Download On the value of critical marketing on education…

‘Living is easy with eyes closed’1: Thoughts on Critical Marketing
and Education
All quotations in titles are from “Strawberry Fields Forever” by John Lennon and Paul
McCartney.
1. “Let me take you down...”
In this paper we shall lead the reader through a discussion of the use of critical approaches to
marketing in the classroom. For the purposes of this work, we will use the expression “critical
marketing” in a rather broad sense, similar to that discussed by Tregear, Kuznesof & Brennan
(2007), that is any systematic attempt to challenge or unpack the shared assumptions of
marketing (see also Saren 2007). We note the various cases for the use of one or other more
narrow definitions of the term (see Shankar 2009) but we shall not focus on these. Our
argument will be that the widespread use of critical marketing (in the broad sense above) as
an approach within marketing teaching should be welcomed, both by mainstream academic
marketers and those of a more critical (in a narrower sense) outlook. Our motivation here is to
give a case for the adoption of measures to correct the weaknesses critical marketers identify
in marketing education (narrow managerialism, lack of reflexivity, etc.) and for actively
embracing criticality in a broad sense, without first expecting mainstream marketers en masse
to adopt the radical and anti-realist stances associated with the project or to identify
themselves with the “Critical Marketing tribe”, which they often view as elitist or irrelevant
(see Catterall, Maclaran & Stevens 2002; Hackley 2009; Saren 2009; Shankar 2009).
After reviewing relevant literature, we shall sketch out an agenda for reflection upon what a
critical marketing approach to the education of marketing entails and for further research as to
the perceived value and effects of such an approach.
2. “I think I disagree”: Critical Marketing
In the following we briefly review relevant literature on critical marketing and on its
application to marketing education.
2.1 Critical marketing
Saren (2010) says that an “essential aspect in developing marketing theory is the
understanding of its historical evolution, the current knowledge base, its relative strengths and
weaknesses, potential dangers and future directions” (p. 27). This requires criticality and
reflexivity upon the assumptions, concept and effects of the discipline. Indeed, “the
generation of theory implies critically evaluating the state of existing knowledge and building
upon this to create new theoretical approaches” (Burton 2005: p. 11).
The need for criticality is enhanced by the social, political and economic power of marketing,
as shown by the importance of marketing activities and the diffusion of its discourse through
society (Tadajewski & Brownlie 2008). Also, Burton (2005) argues that academics from other
areas “perceive marketing theory and marketing academics as having little to offer,
theoretically or otherwise” (p. 5). In “the eyes of their more traditional colleagues”, Scott
(2007: 7) claims, “business academics are just the material evidence of souls being sold”.
Marketing scholarship is accused of having too narrow a perspective, whereby the
researcher’s ideal has been to produce “practical tools that will indiscriminately help industry
sell more stuff” (Scott 2007: p. 7). The demand that research is immediately applicable in the
marketplace tends to stimulate short-term thinking (Gummesson 2002).
At the same time, the marketing academy is little respected by the very practitioners whom
might be expected to want advice on “how to sell more stuff”. Reibstein, Day & Wind (2009)
claim that there “is an alarming and growing gap between the interests, standards, and
priorities of academic marketers and the needs of marketing executives operating in an
ambiguous, uncertain, fast-changing, and complex marketplace” (p. 1). Acting to widen this
“scholarship-practice gap” (Brown 2005: 3; see also Gummesson 2002; Saren 2010) is the
diminished role and influence of marketing in companies (Brown 2005; see also Sheth &
Sisodia 2005; Verhoef & Leeflang 2009).
