Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

‘Our Marketing is Our Goodness’: Earnest Marketing in Dissenting Organizations

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Business Ethics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In times of erosion and dissolution of social structures and institutions, described by Bauman (Ethics and Global Politics 5:49–56, 2012) as the interregnum, there arises both a need and a possibility of developing alternative approaches to the most fundamental organizational practices. Marketing, a simultaneously tremendously successful and much criticized sub-discipline and practice, is a prime candidate for such a redefinition. Potential prefigurations of future processes of organizing and institutionalizing can be found within dissenting organizations (Daskalaki in European Urban and Regional Studies 25:155–170, 2018), the alternative organizations built at the fringes of, and in opposition to, the mainstream businesses as reported by Parker et al. (The Routledge companion to alternative organization, Routledge, Oxford, 2014). In this paper, we present an exploration of the alternative yet already enacted practice we call earnest marketing. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a number of dissenting organizations in the United Kingdom and Poland, we focus on the radical reconstitution of marketing evidenced in their practice, defined by an attitude of earnestness and dedication to the dissemination and demonstration of their self-defined goodness: ideas and values. As organizations engage in earnest marketing, they also become receptive to reciprocal messages from their environments. We conclude by reflecting on the possibilities of a dissenting management model developing the principles of earnest marketing beyond disciplinary confines.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. While a closer study of textbooks could discover some national or regional differences in presentation of marketing concepts, the dominant model is homogeneous enough that our comments hold equally well for all mainstream marketing literature we are familiar with.

References

  • Abela, A. V. (2006). Marketing and consumerism: A response to O’Shaughnessy and O’Shaughnessy. European Journal of Marketing,40(1/2), 5–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson, M. (2012). The triumph of emptiness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson, M., & Gabriel, Y. (2016). Grandiosity in contemporary management and education. Management Learning,47(4), 464–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Alvesson, M., Gabriel, Y., & Paulsen, R. (2017). Return to meaning: A social science with something to say. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (2012). Times of interregnum. Ethics and Global Politics,5(1), 49–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z. (2017). Retrotopia. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bauman, Z., Bauman, I., Kociatkiewicz, J., & Kostera, M. (2015). Management in a liquid modern world. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behar, R. (1993). Translated woman: Crossing the border with Esperanza’s story. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Behar, R. (1996). The vulnerable observer: Anthropology that breaks your heart. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bennett, R. (1996). Relationship formation and governance in consumer markets: Transactional analysis versus the behaviourist approach. Journal of Marketing Management,12(5), 417–436.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biehl-Missal, B., & Saren, M. (2012). Atmospheres of seduction: A critique of aesthetic marketing practices. Journal of Macromarketing,32(2), 168–180.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boorman, N. (2007). Bonfire of the brands. Edinburgh: Canongate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bornstein, D. (2004). How to change the world: Social entrepreneurs and the power of ideas. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, S. (2005). Writing marketing. Literary lessons from academic authorities. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brownlie, D. (1997). Beyond ethnography. Towards writerly accounts of organizing in marketing. European Journal of Marketing,31(3/4), 264–284.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cederström, C., & Fleming, P. (2012). Dead man working. Winchester: Zero Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chevalier, M., & Mazzalovo, G. (2004). Pro logo: Brands as a factor of progress. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cochoy, F. (2016). On curiosity: The art of market seduction. Manchester: Mattering Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cox, J. (2002). William Blake: The scourge of tyrants. London: Redwords.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B. (2004). Narratives in social science research. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B. (2008). Organizing: How to study it and how to write about it. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management,3(1), 4–20.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska, B. (2014). Social science research: From field to desk. Los Angeles: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1992). Exploring complex organizations: A cultural perspective. Newbury Park: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1993). The three-dimensional organization: A constructionist view. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daskalaki, M. (2018). Alternative organizing in times of crisis: Resistance assemblages and socio-spatial solidarity. European Urban and Regional Studies,25(2), 155–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (2004). Anti-Oedipus: Capitalism and schizophrenia. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, N., Fitchett, J., Higgins, M., Jack, G., Lim, M., Saren, M., et al. (2011). Marketing: A critical textbook. Los Angeles: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellis, N., & Ybema, S. (2010). Marketing identities: Shifting circles of identification in inter-organizational relationships. Organization Studies,31(3), 279–305.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fahy, J., & Jobber, D. (2015). Foundations of marketing (5th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fineman, S. (1999). Commentary. In D. Brownlie, M. Saren, R. Wensley, & R. Whittington (Eds.), Rethinking marketing: Towards critical marketing accountings (pp. 183–185). London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, E. (2012). How less alienation creates more exploitation? Audience labour on social network sites. tripleC,10(2), 171–183.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flyvbjerg, B. (2001). Making social science matter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freeman, R. E., & Auster, E. R. (2011). Values, authenticity, and responsible leadership. Journal of Business Ethics,98(supplement 1), 15–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Funk, T. (2013). Advanced social media marketing. How to lead, launch, and manage a successful social media program. Berkeley: Apress.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gabriel, Y. (2014). Qualitative researchers: Cherry-pickers or beachcombers? http://www.yiannisgabriel.com/2014/12/the-researcher-as-beachcomber.html. Accessed 20 Dec 2019.

