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Marketing and Society
Marketing is often the target of extraordinary anger in the world today around issues such as globalization, corporate social responsibility, and consumer culture. Marketing has an obligation to critically examine the institutional organization of marketing activities and their cumulative impact on society. Such questions have been important ever since marketing became a societal force to be reckoned with nearly a century ago, but no more so than today.
On the other hand, marketing offers powerful technologies that can be directed toward societal interests as well as the interests of the firm. With so many global social problems seemingly beyond the scope of national governments, there is a role for marketing ideas to be applied to these challenging problems.
This theme provides a primary focus for the research of several faculty within the marketing area. Catherine Dolan is currently engaged in a research programme on markets, gender equity and poverty reduction, examining how partnerships between non profit entities and global corporations can deliver development goals through market-based interventions in Africa. Linda Scott’s present research interests focus on women's empowerment in emerging markets and changing symbol systems in the globalizing consumer culture. And Kunal Basu’s recent work focuses on the interface between strategic marketing and corporate social responsibility, drawing on theoretical perspectives from philosophy, and social and organisational theory.
Cultural Goods and Cultural Branding
Innovations in commercial culture approach the importance of new technologies in their economic importance, and in their influence on societies (both good and bad). Cultural goods encompass categories such as entertainment, fashion, beauty, leisure, sports, and the various lifestyle categories. Cultural innovation processes involve the commercial arts that are used to build cultural content into market offerings (advertising, design, retailing, public relations, experience staging etc.).
Linda Scott contributes to this area of interest through her work on cultural issues related to advertising and consumption.
Marketing Channels and Networks
Creating and delivering customer value to consumers in their searching and buying processes has become increasingly complicated by fragmenting and ephemeral channels, especially with the rise of e-commerce. Oxford’s marketing area provides a distinctive perspective in these challenging areas by building theories that view network design and management from the customer’s perspective. The Business School’s Institute of Retail Management counts two marketing faculty amongst its members and Jonathan Reynolds is presently academic director. His work examines issues ranging from multi-channel marketing to retail innovation and entrepreneurship.