Abstract
Before leaving the topic of ideology in marketing, I want to mention one other source, in addition to ideologies of media communication, and ideologies of space. Marketing is itself a source of ideology, through its conventional axioms, concepts, and values, conveyed via mainstream text books and courses. The reason this is relevant here is that, before trying to engage with strategies for putting contextual marketing into practice, some myths about marketing need to be exposed. Many of the problems with marketing implementation arise because of misconceptions about what it is and what it can accomplish, and the major source of these misconceptions is marketing itself. Business schools are especially culpable in cleaving to a formulaic notion of marketing that suits the commodification of higher education and seems to fit with a wider neo-liberal agenda, but fails to articulate the particularities of practice. The educational route to a marketing career entails a good deal of learning that has to be unlearned once practice is encountered.
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Notes
For the view that sociologies of advertising have neglected the material practices of the field see L. McFall (2004) Advertising: A Cultural Economy, London, Sage.
See C. Hackley (2009) Marketing: A Critical Introduction, London, Sage, for an introduction to some of the scholarship in this area.
Including visual rhetoric: J. E. Schroeder (2002) Visual Consumption, London, Routledge.
I outlined my view of marketing education as a critical and liberal intellectual enterprise in a short magazine piece called “Return on Investment” in the UK universities’ trade magazine, the Times Higher or THES. I’ve linked it here http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectionc ode=26&storycode=422477 (accessed 24.02.2013).
There are many other examples in R. H. Thaler and C. R. Sunstein (2008) Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, New Haven and London, Yale University Press.
Research by my former PhD student Dr Norman Peng described the adoption of political marketing by the UK Labour Party: N. Peng and C. Hackley (2007) “Political Marketing Communications Planning in the uk and Taiwan–Comparative Insights from Leading Practitioners,” Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 25(5), 483–498.
See for reference a BBC news story, http://www.bbc.co.uk/ news/uk-13589976 (accessed 12.3.2013).
This estimate was reported in a BBC news story, http://news. bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/3121440.stm (accessed 12.3.2013).
A BBC news article outlines the perceived failure of the ban on HFSS food advertising in children’s TV programming, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17414707 (accessed 14.3.2013).
The research was led by Professor Christine Griffin, with myself, Professor Isabelle Szmigin, and Dr Willm Mistral, helped by Dr Andrew Bengry-Howell: a summary of the Economic and Social Research Council funded study is here: http://www.academia.edu/2742714/Branded_consumption_and_social_identification_Young_people_and_alcohol
A section of one of the ads is shown during a TV interview I did about it at the time–you can see a shaky YouTube clip of the interview here: http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ZvpyoFiHBDo (accessed 15.03.2013).
See C. Griffin, A. Bengry-Howell, C. Hackley, W. Mistral, and I. Szmigin (2009) “‘Every Time i Do It i Absolutely Annihilate Myself’: Loss of (Self)-Consciousness and Loss of Memory in Young People’s Drinking Narratives,” Sociology 43(3), 457–477.
Also see C. Hackley, A. Bengry-Howell, C. Griffin, W. Mistral, I.Szmigin, and Hackley née R. A. Tiwsakul (2012) “Young Adults and ‘Binge’ Drinking: A Bakhtinian Analysis,” Journal of Marketing Management. DOI: 10.1080/0267257X.2012.729074
and I. Szmigin, A. Bengry-Howell, C. Griffin, C. Hackley, and W. Mistral (2011) “Social Marketing, Individual Responsibility and the ‘Culture of Intoxication’,” European Journal of Marketing, 45(5), 759–779.
The Institute of Alcohol Studies published this account of our point about the anti-drinking campaign, and Diageo’ s response: http://www.ias.org.uk/resources/publications/alcoholalert/alert200801/al200801_p6.html (accessed 14.3.2013). The issue was originally covered by national UK media, for example the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7132749.stm (accessed 14.3.2013).
This was an interview I gave on BBC Radio Five Live on December 11, 2007. I cannot remember the name of the show.
Alcoholic liver disease in the under thirties is said to have increased by 50% in a decade. One press report from 2011 here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1350302/Number-30s-liver-disease-soars-50-decade.html (accessed 15.3.2013).
I have a few examples of questions from creative briefs in my 2010 book Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Approach (2nd edn), London, Sage.
See, for example, http://www.alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk/alcohol-and-marketing (accessed 14.3.2013).
See for an account of the contretemps C. Hackley (2008) UK Alcohol Policy and Market Research: Media Debates and Methodological Differences’ “Viewpoint” article, International Journal of Market Research 50(4), 429–431, https://www.mrs.org.uk/ijmr_article/article/88173 ( accessed 8.9.2013).
Our paper about the transgressive pleasures of intoxication is here http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/026 7257X.2012.729074%20 and talked about it BBC Radio 4’s Thinking Allowed hosted by Laurie Taylor, with Fiona Measham and James Mills, special edition on the pleasures of intoxication broadcast 4PM December 26, 2012 http://www.bbc.co.uk//programmes/b01pg54j podcast here http://castroller.com/podcasts/ThinkingAllowed/3272717 ( accessed 14.3.2013).
.When UK TV advertising was banned for cigarettes in 1965 the brands turned to posters. In famous campaigns for Silk Cut cigarettes, the advertising appeal of smoothness and mildness were abandoned for visual metaphors based on images of silk, and scissors cutting. This minimalist visual style became a well-understood shorthand for the brand that was reproduced in different forms across differing platforms.
German magazine Der Speigel carried a 2007 piece discussing the links between German companies and the Nazi regime http://www.spiegel.deinternational/germany/breaking-the-silence-bmw-s-quandt-family-to-investigate-wealthamassed-in-third-reich-a-511193.html (accessed 16.3.2013).
I tell the story of this regulatory conundrum on my blog here: http://www.chris-hackley.com/2012/09/shouldimplied-meaning-in.html (accessed 16.03.2013).
S. J. Levy (1959), “Symbols for Sale,” Harvard Business Review (July–August), 117–124.
For an overview see E. Arnould and C. Thompson (2005) “Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31, 868–882.
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© 2013 Chris Hackley
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Hackley, C. (2013). Marketing Ideology and Social Policy. In: Marketing in Context. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137297112_5
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