  • Gaggiotti, H., Kostera, M., & Krzyworzeka, P. (2017). More than a method? Organisational ethnography as a way of imagining the social. Culture and Organization,23(5), 325–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaski, J. F. (1999). Does marketing ethics really have anything to say? A critical inventory of the literature. Journal of Business Ethics,18(3), 315–334.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson-Graham, J. K., Cameron, J., & Healy, S. (2013). Take back the economy: An ethical guide for transforming our communities. Minneapolis: Minnesota University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilmore, J. H., & Pine, B. J. (2007). Authenticity: What consumers really want. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit jobs. A theory. New York: Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gramsci, A. (2005). Selections from the prison notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grønhaug, K. (2002). Is marketing knowledge useful? European Journal of Marketing,36(3), 364–372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harman, C. (2009). Zombie capitalism. Global crisis and the relevance of Marx. Chicago: Haymarket Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herzog, W. (1972). Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Munich: Werner Herzog Filmproduktion.

    Google Scholar 

  • Höpfl, H. (2000). On being moved. Studies in Cultures, Organizations and Societies,6(1), 15–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Israel, M. (2005). Services as experience goods: An empirical examination of consumer learning in automobile insurance. The American Economic Review,95(5), 1444–1463.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobi, E. S., Freund, J., & Araujo, L. (2014). ‘Is there a gap in the market, and is there a market in the gap?’ How advertising planning performs markets. Journal of Marketing Management,31(1–2), 37–61.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kabani, S. H. (2010). The Zen of social media marketing: An easier way to build credibility, generate buzz, and increase revenue. Dallas: BenBella Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, N. (1999). No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies. New York: Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything: Capitalism vs. the climate. New York: Simon and Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kociatkiewicz, J., & Kostera, M. (2012). The good manager: An archetypical quest for morally sustainable leadership. Organization Studies,33(7), 861–878.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kociatkiewicz, J., & Kostera, M. (2016). Grand plots of management bestsellers: Learning from narrative and thematic coherence. Management Learning,47(3), 324–342.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kostera, M. (2007). Organisational ethnography: Methods and inspirations. Lund: Studentlitteratur.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kostrzewa, Y. (1998). Promocja a kształtowanie wyobraźni ekonomicznej: Wizerunki przedsiębiorstwa handlu zagranicznego 1970–1998. Master’s thesis, Uniwersytet Warszawski, Warszawa.

  • Lien, M. (1997). Marketing and modernity. New York: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Linsley, P. M., & Shrives, P. J. (2009). Mary Douglas, risk and accounting failures. Critical Perspectives on Accounting,20, 492–508.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. G. (1995). The future, disposable organizations and the rigidities of imagination. Organization,2(3/4), 427–440.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marks, Ch., & Prinsloo, M. (2015). Authenticity in marketing: A response to consumer resistance? Journal of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour in Emerging Markets,2(2), 15–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marshall, P. (1988). William Blake: Visionary anarchist. London: Freedom Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mazzarella, W. (2003). Very Bombay: Contending with the global in an Indian advertising agency. Cultural Anthropology,18(1), 33–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • McLean, B., & Elking, P. (2003). The smartest guys in the room. The amazing rise and scandalous fall of Enron. New York: Portfolio Trade.

