Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Metaphors and marketing: Some Uses and Abuses

  • Chapter
Marketing Metaphors and Metamorphosis

Abstract

Metaphors shape and structure our thoughts and thus govern our accepted view of the world. They are one of a number of tropes (figurative uses of a word) which allow us to view a problem in a new way through the juxtaposition of ideas, a process which can be enabling and generate creativity in conceptualizing and theorizing. Metaphors also allow us to clearly communicate ideas in an interesting fashion. This chapter reflects upon the nature and role of metaphors and offers guidance upon their use. The use of metaphors in marketing is then critically examined, finally the metaphor of marriage in relationship marketing is considered. It is argued that marriage has become a dormant metaphor which has artificially constrained our conceptualizing in this field and has become a substitute for thinking.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 115.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  • Arndt, J. (1985), ‘On making marketing science more scientific: role of orientations, paradigms, metaphors, and puzzle solving,’ Journal of Marketing, 49 (Summer): 11–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baines, P., C. Fill and K. Page (2008), Marketing, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, J. G. (1994), ‘Close to the customer: but is it a relationship?’ Journal of Marketing Management, 10: 561–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bitner, M. J. (1992), ‘Servicescapes: the impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees,’ Journal of Marketing, 56(2): 557–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blois, K., (1997) ‘Are business-to-business relationships inherently unstable?,’ Journal of Marketing Management, 13(5): 367–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd, R. (1979), ‘Metaphor and theory change: what is “metaphor” a metaphor for?’ in Andrew Ortony (ed.), Metaphor and Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 356–408.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. and D. Turley (eds) (1997), Consumer Research: Postcards from the Edge, London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burke, K. (1969), A Grammar of Motives, Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buttle, F. (1996), Relationship Marketing, Theory and Practice, London: Paul Chapman Publishing.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Celuch, K. G., J. H. Bantham and C. J. Kasouf (2006), ‘An extension of the marriage metaphor in buyer–seller relationships: an exploration of individual level process dynamics,’ Journal of Business Research, 59: 573–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christensen, G. L. and J. C. Olson (2002), ‘Mapping consumers’ mental models with ZMET,’ Psychology and Marketing, 19(6): 477–502.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The Concise Oxford Dictionary (1995) (9th edition), Oxford: Clarendon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cornelissen, J. P. (2003), ‘Metaphor as a method in the domain of marketing,’ Psychology and Marketing, 20(3): 209–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cornelissen, J. P., M. Kafouros and A. R. Lock (2005), ‘Metaphorical images of organization: how organizational researchers develop and select organizational metaphors,’ Human Relations, 58(12): 1545–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dennis, N. and M. Macaulay (2003), ‘Jazz and marketing planning,’ Journal of Strategic Marketing, 11 (September): 177–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Doving, E. (1994), ‘Using anthropomorphistic metaphors: organisational action, knowledge, and learning,’ paper presented at the Conference on Metaphors in Organisational Theory and Behaviour, Kings College, University of London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dwyer, F. R., P. H. Schurr and S. Oh (1987), ‘Developing buyer–seller relationships,’ Journal of Marketing, 51(April): 11–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fergusson, F. (1961), Aristotle’s Poetics, trans. S. H. Butcher, New York: Hill and Wang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisk, R. P., S. Brown and M. J. Bitner (1993), ‘Tracking the evolution of the services marketing literature,’ Journal of Retailing, 69(1): 61–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ford, D. (2002), Understanding Business Marketing and Purchasing, 3rd edition, London: Thomson Learning.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ford, D., L. E. Gadde, H. Håkansson and I. Snehota (2003), Managing Business Relationships, 3rd edition, Chichester, West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, H. W. (1968), Fowler’s Modern English Usage, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschman, E. C. (2007), ‘Metaphor in the marketplace,’ Marketing Theory, 7(3): 227–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. D. and A. Menon (1995), ‘Metaphors and competitive advantage: evaluating the use of metaphors in theories of competitive strategy,’ Journal of Business Research, 33(2): 81–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hunt, S. D. and R. M. Morgan (1995), ‘Relationship marketing in the era of network competition,’ Marketing Management, 3(1): 