Marketing communication: principles and practice

interactive/non-interactive
: examines the role of marketing and its
objectives
•
economic/non-economic
: examines approaches to achieving the
objectives of marketing
Much of the weakness in prevailing marketing communication accounts stems
from a failure to address both of these concerns together. It considers only
how marketing objectives can be achieved, thus often allowing assumptions
about the appropriateness of marketing objectives and the nature and role
of marketing to remain unrecognized and unchallenged.
The twelve schools of marketing theory have been classified by Sheth 
et
al
. (1988) to highlight their perspective on the role and nature of marketing.
This is summarized in Table 1.2 to highlight the differing bases of marketing
thinking, and to identify schools of thought which might contribute to a
broader conception of marketing communication.
Rosengren (1999) uses his ‘Great Wheel of Culture in Society’ model to
explain all societal structures. Two pairs of value orientations are the basis
for society: truth and righteousness, and beauty and usefulness. These can
also be termed cognitive/descriptive and normative/prescriptive, and expres-
sive and instrumental, respectively. As early as the Greek philosophers, these
were discussed as logos and ethos, and pathos and praxis, respectively. These
basic value orientations are recognized by contemporary students of
advertising and public relations.
I N T R O D U C T I O N
8
Table 1.2
Schools of marketing theory
Approaches to the study Economic
Non-economic
Interactive
Non-interactive
of marketing
Commodity
✓
✓
Functional
✓
✓
Regional
✓
✓
Buyer behaviour
✓
✓
Activist
✓
✓
Macro-marketing
✓
✓
Institutional
✓
✓
Functional
✓
✓
Managerial
✓
✓
Organization dynamics
✓
✓
Systems
✓
✓
Social exchange
✓
✓

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Ideas, actions, and artefacts in society are linked by culture as communi-
cative and coordinating. Thus, religion and politics, politics and science,
science and technology, technology and religion, religion and scholarship,
and so on are continually mutually interacting. All of these relationships have
to be established through action – the special type of action in which we are
interested – namely communication. A never-ending process of
differentiation proceeds through the face-to-face and mediated interactions
of people. Yet, the institutions remain interdependent.