Jan Brace-Govan

The Development of Competent Marketing Professionals

The process of transition from university undergraduate to business professional is a crucial stage in the development of a business career. This study examines both graduate and employer perspectives on the essential skills and knowledge needed by marketing professionals to successfully perform their roles. From in-depth interviews with 14 graduates and 14 employers, it is apparent that the transition trajectory is both diverse and dynamic. The first main finding is that the transition from marketing graduate to employee is marked by a lack of skills to organically “fit the organization.” Another finding is related to specific competencies such as the ability to have and, most importantly, apply marketing knowledge. These findings have strong implications for the development and redesign of curricula to produce highly skilled, employable graduates and to assist universities in retaining a competitive advantage within the tertiary sector.

Women’s Bodies as Sites of Control: Inadvertent Stigma and Exclusion in Social Marketing

Responding to the call for critical examinations of the inadvertent effects of marketing (Dholakia 2012), this article offers an examination of the underexplored impacts of social marketing campaigns that derive from government-defined agendas of “healthism.” Specifically, we examine how efforts aimed at the management of women’s bodies can inadvertently render them sites of control. Drawing on embodiment theory, we consider how the neoliberal body project positions certain bodies as less acceptable, leaving women who engage in activities that run counter to prevailing health messages vulnerable to stigmatization and exclusion. Through three body control projects—breastfeeding, weight management, and physical activity—and a critical visual analysis of social marketing campaigns, we contend that the emerging field of critical social marketing must develop a broader social justice agenda along the lines of macromarketing. In doing so, consumers’ corporeal representations and lived experiences will be better addressed and improved evaluations of social marketing’s societal impacts can be developed.

We do not live to buy: Why subcultures are different from brand communities and the meaning for marketing discourse

Purpose – The purpose is to investigate the concepts of subculture, subculture of consumption and brand community with a view to better understanding these three groups and their distinct differences.Design/methodology/approach – The method relies on a literature review and a case study of sporting subculture. Using commentary from the surfing community as an example of subcultural groups we see how they define themselves against consumption oriented groups.Findings – Subcultures are completely different from brand communities (or subcultures of consumption) and while they can be said to share certain common traits the broad philosophical foci of these two groups are vastly incommensurate with one another.Practical implications – Marketing discourse has perpetually conflated subculture with forms of consumption, i.e. brand communities, yet they are different. By acknowledging and interrogating the key differences marketers may better apprehend the needs, character and activities of subcultural participant...

Looking at bodywork: Women and three physical activities

The concepts of the subject-at-work and the subject-in-discourse form the basis for an examination of the implications that appearance has for physically active women and their self-presentation. Excerpts from interviews with three physically active groups (ballet dancers, bodybuilders, and weightlifters) of Australian women are used to illustrate the ensuing discussion of the “gaze.” When the subject-at-work becomes the subject-in-discourse, as a result of the presentation of the body to an audience, differences in the extent to which each group exercised ownership of their physical mastery became evident. Activities that invite others to look and to judge the appearance of women’s bodies appeared to disempower through the effect of the “gaze,” which a more instrumental approach seemed to resist. The implication is that to transcend the status of being an object, women may benefit from pursuing their bodywork instrumentally, not on the basis of appearance.

The duality of political brand equity

Purpose – The democratic political product is complex and untangible. An underlying assumption of a democratic system is the involvement of voters, or consumers, but with contemporary political apathy this aspect is relatively unacknowledged. This paper aims to explore the role of the consumer in political branding.Design/methodology/approach – Two contrasting case studies compare the balance between the corporate brand of the political party and the brand image of two different kinds of local politician. Aakers “Brand Equity Ten” is adapted to provide a suitable conceptual framework for the case study comparison.Findings – Investigating the interaction between the community and politicians drew out important implications for the political brand. The paper concludes that managing the political brand entails a recognition of the inherent duality that resides in the political product. In an environment of reduced differentiation of political offerings to the electoral marketplace it is important for politi...

