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Conceptual advancement underpins the progress of social marketing and countermarketing research but has been neglected in recent years. This paper aims to describe a new integrative framework of social countermarketing (SCM) concepts, techniques and defining characteristics, based on research tracing the conceptual evolution of the field and contrasting commercial (profit-focused) and social (public good-focused) countermarketing.

This paper undertook searches of electronic databases to examine how socially oriented countermarketing has been characterised in the research literature. Search terms included “countermarketing”, “critical marketing”, “de-marketing” and “counter-advertising”. Broad inclusion criteria allowed consideration of reports, conference and media outputs, as well as peer-reviewed articles published since 1971. Selected marketing journals were searched individually.

After screening of 408 initial search results, 80 studies were retained and full papers retrieved. Main ideas, definitions, scope, concepts and terms used were mapped to identify the common and distinguishing features, as well as higher-order organising themes. This led to the development of a new conceptual framework for SCM comprising eight domains.

The integrative conceptual framework offers a foundation for future research and SCM practice.

This paper introduces a framework designed to advance the conceptual basis of SCM research and practice with particular reference to the field of public health and disease prevention.

Social countermarketing (SCM) aims at influencing existing socio-cultural norms, public policies or political decision-making. Existing empirical accounts of SCM give limited insights into their success. The authors analyze SCM strategies and their public resonance by studying the diagnostic and prognostic frames and responsibility attributions that are used in the debates.

The authors focus on two online SCM campaigns in the Netherlands that are targeted against over-feeding of chickens for consumption and the selling of low-priced meat. The authors conducted a quantitative content analysis (N = 3,902) of these debates on Twitter for a two-year period (July 2015 to June 2017).

The results show that citizens play an important role for the amplification of SCM campaigns. Diagnostic and prognostic frames about meat selling practices are among the most popular ones while the importance of mobilization messages differs per case. This can be explained by the proximity of these frames to citizens' daily life experiences.

The apparent willingness of citizens to both tweet and retweet calls for mobilization might give messages by environmental NGOs third-party endorsement. This strengthens their position and visibility in the debates, which are both of strategic value. The analysis of actor responsibility can identify reputational risks for companies in contested industries such as mass meat production.

The findings enhance professional understanding of designing campaign messages and refine SCM success in terms of resonance, since resonance indicates amplification and third-party endorsement.

This chapter fosters understanding of core U.S. gun culture and how it promotes its political ideology through visual means.

The research applies key visual theory concepts to investigate a selection of political representations made by gun rights advocates. The images analyzed include photographs, posters, and other ephemera posted on blogs and commercial websites located through informed keyword searches of Google Images.

Core gun culture in the U.S. aggressively promotes its libertarian and right-wing ideology through tactics of interpellation, intertextuality, and exhibitionism, often in tandem with humor, sarcasm, paranoia, and sex appeals.

Although the findings are preliminary, visual theories and methodologies present a promising direction for further consumer research on American gun culture.

U.S. gun culture produces levels of gun violence that far exceed those in other developed countries. Knowledge of how the core gun culture represents itself visually may deliver insights for mitigating this social problem.

Relatively little consumer culture research has addressed U.S. gun culture and visual theories have not been fully deployed.

The discussion about firearms in the United States often involves a contentious confrontation between two polarized groups: gun owners and those that might increase regulation of guns. The former group often uses rights-based arguments, including the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, while the latter assesses problems related to gun violence from a collectivist perspective, focusing on the health, social, and policy implications of firearm ownership. The National Rifle Association (NRA) adds to the mix through communicating and lobbying activities.

The chapter uses qualitative data and interpretive methods to gain an in-depth insight into the values of the gun culture and the role of the NRA in this community. Data used are from nine depth interviews with gun owners and field notes derived from participant observation in addition to examination of email communications sent by the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action.

Three significant values espoused by members of the culture – self-sufficiency, safety, and privacy – are based on the individualist perspective and this perspective is reinforced by public narrative provided by the NRA.

