Marketing Management : Theory, Concepts and Applications

This book of Marketing Management — Theory, Concepts and Applications is a testimony to both the continuing demand for an authoritative overview of the marketing discipline and the constantly changing nature of its subject matter. It is produced in setting out the scope and nature of the marketing theory and concepts, its managerial applications and its contribution to corporate success. Obviously, this book recognizes and reflects international perspectives but, in a subject where so much published work is written from a purely American point' of view, I consider it important that an alternative, albeit similar, interpretation be available. Twelve chapters have been incorporated in four different parts of the book. In my defense, I would argue that it still provides essential background to a question — What is marketing? — that many marketers, both academics and practitioners, regard as rhetorical. In doing so, and by failing to define clearly and explicitly what are the origins, scope, nature and boundaries of the discipline, i then express surprise when others claim ownership of theories and practices that marketers consider their own. 'Modern marketing' concepts can be identified as an important new trend in marketing thought. Since the enlightenment of the eighteenth century, the dominant traditional marketing model for research has been positivistic. The defining characteristic of positivism has been a belief in the existence of an objective reality that can be defined, explained and understood through the application of scientific methods. In turn, this belief has given rise to 'modem' society of which mass production, mass consumption and modem marketing are major manifestations. It would seem, therefore, that 'postmodem' must refer to the nature of society that has or is likely to evolve out of the 'modem' state. This book is also new and deals with a topic — technology driven marketing and relationship marketing has evolved over the past several years or so as a re-conceptualization of the transactional model of marketing, based upon the application of the marketing mix to the marketing of mass-produced products to large, homogeneous consumer markets. Accordingly, 'The purpose of this book is to begin to describe how the rich body of knowledge that is marketing management has come into being, what its major underpinning theories are, what defining moments occurred, and what might shape its future'. In my view, it accomplishes this in a clear and scholarly way. Plainly, having evolved from a number of different, albeit complementary, research traditions, marketing management is not a single monolithic concept — 'Indeed, it is less a coherent body of knowledge and more a collection of loosely aligned understandings'. To know what these are, how they have developed and how they might be applied in practice, this book is 'must' reading. And, for those wishing to dig deeper, the References are an invaluable resource in their own right.