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Explores the importance of several regimes of new product development activities using multiple statistical techniques on two different data sets collected in the USA and Canada over 12 years apart. The results were consistent across the statistical methods and across the data sets, but contradict much previous new product research. In particular, it was found that undertaking technical activities proficiently is more important than performing marketing activities proficiently and that performing development stage (including subsequent) activities proficiently is more critical than performing “up‐front” or predevelopment activities proficiently in determining the success or failure of new industrial products.

In the first issue of this Journal, Florence Shelly states that the proper use of social‐trend data can help market‐ing managers in at least four areas by providing: 1. a future outlook for specific business units; 2. an input for brand / product strategy; 3. a basis for checking specific tactics; and, 4. an enriched understanding of market segments. Perhaps, the major point of that article is not just what it says, but what it implies‐the need for a marketing philosophy of “implementation based on anticipation.” In conceptualizing this philosophy, the correct use of social‐ trend data can be seen as the first step necessary in strategic‐marketing planning—the tip of the iceberg. However, the strategies adopted by American marketers over the past two decades do not demonstrate that the levels of marketing myopia which Levitt discussed in the 60's have diminished. What is even more disconcerting is that the tools for reducing marketing myopia are not obscure trade secrets; as a matter of fact, they can be found in most introductory marketing textbooks. Environmental scanning, the prime instrument available for this purpose, deserves a closer look in relation to its worth for managerial decision making.

Addressing calls for broadening social marketing thinking beyond “individualistic” parameters, this paper aims to describe a behavioural ecological systems (BEM) approach to enhance understanding of social markets.

A conceptual framework – the BEM – is presented and discussed within a context of alcohol social change.

The BEM emphasises the relational nature of behaviour change, where individuals are embedded in an ecological system that involves the performances of behaviour and social change within historical, social, cultural, physical and environmental settings. Layers of influence on actors are characterised as macro (distant, large in scale), exo (external, remote from individuals), meso (between the individual and environments) and micro (the individual within their social setting). The BEM can be applied to guide social marketers towards creating solutions that focus on collaboration amongst market actors rather than among consumers.

The BEM contributes to a broader holistic view of social ecologies and behaviour change; emphasises the need for social marketers to embrace systems thinking; and recognises that relationships between actors at multiple layers in social change markets are interactive, collaborative and embedded in dynamic social contexts. Importantly, a behavioural ecological systems approach enables social marketers to develop coherent, integrated and multi-dimensional social change programmes.

The underlying premise of the BEM brings forward relational logic as the foundation for future social marketing theory and practice. Taking this approach to social market change focuses strategy on the intangible aspects of social offerings, inclusive of the interactions and processes of value creation (and/or destruction) within a social marketing system to facilitate collaboration and interaction across a network of actors so as to overcome barriers and identify solutions to social problems.

This commentary aims to identify the myopic drift of the marketing discipline and to opine on the areas in which the leadership of service scholars is needed. The authors identify specific areas where the input of service scholars is needed to enable the discipline to better contribute to users, providers, and society. For example, the growing gap between marketing scholarship and practical business needs is acknowledged, emphasizing the unique position of service scholars to bridge this divide. While consumer well-being is crucial, the exclusive focus on behavioral science is critiqued. Marketing’s roots are deeply connected to economics, shaping consumer choices, and service scholars can help revive marketing’s essence.

Personal reflections and historical literature assessment.

The services discipline is caught in the general myopic behavioral drift of the marketing discipline. However, they are well positioned to reverse the trend by seeking leadership in PhD programs, journal editorships and review boards, faculty recruiting, hiring and promotion, and by continuing its engagement with industry professionals.

The authors suggest extensive goals for service scholars. To accomplish these goals, it will be necessary to challenge the increasing behavioral drift of the majority of existing scholars in the discipline.

This work is original and controversial. It is meant to inspire discussion and focus attention on the problems inherent in the increasingly myopic behavioral orientation of the members of the discipline’s academic community.

The purpose of this paper is to study practices associated with corporate brand alignment enacted by marketing managers in an emerging business to business market.

The “Marketing-as-practice” perspective is used to examine brand alignment-related practices. A five months fieldwork was undertaken wherein primary data were collected using in-depth interviews of 30 managers representing steel, mining, energy, engineering consulting and Information Technology/Information Technology-Enabled Services' sectors along with observational data from event sites and industry meets. Secondary data stemmed from marketing plans and events' rosters. Data were analysed adopting the practice turn.

The constitution of three practices concerning brand alignment is unearthed: (1) practice of identifying key stakeholders, (2) practice of narrativization of brand promises and (3) practice of engaging key stakeholders.

This study highlights the dynamic nature of corporate brand alignment requiring a continuous gap analysis to verify coherency between internal and external brand elements. It also highlights the elicited relation between alignment, authenticity and advocacy. Suggestions for further research are provided.

This study elucidates managers' role as intrapreneurs in the process of alignment and provides a possible solution to the new marketing myopia which impairs stakeholder management.

