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Applies four market segmentation criteria to the homosexual population. Determines that the homosexual community does not yet sufficiently satisfy these expectations in many product markets and that it is unlikely that any marketing changes will occur in the near future. Yet suggests that marketers should consider homosexuals as part of their contingent marketing strategy.

This paper surveys published economic studies and judicial decisions that contain 1,040 quantitative estimates of overcharges of hard-core cartels. The primary finding is that the median long-run overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods is 25.0%:18.8% for domestic cartels and 31.0% for international cartels. Cartel overcharges are positively skewed, pushing the mean overcharge for all successful cartels to 43.4%. Convicted cartels are on average as equally effective at raising prices as unpunished cartels, but bid-rigging conduct does display somewhat lower mark-ups than price-fixing cartels. These findings suggest that optimal deterrence requires that monetary penalties ought to be increased.

Dark marketing is the “the application or adaptation of marketing principles and practices to domains of death, destruction and the ostensibly reprehensible”. This paper examines the nature, character and extent of dark marketing, noting that it is made manifest in manifold shapes and forms.

Primarily a conceptual paper, this article includes several mini case studies – exemplars, rather – of dark marketing's many and varied expressions.

The paper considers the scale and scope of dark marketing, and endeavours to classify both. Dark marketing is discernible at micro, meso and macro scales. Its scope consists of four shades or degrees of darkness, entitled light dark marketing, slight dark marketing, quite dark marketing and night dark marketing. An evolutionary trend in the direction of darkness is also noted.

The paper is a think piece, not an empirical analysis. It is, therefore, a first step rather than a definitive statement.

Practitioners and academics are inclined to regard marketing in a positive light, as a force for the good. Crusading journalists and certain social scientists see it as the spawn of the devil. This article argues that the dark and light aspects of marketing are inextricably intertwined.

The paper provides food for thought, a markedly different way of thinking about marketing and its place in the world.

The purpose of this paper is to bring together the thoughts and opinions of key members of the Journal of Islamic Marketing's (JIMA) Editorial Team, regarding the recently branded phenomenon of Islamic marketing – in the interests of stimulating further erudition.

The authors adopted an “eagle eye” method to investigate this phenomenon: Where attempts were made to frame general principles and observations; alongside a swooping view of key anecdotal observations – in order to ground and enrich the study. The authors participated in an iterative process when analysing longitudinal and contemporary phenomenological data, in order to arrive at a consensus. This was grounded in: triangulating individual and collective researcher findings; critiquing relevant published material; and reflecting upon known reviewed manuscripts submitted to marketing publications – both successful and unsuccessful.

The authors assert that a key milestone in the study and practice of marketing, branding, consumer behaviour and consumption in connection with Islam and Muslims is the emergence of research wherein the terms “Islamic marketing” and “Islamic branding” have evolved – of which JIMA is also a by‐product. Some have construed Islam marketing/branding as merely a niche area. Given the size of Muslim populations globally and the critical importance of understanding Islam in the context of business and practices with local, regional and international ramifications, scholarship on Islamic marketing has become essential. Western commerce and scholarship has been conducted to a limited extent, and some evidence exists that research is occurring globally. The authors believe it is vital for “Islamic marketing” scholarship to move beyond simply raising the flag of “Brand Islam” and the consideration of Muslim geographies to a point where Islam – as a way of life, a system of beliefs and practices, and religious and social imperatives – is amply explored.

An “eagle eye” view has been taken, which balances big picture and grassroots conceptual findings. The topic is complex – and so while diverse expert opinions are cited, coverage of many issues is necessarily brief, due to space constraints.

Scholars and practitioners alike should find the thoughts contained in the paper of significant interest. Ultimately, scholarship of Islam's influences on marketing theory and practice should lead to results which have pragmatic implications, just as research on Islamic banking and finance has.

The paper appears to be the first to bring together such a diverse set of expert opinions within one body of work, and one that provides a forum for experts to reflect and comment on peers' views, through iteration. Also the term Crescent marketing is introduced to highlight how critical cultural factors are, which shape perceptions and Islamic practises.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the genesis of the first Macro‐Marketing Seminar and to review the institutionalization of macromarketing which resulted from it.

The paper briefly reviews the history of macromarketing, the changes in society and marketing thought, and the seminal research which led to the first Macro‐Marketing Seminar.

