Marketing in a postmodern world assignment

According to postmodernism, many of the fundamental modernist idea(l)s regarding the individual, self, freedom, agency, and structure are arbitrary and ephemeral rather than essential and fixed. The existence and European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 29 No. 1, 1995, pp. 40-56. ?? MCB University Press, 0309-0566 The authors wish to acknowledge the very helpful comments by an anonymous reviewer. persistence of such ideas, therefore, depend on the continued dominance of the mythical system ??? the imaginary.

Any community (including of course the community of researchers in marketing) which values these idea(l)s must, therefore, constantly defend this myth system against others and cannot find refuge or solace in the belief that these idea(l)s are either “ natural” or “ eternal”. The political position of postmodernism is that different myths ought to be allowed since they are products of the different “ realities” of communities, and that each myth system ought to show respect and tolerance to the presence of others[7].

Much of the discussion on these conditions, regardless of disciplinary origin, pertains to marketing and the consumer[1]. Many contemporary examples of the hyperreal are grounded in consumption experiences, for example, in the simulations experienced by the customers of the now largest industry, tourism, in theme parks such as Disney World and Universal Studios, or in Las Vegas[14, 15]. More than physical surroundings are simulated in the image of hypes that are constructed and, then, thoroughly Marketing in a postmodern world 41 European Journal of Marketing 29, 1 42 elieved in by their producers and consumers alike. Consider, for example, the experiences one is promised and one finds in wearing certain brands of sports shoes, denim jeans, and the like. When a community trusts in the promise that a certain brand of jeans, for example, is a statement of privilege or attractiveness or sexiness, for that community the jeans indeed provide the experience promised. Consumption and marketing, therefore, tend to be the most fertile ground for the hyperreal, as they are for the other conditions mentioned.

This might be why marketing and consumption tend to take centre stage in discussions of postmodernity regardless of whether philosophers, sociologists, media specialists, artists, literary theorists, or others are the discussants. A similar argument can be made in the case of other conditions of postmodernity. Consider the postmodern condition of fragmentation. One major force that fragments life experiences in contemporary society is the fragmented moments in consumption experiences and, especially, in marketing communications. In the USA, 30-second commercial television spots succeeded the one-minute or longer spots of the 1960s.

To the contrary, the consumer of postmodern culture appreciates and enjoys the paradox and the playfulness, the difference and the satire that such juxtapositions provide and enable. The uniformity of style, function, form and content inherent in the modern, whether it be in architecture or fashion, for example, that is predicated on a “ universal” rationale of, particularly, economic efficiency is increasingly rejected[19]. Instead, postmodern culture liberates the experiencing of that which is different, even paradoxically opposed. Consequently, such juxtapositions in style, imagery, discourse, communicative action, etc. abound with examples increasingly found in art, architecture, literature, and the media[11, 20-22]. Disillusionment with the inability of the modern project to deliver its promises and the growing willingness to experience differences mentioned above both reinforce the tendency in late modernity and in postmodern culture for a loss of commitment to either grand or singular projects. Rather, the postmodern consumer takes on multiple, sometimes even contradictory projects, to which s/he is marginally and momentarily committed, not taking any one too seriously.

This loss of commitment is observed in all walks of life: in personal relationships, professional tasks, consumption activities, etc. Marketing managers experience this when the consumer loyalties to brands and corporations that they took for granted are jeopardized. Marketing and modernity In chronological terms, the formalization of marketing as a field of practice and study (in the early 1900s in the USA) preceded the phenomenological delineation of and the intellectual discussion about the transition from modernity to postmodernity (in the 1970s).

Thus, the general assumption has been that if and when informed about such characteristics of the consumer, some meaningful prediction of their actions can be achieved. In a modern culture which has promoted the attainment of a stable, consistent and authentic identity, character or selfconcept, individuals often behave in ways to realize this goal, making predictability and explanation more likely. This need for authenticity or consistent identity is exactly what is waning in postmodern culture, and consequently, so are predictability and explanation in the traditional sense.

It is no longer just that consumers frequently change their self-concepts, characters, values, etc. , for they indeed do, but that they often subscribe to multiple and often highly contradictory value systems, lifestyles, etc. , concurrently, without feeling inconsistent and improper. That is why it is so easy to find many subscribing to progressive and conservative ideas and movements at the same time ??? something very unlikely in modern politics. So do we find medical doctors and lawyers, typical members of mainstream professional communities during the week, belonging to motorcycle “ gangs” (in complete attire, etc. ) in the weekends.

Caught up in the modernist project of quantifying and optimizing the links between product features and product image, strategic marketing theory has assigned a primacy to the product and its associated marketing mix. Such theory has therefore only provided guidelines for incremental product repositioning and marketing mix improvement, and spectacularly successful strategic marketing acts continue to be consigned to the categories of “ genius” or “ art” ??? categories beyond modernist analytical reach[26]. Marketing in a postmodern world 45 European Journal of Marketing 29, 1 46

Modern marketing theory remained focused on the product even when the marketing concept became widely accepted. The reason for this lay largely in the belief that consumer needs were satisfied by the product developed for these needs. That is, the idea was that satisfaction resulted from “ material” elements contained in the product. Consequently, it was these elements present in the product that provided value. When the tenets of modernist thought are understood, this focus on the product as the crystallization of value is not at all surprising.

