Editorial

Citation

Wright, G. (2008), "Editorial", Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Vol. 26 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/mip.2008.02026eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: Marketing Intelligence & Planning, Volume 26, Issue 5

First of all, let me introduce myself. I have recently undertaken the role of Editor for Marketing Intelligence & Planning (MIP) and this is my first issue. I must thank the immediate and recent past editors – Ross Brennan and Keith Crosier for their help, support and the excellent order they have left the journal in. I come to this role with 20 years experience in marketing in universities – currently as Head of Research in Business and Management at Manchester Metropolitan University and before that at Liverpool John Moores after ten years as Head of the Doctoral Programme at Bradford. Prior to my academic career I was a market analyst for a multinational electronics company and a clinical trials analyst. Talking to marketing academics, MIP is held in high regard and it is my intention along with the Associate Editor, Michael Harker at Strathclyde to keep it that way. We are always open to suggestions about how to maintain and build the quality and usefulness of output in MIP as well as suggestions for papers that you might want to discuss with us before submission through Manuscript Central, the electronic paper management system, designed to make the process of review and publication as timely and as painless as possible. I think that if we were to give any general advice to authors, it would be to read the guideless for authors carefully, make sure that your paper is targeted to our remit and check that the literary standard does not let down the quality of the paper content. We are especially interested in hearing ideas for special issues and for viewpoint articles to keep MIP at the forefront of marketing debate – please contact me directly. I will be attending EMAC and the Academy of Marketing conferences over the next few months, so please do look me out and tell me your ideas for papers and for the journal overall.

Now let me introduce this issue. Tim Hughes of Bristol Business School, a member of the MIP Editorial Board, has provided the viewpoint which addresses a key element of our mission – to make the outputs in the journal useful as well as academically rigorous. I urge you to reflect on this piece and send me any feedback or suggestions. Tim’s research is focused on the practitioner/research interface and his viewpoint is extensively informed by his research findings, highlighting the growing level of concern about the lack of academic/practitioner engagement within marketing and suggesting ways in which this journal can contribute to a remedy for this. The next two papers confront contemporary and somewhat worrying aspects of consumer behaviour – compulsive consumption and anti-social behaviour. First, Ian Phau and Charise Woo of Curtin University, Australia consider compulsive consumption, finding that compulsive consumers are more likely to see money as a source of power and prestige and to be higher frequency users of credit cards. Arch Woodside of Boston College, USA, writes about road rage as a form of anti-social consumer behaviour, looking particularly at the profile of offenders and the impact of social groups. He suggests approaches to effective de-marketing through careful targeting of identified clusters in social marketing campaigns. Two articles scrutinise the impact of corporate marketing activity on customers and vice versa. Ahmed Ferdous and Batul Towfique from North South University in Dhakah, Bangladesh consider how attitudes to marketing, consumerism and regulation are associated whilst Gier Sogn-Grundvag and Kjell Gronhaug, practitioners from the Strategy Economics and Marketing at the Norwegian Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture Research, Tromso, present a case study of how customer requests, do not always lead to a positive outcome and indeed the adoption of new technology and inappropriate planning may lead firms’ strategically astray. Marc Longman, is our second practitioner contributor in this issue. Based at EHSL (HUB) Marketing in Brussels, he brings us back to the basics of the realities of market analysis with his paper on contextual intelligence and flexibility, which considers the realities of understanding today’s marketing environment, especially the need for strategic flexibility. Margaret Craig-Lees of AUT, Aukland with Jane Scott and Remiko Wong of the University of New South Wales, Australia presents a paper on the comparison of product placement and practice across Australia and the USA based on the views of marketing practitioners. Jesus Cambra-Fierro and Jesus Cambra-Berdún of University Pablo de Olavide in Seville, Spain looks at the role that we play as part-time marketers of our products in universities. This issue is a balance of contributions to marketing, the experience of practitioners grounded in marketing research and the delivery of management programmes through universities. Something for everyone and for many, a number of different perspectives. I hope that you find it interesting and useful.

Gill Wright