The Macromarketing Mosaic

Abstract

After twenty-five years of Journal of Macromarketing publication and thirty years since the first Annual Macromarketing Theory Seminar, the question remains, can macromarketing make a difference? There are three forces that have limited macromarketing and need to be addressed if macromarketing is to have a meaningful future—the lack of independence from the captive power of managerial marketing, the expanding academic compartmentalization of knowledge, and the uncritical acceptance of the notion that market-driven consumption is sustainable in the future. As painful as it might be, macromarketing study needs to break the marginalizing bond with micromarketing, focus on the systems level, and reimpose a sustainable societal screen on the objective function of the field.