Weighty matters: control of women’s access to physical strength

This paper gives an account of the social forces exerted to contain womens interest and access to weightlifting, and a muscular strength usually associated with masculinity. Weightlifting can create formidable physical strength but without the visible, physical displays of body building. The significance of weightlifting womens lack of visibility is important and alters the social dynamic of their experience of physical strength. The study relies on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 16 elite women weightlifters. They recount how disciplined, different and empowered they perceive themselves to be. Drawing together the weightlifting womens illuminative epiphanic moments (Denzin, 1989, 1992, 1993) revealed the close association of strength with force and, the social expectation that, not only is powerful physicality used to dominate others, but it is also expected to be male. Womens access to domination is contained through the gendered nature of gym space and a masculine approach to training. Strength training is not only a source of self-identity, but it is also a site of collective experience and enforced norms of affective behaviour. The paper concludes that it is important for women to be supported in their challenge in this arena.

Varying expectations of online students and the implications for teachers: Findings from a journal study

There is a good deal of literature which addresses the issues of teaching online but there is little material which examines the concerns students might have about learning online. This exploratory study asked undergraduate business students to keep a record of their perceptions of the learning experience during a semester‐long marketing subject. Two questions framed the study: how students went about studying and how satisfied they were with the communication they had with other students, teachers and technicians. The findings suggest that students need information about how to interact online before they select a mode of delivery, and an induction exercise prior to the commencement of teaching would be useful. Furthermore, the stage of life cycle and the students” perceived alternative delivery options appear to work together to influence student expectations and preconceptions of online delivery.

Sneakers and street culture: A postcolonial analysis of marginalized cultural consumption

It would be valuable to consumer research to increase understanding of marginalized communities and their consumption experiences. This paper advances postcolonial analysis as useful in this respect. A review of postcolonialism shows a perspective that encompasses the experience of the subordinated and marginalized. Hybridity, an alternative version, the self/other divide and power of both the colonizing and colonized positions are key concepts in this lens. Shifting from the dominating view of imperialism, a postcolonial oeuvre offers a nuanced stance that gives voice to the history of the Other and recognition to their stories. Variations within this stream of theory are drawn out and the key aim of this paper is to explicate the value of the postcolonial view to consumer research. To this end two illustrative case studies of postcolonial African experience are offered: one French and one American. Sneaker consumption in African‐American street culture traces themes of social alienation, self‐identity, criminality and fanatical consumption through the acquisition of sneakers. This experience is contrasted with the experience of postcolonial African communities in France who use other forms of consumption to define their street identity. We conclude that a more nuanced reading of sneaker consumption is available through postcolonialism shedding new light on interpreting symbolic consumption, meaning making and identity expression in traditionally marginalized groups.

Gender and Religious Settlement: Families, hijabs and identity

Religious settlement refers to the process whereby a religion moves from one place to another and becomes incorporated into the religious economy of the new place. In this process, both the migrating religion and the society in which it settles are changed. This process, described in detail by several studies, results in an increase in religious diversity necessitating new strategies to negotiate this diversity in everyday life. Using census data to describe the general picture and in-depth interviews to provide personal detail, this paper focuses on the role of women in religious settlement and the negotiation of religious diversity. Most studies have focused on organisational features of the settlement of religious groups and the management of religious diversity resulting in a male-dominated perspective. The processes by which women negotiate religious settlement and form identities differ from those of men and are often complicated by conflicting expectations held of them by themselves, their partners, their religious organisation and the society into which they are settling.

From Right to Responsibility: Sustainable Change in Water Consumption

With demand increasingly outstripping supply, the sustainable consumption of water is a crucial public policy issue. This article outlines a case study of the urban water marketing system of Melbourne, Australia. The study illustrates how Melbournes water marketing system responded to the shock of drought and then was reset through changes in the formal, informal, and philosophical antecedents of the marketplace. Change was facilitated in part through public policy but also through the interplay between the antecedent classes that enabled new marketplace outcomes to occur. Interviews with seven upstream water experts and 16 downstream household water consumers, in combination with secondary sources, illustrate how consumers shifted their perspective on water consumption from a right to consume to a view that water needed to be consumed responsibly. Through an examination of the interactions among the external factors that shape the water marketing system, this article shows how changes in public policy can be effected if they are appropriately integrated into the informal and philosophical foundations of the marketplace.