Aggregate Consumer Satisfaction: The Telos of Marketing

Authors

  • Val Larsen James Madison University
  • Newell D. Wright North Dakota State University

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to propose a general theory of marketing grounded in consumer satisfaction. The article reviews past definitions of marketing and key concepts applicable to the definition of marketing. It suggests that marketing is a discipline that has as its telos the sustainable optimization of aggregate consumer satisfaction.

References

Agrawal, Ajay, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb (2018), Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.

Alderson, Wroe (1957), Marketing Behavior and Executive Action, Homewood, IL: Richard D. Irwin.

Anderson, Chris (2006), The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More, New York: Hyperion.

Arnould, Eric J. and Craig J. Thompson (2005), “Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty Years of Research,” Journal of Consumer Research, 31 (4), 868-882.

Aron, David and Olivia Kultgen (2019), “The Definitions of Dysfunctional Consumer Behavior: Concepts, Content, and Questions,” Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 32, 40-53.

Askegaard, Søren and Dannie Kjeldgaard (2002), “The Water Fish Swim In? Relations between Culture and Marketing in the Age of Globalization,” in Perspectives on Marketing Relationships, ed. Thorbjørn Knudsen, Søren Askegaard, and Niels Jørgensen, Copenhagen: Thomson, 13–35.

Bagozzi, Richard P. (1975a), “Marketing as Exchange,” Journal of Marketing, 39 (4), 32-39. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297503900405.

Bagozzi, Richard P. (1975b), “Social Exchange in Marketing,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 3, 314–327 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02729292.

Bartels, Robert (1951), “Can Marketing Be a Science?” Journal of Marketing, 15 (1), 319-328.

Bartels, Robert (1988), The History of Marketing Thought, Columbus, OH: Publishing Horizons.

Brickman, Philip and Donald T. Campbell (1971), “Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society,” in Adaptation-Level Theory, Ed. M. H. Apley, New York: Academic Press, 287-305.

Brickman, Philip, Dan Coates and Ronnie Janoff-Bulman (1978), “Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, 917-927.

Brookman, Justin, Phoebe Rouge, Aaron Alva and Christina Yeung (2017), “Cross-Device Tracking: Measurement and Disclosures,” Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Vol. 17 (2). Available online at https://content.sciendo.com/configurable/contentpage/journals$002fpopets$002f2017$002f2$002farticle-p133.xml. Accessed 8 January, 2021.

Botsman, Rachel (2017) “Big Data Meets Big Brother as China Moves to Rate Its Citizens,” Wired, October 21.

Buchanan, James M. (2000), Politics as Public Choice, Vol. 13, The Collected Works of James M. Buchanan, Carmel, IN: Liberty Fund.

Buzzell, Robert D. (1963), “Is Marketing a Science?” Harvard Business Review, 41 (January/February), 32-40.

Brown, Stephen (2016), “Postmodern Marketing: Dead and Buried or Alive and Kicking?” in The Marketing Book, 7th Edition, Eds. Michael J. Baker and Susan Hart, New York: Routledge, 21 - 36.

Clark, Fred E. (1922), Principles of Marketing, New York: Macmillan.

Converse, Paul D. (1930), The Elements of Marketing, New York: Prentice Hall.

Cova, Maclaran, and Bradshaw (2013), “Rethinking Consumer Culture Theory from the Postmodern to the Communist Horizon,” Marketing Theory, 13 (2), 213 - 225.

D’Annunzio, Anna and Antonio Russo (2019), “Ad Networks and Consumer Tracking,” Management Science, Vol. 66 (11). https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3481.

Dellaert, Benedict G.C. and Stefan Stremersch (2005), “Marketing Mass-Customized Products: Striking a Balance Between Utility and Complexity,” Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. XLII (May), 219–227.

Dickenson, Roger, Anthony Herbst, and John O’Shaughnessy (1988), “The Marketing Concept and Customer Orientation,” European Journal of Marketing, 20 (10), 18-23.

Donaldson, Thomas and Lee E. Preston (1995), “The Stakeholder Theory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications.” Academy of Management Review, 20 (1), 65-91.

El-Ansery, Adel I. (1979), “The General Theory of Marketing: Revisited,” in O.C. Ferrell, Stephen W. Brown, and Charles W. Lamb, Jr. (Eds.), Conceptual and Theoretical Developments in Marketing, Chicago, IL: American Marketing Association, pp. 399-406.

Farmer, Richard N. (1967), “Would You Want Your Daughter to Marry a Marketing Man?”, Journal of Marketing, 31 (January), 1 - 10.

Ferrell, O.C., Tracy L Gonzalez-Padron, G. Tomas M. Hult, and Isabelle Maignan (2010), “From Marketing Orientation to Stakeholder Orientation, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 29 (1), 93-96.