This research identifies that brand alignment is not an abstract concept but a set of practices that help convert the symbolic capital held in brands into cultural and social capital.

Many commentators are contending that modern marketing is in the throes of a “mid‐life crisis”. Although it is appropriate that marketing should be facing such a crisis exactly 40 years after Drucker′s (1954) celebrated statement that “marketing is the distinguishing, the unique function of business”, it is arguable that these declarations of crisis are both premature and unduly pessimistic. Adopts a broader, more historically informed approach to modern marketing, arguing that “crises” in marketing are not new, they are not insurmountable and that they are not necessarily unhealthy. Quite the reverse. Offers an analysis of marketing′s current crisis of representation; outlines ten key points concerning marketing′s past, present and future; and concludes with a simple model of marketing′s 40 year development cycle.

Presents a conceptual discussion concerning the academic/practitioner divide in marketing. States that the marketing concept and the way we teach marketing needs to be refocused to reflect practice. Presents two new developments in marketing that are ideal candidates for narrowing the gap between academia and practice. These are retro‐marketing and experiential marketing.

In a world where corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a meaningful trend valued by firm stakeholders, it is still not clear how the marketing department integrates corporate-level social responsibility strategy into its departmental activities i.e. socially responsible marketing activities (SRMA) and whether such activities can benefit the department. Using legitimacy as the underlying theoretical explanation, this paper aims to study two instrumental returns from SRMA at the marketing department level, i.e. marketing department’s performance – impact outside the firm on multiple marketing-related outcomes and influence within the firm – the power of the marketing department compared to other departments.

Three studies were performed. Study 1 is a survey that offers a validated measure of SRMA and examines its relationship with the focal outcome variables. Study 2 is also a survey that investigates the mediating role of the marketing department’s legitimacy and the moderating role of customers’ interest in social responsibility and uses actual sales data of firms. Study 3 is an experiment that examines the main findings in a controlled setting using participants other than marketing executives i.e. chief executive officers.

Study 1 shows that SRMA is different than the closely related variable socially responsible business strategy and is positively related to the marketing department’s performance and influence within the firm. Study 2 complements these findings by demonstrating these impacts are mediated by the marketing department’s legitimacy and strengthened with higher customers’ interest in social responsibility. Study 3 sets the causality between the focal variables and the mediating role of legitimacy.

This work extends the study of firm-level CSR to the department- and implementation-level, in the context of marketing departments. It reveals the underlying mechanism driving the positive impact of SRMA, i.e. legitimacy, and identifies a moderating condition, i.e. customers’ interest in social responsibility. It further extends research on the role of the marketing department and its contribution to firm performance.

Marketers can benefit from the reported findings by understanding when and how CSR-related, domain-specific activities that feature the traditional responsibilities of marketing, including market research, customer relationship management and the product, promotions, price and place (4Ps) may be reshaped to include a broader set of stakeholders and a socially responsible angle and thereby generate more legitimacy and impact – inside and outside the firm.

This study provides a novel perspective on how marketing departments evaluate CSR in their daily activities where such engagement vests increasing returns to the marketing department and underpins the successful implementation of CSR.

Postmodern conditions and re‐evaluations of marketing theory are prompting a re‐consideration of marketing strategies and methodologies. This paper is concerned with research issues arising from these changes and uses the case of retailing financial services as an illustration. Groups of financial services customers, once assumed to be homogeneous, are proving to have individualised needs and are resisting conventional segmentation techniques. Behavioural consistency and orderliness are giving way to fragmentation and market instability in what is described as the postmodern era. Financial service retailers, structured, formalised and risk averse, may find that their preference for uniformity inhibits their ability to serve with diverse, evolving markets. A research agenda is proposed based on a juxtaposition of postmodern considerations and financial services retailing incorporating recent contributions to marketing thought.

The case of corporations establishing a relationship with young people – because of the moral responsibility involved – allows us to illustrate the complexities of trying to decide what is morally correct to collectively ensure children's well-being. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Applying the “stakeholder theory” to child industries – under which term this paper includes all business activities that establish a commercial relationship involving children, either as the recipient or user of the final product or beneficiary of a specific service, or as a co-decision-maker for purchases within his/her family or social circles – reveals a series of conceptual challenges...

The limited understanding of stakeholder theory within the CSR managerial perspective leads companies to overlook some important moral issues about children's well-being, and exposes them to particularly hard criticisms of their actions and marketing policies.

If children have been overlooked by the stakeholder theory, how may the interests of youth be represented in a stakeholder perspective?

To deal with some of the dilemmas entailed by considering children's representatives as legitimate spokespersons, the paper suggests drawing on the ethics of care to attempt delineating a corporate social responsibility towards young people.

This paper emphasises a number of issues relevant to young consumers, including the absence of children in stakeholder theory and how that absence speaks to the presumed extent and boundaries of corporate social responsibility.