Rajendra S. Sisodia

The Antecedents and Consequences of Customer-Centric Marketing:

As we enter the twenty-first century, the marketing function remains concerned with serving customers and consumers effectively. The authors propose that just as the marketing function gradually shifted from mass marketing to segmented marketing in the twentieth century, it will increasingly move toward customer-centric marketing in the next century. In the practice of customer-centric marketing, the marketing function seeks to fulfill the needs and wants of each individual customer. The antecedents of customer-centric marketing are the increasing pressure on firms to improve marketing productivity, increasing market diversity in household and business markets, and technology applicability. On the basis of the shift toward customer-centric marketing, the authors expect increased importance of marketing as a “supply management” function, customer outsourcing, cocreation marketing, fixedcost marketing, and customer-centric organizations. This article highlights the implications of customer-centric marketing as well as the boundary conditions that will affect its adoption.

Revisiting Marketing’s Lawlike Generalizations

Since being recognized as a separate field of inquiry over 75 years ago, marketing has made enormous strides in terms of becoming a scholarly discipline. Marketing scholars have used scientific approaches to discover and document a number of regularities pertaining to consumer behavior and marketing exchages. Many regularities that have been empirically validated have achieved the status of “lawlike generalizations.” In this article, the authors first classify these generalizations into four categories: location centric, time centric, market centric, and competition centric. They then argue that each category is now being affected by at least one major contextual discontinuity that is likely to challenge the relevance, if not validity, of these well-accepted lawlike generalizations. The authors also identify important questions stemming from these discontinuities and issue a call for further research to discover new insights and paradigms.

Marketing productivity: issues and analysis

Abstract Marketings fundamental problem today is low productivity and lack of accountability. This paper suggests two ways to improve marketing productivity. First, marketing must shift its focus from aggregate markets to individual customers. Second, the marketing function should be treated more like the production function as investment in brands and distribution to be amortized over time rather than expensed annually.

Marketing Renaissance: Opportunities and Imperatives for Improving Marketing Thought, Practice, and Infrastructure

My three-year term as editor of Journal of Marketing concludes with the October 2005 issue. On the basis of my interactions with various people in the marketing community, I believe that marketing science and practice are in transition, bringing change to the content and boundaries of the discipline. Thus, I invited some distinguished scholars to contribute short essays on the current challenges, opportunities, and imperatives for improving marketing thought and practice. Each author chose his or her topic and themes. However, in a collegial process, the authors read and commented on one anothers essays, after which each author had an opportunity to revise his or her essay. The result is a thoughtful and constructive set of essays that are related to one another in interesting ways and that should be read together. I have grouped the essays as follows: •What is the domain of marketing? This question is addressed in four essays by Stephen W. Brown, Frederick E. Webster Jr., Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp, and William L. Wilkie. •How has the marketing landscape (i.e., content) changed? This question is addressed in two essays, one coauthored by Jagdish N. Sheth and Rajendra S. Sisodia and the other by Roger A. Kerin. •How should marketing academics engage in research, teaching, and professional activities? This question is addressed in five essays by Debbie MacInnis; Leigh McAlister; Jagmohan S. Raju; Ronald J. Bauerly, Don T. Johnson, and Mandeep Singh; and Richard Staelin. Another interesting way to think about the essays, as Jan-Benedict E.M. Steenkamp suggests, is to group the essays according to whether they address issues of content, publishing, or impact (see Table 1). These 11 essays strike a common theme: They urge marketers—both scientists and practitioners—to expand their horizontal vision. What do I mean by horizontal vision? In The Great Influenza, Barry (2004) describes the enormous strides that were made in medical science early in the twentieth century. His depiction of William Welch, an extremely influential scientist who did not (as a laboratory researcher) generate important findings, includes a characterization of the “genius” that produces major scientific achievements. The research he did was first-rate. But it was only first-rate—thorough, rounded, and even irrefutable, but not deep enough or provocative enough or profound enough to set himself or others down new paths, to show the world in a new way, to make sense out of great mysteries…. To do this requires a certain kind of genius, one that probes vertically and sees horizontally. Horizontal vision allows someone to assimilate and weave together seemingly unconnected bits of information. It allows an investigator to see what others do not see and to make leaps of connectivity and creativity. Probing vertically, going deeper and deeper into something, creates new information. (p. 60) At my request, each author has provided thoughtful and concrete suggestions for how marketing academics and practitioners, both individually and collectively (through our institutions), can work to improve our field. Many of their suggestions urge people and institutions to expand their horizontal vision and make connections, thereby fulfilling their potential to advance the science and practice of marketing. In his essay, Richard Staelin writes (p. 22), “I believe that it is possible to influence directly the generation and adoption of new ideas.” I agree. I ask the reader to think about the ideas in these essays and to act on them. Through our actions, we shape our future. —Ruth N. Bolton

