Evaluating Marketing Paradigms - Report Example

Marketing s Submitted by s: Introduction When most people think on marketing, tactics comes to their minds and people will always tend to associate marketing with tactics mainly because it can be considered to be exciting. All the tactics like advertising, promotions and email campaigns are exciting, but even though these are considered to be the most outstanding aspects of marketing, have a similar nature to the tactics that are used in sports in that they are vital but useless if there is no significant basis of knowledge. Therefore, marketing goes beyond tactics, it entitles making an analysis and a comprehensive marketing strategy has its basis on this analysis (Taylor and Riklan, 2011, p. 232). This analysis can be of several kinds for example an analysis about the customer whereby having a solid understanding of the customers will entail being able to comprehend how the customers behave, their motivation to this kind of behaviour, their perceptions and the preferences whereby the market is segmented in the correct manner and not in a half hazard way like most companies do (Taylor and Riklan, 2011, p. 233). Marketing can be used to describe a complete philosophy for the running of a business based on the meeting of customer requirements that have been well researched, understood deeply and genuine customer requirements. The definition that is provided by the UK Chartered Institute of Marketing provides a framework that is very valuable for the study of the subject and it uses the word anticipating to stress on the fact that marketing is a discipline that is diverse where the requirements of the customer are in always changing and in evolution (Shaw, 2011, p. 3). Marketing as Art or Science  Marketing is the business discipline that is most responsible for the development of programmes that are meant to attract customers, attain them and make sure that they are retained and for this to be done the customer and the consumption patterns that are associated with him have to be understood. The consumer landscape in the modern time has been shaped by two forces that can be considered to be very powerful namely technology and globalization and statements of these nature lead to claims about how the rate of change is escalating and how technology is making a difference in the lives of people (Dowling, 2004, p. 1). Marketing Paradigms The view that a person has on the world influences the way that that we try to perceive and explain the outcomes that come from marketing interactions and the theories of marketing are then developed from these paradigms as they are referred to in the scientific community where the gradual adoption of scientific paradigm that under which the marketing theories can be able to be catalogued can be traced. Since they have organizing power in the conceptualization of theoretical gaps, the paradigms aim at saving much more random efforts that are directed at the creation of the theoretical basis for the development and testing of hypothesis (Bush and Hunt, 1982, p. 281). Legal empiricism was developed so that it could be used to overcome the problems that had come about as a result of logical positivism and the principle of verification was rejected in favour of the more limited concept of gradual or increasing confirmation where the theories are confirmed but only to a particular limit through a careful evaluation of the rules that are dictated by logic. This makes logical empiricism a return to induction but in a form that is more sophisticated where the sophistication can be found not only in the forms of measurement and logic used but also in the application of the statistical methodologies. This can help to replace certainties with probabilities and still remain within the scope of the orientation and therefore if a proposition is not rejected at some probability level, it would then be the source of an example of a gradual confirmation this gradual being in the sense that the non-rejection is in a probable form (Möller and Wilson, 1995, p. 428). It can be claimed that the influence of logical empiricism had resulted in marketing being an applied discipline that deals with the improvement of management practice and the research methodology that is applied to the cases that are associated with marketing. Nevertheless, logical empiricism emphasises on the positive while the marketing management directs most of its emphasis on the normative and this shows that it will be unusual and utterly absurd to claim that logical empiricism leads to an emphasis on the improvement of the management practice (Hunt, 2010, p. 280). There is also an argument that argues and contends that objectivity is not possible since all the knowledge claims are embedded in paradigms that are incommensurable (Hunt, 2003, p. 272). Interpretive Perspective Interpretive perspective addresses the process of reflection and critique that leads to non-oppressive forms of organization and in particular situations that the consultants or the researchers can be able to assist the members of the organization to understand how they can be able to implement organizational reality to reveal ways in which their reality functions (Putnam and Pacanowsky, 1983, p. 239). To recognise that a methodological perspective may be of value to the study of business organizations is the beginning to understand it where positivist perceive organization charts as fixed structures of concrete that are used in the determination of authority and task relationships where the interpretive researchers would have the view that hierarchical structures are an outgrowth of the relationships that have real consequences for the interactions that take place every day. The charts and the behaviours that create them are dynamic and are in a state of steady change every day and since the organizations cannot be looked at as monolithic entities but are seen as coalitions of participants that have various different objectives, the perceptions and perspectives that are negotiated are an attempt to achieve a degree of common direction (Baker, 2001, p. 33). Critical relativism agrees with the possibility of one pre-existing ‘reality’ but is in contradiction with the impression that it can be exposed via the scientific method (Baker and Saren, 2010, p. 32). Relativism does not really imply a stance that is critical towards knowledge claims, and neither does it imply acknowledging that the knowledge claims of science are imperfect since it implies pessimism which is the belief that any genuine knowledge about anything will never exist. The people that support this principle know that no one can be in apposition to know anything and furthermore relativism does not really imply a stance that is tolerant towards outside idea and any other cultures as it basically implies indifference to the norm of tolerance. Additionally, relativism does not imply any ethical sensitivity but it implies the importance of ethics and while subjectivism does not really caution the science