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Underpinning of Marketing Theory The Sociological Basis - Coggle Diagram
Underpinning of Marketing Theory
The Sociological Basis
Claims that marketing is a basic social activity and shows how the discipline of marketing has borrowed and been influenced by sociology.
Marketing and Sociology
Marketing as Exchange
The core of marketing as a scientific discipline relates to exchange between social actors.
Social Exchange requires:
The presence of (
at least
) 2 parties
That each party has something to offer that might be of value to the other party.
Each party is capable of communicating and delivering
Each party believes it is approprite/desirable to deal with the other party
Sociology
Means the study of the processes of companionship
Marketing activities take place in a societal context.
Social Oraganization
Social System - emphasizing the interdependencies and interactions among social actors.
Social Organizations - sociologist also distinguish between different levels.
Marketing Focus and Scientific Borrowing
What is borrowed, and how the borrowing are used are heavily influenced by the dominant focus of the borrowing discipline, in this case marketing.
The term marketing has been used with at least 3 different meanings:
Marketing as a management orientation or discipline.
Marketing as a science.
Marketing as an ideology.
Concepts and Ideas
Individuals, Groups & The Larger Society
Role
The concept of role is sociologically important because it reflects how individual activity is socially influenced and thus follows regular patterns.
An individual may occupy several roles.
Status
Often a distinction is made between ascribed and achieved attributes as a basis for status.
Marketers have exploited sociological insights by relating status to consumption alternatives.
Norms
Refers to social expectations about correct or proper behaviour.
Imply the presence of legitimacy, consent and prescription.
Internalized norms are central for social order.
Deviations from norms are punished by sanctions.
Groups
Social groups are collectives of individuals who interact and form social relationships.
Distinctions between primary groups and secondary groups.
Primary Groups - smaller groups; defined by face to face interactions
Secondary Groups - Usually larger in number; not all members interact with each other.
Reference Groups - forming their attitudes and beliefs, and in performing their actions, people will compare or identify themselves with other people, or other groups of people.
Family (
Households
)
Extensively used by marketers.
The family can also be considered as an important social institution.
• Sociological insights regarding families (households) have in particular been used by marketers to study the relative influence of spouses (and also children) in buying decisions, but also as a basis for studying buying decision processes and how households (families) allocate their scarce economic resources and time.
Family Lifecycle
Used primarily to describe the development of a person through childhood,adolescence, mid-life, old age and death.
The transition of an individual through socially constructed categories of age and to the variations in social experiences of ageing.
Community
Come in many forms, example: villages, sections of cities or other groups with something in common.
A brand community is a specialized, non-geographically bound community, based on a set of structural social relations among addresses of a brand.
Social Class and Lifestyle
In most societies individuals are ranked hierarchically along some dimensions.
Marketers have primarily used such insights to characterize consumption patterns across social classes in order to identify and characterize target groups and segment markets.
Culture
It is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon, and for decades there has been an ongoing debate about what is meant by the concept.
Cultural knowledge has been used to characterize and choose markets, design adequate marketing strategies, and to understand and improve international negotiations.
Sub-Culture
Refers to a system of values, attitudes, behaviours and lifestyles of a social group which is distinct from, but related to, the dominant culture of a society.
Mostly used in the study of youth and deviancy.
This idea has been applied to the understanding of consumption, defined as a distinct sub-group of society that self-selects on the basis of a shared commitment to a particular product class, brand or form of consumption.
Relationships, Power and Conflict
Relationships
Takes place between (
at least
) 2 actors.
the relationship can be of various kinds and focuses on exchange of goods, information, money...
Relationships between exchange partners ease interaction and flow of information, thereby reducing transaction costs and thus explaining why they (relationships) last.
Marketers now focus to an increasing degree on various types of contracts, in particular with the purpose of structuring and monitoring relationships (Macneil, 1980).
Network
Used to describe system of relationships between actors, has a long tradition in sociology and anthropology.
Marketing, to an increasing degree, adopts sociological concepts to capture the new reality created through the internet, which influences marketing practices.
Conflict and Cooperation
Conflict - closely related to competition addressed both in sociology and marketing.
Cooperation has been related to cooperation in new product development, brand alliances, new market entrances and more.
The idea of co-option has more recently been adopted by marketers, in particular how actors can simultaneously do business and be friends.
Power
The probability that a person in a social relationship will be able to carry out his or her own will in the pursuit of goals or actions, regardless of resistance,
Learning and Change
Socialization
This term is used to describe the process whereby people learn to conform to social norms, a process that makes possible an enduring society and the transmission of its culture between generations.
Social Change
Societal characterstics may hamper and/or alter the intended changes.
Marketers now to an increasing extent address how attitudes towards stigmatized groups may be alterd.
Diffusion of innovation is a true social phenomenon as it takes the socal context directly into account. This become clear when looking at the elements in a diffusion process, that is:
The Innovation
Its Communication
From One Individual (
social actor
) to another
Within a Social System
Over Time