The frame marketing as relationships is central to contemporary
marketing thought and informs both research and practice in marketing. It is
underpinned by the `interpersonal relationship' metaphor, which at the
superordinate level relies upon social exchange theory (SET) and at the
subordinate level reinforces the ideological values of
Judeo—Christian marriages. The current pervasiveness of the
marketing as relationships frame suggests that this view of marketing has become
commonsensical, taken-for-granted and recognized by marketers as simply part of
their discourse. In this paper, we trace the evolution of the marketing as
relationships frame and analyse its current position. Using insights drawn from
conceptual metaphor theory and critical discourse analysis, we argue that it is
necessary to reactivate this metaphor in order to investigate whether it is
relevant to current theory and practice in marketing.
Aggarwal, P.
(2004)
`The Effects of Brand Relationship Norms on Consumer Attitudes and
Behaviour'
, Journal of Consumer Research31(June): 87-101.
2.
Anderson, J.C.
and
Narus, J.A.
(1984)
`A Model of the Distributor's Perspective of Distributor-Manufacturer
Working Relationships'
, Journal of Marketing48(Fall): 62-74.
3.
Arndt, J.
(1983)
`The Political Economy Paradigm: Foundations for Theory Building in
Marketing'
, Journal of Marketing47(Fall): 44-54.
4.
Arndt, J.
(1985)
`On Making Marketing Science More Scientific: Role of Orientations,
Paradigms, Metaphors, and Puzzle Solving'
, Journal of Marketing49(Summer): 11-23.
5.
Bachelard, G.
(1960) La formation de l'esprit scientifique: Contribution a
une psychanalyse de la connaissance objective.
Paris :
Vrin.
6.
Bagozzi, R.P.
(1975)
`Marketing as Exchange'
, Journal of Marketing39(October): 32-9.
7.
Bagozzi, R.P.
(1978)
`Marketing as Exchange: A Theory of Transactions in the Marketplace'
, American Behavioral Scientist21(March/April):
535-56.
8.
Bengtsson, A.
(2003)
`Towards a Critique of Brand Relationships'
, Advances in Consumer Research30: 154-8.
9.
Berry, L.L.
(1983) `Relationship Marketing', in
L.L. Berry
,
G.L. Shostack
and
G.D. Upah
(eds) Perspectives on Services Marketing, pp.
25-8. Chicago, IL:
American Marketing Association.
10.
Billig, M.
and
MacMillan, K.
(2005)
`Metaphor, Idiom and Ideology: The Search for No Smoking Guns Across
Time'
, Discourse and Society16(4):
459-80.
11.
Blackston, M.
(1992)
`Observations: Building Brand Equity by Managing the Brand's
Relationships'
, Journal of Advertising Research (May/June):
79-83.
12.
Blattberg, R.C.
and
Deighton, J.
(1991)
`Interactive Marketing: Exploiting the Age of Addressability'
, Sloan Management Review (Fall):
5-14.
13.
Brown, R.H.
(1976)
`Social Theory as Metaphor: On the Logic of Discovery for the Sciences of
Conduct'
, Theory and Society3(2):
169-97.
14.
Chilton, P.
and
Ilyin, M.
(1993)
`Metaphor in Political Discourse: The Case of the Common European
House'
, Discourse and Society4(1):
7-31.
15.
Cornelissen, J.P.
(2002)
`On the Organizational Identity Metaphor'
, British Journal of Management13: 259-68.
16.
Cornelissen, J.P.
(2003)
`Metaphor as a Method in the Domain of Marketing'
, Psychology and Marketing20(3):
209-25.
17.
Coviello, N.E.
,
Brodie, R.J.
,
Danaher, P.J.
and
Johnston, W.J.
(2002)
`How Firms Relate to their Markets: An Empirical Examination of
Contemporary Marketing Practices'
, Journal of Marketing66(3):
33-46.
18.
Coviello, N.E.
,
Brodie, R.J.
and
Munro, H.J.
(1997)
`Understanding Contemporary Marketing: Development of a Classification
Scheme'
, Journal of Marketing Management13: 501-52.
19.
Cowles, D.L.
(1997)
`The Role of Trust in Customer Relationships: Asking the Right
Questions'
, Management Decision35(4):
273-82.
20.
Dall'Olmo Riley, F.
and
de Chernatony, L.
