MARKETING AND CONSUMER BEHAVIOR: WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITY ...

JO1JRNALOFTIfi

STEWARDANTHROPOT'CICALSOCIETY

Vol. 16, Nos. I and 2, Fall/Spring1986-1987

Pp. 60-95

MARKETING AND CONSUMERBEHAVIOR:

WINDOWS OF OPPORTUNITYFOR

ANTHROPOLOGY

by

John F. Sherry, Jr.

Professorof Marketing

Assistant

Nor thwestern Universiry

As linchpin disciplincs, marketing and anthropology afford

cach other some distinct opportunities for intellectual cooperation.

Growing through entitlement and arrogation, the evolution of

marketing thought has been shaped by a kind of eminent domain

which promisesto engulf all of the disciplines bordering political

economy. The revival of interest in and reappraisalof the concept of

political economy gathering pace in anthropology (Gregory 1982),

reminds us too that anthropology has grown by merger and

acquisition. In this article, both marketing and consumer behavior

are viewed as sociocultural systems amenable to anthropological

Among marketing theorists, who have watched the

scrutiny.

discipline move from myopic viewpoint (Levitt 1964) to a

perspective verging on the hyperopic, the fear that in broadening the

concept of marketing its scope has been narrowed, has become

Such concern challenges the

almost tangible (Bartels 1983).

(1964) is right, even selfimagination,

for

if

Koestler

anthropological

(Lutz

1984) can provoke new

conscious, satirical assays of definition

insight into marketing and consumer behaviors.

The developmental perspective of concepts of marketing,

culminating in an ecological view of marketing, propounded by

ISAS Vol. 16 (IE2)

6t

(1980; 1983), enlarged upon Day and Wensley (1983a;

by Burnett (1983), and rooted ultimately in the exchange

and

1983b)

1979), is most

principle elaborated by Bagozzi (1974,1975'

From an

marketing.

to

approach

compatible with an anthropological

"custom-tailoring" by craftsman for

initial conception of marketing as

consumers, the field has shifted from a producer-oriented view

(selling what a firm makes) through a consumer-oriented view, to an

Thorelli

interactive view of the marketing process (aiming at only those

consumer needs that the firm can enjoy a differential advantage in

"open ecosystems" perspective, encompasses

This last, or

satisfying).

each of the others (Thorelli 1980; 1983), and is a useful construct for

In Thorelli's ecosystem we

researchers as well as practitioners.

witness

strategic

interaction

between

and

among

actors

and

Thus, marketing

environments through which change is negotiated.

behavior (as well as consumer behavior) is essentially an adaptive

strategy by which resources affecting the life chances of actors and

environments are exchanged. It is a cultural system which at base is

One of the advantages of an anthropological

inescapably political.

approach to marketing would be to (re)legitimate all potential areas

of inquiry, ending the hegemony of such topics as decision-making,

and heightening the value of focusing on process and context.

"Three Dichotomies" model of marketing proposed by Hunt

The

(19S3a) as a general paradigm for the discipline is a useful

framework for comprehending the evolution of marketing thought.

appropriately to the thrust of this article, it imparts some

to future research which might properly be termed

Hunt's model classifies marketing phenomena

anthropological.

More

direction

dichotomies--profit/nonprofit'

categorial

three

eight schematic cells.

positive/normative--into

micro/macro, and

presence

or

absence of pecuniary

the

The first dichotomy contrasts

according

to

The second dichotomy

as a formal objective of an actor.

The

contrasts market behavior at individual and systematic levels.

third dichotomy contrasts actual with ideal market behavior. Among

his fundamental explananda of marketing, Hunt (1983b) includes the

gain

behaviors of buyers, sellers and institutional frameworks directed at

consummating exchange, along with the social impact of these

62

BEHAVIOR

S}mnny: MARKETING & CONSUTVGR.