The dearth of critical thought (Alvesson 1994; Arndt 1985) within a discipline that so loudly
calls for it is rather puzzling, since engaging with criticisms will allow us “to understand why
they arise and to evaluate their fairness” (Hackley 2009: 5). Nevertheless, and even if
modestly, in the last decade or so, a critical approach has begun to take shape within the
marketing field (Scott 2007), with an increasing number of texts addressing critical marketing
(e.g. Burton 2001; Brownlie 2006; Tadajewski & Brownlie 2008; Saren 2009). As critical
marketing research is not conducted “with the sole interest of developing knowledge to enable
marketing managers to maximise the sales of goods or services with minimal expenditure”
(Tadajewski & Brownlie 2008: 9), it leaves room to discuss fundamental aspects of marketing
theory and practice. The field reflects upon the assumptions that pervade the discipline and
the effects of marketing on society (Tadajewski & Brownlie 2008), pointing to “the inherent
entanglement of marketing with society, with markets and culture” (Schroeder 2007: 22). The
number of academics focusing on critical marketing is however limited and knowledge in the
area is produced and read by a “marginal minority” (Shankar 2009: 683). Saren (2009) notes
“Critical Marketing is a minority sport, often ignored by our mainstream academics
colleagues, at best tolerated and at worst reviled” (p. 845).
2.2 Critical Marketing and Education
Business education is experiencing a “loss of relevance”, a problem which is considered to be
especially severe in marketing (Reibstein et al. 2009: 1). Criticisms include the “dominant
MBA focus on narrow analytical and cognitive skills […] and the declining recognition that
management is as much a clinical art as a science” (Reibstein et al. 2009: 1). The move to
mass, standardized higher education, also called the “MacDonaldization” of higher education
(Burton 2005: 12; see also Holbrook 2006) has been questioned. Critical marketing could be a
tool in the “deMcDonaldization” of marketing in higher education (Ritzer 2001: p. 20; Burton
2005), making it appropriate to discuss it in the context of marketing education.
Critical concepts have infiltrated marketing education to a still-lesser extent than they have
marketing research (Catterall et al. 2002) – this despite the fact, noted by Burton (2005), that
“critical evaluation of theory and practice” (p. 11) is a commonplace amongst the stated
objectives of marketing courses. The curriculum in marketing education is said to promote a
narrow, technocratic and managerialist perspective at the expense of reflection upon macro
and societal issues (Catterall, Maclaran & Stevens 1999; Hackley 2009). The lack of theory in
the marketing curriculum (see Burton 2001; 2005) or the “absence of a general theoretical
foundation” is, according to Gummesson (2002: 329), a major weaknesses of marketing
teaching and textbooks. The dearth of “overarching theories that apply to the discipline as a
whole” (Burton 2001: 737) can contribute to a fragmented perception of marketing (see also
Saren 2009). Indeed, in a study of marketing education in Australia and New Zealand,
Walker, Hanson, Nelson & Fisher (1998) noted a tendency to arrange curricula in discrete
packets, where students are encouraged to segment their learning into independent subject
areas.
Similarly, the tone and style of writing in many marketing textbooks limit students’ critical
thought, presenting the discipline as “an ideology to be accepted, or rejected, uncritically”
(Hackley 2009: 3), where the success of marketing depends upon following prescribed rules
and tasks. According to Gummesson (2002), marketing textbooks (and teaching) in
universities, while “pedagogical and easy to grasp” are “sometimes driven by a desire to make
the text attractive and therefore offering unfortunate simplifications, sometimes more aligned
with the media hype than profoundly addressing core variables and their links” (p. 329).
Catterall et al. (2002) argue that this down-to-earth focus fails to meet the needs of
practitioners or reflect managers’ experiences. Such managers work in a complex, fastchanging world (Catterall et al. 2002; see also Reibstein et al. 2009) and must handle swift
decision making and large volumes of information (Braun 2004). Students need to “develop
the conceptual abilities to question assumptions, practices and discourses every bit as much as
they need ‘what’ and ‘how to do’ abilities” (Catterall et al. 1999: 346). Building critical skills
and applying them to marketing within a macro approach should thence be a part of students’
education. Indeed, competency in critical thinking is necessary in a competitive business
environment (Roy & Macchiette 2005), as is noted by practitioners (Braun 2004).
3. “Nothing to get hung about”: an Agenda for Reflection Applied to the Education of
Marketing
Drawing upon literature on critical marketing in education (e.g. Schroeder 2007; Catterall et
al. 1999; 2002; Tregear, Dobson, Brennan & Kuznesof 2010) and our own experience as
lecturers, we suggest that a critical marketing approach to marketing education should
embrace the following aspects: (1) a critical attitude towards the education experience; (2) a
critical approach towards the marketing curriculum and, (3) the inclusion of support material
that promotes a critical approach. We also propose that, (4) in order to explore the value of a
critical marketing approach in education, an assessment should be made of the impact of such
an approach on the performance of individuals, both as students and as professionals.