A limitation is the geographic limitation on data collection, although it is expected that rural gun culture does not vary significantly throughout the United States. The study has implications for a more nuanced understanding of the gun debate in the United States by suggesting how the narrative is structured by lobbying groups such as the NRA.

This chapter provides insight into the U.S. gun culture that has not been previously addressed through a consumer culture theory lens.

To provide the framework for digital government in its e‐government and e‐democracy aspects.

Using the aspects‐and‐opportunities framework of the internet‐web compound, the nodal aspects of the continuing and potential technologically‐based change known as digital government are discussed. Reallocation of certain government functions to the market becomes newly attractive economically in the presence of the web as marketplace. The web as a broadly accessible medium and a forum offers new opportunities in digital democracy. The utilitarian aspects of the internet‐web, those of the universal telecommunications network, delivery vehicle, and a common development platform, render the compound a new societal infrastructure, with the consequent benefits and exposures. The opportunities, as well as vulnerabilities, need to be the focus of information specialists as technologists and as citizens.

Opportunities are surfaced to reallocate the functions of e‐government from the hierarchy to the market using e‐commerce methods and tools.

Vulnerabilities of the web‐internet combine in the application to e‐government are not investigated here.

Move from the bureaucratic to market‐oriented structures is implied.

A broad application of e‐commerce facilities to digital government is presented within a disciplined framework.

Critical social marketing can play a vital role in countering the consequences of behaviours toxified by commercial marketing. This paper aims to hypothesise that auto sector brand activities may be associated with riskier driving.

In this paper, the authors hypothesised that auto sector brand activities may be associated with riskier driving. UK collision data was examined, focusing on collisions that occurred because of an “injudicious action” (risky or aggressive driving manoeuvres) and analysing this data set by comparing the incidence of vehicle brands involved.

After allowing for other effects, a gradient graph illustrated differing associations between vehicle brands and collision rates.

A discussion was offered, adopting the position that if such a problem exists the solutions cannot be left to the sector itself, and that socially responsible interventions may be required. A number of social marketing strategies are proposed including regulatory support, “Truth Campaign” style exposure of commercial damage, and counter-marketing that promotes safe driver behaviour.

This work provides valuable empirical support to the concerns raised by previous workers about the possible effects of automotive sector advertising on driving behaviour. The paper offers a concise discussion of ways forward, concluding with the novel possibility of regulating individual brands as an alternative to sector-wide regulation.

The purpose of this paper is to document the first major step in the dissemination of modern marketing knowledge in the Soviet Union, the publication of a heavily censored, translated, unauthorized edition of Kotler's Marketing Management in Moscow in 1980. Kotler and his books in Russian translation have continued to inform how Russian marketers understand and implement marketing.

The research approach was historical, based on close comparison of texts; research in the USA and in Russia on the historical context; a comprehensive compilation of Kotler books translated into the Russian language; and interviews with key participants in the book's preparation.

The Soviet edition of Marketing Management was widely read by Soviet foreign trade experts and guided training for Soviet foreign trade enterprise managers in the 1980s. Kotler's book was the first – and, for a decade, the only – book on modern marketing in the Russian language. The story of the book's selection, censorship, publication, and impact provide insights into Soviet thinking about marketing and trade, and about post‐Soviet readiness to adopt modern marketing.

This paper presents for the first time the story behind the translation, censorship, and publication of Kotler's Marketing Management in the Soviet Union. It documents subsequent Kotler books published in the Soviet Union/Russia and how they shaped Kotler's reputation there.

The concept of marketing is essentially that of matching supply and demand. Gordon Foxall explores marketing's domain and provides some pointers for both commercial and non‐commercial managers.

Discusses the Romanian reforms of 1967 and 1978 which went virtually unnoticed, with particular emphasis on the latter date. Highlights recent managerial decentralization measures in Romania indicating marketing implications. Uses official and first‐hand sources in drawing the article conclusions, looking also at Romania's environment. Further investigates marketing and marketing mix implications and looks further at price, promotion and distribution. Concludes and evaluates by assessing economic reforms in eastern Europe in general and in Romania in particular. Additionally, the central plan was national control of economic activities and centralized planning reliance.