Firat, A. Fuat (1985), “Ideology Vs. Science in Marketing,” in Dholakia, N. and Arndt, J. (Eds.) Changing the Course of Marketing: Alternative Paradigms for Widening Marketing Theory, JAI Press: Greenwich, CT, 135-146.

Firat, A. Fuat (2017), “Marketing Challenges: A Personal History,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 6 (3), 414-429.

Foucault, Michel (1984), “What Is Enlightenment?” in Rabinow, P. (Ed.), The Foucault Reader, New York: Pantheon.

Frantzman, Seth J. (2018), “Syrian Conflict 101: A 2018 Guide to the Main Factions,” Jerusalem Post, February 22. Available online at https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/syrian-conflict-101-a-2018-guide-to-the-main-factions-543373. Accessed 8 January, 2021.

Frederick and Loewenstein (1999), “Hedonic Adaptation,” in Well Being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology, Eds. Daniel Kahneman, Ed Diener, and Norbert Schwartz, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 302-329.

Frooman, Jeff (1999), “Stakeholder Influence Strategies,” Academy of Management Review, 24 (2), 191-2005.

Hardt, Michael and Antonio Negri (2000), Empire, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Headey, and Wearing (1992), Understanding Happiness: A Theory of Subjective Well-Being, Melbourne, AU: Longman Cheshire.

Helson, H (1964), “Current Trends and Issues in Adaptation-Level Theory,” American Psychologist, 19, 26 - 38.

Hirschman, Elizabeth C. and Morris B. Holbrook (1992), Postmodern Consumer Research, Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Holt, Douglas B. (1997), “Poststructuralist Lifestyle Analysis: Conceptualizing the Social Patterning of Consumption,” Journal of Consumer Research, 23 (March), 326–50.

Houston, Franklin S. and Julie B. Gassenheimer (1987), “Marketing and Exchange,” Journal of Marketing, 51 (October), 3-18.

Hunt, Shelby D. (2002), Foundations of Marketing Theory: Toward a General Theory of Marketing, M.E. Sharpe: Armonk, N.Y.

Hutchinson, Wes (2004), “Are We the Good Guys?” Advances in Consumer Research, 31, 1-5.

Jenkins, Henry, Sam Ford, Joshua Green (2013), Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, New York: New York University Press.

Kanagaraj, Manoj (2018), “Weight Loss Medications for Patients: A Review,” Bariatric Times, April 1. Available online at https://bariatrictimes.com/weight-loss-medications-review/. Accessed 8 January 2021.

Kirzner, Israel M. (1973), Competition and Entrepreneurship, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Korn Ferry Institute (2017), “Age and Tenure in the C-Suite: Korn Ferry Institute Study Reveals Trends by Title and Industry,” https://www.kornferry.com/press/age-and-tenure-in-the-c-suite-korn-ferry-institute-study-reveals-trends-by-title-and-industry/. Accessed July 23, 2018.

Kotler, Philip (1972), “A Generic Concept of Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 36 (April), 46 - 54.

Layton, Roger A. (2007), “Marketing Systems—A Core Macromarketing Concept,” Journal of Macromarketing, 27 (3), 227-242. DOI: 10.1177/0276146707302836.

Lewin, Kurt (1943). “Psychology and the Process of Group Living,” Journal of Social Psychology, 17, 118.

Lucas Richard E. (2007), “Long-Term Disability Has Lasting Effects on Subjective Well-Being: Evidence from Two Nationally Representative Longitudinal Studies,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 717-730.

Lusch, Robert F. and Gene R. Laczniak (1987), “The Evolving Marketing Concept, Competitive Intensity and Organizational Performance,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 15 (3), 1-11.

Lykken, David and Auke Tellegen (1996), “Happiness Is a Stochastic Phenomenon,” Psychological Science, 7, 186 - 189.

Lyubomirsky, Sonia (2011), “Hedonic Adaptation to Positive and Negative Experiences,” in Oxford Handbook of Stress, Health, and Coping, Ed. Susan Folkman, New York: Oxford University Press, 200-224.

Maignum, Isabelle and O.C. Ferrell (2004), “Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing: An Integrative Framework,” Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 32, 3-19.

Matthijs, Matthias (2020), “What’s in the EU-UK Brexit Deal?” Council on Foreign Relations, December 28. Available online at https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/whats-eu-uk-brexit-deal. Accessed 8 January 2021.

McLeod, Amanda (2009), “‘Pseudo-Scientific Hokus Pokus’: Motivational Research’s Australian Application,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 1 (2), 224-245.

Mitchell, Alan (2001), Right Side Up: Building Brands in the Age of the Organized Consumer, London: Harper Collins.

