Marketing challenges: a personal history

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges that have faced and do now face marketing scholars through the lens of one scholar who entered the field in early 1970s and who continues to observe the developments in the world and in the disciplines of marketing and consumer research.

Design/methodology/approach

Historical journey through the trials and tribulations of one scholar as well as the developments in marketing and consumer research as experienced from this scholar’s point of view. A story of how this one scholar’s ideas and impressions grew out of his experiences.

Findings

Challenges against introduction of new perspectives and ideas have existed in the disciplines of marketing and consumer research, and they continue to exist.

Research limitations/implications

This is only a personal history of experiences one scholar has had in the field.

Practical implications

For marketing and consumer research disciplines to positively contribute to humanity’s growth and search for meaning, how scholars in the field think of their disciplines, their relationship to ideologies and the purposes for their existence as scholars may need a radical change.

Social implications

Considering the challenges faced and possibility of alternative modes of scholarship and knowledge generation, as well as the recognition of the key positional advantage of marketing and consumer research scholars in contemporary culture for understanding the human condition, will help humanity’s quest for a world with greater peacefulness and harmony.

Originality/value

The paper presents a perspective of disciplinary history not often heard in the mainstream media of the two disciplines.

Citation

Firat, A.F. (2014), "Marketing challenges: a personal history", Journal of Historical Research in Marketing, Vol. 6 No. 3, pp. 414-429. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHRM-11-2013-0062