(2000)
`The Service Brand as Relationship Builder'
, British Journal of Management11(2):
137-50.
21.
Day, G.
and
Montgomery, D.
(1999)
`Charting New Directions for Marketing'
, Journal of Marketing63(4):
3-13.
22.
de Tienne, K.B.
and
Thompson, J.A.
(1996)
`Database Marketing and Organizational Learning Theory: Toward a Research
Agenda'
, Journal of Consumer Marketing13(5):
12-34.
23.
Desmond, J.
(1997)
`Marketing and the War Machine'
, Marketing Intelligence and Planning15(7):
338-51.
24.
Dick, A.S.
and
Basu, K.
(1994)
`Customer Loyalty: Toward an Integrated Framework'
, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science22(2):
99-113.
25.
Dwyer, R.F.
,
Schurr, P.H.
and
Oh, S.
(1987)
`Developing Buyer-Seller Relationships'
, Journal of Marketing51(April): 11-27.
26.
Eco, U.
(1983)
`The Scandal of Metaphor: Metaphorology and Semiotics'
, Poetics Today4(2):
217-57.
27.
El-Ansary, A.I.
and
Stern, L.W.
(1972)
`Power Measurement in the Distribution Channel'
, Journal of Marketing38(1):
47-52.
28.
Fairclough, N.
(ed.) (1992) Critical Language Awareness.
London:
Longman.
29.
Fairclough, N.
(1995) Critical Discourse Analysis.
London:
Longman.
30.
Fairclough, N.
(2001) (first ed. 1989) Language and Power .
London:
Longman.
31.
Fischer, E.
and
Bristor, J.
(1994)
`A Feminist Poststructural Analysis of the Rhetoric of Marketing
Relationships'
, International Journal of Research in Marketing11: 317-31.
32.
Fitchett, J.A.
and
McDonagh, P.
(2000)
`A Citizen's Critique of Relationship Marketing in Risk Society'
, Journal of Marketing Strategy8(2):
209-22.
33.
Ford, D.
(1990) Understanding Business Markets: Interaction,
Relationships, Networks. London:
Academic Press .
34.
Fournier, S.
(1998)
`Consumers and Their Brands: Developing Relationship Theory in Consumer
Research'
, Journal of Consumer Research24(4):
343-71.
35.
Fournier, S.
and
Yao, J.L.
(1997)
`Reviving Brand Loyalty: A Reconceptualization Within the Framework of
Consumer-Brand Relationships'
, International Journal of Research in Marketing14: 451-72.
36.
Fournier, S.
,
Dobscha, S.
and Glen
Mick, D.
(1998)
`Preventing the Premature Death of Relationship Marketing'
, Harvard Business Review, January-February:
42-51.
37.
Gentner, D.
and
Jeziorski, M.
(1993) `The Shift from Metaphor to Analogy in Western
Science', in
A. Ortony
(ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 447-80.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
38.
Geyskens, I.
,
Steenkamp, J.-B.
,
Scheer, L.K.
and
Kumar, N.
(1996)
`The Effects of Trust and Interdependence on Relationship Commitment: A
Trans-Atlantic Study'
, International Journal of Research in Marketing13: 303-721.
39.
Glucksberg, S.
(1998)
`Understanding Metaphors'
, Current Directions in Psychological Science7: 39-43.
40.
Gordon, I.
(2000) `Organizing for Relationship Marketing', in
J.N. Sheth
and
A. Parvatiyar
(eds) Handbook of Relationship Marketing, pp.
505-23. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
41.
Guillet de Monthoux, P.B.L.
(1975)
`Organizational Mating and Industrial Marketing Theory - Some Reasons why
Industrial Marketing Managers Resist Marketing Theory'
, Industrial Marketing Management4: 25-36.
42.
Gummesson, E.
(1987)
`The New Marketing - Developing Long-term Interactive Relationships'
, Long Range Planning20: 10-20.
43.
Hackley, C.
(2003)
`We Are All Customers Now
. . . Rhetorical Strategy and Ideological Control in Marketing
Management Texts', Journal of Management Studies40(5):
1325-52.
44.
Hàkansson, H.
(1982) International Marketing and Purchasing of Industrial
Goods. New York:
Wiley.
45.
Hess, J.S.
(1996)
`An Investment Model of Consumer-Brand Relationships'
, in A. Parvatiyar and J.N. Sheth (eds) Proceedings of the Third
Conference on Relationship Marketing, Contemporary Knowledge of Relationship
Marketing, Atlanta: 151-61.