3.1 Critical Attitude towards the education experience
To begin with, we argue that a marketing lecturer needs to adopt a genuinely critical attitude
to be able to embrace such an approach in the classroom. This entails understanding what
being critical means (see discussion of “The Critical Academy” in Catterall et al. 2002, pp.
184, 185) and the value of such an approach. We believe that some study of philosophy may
help draw attention to the virtue in questioning assumptions. “An unexamined life is not
worth living”, said Socrates (in Hughes 2010: 68), whose method stands as a foundation for
later traditions of criticism. Secondly, a critical approach in the classroom should embrace
methods that improve and encourage critical thinking (e.g. Catterall et al. 1999; Tregear et al.
2007), allowing students to develop skills in challenging assumptions, “understanding,
analyzing, and evaluating the arguments and views of others” and defining their own
supported arguments and opinions (Roy & Macchiette 2005: 265). These methods may
include debates, problem-solving exercises or exposure to texts that follow contrasting
approaches (Tregear et al. 2007; Braun 2004; Roy & Macchiette 2005).
Involving students in the production of knowledge, by adopting an active learning attitude
(Catterall et al. 2002; 1999) will contribute to a critical approach towards learning marketing.
We would like to stress the importance of this issue by drawing a parallel with ServiceDominant Logic and the prominence it gives customers as “co-creators” of value (see e.g.
Vargo 2008). As customers may apply their “knowledge and skills” to a consumption
experience, thereby co-creating value with a firm (Vargo, Maglio & Akaka 2008: 146), so
may students contribute their experiences and emotions (see Catterall et al 1999; 2002) to the
co-creation of value (knowledge) in a lecture experience. Becoming active knowledge
producers will help students “to create their own (critical) understandings of managerial work
rather than merely accumulating ‘facts’” (Dehler, Welsh & Lewis 2001: p. 505).
3.2 Critical approach towards the marketing curriculum
Catterall et al. (2002) offer a detailed discussion of the importance and content of a critical
approach to the marketing curriculum. The authors describe how a greater emphasis on macro
issues (see also Tregear et al. 2007; 2010) and on multiple points of view (e.g. citizens and
consumers) rather than just that of marketing managers (see also Saren 2007) will facilitate
such an approach. This may involve embracing multi-disciplinary perspectives (Burton 2001),
introducing topics such as ethics or the environment as explicit areas of study within existing
marketing modules or re-orienting modules so that they are embedded within such areas
(Tregear et al. 2007). The integration of critical theory in curricula could also have important
effects on students’ taking a reflexive approach (see Burton 2001). Also of value is Saren’s
(2007) suggestion to replace the conventional course structure, based on “core marketing
functions” with structures built from a fresh look at how marketing is performed in practice.
3.3 Inclusion of support material that promotes a critical approach
Marketing textbooks are charged with offering simplistic views of the topics approached,
lacking theoretical foundation and context (e.g. Gummesson 2002) and taking the sole
perspective of the marketing manager (Catterall et al. 2002). Also, the constant repetition in
textbooks of claims such as “competition is global” and “everything changes faster and
faster”, based on “scattered observations and wishful thinking” (Gummesson 2002: 329) is
echoed in their regurgitation as unquestionable facts in student essays (see also Pereira Heath
& Tynan 2010).
We argue that using a wider range of reading materials in a marketing module can counteract
a simplistic view of the discipline and encourage critical thinking. These can include multiple
textbooks and relevant journal and opinion articles offering differing viewpoints. In
particular, books contemplating the foundations and theory of marketing (e.g. Baker & Hart
2008; Baker & Saren 2010) are a good source to stimulate criticality and reflexivity.
