limited view. The potential negative effects of social marketing are not discussed. The final chapter, The Marketing Concept Reexamined, is an excellent discussion of the major implications of the first five chapters. The first half of the chapter is a solid discussion of consumerism. The rest is a stimulating and certain-to-be-debated section that asserts that the marketing concept as currently defined is premised on too much optimism about resolving profit goals, individual consumer needs, and the publics long-term interest. Consequently, Professor Webster calls for a new professionalism, with marketing managers actively defining the public interest (the revised marketing concept) and making decisions accordingly. Possible negative effects of this, such as limiting product choice, are not considered. This book should be required reading for introductory and graduate courses relying on textbooks with inadequate treatment of social aspects, and for senior-level social/environmental courses. It should also be read by businessmen, for, with respect to short-run impact, this may be its greatest potential.

Culture d'organisation et marketing: Une liste des priorités pour la recherche

Les travaux actuels portant sur le marketing management sont fondés implicitement sur une perspective contingente ou structurelle/fonctionnaliste des organisations. Néanmoins, le champ de recherche sur le comportement organisationnel, dont découle une telle approche, sest fortement développé à partir de la modélisation théorique et de la recherche empirique sur la culture dorganisation. Les auteurs procèdent à une revue de cette littérature émergente sur la culture dorganisation, lintègrent dans un cadre conceptuel, pour ensuite dégager les priorités de la recherche marketing qui sappuie sur les cinq paradigmes culturels que sont: le management comparatif, le management contingent, lapproche cognitive, le symbolisme organisationnel et lanalyse structurelle/psychodynamique.