Early macromarketing research was supplanted by a managerial marketing focus in mid‐twentieth century while at the same time society was awakening to the interconnections between human behavior and a broad range of societal problems. The early marketing theory seminars provided a template for the first Macro‐Marketing Seminar.

The paper explains the resurgence of macromarketing which from that first pivotal Macro‐Marketing Seminar has blossomed into a multifaceted and institutionalized area of study.

In a highly regulated yet increasingly competitive environment the professional self‐ perception of German retail pharmacists is increasingly put under pressure. Whilst the professional image focuses on the pharmaceutical care side, survival and future profitability also depend on successful commercial differentiation as a means of counteracting declining average margins. Presents the findings from a grounded theory study amongst retail pharmacists in Berlin and Brandenburg. Legal restrictions on manipulating the conventional marketing mix are discussed and alternative strategic moves towards differentiation explored. A tentative typology of pharmacies is developed, highlighting the importance of collaborative links and a strategic business perspective to future survival and prosperity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine university applicants' choice processes using Kotler's five stage consumer buying process with a particular emphasis on the final stage of the process namely that of the purchase decision.

Based on four focus groups with 22 students at one university in North‐west England, post‐enrolment.

Applicants' choice processes are complex and not evenly supported by university departments. Using concepts from the field of services marketing, the student choice process as candidates progress through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service system is critically interrogated. “Moments of truth” are seen to be critical in many students' decision to choose a specific university course. University personnel need to be mindful that the decision process is two way and takes place over an extended period of time.

This research has been conducted with respondents drawn from just one university and at one point in time.

It is suggested that universities should refine and target their communications efforts, and pay close attention to the quality of the interactions with potential students throughout their relationship. In order to do this it is suggested that universities adopt a services marketing framework.

Key themes from services marketing concepts are suggested to inform the analysis of what is and what could be done to maintain and enhance the university‐applicant relationship as it progresses.

School leaders in the United States are increasingly embracing marketing practices in order to promote their schools in more competitive conditions. Yet while policymakers are actively encouraging such conditions, little attention has been paid to the equity effects of these practices. Advancing from the insight that marketing materials can illuminate some of the underlying incentive structures to which schools must respond, this study examines patterns in the marketing materials in two metropolitan areas with the most competitive education markets in the United States. Web-based materials for all schools in Washington, DC and post-Katrina New Orleans were analyzed, noting how individual schools and different types of schools represent their racial makeup. By analyzing these differences in traditional-public, charter, and private schools, we were able to see emerging patterns that suggest the role of market forces in school organizational behavior, with cautionary lessons for how different types of students are valued.

Many companies claim to be market oriented, yet on closer inspection lack a real customer focus. Other firms eschew marketing as ignoble trickery yet prove to have exceptional market orientation. This paper analyses three case studies of small and medium firms in the food and drink sector, examining the reasons underpinning their success in spite of a lack of formal marketing organisation or activities, and their antipathy to popular conceptions of marketing. Organisational culture, excellent (if informal) customer and competitor knowledge and long‐term orientation are seen to underpin the success of these “marketers in denial”.

This paper aims to critically reflect on the growing systems orientation in marketing research and the approaches used to understand marketing systems. In response, the paper offers an integrative metatheory built on the ontic necessity and subsequently constitutive and causal efficacy of relations.

This conceptual paper is built on a logic of critique, identifying the generative absences that produce problems in the frameworks in use and attempting to rectify these problems by offering an alternative meta-theoretical structure. This paper draws from critical realism, systems thinking and relational sociology.

This paper advocates for an emergentist ontology for marketing systems built on the value of both substance and relation as co-principles of existence and the subsequent irreducible stratification derived from this. This position suggests the following propositions: the ontological premise of being is reliant on relations; the social world is constructed of stratified levels of organisation in which entities, their properties and powers emerge by virtue of these relations; these entities operate in complex and mutually modifying interrelations; stability and change is the result of this complex interplay of temporally/spatially stratified relations; and time and space are properties and potential powers of organisation.

This paper considers a number of inconsistencies in current approaches to the study of marketing systems arguing these arise based on the absence of a view of relations that supports an effective theory of emergence. In response, the paper develops a set of ontological presuppositions regarding the nature of marketing systems and a subsequent set of epistemic conditions as an integrative metatheoretical position, through which these systems are better understood and analysed. The paper argues that these improve our ability to theorise about the multi-dimensionality of these systems.