Tony Woodall

Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience

In the global university sector competitive funding models are progressively becoming the norm, and institutions/courses are frequently now subject to the same kind of consumerist pressures typical of a highly marketised environment. In the United Kingdom, for example, students are increasingly demonstrating customer-like behaviour and are now demanding even more ‘value’ from institutions. Value, though, is a slippery concept, and has proven problematic both in terms of its conceptualisation and measurement. This article explores the relationship between student value and higher education, and, via study in one United Kingdom business school, suggests how this might be better understood and operationalised. Adopting a combined qualitative/quantitative approach, this article also looks to identify which of the key value drivers has most practical meaning and, coincidentally, identifies a value-related difference between home and international students.

Driven to excess? Linking calling, character and the (mis)behaviour of marketers

We are presently at a point of unique circumstantial convergence where recession, an increased emphasis on business ethics, and marketer’s reluctance to accept shifting social agendas have combined to identify the need for a new approach to marketing. Using concepts from the human resources, marketing and psychology literatures, and especially Erich Fromm’s ideas concerning economic character, this paper posits that marketers – as a professional community – are driven to promote consumerist outcomes; victims of an automaton amalgam of calling and character. The analysis suggests the vulnerability of both marketer and consumer are mutually reinforcing and that we need, somehow, to break this damaging cycle of dependence. We know little, however, about how marketers think and feel about their discipline, so this paper also promotes an agenda for marketer behaviour research, as a countervailing balance to a currently disproportionate focus on the consumer.

Conceptualising and measuring defensive marketing orientation (DMO): some inaugural thoughts on assessing marketing's place in 'society's doghouse'

Many have suggested marketing should be at the heart of organisational decision making whilst, coincidentally, lamenting its continued failure to earn strategic sway. Blame is frequently applied to the organisation itself, implying that marketers are unfairly marginalised. For marketing to succeed, however, it must appear both credible and contemporary, yet there is substantive research suggesting, 1) marketings reputation is far from ideal and, 2) that practitioners remain tethered to traditional means of endeavour, often counter-productive in the context of newer, customer-focused, manifestos. Analysis of both marketing and psychology literatures reveals a lack of tools for determining marketer attitudes toward marketing orientation (MO) or post-MO concerns and, consequently, the commitment of the agent most critical to marketings aspirations is rarely tested. This paper makes a case for rectifying such discrepancy and, via critical reflection on recent measurement debates, suggests an inaugural perspective on how evaluation might be achieved. An agenda for further research is offered, too.

New marketing, improved marketing, apocryphal marketing: is one marketing concept enough?

Purpose – This paper seeks to explore marketings ambiguous relationship with truth and, in so doing, to question the efficacy and value of the marketing concept and the very nature of marketing itself. Is marketing something that marketers do, or is it something much broader than this? If the latter, are marketers themselves either willing, or able to operate beyond traditional boundaries and, if not, should they focus – honourably – on what they do best, and encourage/support others who might market just as effectively, but in a different manner?Design/methodology/approach – Starting with a summary of recent developments in marketing thought this paper argues that marketers find difficulty in implementing the marketing concept, and that market‐oriented compromise and pretence should consequently be abandoned. The thesis goes on to suggest that both “performance” and the “part‐time” marketer should be given greater respect and allocated substantially more credence by all marketing communities.Findings – ...