The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing - Article Example

Critical Evaluation: The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing Introduction In his research article, Constantinides (2006) looks at how changing economic and environmental issues have affected the way marketing is done and how this is likely to change in the 21st century. The study that informed the development of this article used literature review to see how academic and marketing professional regard the issue of the 4Ps of marketing. The article hypothesizes that there is an increasing negative attitude towards the use of the 4Ps marketing mix as the paradigm for creating a marketing strategy for business. As a result the author argues that this old marketing paradigm has no place for the modern marketing environment and that it s going to be extinct as academics and practitioners eventually get rid of it. However, he identified that his research was not perfect and that there are a number of issues that may mean that his findings are not exactly a representation of the reality on the ground. Weaknesses Identified The author was able to identify that one of the weaknesses with his study was that the marketing domains chosen were not comprehensive. He only chose a few marketing domains and applied his theory on them. The problem with this, he identified, was that while it may be proven that the 4Ps marketing paradigm is not work for these domains, it may work for some other domains that were not considered. Making this disclaimer was important for the paper in order to not only give it credibility by ensuring that it does not have loopholes but also as a way to leave open ground for future research. There is no single research that is ever able to provide all the solutions and answers to a problem. The development of such answers depends on researchers basing their studies on previous studies and what other researchers have done in the future. By identifying the areas that the research did not take care of, it makes it easier for the people who may want to develop in this research to know where to start. The other area of weakness that the author identified with regard to his study was the literature classification criteria he applied. This study was based on literature review and to be able to find out how previous researchers looked at the issue of the 4Ps and how it applies to the various domains of marketing, he had to classify the various academic works into the various marketing domains and then review what these authors in each of these domains were talking about the 4Ps. Unfortunately, as he has identified in the paper, it is hard to demarcate the various academic literature into any of the considered domains of marketing and this brought up a small discrepancy. Admitting this is also important in giving the reader an insight as to what was actually done, as opposed to leaving the reader thinking that the demarcation was perfect. The other weakness about the findings that the author has identified with regard to his study and the article that he developed from the study is the type of sources used. He admits that the study used limited to academic (theoretical aspect) as opposed to empirical aspect. This important in a number of ways; first, the fact that he only considered the theoretical aspect can lead to problems given the fact that theory does not always translate directly into practice. If the 4Ps paradigm of marketing is evaluated from the theoretical aspect, it may seem inefficient. However, although the same 4Ps paradigm of marketing is evaluated from an empirical aspect, it may prove to be useful and practical even in a modern marketing environment. The fact that this study, as the author confesses, only used the theoretical aspect means that it missed a lot in terms of trying to reveal the facts about the issue he was investigating. The fact that the - often normative – views expressed – it being a new field means that there are no deep ideas as to how the subject can be handled. The authors who were reviewed are more likely to subscribe to normative ideas because this makes it easier for them to seem pragmatic and thus more acceptance of their work in the scholarly world. He also identify the following issues that make marketing Mix not relevant to modern business Service oriented businesses are the dominant in the modern market In this regard, due to the fact that the 4Ps marketing paradigm was specifically developed for physical products and not services, it would be hard for the mix to be able to serve the current economy market which is mostly dependent on services as opposed to physical products. The author gives a history of the 4Ps marketing paradigm in order to give a context in which it was developed, having been developed over fifty years ago, it was directed towards physical products because that early in time, most businesses were selling mostly physical products as opposed to services. By giving this explanation, the author has managed to look at the issue in a critical way and a way that is objective as opposed to subjective and this is important for such a study that is based on theoretical arguments as opposed to empirical research (Baker, Singleton, & Veit, 2010). The author also identified that the other issue with the 4Ps marketing mix is the fact that apart from today’s economy being made of service businesses, the physical products that are available are service oriented due to what marketers have come to call the augmented product dimension. In other words, even for a business that mainly sells physical goods, service has become a part of the businesses, these days, customers do not just want to buy goods for a firm they want the absent service in terms of how they exercise the relationship between them and the business from which they are buying products. Apart from that, for most long life products, the firm has to give the after sale service in order to engage the customer and help them to better experience the product (Thomas & Gup, 2010). The fact that the 4Ps marketing paradigm does not take care of this service issue is an issue that the author, and the extensive literature review he has carried out argues that it makes it harder for the modern business to use