Social Studies of Marketing

In this paper, we use ethnographic methods to describe the market making activities of Première Vision, Paris, the leading trade fair in the clothing fabric industry. Through collective action and powerful representational practices, Première Vision's exhibitors affirm their style innovation and position themselves as trend setters. Our study extends the emerging literature on market forms and marketing practices by (i) introducing a different lens, based on the ideas of postmodern theorists, through which the nature of representation in industrial markets may be viewed and (ii) addressing the role of self-interested theorists, i.e. marketers who theorize about the market and its functioning in ways that are self-beneficial. Our paper also has implications for trade fair literature, which is mostly concerned with individual exhibitors' value appropriation strategies. The case of Première Vision shows that trade fairs may be considered as collective marketing instruments, thus highlighting the importance of organizers' value creation strategies.

(Marketing logics and strategies of family farming in the Agreste of Paraíba)
Abstract: The article presents the results of an analysis on markets’ social construction made-up by family peasants in the Agreste of Paraíba (Brazil). Logics and marketing strategies have been observed among twelve families inserted in one or several market channels: local direct sales, public food purchase programme and long marketing channels. The methodology combines the study of collective practices and marketing strategies and the role of reciprocity relationships between families. The results show the importance of organizational processes, of public and private support for the implementation of these strategies. The reciprocity relations that produce and consolidate social ties are also important to facilitate access to markets and sustain the families’ activity of commercialization.

Key word: Family farming; agro-ecology; access to markets; marketing strategies;

Over the years the gradual exploration by different scholars, and practicing experts, marketing as a subject has been branched out into different domains or specialized areas. Social marketing is one such area. Social Marketing is a systematic process of influencing and persuading a target community to ensure awareness, support and/or participation from them for a cause that brings certain desirable benefits to the society. The marketing strategies used by the marketer of general consumer goods or services are largely based on the conventional marketing mix elements. Though social marketing can be elaborated based upon the conventional marketing mix elements, but the conventional marketing mix elements has got limitations in terms of adequately and  directly addressing all issues concerning the specific marketing process to be adopted for social marketing. Therefore there is a need to explore and appropriately redefine the marketing mix elements for social marketing. Academically, the field of social marketing is still very much evolving and there seems to be significant diversity of opinions on the subject. In our pursuit to explore the same, we have tried to theoretically derive this alternative marketing mix model for social marketing.

This is a teaser. It is part of chapter one of a forthcoming collection - The Routledge Companion to Critical Marketing Studies - which I have co-edited with Matthew Higgins, Janice Denegri-Knott and Rohit Varman. To get the rest, you'll need to order a copy for your local university library or treat yourself to an early Christmas present. The entire manuscript is now with the publisher. Here is the ToC:

The Routledge Companion to Critical Marketing Studies (Editors: Mark Tadajewski, Matthew Higgins, Janice Denegri-Knott and Rohit Varman)

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Introducing and Advancing Critical Marketing Studies (Mark Tadajewski, Matthew Higgins, Janice Denegri-Knott and Rohit Varman). 
Chapter Two: Postmodernism and Critical Marketing (Nikhilesh Dholakia and Fuat Fırat).
Chapter Three: Postcolonialism, Subalternity, and Critical Marketing (Rohit Varman).
Chapter Four: Feminist Perspectives in Marketing: Past, Present and Future (Pauline Maclaran and Olga Kravets).
Chapter Five: Critical Social Marketing: Reflections, Introspections and Future (Ross Gordon).
Chapter Six: Critical Macromarketing, Sustainable Marketing and Globalization (Bill Kilbourne).
Chapter Seven: Critical Perspectives on Place Marketing (Massimo Giovanardi, Mihalis Kavaratzis and Maria Lichrou).
Chapter Eight: Critical Arts Marketing (Gretchen Larsen and Finola Kerrigan).
Book Section Break: Critical Marketing – Marketing Practices in Focus
Chapter Nine: Critical Studies of Marketing Work (Peter Svensson).
Chapter Ten: The Cultural Turn in Lifestyle Research: Overview and Reflections (Gokcen Coskuner-Balli).
Chapter Eleven: Advertising Practice and Critical Marketing (Chris Hackley).
Chapter Twelve: Critical Reflections on the Marketing Concept and Consumer Sovereignty (Mark Tadajewski).
Chapter Thirteen: Service-Dominant Logic: The Evolution of a Universal Marketing Rhetoric (Chris Miles).
Chapter Fourteen: Metaphor and Relationship Marketing Discourse (Lisa O’Malley).
Chapter Fifteen: Critical Perspectives on Ethical Consumption (Michal Carrington and Andreas Chatzidakis).
Chapter Sixteen: Religious Critiques of the Market (Aliakbar Jafari).
Book Section Break: Rethinking Consumers and Markets – Critiques of Markets
Chapter Seventeen: Re-mapping Power for Critical Marketing and Consumer Research (Janice Denegri-Knott).
Chapter Eighteen: Ideology and Critical Marketing Studies (Giana M. Eckhardt, Rohit Varman and Nikhilesh Dholakia).
Chapter Nineteen: Non-Western Cultures and Critical Marketing (Özlem Sandıkcı Türkdoğan).
Chapter Twenty: Choice and Choicelessness in Consumer Practice (Ruby Roy Dholakia, A. Fuat Fırat and Nikhilesh Dholakia).
Chapter Twenty-One: Managing Racial Stigma in Consumer Culture (David Crockett).
Chapter Twenty-Two: Consumer Vulnerability: Critical Insights from Stories, Action Research and Visual Culture (Susan Dunnett, Kathy Hamilton, and Maria Piacentini).
Chapter Twenty-Three: The Embodied Consumer (Maurice Patterson).
Book Section Break: Critical Marketing – Marketing Practices in Focus
Chapter Twenty-Four: Critical Perspectives on Brand Management (Adam Arvidsson and Alex Giordano).
Chapter Twenty-Five: Gender, Marketing, and Emotions: A Critical, Feminist Exploration of the Ideological Helix that Defines Our Working Worlds (Lorna Stevens).
Chapter Twenty-Six: Biopolitical Marketing and the Commodification of Social Contexts (Detlev Zwick and Alan Bradshaw).
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Exploitation and Emancipation (Bernard Cova and Bernard Paranque).
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Political Economy Approaches to Transnational Commodity Markets: An Application to the Case of the Global Palm Oil Market (Martin Fougère).
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Social Media, Big Data and Critical Marketing (Christian Fuchs).
Chapter Thirty: Marketing and the Production of Consumers’ Objective Violence (Eduardo André Teixeira Ayrosa and Renata Couto de Azevedo de Oliveira).

A social marketing intervention would be effective only if it brings about positive social behaviour change in a target population, in this case; adoption of HIV prevention methods.

The study is a survey conducted in Maiduguri metropolis to examine the influence of gender on adoption of HIV/AIDS prevention methods. Specifically the study assessed the level of awareness on HIV/AIDS and assessed the peoples’ protective behaviours. Data for the study were collected from both primary and secondary sources. A total of 300 questionnaires were distributed amongst the sampled respondents. The 283 instruments retrieved were analysed using Descriptive statistics. The findings were that, despite the level of awareness on HIV (70%), a person’s gender has a significant influence on adoption of HIV/AIDS prevention methods with the female gender at a disadvantage. The study recommends amongst others for the proper marketing of HIV prevention tools that women can have control over.