BE530-6-SP-CO:
Critical Marketing Perspectives
2023/24
Essex Business School
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 15 January 2024
Friday 22 March 2024
15
05 October 2023
Requisites for this module
(BE400 or BE501) and BE511 and BE518
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BSC N2N5 Management and Marketing (Including Foundation Year),
BSC NN25 Management and Marketing,
BSC NN2M Management and Marketing (Including Placement Year),
BSC NNF5 Management and Marketing (Including Year Abroad),
MMANNN35 Marketing and Management,
MMANNN36 Marketing and Management (Including Placement Year),
MMANNN37 Marketing and Management (Including Year Abroad)
This module builds upon students' existing understanding of marketing by considering contemporary issues that are not normally taught and thought about in connection to the marketing management field. Therefore, an advanced understanding of marketing in its contemporary setting will be aimed at.
This module will discuss a variety of issues that show how marketing can be understood in such terms in a range of different, contemporary settings. It will introduce its participants to a range of conceptual and theoretical resources to critically examine the role of marketing in society, and to understand how marketing is brought into being both as a corporate function, as well as a social phenomenon.
The aims of this module are:
- To provide an understanding of marketing as a historical discourse that is contested in a variety of ways.
- To provide an insight into contemporary issues facing marketing and enable students to engage with and critique these.
- To engage students in critical analysis of marketing discourses and contemporary marketing issues.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:
- Understand marketing as a discourse that is embedded and reproduced in a variety of different spheres of society.
- Engage with a variety of contemporary issues of marketing and apply a critical understanding of marketing to everyday life.
- Understand the historical emergence of the marketing discourse.
- Critically analyse, using appropriate marketing and social science concepts and theories, marketing discourses and practices in contemporary society.
- Through class discussion, reading, participation and assessment develop your abilities to engage in critical analysis of marketing discourses and contemporary marketing issues, and develop an awareness of your own role and position within them.
Skills for your professional life (Transferable Skills)
By the end of this module, students will develop:
- Critical thinking skills through coursework assignment and group discussions around contemporary marketing issues and the nature of marketing in society.
- Argumentation skills as you present your thoughts and ideas in essays.
- Analytical skills as you connect academic theories and concepts to contemporary marketing issues.
In the current brand-dominated and globalised world of business and management, saturated with advertisements, a critical understanding of marketing activities and how they affect businesses and individuals is a requirement for a general management and marketing career as well as for civic participation in contemporary society.
Today, marketing is arguably part of everyday life and it is embedded in all spheres of society. Besides its normal corporate function of selling products and services to consumers, marketing processes can be observed in wider civil society, such as governments, NGOs, charities and social movements. Thus, one can talk about marketing as a domain, rather than simply as a corporate function.
This module will be delivered via:
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Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R. and Wood, D.J. (1997) ‘Toward a Theory of Stakeholder Identification and Salience: Defining the Principle of who and What Really Counts’,
Academy of Management Review, 22(4), pp. 853–886. Available at:
https://search-ebscohost-com.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=9711022105&site=ehost-live&authtype=sso&custid=s9814295.
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O’Malley, L., Patterson, M. and Kelly-Holmes, H. (2008) ‘Death of a metaphor: reviewing the `marketing as relationships’ frame’,
Marketing Theory, 8(2), pp. 167–187. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593108089203.
-
Lee, M.
et al. (2011) ‘Anti-consumption and consumer resistance: concepts, concerns, conflicts and convergence’,
European Journal of Marketing, 45(11/12). Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm.2011.00745kaa.001.
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Shaw, I. and Aldridge, A. (2003) ‘Consumerism, Health and Social Order’,
Social Policy and Society, 2(1), pp. 35–43. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1017/S147474640300109X.
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Freund, J. and Jacobi, E.S. (2013) ‘Revenge of the brand monsters: How Goldman Sachs’ doppelgänger turned monstrous’,
Journal of Marketing Management, 29(1-2), pp. 175–194. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2013.764347.
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Giesler, M. (2012) ‘How Doppelgänger Brand Images Influence the Market Creation Process: Longitudinal Insights from the Rise of Botox Cosmetic’,
Journal of Marketing, 76(6), pp. 55–68. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.10.0406.
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Holt, D.B. (2002) ‘Why Do Brands Cause Trouble? A Dialectical Theory of Consumer Culture and Branding’,
Journal of Consumer Research, 29(1), pp. 70–90. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1086/339922.
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Vredenburg, J.
et al. (2020) ‘Brands Taking a Stand: Authentic Brand Activism or Woke Washing?’,
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 39(4), pp. 444–460. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0743915620947359.
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Shaw, E.H. and Jones, D.G.B. (2005) ‘A history of schools of marketing thought’,
Marketing Theory, 5(3), pp. 239–281. Available at:
https://doi-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1177/1470593105054898.
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Wilkie, W.L. and Moore, E.S. (2003) ‘Scholarly Research in Marketing: Exploring the "4 Eras” of Thought Development’,
Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 22(2), pp. 116–146. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1509/jppm.22.2.116.17639.
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Andrejevic, M.B. (2010) ‘Surveillance and Alienation in the Online Economy’,
Surveillance & Society, 8(3), pp. 278–287. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.24908/ss.v8i3.4164.
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Darmody, A. and Zwick, D. (2020) ‘Manipulate to empower: Hyper-relevance and the contradictions of marketing in the age of surveillance capitalism’,
Big Data & Society, 7(1). Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/2053951720904112.
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Cova, B., Dalli, D. and Zwick, D. (2011) ‘Critical perspectives on consumers’ role as “producers”: Broadening the debate on value co-creation in marketing processes’,
Marketing Theory, 11(3), pp. 231–241. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593111408171.
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Grönroos, C. (2011) ‘Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis’,
Marketing Theory, 11(3), pp. 279–301. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/1470593111408177.
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Baker, S.M., Gentry, J.W. and Rittenburg, T.L. (2005) ‘Building Understanding of the Domain of Consumer Vulnerability’,
Journal of Macromarketing, 25(2), pp. 128–139. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146705280622.
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Denegri-Knott, J., Zwick, D. and Schroeder, J.E. (2006) ‘Mapping consumer power: an integrative framework for marketing and consumer research’,
European Journal of Marketing, 40(9/10), pp. 950–971. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560610680952.
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Laczniak, G.R. and Murphy, P.E. (2006) ‘Normative Perspectives for Ethical and Socially Responsible Marketing’,
Journal of Macromarketing, 26(2), pp. 154–177. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146706290924.
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Redmond, W. (2018) ‘Marketing Systems and Market Failure’,
Journal of Macromarketing, 38(4), pp. 415–424. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/0276146718796913.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
SPRING TERM ASSIGNMENT |
|
|
| Exam |
Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Tony Sampson, email: tsamps@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Tony Sampson & Dr Marcia Christina Ferreira
ebsugcol@essex.ac.uk
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Muhammad Asif Khan
Available via Moodle
Of 20 hours, 20 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s), module, or event type.
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