the 4Ps marketing paradigm affectively to support the market strategy of the business. Problems with this article Using academic (theoretical perspectives) can be one sided and even bias because there is always disconnect between theory and practice. The author seems to argue that just because there are many firms that use the 4Ps marketing mix and this then translates to the fact that they use it as is. Yet, this can be hardly the truth. As Spotts (2014) says, businesses do not always apply theory directly and in evaluation how these theories affect the business, it is necessary for anyone to consider the reality on the ground. Business theories such as the Porter’s five forces are never applied directly (Harlan, 2014). Businesses, either intentionally or unintentionally find themselves applying these theories in a way that best suits their situation. This is not different for the 4Ps marketing mix model. While businesses may apply it, they may not necessarily stick to it with a 1 to 1 mapping. When Constantinides (2006) argues that the modern businesses are using this marketing mix as a way to develop their marketing strategy, he fails to identify that this is never really applied in a direct way. Although he admits that one of the weaknesses of the study was that it only used the theoretical aspect of looking at the 4Ps, he still fails to look at how this could have affected outcome of his research. Strong points of the study The major strong pints of the study can be identified with regard to the fact that it has used extensive consultation of academic materials from other scholars. This has helped in mapping the way the academic world looks at this issue. The other strong point forth article is that it has used extensive use of data to make his points. For instance, the author has identified the statistics that inform how the business world uses the 4Ps marketing mix and has identified that over sixty percent of the big busses such as manufacturing firms or multinational firms use the traditional marketing mix as their core of their marketing strategy. Methodology The methodology used The methodology used for the article is the literature review. The author did not carry his own study but reviewed literature produced by other people. This can be said to have an advantage as well as disadvantage. The advantage is the fact that the mythology is not complicated and so it can be argues that it was easier for the author to stick to the issue. It is easy for anyone reading through the paper to be able to see what is happening and therefore know if the results were as a result of the methodology used. The disadvantage is the fact that this kind of methodology does not give the researcher an opportunity to get to the ground and get the primary data. Secondary data that is acquired from literature review can be misleading is interpreted the wrong way. It can only be hoped that the author’s interpretation of what he was able to review was correct. The other issue with this methodology is that the data reviewed in this literature can be outdated. For instance, some of the literature hat was reviews dated as far back to 1972 and most of the literature reviews were at least ten years old by the time the author was doing his study in 2006. This can lead to the informant being unreliable. However, the author also reviewed some up-to-date, literature and this can be said to have given the study some relevance to the modern market issues. Validity It can be said that the paper benefits from both internal and external validity. This is because if the methodology that was used to develop this paper was to be carried out anywhere by anyone, it is more likely to reproduce the same results. Internal validity is achieved through the fact that the results can be said it has been a as a direct application of the study. Reliability As has been identified, this mythology is an easy one and if another researcher was to replicate the study, it would be easy because it would require him to review literature on the topic. As a result, it can be argued that the methodology was fit for this kind of a study. Conclusion The author concludes that since the academics are changing their attitudes towards the use of the marketing mix, it will mean that the marketing mix may not have a future and that in the future, marketing professionals may gravitate towards other models of marketing. While this may seem like a logical conclusion as supported by the literature review that was reviewed by the author, it fails in one main way. To begin with, although he makes this consultation, he does not give a proper explanation as to how this will change. Although it is expected that theory informs practice, it is often the case that practice sometimes ignores the theoretical frameworks. Just because there are many scholars who have a different view of the theoretical framework of the 4Ps does not mean that this will automatically mean that he 4Ps will become extinct. There are two problems that come up with such a wild argument or conclusion. First, theoretical frameworks almost never die completely. At worst, they “give birth” to other frameworks and still become a part of the new frameworks that replaces them. In this regard, while the 4Ps may continue to be outdated and be replaced with other theoretical frameworks for marketing, this does not in itself mean that it will die completely. The fact that even with its limitation in the modern market environment is still is the central marketing strategy for most large businesses means that it still has something in it that is applicable and will continue to be applicable. Constantinides (2006) however fails to take care of this important phenomenon and goes on to make his conclusion that the 4Ps marketing Mix is on the way to the graveyard. The conclusion is in line with his hypotheses and also it can be argued that his conclusion was a confirmation of the hypothesis. However, there is one aspect of the research that did not match his hypothesis. This was the issue to do with the electronic marketing. This is even more interesting because the author had fixated that electronic marketing, due to its nontraditional nature would be the one that refutes the 4Ps paradigm the most as compared to the other