    Google Scholar 

  • McShane, L., & Cunningham, P. (2012). To thine own self be true? Employees’ judgements of the authenticity of their organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility program. Journal of Business Ethics,108(1), 81–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, D. (1998). A theory of shopping. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nilsson, T. (2015). Rhetorical business. A study of marketing work in the spirit of contradiction. Lund: Lund University.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Malley, L., Patterson, M., & Evans, M. (1997). Intimacy or intrusion? The privacy dilemma for relationship marketing in consumer markets. Journal of Marketing Management,13(1), 541–559.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pachirat, T. (2018). Among wolves: Ethnography and the immersive study of power. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M. (2011). Alternative business: Outlaws, crime and culture. Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M. (2018). Shut down the business school. What’s wrong with management education. London: Pluto Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V., & Land, C. (2014). The Routledge companion to alternative organization. Oxford: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M., Fournier, V., & Reedy, P. (2007). The dictionary of alternatives. London: Zed Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patwardhan, A., Noble, S. M., & Nishihara, C. M. (2009). The use of strategic deception in relationships. Journal of Services Marketing,23(5), 318–325.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prus, R. C. (1989). Pursuing customers: An ethnography of marketing activities. Newbury Park: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pullen, A. (2018). Writing as labiaplasty. Organization,25(1), 123–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Punch, M. (1996). Dirty business: Exploring corporate misconduct. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Raine, K. (1971). William Blake. New York: Praeger.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reedy, P., King, D., & Coupland, C. (2016). Organizing for individuation: Alternative organizing, politics and new identities. Organization Studies,37(11), 1553–1573.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rhodes, C. (2019). Sense-ational organization theory!Practices of democratic scriptology. Management Learning,50(1), 24–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rocha, E., & Barros, C. (2006). Dimensões culturais do marketing: Reoria antropológica, etnografia e comportamento do consumidor. Revista de Administração de Empresas,46(4), 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosen, M. (2000). Turning words, spinning worlds: Chapters in organizational ethnography. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saren, M., Maclaran, P., Goulding, Ch., Elliott, R., Shankar, A., & Caterall, M. (Eds.). (2007). Critical marketing: Defining the field. Amsterdam: Butterworth-Heinemann.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schembri, S. (2009). Reframing brand experience: The experiential meaning of Harley-Davidson. Journal of Business Research,62(12), 1299–1310.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schwartz-Shea, P., & Yanow, D. (2012). Interpretive research design. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, N. C. (2001). Ethical guidelines for marketing practice: A reply to Gaski and some observations on the role of normative marketing ethics. Journal of Business Ethics,32(1), 3–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Standing, G. (2011). The precariat: The new dangerous class. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steiner, G. (1975). After Babel: Aspects of language and translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, W. (2016a). How will capitalism end? Essays on a failing system. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Streeck, W. (2016b). The post-capitalist interregnum: The old system is dying, but a new social order cannot yet be born. Juncture,23(2), 68–77.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tadajewski, M., & Brownlie, D. (Eds.). (2008). Critical marketing: Issues in contemporary marketing. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Valtonen, A., Markuksela, V., & Moisander, J. (2010). Doing sensory ethnography in consumer research. International Journal of Consumer Studies,34(3), 375–380.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Maanen, J. (1988). Tales of the field: On writing ethnography. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Visser, M. (2010). Critical management studies and “mainstream” organization science. International Journal of Organizational Analysis,18(4), 466–478.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, T. J. (1997). In search of management: Culture, chaos and control in managerial work. London: Thomson Business Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Watson, T. J. (2011). Ethnography, reality and truth: The vital need for studies of ‘how things work’ in organizations and management. Journal of Management Studies,48(1), 202–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, N. (2011). The business of authenticity: A false relation? Arts Marketing: An International Journal,1(2), 159–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M. (1992). A thrice-told tale. Feminism, postmodernism & ethnographic responsibility. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, E. O. (2010). Envisioning real utopias. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yanow, D. (2000). Conducting interpretive policy analysis. London: SAGE.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zwick, D., & Bradshaw, A. (2016). Biopolitical marketing and social media brand communities. Theory, Culture & Society,33(5), 91–115.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management, Marketing and Strategy, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, 9 rue Charles Fourier, Évry, 91011 CEDEX, France

    Jerzy Kociatkiewicz

  2. Institute of Culture, The Jagiellonian University, Łojasiewicza 4, 30-348, Kraków, Poland

    Monika Kostera

  3. Södetörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Monika Kostera

Authors
  1. Jerzy Kociatkiewicz
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Monika Kostera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jerzy Kociatkiewicz.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kociatkiewicz, J., Kostera, M. ‘Our Marketing is Our Goodness’: Earnest Marketing in Dissenting Organizations. J Bus Ethics 164, 731–744 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04396-1

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04396-1

Keywords

Search

Navigation