19–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Iacobucci, D. and A. Ostrom (1996), ‘Commercial and interpersonal relationships: using the structure of interpersonal relationships to understand individual-toindividual, individual-to-firm, and firm-to-firm relationships in commerce,’ International Journal of Research in Marketing, 13: 53–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jobber, D. (2007), Principles and Practice of Marketing, 5th edition, Maidenhead: McGraw Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, M. (1987), The Body in the Mind: the Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reasoning, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kendall, J. E. and K. E. Kendall (1993), ‘Metaphors and methodologies: living beyond the systems machine,’ MIS Quarterly, 17 (June): 149–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G. (1987) Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff, G. and M. Johnson (1980), Metaphors We Live By, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, T. (1983), The Marketing Imagination, New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • MacCormac, E. R. (1985), A Cognitive Theory of Metaphor, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mirowski, P. (1988), ‘Shall I compare thee to a Minkowski-Ricardo-Leontief Matzler matrix of the Mosak-Hicks type?’ in A. Klamer, D. M. McClosky and R. M. Solow (eds), The Consequences of Economic Rhetoric, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 117–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G. (1980), ‘Paradigms, metaphors, and puzzle solving in organization theory,’ Administrative Science Quarterly, 25 (December): 605–22.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, L. and A. C. Tynan (2001), ‘Reframing relationship marketing for consumer markets,’ Interactive Marketing, 2(3): 240–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, L. and A. C. Tynan (2000), ‘Relationship marketing in consumer markets: rhetoric or reality?’ European Journal of Marketing, 34(7): 797–815.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, L. and A. C. Tynan (1999), ‘The utility of relationship marketing in consumer markets: a critical evaluation,’ Journal of Marketing Management, 15(7): 587–602.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, I. and R. Dunford (1996), ‘Conflicting uses of metaphors: reconceptualising their use in the field of organisational change,’ Academy of Management Review, 21(3): 691–717.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perrien, J., P. Filiatrault and L. Ricard (1993), ‘The implementation of relationship marketing in commercial banking,’ Industrial Marketing Management, 22: 141–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rindfleisch, A. (1996), ‘Marketing as warfare: reassessing a dominant metaphor,’ Business Horizons, 39(5) (September/October): 3–10.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stern, B. B. (1988), ‘Medieval allegory: roots of advertising strategy for the mass market,’ Journal of Marketing, 52(July): 84–94.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Story, J. and J. Hess (2006), ‘Segmenting customer-brand relations: beyond the personal metaphor,’ Journal of Consumer Marketing, 23(7): 406–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tynan, A. C. (1999), ‘Metaphor, marketing and marriage,’ Irish Marketing Review, 12(1): 17–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tynan, C. (1997) ‘A review of the marriage analogy in relationship marketing,’ Journal of Marketing Management, 13: 695–703.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Bulte, C. (1994), ‘Metaphor at work,’ in G. Laurent, G. L. Lillien and B. Pras (eds), Research Traditions in Marketing, Boston: Kluwer Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vargo, S. L. and R. F. Lush (2004), ‘Evolving a services dominant logic for marketing,’ Journal of Marketing, 68: 1–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vosniadou, Stella and Andrew Ortony (eds) (1989), Similarity and Analogical Reasoning, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 6–7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinrauch, J. D. (2005), ‘An exploratory use of musical metaphors to enhance student learning,’ Journal of Marketing Education, 27(2): 109–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitehead, A. N. (1925), Science and the Modern World, New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaltman, G. (1996), ‘Metaphorically speaking,’ Marketing Research: a Magazine of Management and Applications, 8(2): 13–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zaltman, G., K. Lemasters and M. Heffring (1982), Theory Construction in Marketing: Some Thoughts on Thinking, New York: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Caroline Tynan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Hull Business School, UK

    Philip J. Kitchen (Chair and Professor of Strategic Marketing) (Chair and Professor of Strategic Marketing)

Copyright information

© 2008 contributors

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Tynan, C. (2008). Metaphors and marketing: Some Uses and Abuses. In: Kitchen, P.J. (eds) Marketing Metaphors and Metamorphosis. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230227538_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation