Conceptualising and measuring Defensive Marketing Orientation (DMO): some inaugural thoughts on assessing marketing's place in 'society's doghouse'

摘要

Many commentators suggest that marketing should be at the heart of strategic decision making, yet lament its continued inability to establish a presence at business’s top table. Such failure is generally deemed to be the fault of the organization at large, and there is a generally implied presumption that marketers are unfairly marginalized. For marketing to succeed, however, it must be perceived as both credible and contemporary, yet there are small, though substantive, bodies of research implying, 1) that marketing’s reputation is still far from ideal and, 2) that practicing marketers prefer traditional means of endeavour that are likely counter-productive in the context of new, customer-focused, manifestos. Analysis of both the marketing and psychology literatures reveals that there is no existing measure that might be used to evaluate attitudes of marketers toward either MO or post-MO marketing concerns and that, consequently, we never test the commitment of the agent most critical to marketing’s strategic aspirations. This paper makes a strong case for the rectification of such deficiency and, via critical reflection on some recent debates concerning marketing measures, suggests an inaugural perspective on how evaluation might be achieved. An agenda for further research is offered, too.