Critical Marketing

Marketing is still widely perceived as simply the creator of wants and needs through selling and advertising and marketing theory has been criticized for not taking a more critical approach to the subject. This is because most conventional marketing thinking takes a broadly managerial perspective without reflecting on the wider societal implications of the effects of marketing activities. In response this important new book is the first text designed to raise awareness of the critical, ethical, social and methodological issues facing contemporary marketing. Uniquely it provides: · The latest knowledge based on a series of major seminars in the field · The insights of a leading team of international contributors with an interdisciplinary perspective . A clear map of the domain of critical marketing · A rigorous analysis of the implications for future thinking and research. For faculty and upper level students and practitioners in Marketing, and those in the related areas of cultural studies and media Critical Marketing will be a major addition to the literature and the development of the subject.

What fuels capitalism and what stops it from collapsing? Does marketing communications support and sustain the economic and political status quo? This book is not about describing the ways in which businesses can optimize the messages they put across or about adding to the marketing communicator’s toolkit. This book argues that marketing communications plays an increasingly important role in bolstering contemporary capitalism. Drawing on conceptualizations of the ‘market’ from political economy and sociology, it focusses on five logics that underpin and sustain the form of capitalism in which we live: the logic of competition, the logic of sustainability, the logic of individualism, the logic of objectivity, and the logic of distraction. It does this by exploring those arenas which are increasingly dominated by the communicative activities of business: sport, CSR, social media, statistics, and entertainment. Bringing theories from marketing and consumer research, sociology, cultural studies, technology and media studies to bear on marketing communications, this book is necessary reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students and academics who wish to understand the broader role of marketing communications in the reproduction of contemporary capitalism.

Digital communication has altered the flow of global information,evolved consumer values and changed consumption practices worldwide.New Perspectives on Critical Marketing and Consumer Society provides an illuminating, challenging and thought-provoking guide for all upper-level students of marketing,branding and consumer behaviour.

Electronic Inspection Copy available for instructors here Written by a team of renowned experts in the field, Marketing: A Critical Textbook provides a unique introduction and overview of critical approaches to marketing. Ideally suited to advanced students of marketing, the book uses examples and 'real world' case studies to illustrate and discuss major alternative and critical perspectives on the subject, enabling students to constructively question the conventional assumptions, concepts and models with which they are already familiar. - Explains and debates key concepts in a clear, readable and concise manner. - Provides practical and innovative demonstrations of abstract and difficult concepts through classroom exercises and individual and group activities. - Includes a glossary of critical marketing terms. - Additional material on the companion website, including a full Instructor's Manual and free access to full-text journal articles for students. Visit the companion website at www.sagepub.co.uk/ellis

Focusing on a new and developing field, this text provides an overview of the development of marketing thought and the emergence of critical marketing. It covers a range of topics important to a critical marketing or contemporary issues in marketing course, including a number of topics (e.g. postcolonialism and marketing) previously not examined in detail in marketing.

The Routledge Companion to Critical Marketing brings together the latest research in Critical Marketing Studies in one authoritative and convenient volume. The world’s leading scholars and rising stars collaborate here to provide a survey of this lively subdiscipline. In doing so they demonstrate how a critical approach yields an enriched understanding of marketing theory and practice, its role in society, and its relationship with consumers themselves. It is the first attempt to capture the state of Critical Marketing research in many years. As such, this seminal work is unmissable for scholars and students of marketing and consumer research as well as those exploring sociology, media studies, anthropology and consumption scholarship more generally.

The marketing discipline has been dominated by managerial research that has never really been counterbalanced by a systematic critical analysis which is problematic given the assumed legitimization of the managerialism that has ensued. This book is an attempt to rest the balance, articulating a social critique and evaluation of marketing. The book offers a critical survey of the most important contributions to managerial marketing discourse from the earliest twentieth century onwards, covering traditions of research such as scientific selling, marketing management and service marketing and drawing from Michel Foucault’s understanding of power and Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe’s Discourse Theory. The analysis reveals that managerial marketing discourse has promoted a government of organizations that is centred around the customer and that the shifts and turning points in this rationality through time signify more fundamental shifts in emphasis in the type of power promoted by marketing discourse and the subject positions is ascribes to people.