marketing disciplines. Literature that he reviewed however suggested otherwise and surprised the research by indicating that most marketing professionals at least think that the 4Ps is applicable to online marketing. Identifying areas for further research The author has accomplished a good job by identifying areas for future research. The author recognized two main issues with the research that informed this article. The first is that there was a need to look at the empirical side of the debate and not from just the theoretical aspect of the debate. In this regard, he has identified that this is one area that needs to be addressed, he admits that while looking at the theoretical issues was an important way to understand the future of the marketing mix, the need for the issue to also be addressed from a theoretical perspective was vital in order for a complete and comprehensive picture to be developed with regard to the future of the 4Ps marketing mix. However, the only problem that comes here is that the identified lack of available research on this area. This may indicate that the researcher is suggesting that investigation the empirical side of the issue of the 4Ps marketing mix can only be done from a literature review. While his study was based on a literature review as the major methodology that does not mean that issue cannot be done from another perceptive that is not a literature review. Carrying out a real study in terms of doing field survey can be useful in comparing the theoretical aspect and the empirical (practical) aspect. However, the fact that the author has identified that this is needed to be done is important in that he is not claiming that this study was comprehensive and final with regard to evaluating the ways in which the 4Ps will evolve in the future. The other suggestion that has been made is with regard to the way the 4Ps interacts with the modern electronic marketing (e-marketing). His literature review indentified that ironically, while there is enough research that critic the use of the 4Ps model as the marketing paradigm for other marketing disciplines, most practitioners have accepted it and identified it as fit for electronic commerce. This, he identified as being ironical because of two major reasons. The first reason is the fact that of all the marketing disciplines such as industrial marketing, service marketing, etc, the electronic marketing is the one that is the least traditional and therefore would find it harder for such a traditional marketing paradigm to fit with it. However, he attributed this to the fact that electronic marketing is a new discipline of marketing and researchers are still grappling with it. However, this does seem to be a less formidable explanation and there could be better explanation since to almost anyone, it can be obvious that if the marketing mix will not fit with the other marketing paradigms that are almost as traditional as it, then electronic marketing could have even more difficulty in fitting in with this marketing paradigm of the 4Ps Mix. The author could have done a better job in giving a better analysis as to why this anomaly is present in the current literature about the efficacy of the marketing mix in the modern market. The other irony he identified with regard to the 4Ps paradigm being accepted for electronic marketing is the fact electronic marketing at large a combination of all the other marketing discipline such as industrial marketing. As such, the reason why these scholars could have found it hard to accept that the marketing mix can still be applicable for the other disciplines and not for the electronic marketing cannot be explained. Again here, the author of the article refuses or refrains from giving an analysis that can help the reader to understand this anomaly and this is one foe flaws of the paper. Does not give a clear alternative Although the author gives suggestions as to what future research should look into, he fails to give an alternative. Given the nature of the study that was done, which was to critic the marketing mix with regard to its viability of the modern market environment, it would be necessary to make sure that alternatives are given. Faulting one model and not giving a suggestion for an alternative can be seen as falling short of academic standards. The most that the author had done with regard to this is to suggest more research in the future to identify the facts. This can be argues to be inadequate and the paper would have been more complete with a suggestion of an alternative that can replace the 4Ps marketing paradigm. Conclusion of the critical review Given the nature of the study and the methodology that was utilized, it can be argued that the article was useful in giving useful information about the issue under investigation. This article presents an argument that is unconventional. This is because the 4Ps have always been regarded as the crystal ball for marketing strategy development. Because the research presents such an unconventional idea, leaving a gap for further research was necessary and this is what the author did. Apart from ignoring the need for empirical evidence to determine whether the 4Ps model is dying out, which the author has admitted and explained, the article has done a good work with regard to presenting this information. Reference list Baker, K., Singleton, J., & Veit, E. (2010). Survey Research in Corporate Finance: Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. Constantinides, E. (2006). The Marketing Mix Revisited: Towards the 21st Century Marketing. Journal of Marketing Management , 22, , pp. 407-438. Harlan, E. (2014). Creating and Delivering Value in Marketing: Proceedings of the 2003 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference Developments in Marketing Science: Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Science. New York, NY: Springer. Spotts, H. (2014). Assessing the Different Roles of Marketing Theory and Practice in the Jaws of Economic Uncertainty: Proceedings of the 2004 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference. New York, NY: Springer. Thomas, R., & Gup, E. (2010). The Valuation Handbook: Valuation Techniques from Todays Top Practitioners. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Read More