Marketing Information and Decision Support Systems for Services

Discusses the relevance of formal marketing information systems for services marketing. Examines information technology and its potential for services marketing, presenting a design for an integrated services marketing information system. Examines emerging technologies and their applications to service marketing problems. Considers the overlap between marketing and operations for service businesses. Concludes with a discussion of an implementation vector for exploiting the benefits of this overlap and of related managerial issues.

Conscious Capitalism: A Better Way to Win: A Response to James O'Toole and David Vogel's “Two and a Half Cheers for Conscious Capitalism”

Rajendra S. Sisodia is a Professor of Marketing at Bentley University and co-founder and Chairman of the Conscious Capitalism Institute.

Marketing to the self‐actualizing customer

Companies increasingly complain about a new band of “mysterious” consumers whose behavior is challenging the very foundation of modern consumer economies: materialistic aspirations. There is less interest in “things”. Designer labels are not the turn‐on like they were a few years ago. Despite significant means, many shoppers are passing up Lord & Taylor for Wal‐Mart. An especially valuable resource for these and other changes in consumer behavior that are altering the rules for successful marketplace engagement is the annals of adult development psychology. Epochal changes taking place in leading consumer behaviors owe much to the common midlife shift toward to self‐actualization.

The future of marketing

In this chapter, we describe the ongoing transformation of the marketing function from a product- and market-centred perspective to a customer-centred perspective. We will discuss how marketing’s focus is shifting from anonymous market transactions to personalized customer interactions. Implicit in this shift is the opportunity to achieve better profitability by treating customers differently and by reducing cross-customer subsidies. We then discuss how customer-centred marketing requires marketers to transcend customer satisfaction to achieve customer commitment, and how this is only possible if marketers shift their focus from creating tactical marketing programmes to designing strategic business processes. Next, we describe how companies can implement customer-centred marketing by doing the following: focusing on creating end-user value; using cross-functional teams; implementing automation and integration; using ‘fixed cost’ marketing; viewing marketing as supply management; creating profit and loss (PL creating a subscription model of marketing; and bringing marketing and business development together. We conclude by looking at some emerging issues facing the practice of customer-centred marketing.

Modeling how institutional investors allocate business to brokers

A model of how institutional investors evaluate and allocate business to brokers shows a complex pattern of influences. The brokers ability to execute transactions at appropriate prices is basic, but this combines with research and sales force performance to build a relationship that affects over-time allocation of business. It is difficult to separate relationship and selling performance, and relationship is subject to considerable decay. Research ability has a weak effect on business allocated on the basis of trading, while trading ability does affect business allocated on the basis of research.

Expert Systems for Services Marketing – Prospects and Payoffs

Explores the application of expert systems in the field of services marketing. Describes the basics of the technology along with several hypothetical systems. Concludes with a brief examination of costs versus benefits, system design and implementation issues, together with the potential for other artificial intelligence technologies to contribute to the management of services marketing. Notes that advanced applications such as expert systems will dramatically change the competitive landscape of the future.