Murray, Jeff B. (2002), “The Politics of Consumption: A Re-Inquiry on Thompson and Haytko's (1997) “Speaking of Fashion,” Journal of Consumer Research, 29 (3), 427-440.

Nguyen, Lan and Tina M. Lowrey (2010), “The Development of Consumer-Based Consumption Constellations in Children,” Journal of Consumer Research, 36 (5), 757 - 777.

O’Connell, Michael (2004), “Fairly Satisfied: Economic Equality, Wealth and Satisfaction,” Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 25 (3), 297-305.

Oswald, Laura (1999), “Culture Swapping: Consumption and Ethnogenesis of Middle-Class Haitian Immigrants,” Journal of Consumer Research, 25 (4), 303 - 318.

Ringold, Debra Jones and Barton Weitz (2007), “The American Marketing Association Definition of Marketing: Moving from Lagging to Leading Indicator,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 26 (2), 251-260. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.26.2.251.

Schouten, John McAlexander (1995), “Subcultures of Consumption: An Ethnography of the New Bikers,” Journal of Consumer Research, 22 (1), 43 - 61.

Schwab, Klaus and Saadia Zahidi (2020), The Global Competitiveness Report. World Economic Forum. Available online at http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2020.pdf. Accessed 8 January, 2021.

Shankar, Avi, Hélène Cherrier, and Robin Canniford (2006), “Consumer Empowerment: A Foucauldian Interpretation,” European Journal of Marketing, 40 (9/10), 1013-1030.

Shaw, Eric H. and D.G. Brian Jones (2005), “A History of Schools of Marketing Thought,” Marketing Theory, 5 (3), 239-281.

Shaw, Eric (2014), “The quest for a general theory of the marketing system,” Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, 6 (3), 523-537.

Sheth, Jagdish N. and Garrett (1986), Marketing Theory: Classical and Contemporary Readings, Cincinnanti, OH: Southwestern.

Sheth, Jagdish N., D.M. Gardner and D.E. Garrett (1988), Marketing Theory: Evolution and Evaluation. Ann Arbor, MI: John Wiley and Sons.

Sheth, Jagdish N. and Barbara L. Gross (1988), “Parallel Development of Marketing and Consumer Behavior: A Historical Perspective,” in Historical Perspectives in Marketing, Terrence Nevett and Ronald A. Fullerton, Eds. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 9-33.

Sheth, Jagdish N. and Can Uslay (2007), “Implications of the Revised Definition of Marketing: From Exchange to Value Creation,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 26 (2), 302-307.

Smith, Wendell R. (1956), “Product Differentiation and Market Segmentation as Alternative Marketing Strategies,” Journal of Marketing, 21 (July), 3-8.

Solomon, Michael R. and Bruce Buchanan (1992), A role-theoretic approach to product symbolism: Mapping a consumption constellation,” Journal of Business Research, 22 (2), 95 - 109.

Solon, Olivia (2018), “How Europe’s ‘Breakthrough’ Privacy Law Takes on Facebook and Google, The Guardian, April 19. 2018.

Steiner, Robert L. (1976), “The Prejudice Against Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 40 (July), 2 - 42.

Stigler, George (1961), “The Economics of Information,” Journal of Political Economy, 69 (June), 213-225.

Tadajewski, Mark and D.G. Brian Jones (2014), “Historical Research in Marketing Theory and Practice: A Review Essay,” Journal of Marketing Management, 30 (11-12), 1239-1291.

Tantalo, Caterina and Richard L. Priem (2016), “Value Creation Through Stakeholder Synergy,” Strategic Management Journal, 37: 314-329.

Thaler, Richard (1985), “Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice,” Marketing Science, 4 (3), 199-214. DOI: 10.1177/0276146707302836.

Thompson, Craig J. and Diana Haytko (1997), “Speaking of Fashion: Consumers’ Uses of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings,” Journal of Consumer Research, 24 (1), 15 - 42.

Vargo, Stephen L., and Robert F. Lusch (2004), “Evolving to a New Dominant Logic for Marketing,” Journal of Marketing, 68 (January), 1–17.

Wilkie, William L. and Elizabeth S. Moore (2003), “Scholarly Research in Marketing: Exploring the ‘4 Eras’ of Thought Development,” Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, 22 (2), 116-146.

Wright, Newell D., James W. Pearce and James W. Busbin (1997), “Linking Customer Service Orientation to Competitive Performance: Does the Marketing Concept Really Work?” Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 5(4), 23-34. DOI: 10.1080/10696679.1997.11501777.

Downloads

Published

2021-02-24 — Updated on 2021-12-22

Versions

Most read articles by the same author(s)

1 2 3 > >>