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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

The purpose of this article is to present an inside look at the history of a little‐known but interesting initiative in the marketing field, one that involved the infusion of marketing thought into public policy decision‐making in the USA. It aims to trace the interesting tale of how marketing academics came to be included in the activities of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) through the FTC's “Marketing Academic Consultancy Program” (MACP) during the 1970s. This story also aims to include descriptions of the contributions made by those marketing academics and how those scholars were later phased out of the FTC.

An autobiographical approach is used since each of the authors was personally involved in the MACP. As participants in the program and as scholars whose careers were thereafter tremendously affected by that participation, these personal accounts provide considerable insight into the impact on both FTC operations and on marketing academic thought itself.

Over the decade of the 1970s some 30 marketing academics participated in this program, with considerable impact on both FTC operations and on marketing academic thought itself. Reflecting positive impact within public policy, for example, was a massive increase in the FTC budget for marketing and consumer research activities – from essentially zero at the start of the program to some $ 1 million in 1978. Benefits also flowed back into academia, as this program formed a prime basis for the development of today's “Marketing and Society” research area.

Although there are histories of the FTC, this is an original, first‐hand account of a little‐known era during which marketing academics and public policy decision‐makers were given a unique opportunity to work together and learn from each other. It offers personal insights into the workings of this innovative program and the benefits that accrued for both the FTC and for the marketing discipline.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an ethical foundation for relationship marketing using a virtue ethics approach.

The approach is a conceptual one providing a background on relationship marketing from both American and European perspectives. Earlier studies published in EJM on relationship marketing are featured in a table.

The proposed ethical relationship marketing approach has three stages (establishing, sustaining and reinforcing) that are paired with specific virtues (trust, commitment and diligence). These and other facilitating virtues are shown in a figure.

The model and its components have yet to be tested empirically. Some strategies for undertaking such research are discussed.

Several European and American companies that currently practice ethical relationship marketing are discussed.

Although relationship marketing has been studied for a number of years by many scholars, the ethical basis of it has not been thoroughly examined in any previous work.

Literature on strategic planning and management is prolific. Articles deal with various aspects of strategic planning, its definition, process, and application. However, many of these articles concentrate on the theory and on the strategic planning models rather than deal with practical application or problems experienced at implementation levels. My interest in reviewing this literature is to identify studies which offer significant key approaches and relate them to the field of education planning. Can we learn something from the way in which strategic plans are formulated and implemented in the business world and apply this knowledge to planning and operation of academic institutions?

Examines the mature market, defined as consumers age 50 years or older, and reviews 33 segmentation methods for the mature market and identifies five key segmentation criteria: discretionary income, health, activity level, discretionary time, and response to others. Integrates methods devised by other researchers and provides marketers with a step‐by‐step, actionable segmentation method based on these five criteria. Offers implications for managers.

Comments that few service firms are sufficiently prepared to meet the challenge of service innovation. Reviews existing models of new service development. Proposes a systematic model based not on the small amount of new service development literature but on theories of new product management, which reflects the conditions unique to service industries. Concludes with ten propositions for service management.

A survey of Fortune 500 vice‐presidents of marketing and planning reveals their views of the business environment in 1995 along with their expected changes in corporate and marketing strategy. These perspectives can serve as a catalyst to other executives for thinking about future business environments as well as possible corporate responses to the shape of the future. Whether the predictions of the organizational managers we surveyed materialize or not, their views are worthy of careful scrutiny by any organization that takes strategic planning as a serious and important exercise in plotting a firm's future.

The disadvantaged competitor in a declining industry is exemplified by the small, private liberal arts college. Thus, marketing successes among such colleges are the exception — and worth examining. The author concludes from an informal study that those who succeed do so by using a “focus” strategy and by employing unusual efforts to involve in the buying process others beyond the conventional purchaser. Examples are offered of how other organizations who market “against the odds” might apply parallel approaches.