3.4 Measuring the impact of a critical marketing approach to education on individuals'
performance
Tregear et al. (2010) found that a majority of respondents to a survey of UK educators
perceived critical approaches as valuable in undergraduate education. Other studies (Tregear
et al. 2007) and anecdotal notes on teaching experiences where critical marketing has been
addressed (see e.g. Schroeder 2007 and its reference to a successful master’s level class
“Consumption, Markets and Culture” by Pierre McDonagh, p. 27), as well as our own
experiences of teaching, indicate that students also welcome critical, reflexive approaches in
the classroom, even if they perceive them as more labour intensive and difficult (Tregear et al.
2007). They especially appreciate approaches grounded in current and interesting topics of
research (Schroeder 2007). Students also seem to retain information better when actively
engaged in a critical dialogue (Roy & Macchiette 2005).
Assessing the effects of such approaches on students´ motivation, engagement in learning and
final marks is needed to understanding their potential value. In addition, and in order to fully
evaluate the potential benefits of a critical approach to marketing in education, we propose
exploring how marketing managers who were exposed to such a critical approach as students
consider these ways of thinking in their jobs. As a piece of exploratory research, we propose
contacting a set of such managers, some time after they have graduated, and conducting in-
depth interviews on the subject of how, and to what extent they feel that the courses have
affected their professional abilities and careers.
A more ambitious piece of research, and one requiring a large group of collaborators (some of
whom we hope will approach us due to this paper) would be a large-scale survey both of
marketing managers whose university educations included material on critical marketing and
those that did not. Using appropriate methods to avoid differences due to irrelevant factors
(e.g. different universities), we would identify a group of students whose compulsory
marketing modules included a critical marketing approach and a group who were not offered
critical marketing in their degree syllabus. Two or three years after their graduating, we would
contact these ex-students with questionnaires regarding their tendency to consider macro
implications, their relative preference for improvised versus “off-the-peg” solutions to
problems, etc. We would analyze the data to see if there existed significant differences
between the groups. Anticipating that some may feel that this quantitative approach conflicts
with a critical orientation we take the opportunity to draw attention to the pioneering work of
Frankfurt School critical theorists in the quantitative social sciences (e.g. Adorno et al. 1950).
4. “Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see”...
Hackley (2009) notes that “criticisms of Marketing are, by implication, criticisms of the role
of Marketing studies in management education and training” (p. 2). With Tadajewski &
Brownlie (2008), we believe that as marketing scholars, we share responsibility for the ways
in which marketing is perceived and conducted, and should be concerned “whether it is
developing in a way that we would like” (p. 2). We have the power to influence policy and
practice, not only directly through the results and recommendations of our studies, but also in
a less direct way, via our teaching and the values and ideas we expose our students to
(Wensley 2007; see also Catterall et al. 1999; Tadajewski & Brownlie 2008).
Adopting critical marketing in the education of marketing can counteract the criticisms
associated with the “massification” of higher education” (Burton 2005) and the
managerialistic and technocratic emphasis in marketing education (Catterall et al. 2002). By
equipping students with more critical skills, both by widening the marketing curriculum and
fostering an attitude of critical reflection and analysis in the classroom, they will be better
equipped to meet the needs and concerns of marketing managers (Catterall et al. 2002: 186).
On the other hand, we can expect the forces favouring managerialism to “fight back”. This
may be a result of difficulties of fitting critical courses into the standardizing framework of
the “McUniversity” (Parker & Jary 1995) or from students demanding a more obviously
“useful” curriculum, as happened in the Executive MBS class described in Sinclair (2007).
The second type of pressure can be expected to intensify in the UK as undergraduates come to
expect more for their increased fees.
This paper contributes to current discussions on critical marketing and education by proposing
a tentative agenda for reflection on what a critical marketing approach in the education entails
and on assessing the perceived value of such an approach for students, both in class and later
as managers. We hope that our work stimulates reflection on the content and value of critical
marketing in education and encourages both mainstream and critical marketing academics to
discuss these matters, narrowing the gap (Shankar 2009) between them. Even those amongst
us who view the critical marketing project with incredulity typically perceive themselves as
critical thinkers (Catterall et al. 2002) and it would be a shame to uncritically reject an
approach on the basis of its elitist or “tribal” associations.
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