Table I

Normative

Positive

Profit

Sector

Micro

1. Problems, issues, theories, and 2. Problems, issues, normative

models, and research concerning

research concerning:

consumer buver

a. Individual

behavior

b. How firms determine prices

c. How firms determine products

d. How

firms

of

firms

a. Determine the marketing mix

b. Make pricing decisions

c. Make product decisions

determine

d. Make promotion decisions

e. Make packaging decisions

determine channels

f. Make purchasing decisions

promotion

e. How

how firms should:

g. Make international

distribution

f. Case studies of marketing

practices

marketing

decisions

h. Organize their marketing

departments

i. Control their marketing efforts

j. Plan their marketing strategy

k. Apply

marketing

systems theory to

problems

l. Manage retail establishments

m. Manage wholesale

establishments

n. Implement

the marketing

concept

behaviors.

differ

While

widely

anthropologists

cultural

system.

marketers are able to identify

in

its

with

interpretation.

an accessible point

Hunt's

concepts emerging from

the marketing enterprise.

The

of

this paradigm, they

paradigm provides

entry

into

a complex

model is reproduced in Table l.The core

this model provide the skeletal structure of

This structure broadly

a

;

-_-

63

JSASVol. 16 (14.2)

Table I Continued

Macro

3. Problems, issues, theories. and 14. Problems, issues, normative

research concerning:

lmodels, and research concerning:

a. Aggregate consumption

la. How marketing can be made

patterns

b. The institutional approach to

lmore efficient

lb. Whether distribution costs too

marketing

c. The commodity approachto

marketing

lmuch

lc. Whether advertising is socially

ldesirable

d. Legal aspects of marketing

ld.

e. Comparative marketing

lsovereignty is desirable

f. The efficiency of marketing

le. Whether stimulating

systems

g. Whether the poor pay more

h. Whether marketing spurs or

lis desirable

lf. Whether the poor should pay

lm ore

retards

economic

developement

Whether consumer

demand

lg. What kinds of laws regulating

i. Power and conflict

lmarketing are optimal

relationships in channels of

lh.

distribution

lsystems are socially desirable

Whether marketing functions

li.

Whether vertical

marketing

Whether marketing should

are universal

lhave special social

k. Whether the marketing

concept is consistent with

lresponsibilities

I

consumers' interests

describes phenomena which have engaged the attention of people

called marketers, and which lend themselves to being undc;stood

The core concepts

through anthropological method and perspective.

actorIs] (Levy 1978b; Hunt 1983a); resource[s] (Woods

include:

1981); motivation (Ferber and Wales 1958; Van Raiij

Wandwossen 1978); exchange (Bagozzi 1974, 1975, 1979);

and

64

SmRY:

MARKE.TD{C& CONSUIVGRBEHAVIOR

Table I Continued

sector

Nonprofit

Micro

5. Problems, issues, theories, and

6. Problems, issues, theories, and

research concerning:

a. Consumers' purchasing of

public goods

research concerning how

nonprofit

organizations should:.

a. Determine the marketing mix

(social marketing)

b. How nonprofit organizations

prices

b. Make pricing decisions

c. Make product decisions

determine

c. How nonprofit organizations

determine products

d. Make promotion decisions

d. How nonprofit organizations

determine promotion

e. Make packaging decisions

f. Make purchasing decisions

e. How nonprofit organizations

determine channels of

g. Make international

marketing

decisions

distribution

h. Organizing their marketing

f. Case studies of public goods

decisions (e.g., CARE)

marketing

i. Control their marketing efforts

Plan their marketing strategy

k. Apply systems theory to

marketing problems

management (Levitt

relationship

1983); social context (Zielinski

and

and Mayer 1976; Wallendorf and Zaltman

1975); feedback (Bettman 1979: Sternthal and Craig

1982; Nicosia

Robertson

1983; Belk

A variant of this structure has been used effectively in

interpreting gift giving behavior (Sherry 1983).

A glance at Table I will verify that, despite the enormous

1983).

range of

fervor,

issues that traditionally

would

anthropologists have confined

behavior,

inflame

their

where such study has actually

holistic

study of

occurred in

research

marketplace

contemporary

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