For example, the entire approach of the Disney enterprise is to create the fantasy first ??? a fantasy that is not consumer-derived but a completely worked out vision of key designers that all actors ??? consumers, employees, agents, reviewers, etc. ??? will buy into. We observe the same phenomenon in high-technology marketing. Apple’s Macintosh computer was not a consumer-driven innovation but a compellingly seductive vision of a computer that could be a friend to one (“ friendly”) worked out by Steve Jobs and his design team.

The computer ??? the product ??? was then developed to fill this vision[28]. Marketing practice, therefore, is not driven so much by the ideal of a sovereign consumer as by the quest for a powerful hyperreality that consumers and marketers alike can believe in. It is the image (realized and communicated by the product), not the consumer, that is sovereign. In a Pepsi commercial, when deprived of Pepsi in an isolation chamber, sultry supermodel Cindy Crawford turns into ugly-duckling comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

Marketing and marketers will have, therefore, a heavy burden; one that is no less than determining the conditions and meanings of life for the future. What does the identity between marketing and postmodernity imply for theories of marketing and consumption? What are the implications of this for marketing practice? How does one operate in conditions where each time one thinks one has a handle on the way things work, and begins to comprehend the fundamentals that are guiding actions and relations, the ground becomes fluid? What are the principles of operation under such circumstances?

The analogy might be that of a capricious game in which, as one nears mastery, there is a mercurial change in rules. We believe these questions constitute the primary research agenda for students of marketing, management, culture and consumption in the postmodern age. In the paragraphs to follow we outline some of the dimensions along which marketing and consumer behaviour theories and practice must change. Consumer and needs Modern society settled once and for all that consumers would no longer be needdriven but have driven needs.

The need for the automobile and the television, itself, is a determined need that has been introduced and imposed by the organization of life due to modern relationships of work and home. Then, the existence of these objects in our lives produce needs for time, cable, gasoline, rubber, and the list goes on. It might be too easy and trivial a response to say that the basic need for mobility and entertainment is or remains the same, for such a response summarily lumps together and then omits needs that directly compete and frequently win over these seeming fundamentals, including nutrition.

The presence of the automobile, for example, completely reorganizes the transportation systems at the social level, and, at the individual level, prioritizes perceived needs, and expenditure patterns. The above examples are still modernist in the sense that they emphasize the role of material conditions in shaping needs and demand for products. Postmodernist insights, on the other hand, emphasize the impact of the symbolic in the shaping of needs. The fact is that the object is independent of its functions, or the link between the object, say the automobile, and the functions it serves is cultural and arbitrary.

This is a logical extension of the modernist assumption that the individual mind, especially in terms of its imagination and meaning production capabilities, is independent. The validity of this assumption is highly suspect, however, given the fact that so little subversion of the socially intended functions of objects (products) occurred in modern society. Postmodernist insights alert us to the fact that products are only arbitrarily linked to their originally intended functions, and therefore, infinitely open to subversion. Why has there been so little of it?

The answer may be in the fact that consumers were seized by the modernist idea(l)s and involved in seeking common projects and goals. The postmodern consumer lacks commitment to grand projects and seeks different experiences, and is willing to see oneself as a (marketable) object in the different situations s/he encounters in order to make each a supremely exciting and enjoyable experience. A simple but powerful example of this trend is a popular “ screen saver” software product called After Dark. When a computer is idle, After Dark switches off the screen and turns on a show that is interesting but prevents screen “ burn in”.

To engage the mercurial consumer of the postmodern age, marketers will resort more and more to opening up their proprietary processes and systems ??? design, manufacturing, assembling, packaging, accounting, delivery, billing, etc. ??? to the consumer. Indeed, on the overall social plane, we are witnessing the eclipse of the citizen, bounded by rationality, nationality, responsibility and seeking rights and legal Marketing in a postmodern world 51 European Journal of Marketing 29, 1 52 remedies, and the rise in its place of the consumer ??? boundaryless, mercurial, hedonic, whimsical, simulation-loving and experience-seeking.

The substitution of the citizen by the consumer is vividly illustrated in the contemporary US political process that has essentially become a marketing process. Every major policy move, from its inception to its final implementation or rejection, is tracked carefully by “ consumer polls”. Based on these polls, the proponents and opponents of the policy develop strategies for constructing images that they hope everyone, or at least a substantial majority, will buy into. The American citizen is no longer; along with their morning bowls of breakfast cereals, Americans have become avid consumers of politics and policies.

The new frameworks in marketing have to abandon these models and consider frameworks where products are stationary and the consumers move, or more likely, where both Product Q Marketing in a postmodern world 53 Product R Product S Consumer (the target) Product T Product W Figure 1. Consumers and products in modernity consumers and products move. In postmodern marketing, the consumer is not a target, not even a moving target, but an active link in the continual production and reproduction of images and symbolic meaning.

Organizations producing symbolic offerings represented by meaning-laden products that chase simulation-loving consumers that seek experience-producing situations ??? this is the spiralling state of postmodern consumption and marketing (see Figure 2). Existing paradigms are totally incapable of handling this situation. Marketers have to ask what kind of models are appropriate to capture the postmodern dynamic of continual motion, fragmentation and shifting signifiers. Conclusions and openings Postmodern conditions call for major transformations in the way marketing is practised, theorized, researched, and evaluated.