46.
Homans, G.C.
(1950) The Human Group. New
York: Harcourt Brace.
47.
Houston, F.S.
and
Gassenheimer, J.B.
(1987)
`Marketing and Exchange'
, Journal of Marketing51(October): 3-18.
48.
Hunt, S.D.
(1983)
`General Theories and the Fundamental Explananda of Marketing'
, Journal of Marketing47(2):
9-17.
49.
Hunt, S.D.
and
Menon, A.
(1995)
`Metaphors and Competitive Advantage: Evaluating the Use of Metaphors in
Theories of Competitive Strategy'
, Journal of Business Research33: 81-90.
50.
Iacobucci, D.
and
Ostrom, A.
(1996)
`Commercial and Interpersonal Relationships; Using the Structure of
Interpersonal Relationships to Understand Individual-to-Individual
, Individual-to-Firm, and Firm-to-Firm Relationships in Commerce',
International Journal of Research in Marketing13: 53-72.
51.
Keefe, L.M.
(2004)
`What is the Meaning of Marketing?'
, Marketing News, 15 September:
17-18.
52.
Koller, V.
(2005)
`Critical Discourse Analysis and Social Cognition: Evidence from Business
Media Discourse'
, Discourse and Society16: 199-224.
53.
Kotler, P.
(1991) Presentation at the Trustees Meeting of
the Marketing Science Institute, November 1990,
Boston .
54.
Lakoff, G.
(1993) `The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor', in
A. Ortony
(ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 202-51.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
55.
Lakoff, G.
and
Johnson, M.
(1980a)
`Conceptual Metaphors in Everyday Language'
, The Journal of Philosophy8(August): 453-86.
56.
Lakoff, G.
and
Johnson, M.
(1980b) Metaphors We Live By.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago
Press.
57.
Lannon, J.
(1995)
`Mosaics of Meaning: Anthropology and Marketing'
, Journal of Brand Management2(3):
155-68.
58.
Lave, J.
and
Wenger, E.
(1991) Situated Learning.
Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press.
59.
Levitt, T.
(1983) The Marketing Imagination.
New York: The Free
Press.
60.
McCall, M.
(1966) `Courtship as Social Exchange: Some Historical
Comparisons', in
B. Farber
(ed.) Kinship and Family Organization, pp.
190-210. New York:
John Wiley & Sons.
61.
McKenna, R.
(1991) Relationship Marketing: Successful Strategies for the
Age of the Customer. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley.
62.
MacNeil, I.R.
(1980) The New Social Contract: An Inquiry into Modern
Contractual Relations. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press.
63.
Management Services
(2000)
`Customer Complaints: Top 10 Taboos Revealed in Survey'
, Management Services (August):
9-11.
64.
Martin, C.L.
(1985)
`Delineating the Boundaries of Marketing'
, European Journal of Marketing19(1):
5-12.
65.
Mitussis, D.
,
O'Malley, L.
and
Patterson, M.
(2006)
`Mapping the Reengagement of CRM with Relationship Marketing'
, European Journal of Marketing40(5/6):
572-89.
66.
Möller, K.
and
Halinen, A.
(2000)
`Relationship Marketing Theory: Its Roots and Direction'
, Journal of Marketing Management16: 29-54.
67.
Montuschi, E.
(1995) `What is Wrong with Talking of Metaphors in
Science?' , in
Z. Radman
(ed.) From a Metaphorical Point of View: A Multidisciplinary Approach to
the Cognitive Content of Metaphor, pp. 309-27.
Berlin: De
Gruyter.
68.
Morgan, G.
(1980)
`Paradigms, Metaphors, and Puzzle Solving in Organization Theory'
, Administrative Science Quarterly25: 605-22.
69.
Morgan, R.M.
(2000) `Relationship Marketing and Marketing Strategy: The
Evolution of Relationship Marketing Strategy within the Organization' , in
J.N. Sheth
and
A. Parvatiyar
(eds) Handbook of Relationship Marketing, pp.
481-504. Thousand Oaks,
CA: Sage.
70.
Morgan, R.M.
and
Hunt, S.D.
(1994)
`The Commitment-Trust Theory of Relationship Marketing'
, Journal of Marketing58(3):
20-38.
71.