to work at minimising this bias, it struggles to maintain that the human condition makes the very ideas of objectivity to be a fantasy (Brownlie, 1999, p. 26). Critical marketing paradigm It can also be looked at as the liberating paradigm that takes a social constructionist perspective with respect to the ontological status of reality while maintaining its focus on the social, economic and technological process that contain and control the human beings in the marketing system. (B\"Ohme, 2003, p. 79). The role that is taken by the theoretical inquiry is to point out and analyse the conflicts and contradictions that are in the system and provide means that can be used to remedy the situation. The adherents of the critical theory within this particular paradigm often take alienation and victimization as metaphors for the oppressed groups in the modern consumer society (Hastings, Angus and Bryant, 2011, p. 103). Therefore it can be contended that critical marketing can be understood as a reactionary movement that includes a rich composition of research tools that is best thought in terms of what it is not that what it actually is and it is this lack of a theoretically grounded centre that has led to critical marketing evolving to become an umbrella that covers diverse research strands that have been gathered (Saren, 2007, p. 2). Postmodern perspectives Postmodern marketing is a term that comes from the postmodern philosophical movements where there are traditional propensities of characteristic doubt towards toward the global cultural narrative where it adopts the same philosophical point of view and implements it in the way advertising initiatives will be take care of in this era after the world war II. This marketing has been able to go through a new ear that entails advertising, branding and strategic brand thinking and it is characteristically engaged on customized experiences where broad market generalities are no longer used or applied on behalf of branded communication but instead the method needs the marketers to remove new aged trends and developments so that they can be able to focus on how the consumer prefers to be messaged. As a result of this advertisement aged art and science debate the involves marketing, creative, media and branding are brought to a conclusion and with the postmodern marketing approach being a communication that is one on one is created between human beings that will be controlling technological hardware that is real. In the 80’s and 90’s postmodernization began to be discussed in the marketing circles and in the postmodern world the people do not derive their identity from the jobs that they do or the classes that they were born into since they get a personal satisfaction from their behaviour that is associated with the consumption behaviours. Consistent with this is that individuals are apparently able to develop their own identities through the products that they consume and they can be able to receive their emotional and spiritual sustenance by accessing the world of consumerism and therefore becoming a product of the global consumer culture (Ellis et al., 2010, p. 45). Characterising marketing communication as a presumptive entity constrains one of the effulgent postmodern perspectives, the assumption can be taken that the desired responses can be evoked through a well codified message and this can be built on the transportation communication model and the transaction concept of marketing model (Ozuem, 2005, p. 56). Feminist perspectives Today, the contributions that the women make to the well-being of the economy is more than matched by the injustices that their work produces as virtually all the organizations are in agreement that the gender equity is necessary for the growth and prosperity of the economy yet there is rampant inequality and exploitation that these women go through that haunts their lives everywhere. Today many of the women do the jobs that were meant for men but the work that is considered to be poorly paid and devalued remains to be the work of women and this can be seen in the poor nations where the women have to go through harsh conditions like malnutrition and disease and even in the nations that are prosperous, women will often encounter glass ceilings and sticky floors (Barker and Feiner, 2004, p. 1). This view that women are looked down upon is consistent with the neoclassical view of labour markets for women to be earning less than men if the women are inherently less productive than men or if they chose to acquire education that will not measure up to that of men or if they prefer the jobs that pay less since they require less effort to deliver results (Langland and Gove, 1983, p. 103). Form the point of view of an economist, it doesn’t really matter if this considerations and views are innate or developed through social conditioning but only whet e equally qualified men and women that have the same exact tastes will attain an equal job status would the neoclassical analysis attribute outcome to a failure of markets or discrimination. Over the past fifteen years scholarships that are targeted towards the women have been having a substantial effect on the number of subjects that consist of anthropology, literature, sociology and history among others and these scholarships present an argument that hidden assumptions about men and women have influenced the standard academic subjects. Feminist theory may influence the disciplines of marketing and consumer behaviours that in ways that are not the same from the manner that it has been able to affect the other disciplines such as history and literature or even social sciences and since the theoreticians and those that practise it have always focussed on women as the consumers, the feminist perspective may not be recognised immediately so that it can be able to offer something new and exclusive but then an argument can be brought up that incorporating the tenets of the feminists perspective allows the consumer theory to be ominously enhanced. Conclusion There is no doubt that advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, direct marketing, public relations, sponsorships and the new media will continue to be at the centre of the communication that takes place with the consumers and even though the marketers want to get results that are measurable, the use of the direct response techniques and sales promotion as opposed to general advertising or even an experimentation with different combinations, the fact remains that marketing communication tools have been tried and tested and they have found a place in the marketing world (Koekemoer and Bird, 2004, p. 25). Bibliography Baker, M. J. 2001. Marketing. London: Routledge. Baker, M. J. and Saren, M. 2010. Marketing theory. Los Angeles: SAGE. Barker, D. K. and Feiner, S. 2004. Liberating economics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Brownlie, D. T. 1999. Rethinking marketing. London: SAGE. Bush, R. F. and Hunt, S. D. 1982. 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