O'
Connor, E.S.
(1995)
`Paradoxes of Participation: Textual Analysis and Organizational
Change'
, Organization Studies16: 769-803.
72.
O'Malley, L.
and
Mitussis, D.
(2002)
`Relationships and Technology: Strategic Implications'
, Journal of Strategic Marketing10(3):
225-38.
73.
O'Malley, L.
and
Prothero, A.
(2004)
`Beyond the Frills of Relationship Marketing'
, Journal of Business Research57: 1286-94.
74.
O'Malley, L.
and
Tynan, C.
(1999)
`The Utility of the Relationship Metaphor in Consumer Markets: A Critical
Evaluation'
, Journal of Marketing Management15: 587-602.
75.
O'Malley, L.
and
Tynan, C.
(2000)
`Relationship Marketing in Consumer Markets: Rhetoric or Reality?'
, European Journal of Marketing34(7):
797-815.
76.
Palmatier, R.W.
,
Dant, R.
,
Grewal, D.
and
Evans, K.R.
(2006)
`Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Relationship Marketing: A
Meta-Analysis'
, Journal of Marketing70(4):
136-53.
77.
Palmer, A.
(1996)
`Integrating Brand Development and Relationship Marketing'
, Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services3(4):
251-7.
78.
Reddy, M.J.
(1993[1979]) `The Conduit Metaphor: A Case of Frame Conflict in our Language about
Language', in
A. Ortony
(ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 164-201.
Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press.
79.
Reichheld, F.F.
and
Sasser, E.W.
(1990)
`Zero Defections: Quality Comes to Services'
, Harvard Business Review69(September-October):
105-11.
80.
Ridell, S.
(1996)
`Resistance through Routines: Flow Theory and the Power of Metaphors'
, European Journal of Communication11(4):
557-82.
81.
Sandelands, L.E.
and
Srivatsan, V.
(1993)
`The Problem of Experience in the Study of Organisations'
, Organisation Studies14(1):
1-22.
82.
Sawhney, H.
(1996)
`Information Superhighway: Metaphors as Midwives', Media
, Culture & Society18: 291-314.
83.
Scanzoni, J.
(1979)
`Commentary on: Fertility as Consumption: Theories from the Behavioural
Sciences'
, Journal of Consumer Research5(4):
292-4.
84.
Schön, D.A.
(1993) `Generative Metaphor and Social Policy', in
A. Ortony
(ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 137-63.
Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
85.
Searle, J.R.
(1993) `Metaphor', in
A. Ortony
(ed.) Metaphor and Thought, pp. 83-111.
Cambridge : Cambridge University
Press.
86.
Semino, E.
and
Masci, M.
(1996)
`Politics is Football: Metaphor in the Discourse of Silvio Berlusconi in
Italy'
, Discourse and Society7(2):
243-69.
87.
Sergiovanni, T.J.
(1993) Building Community in School.
San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
88.
Sheaves, D.E.
and
Barnes, J.G.
(1996)
`The Fundamentals of Relationships: An Exploration of the Concept to Guide
Marketing Implementation'
, Advances in Services Marketing and Management5: 215-45.
89.
Sheth, J.N.
and
Parvatiyar, A.
(1995)
`The Evolution of Relationship Marketing'
, International Business Review4(4):
397-418.
90.
Sisodia, R.S.
and
Wolfe, D.B.
(2000) `Information Technology: Its Role in Building,
Maintaining, and Enhancing Relationships', in
J.N. Sheth
and
A. Parvatiyar
(eds) Handbook of Relationship Marketing, pp.
525-63. Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.
91.
Smith, W.
and
Higgins, M.
(2000)
`Reconsidering the Relationship Analogy'
, Journal of Marketing Management16: 81-94.
92.
ten Bos, R.
(2000) Fashion and Utopia in Management Thinking.
Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
93.
Thibaut, J.W.
and
Kelley, H.H.
(1959) The Social Psychology of Groups.
New York: John
Wiley.
94.
Turnbull, P.
(1979)
`Roles of Personal Contacts in Industrial Export Marketing'
, Scandinavian Journal of Management7: 325-39.
95.
Uncles, M.
(1994)
`Do You or Your Customers Need a Loyalty Program?', Journal of
Targeting
, Measurement and Analysis for Marketing2(4):
335-50.
96.
van den Bulte, C.
(1994) `Metaphor at Work', in
G. Laurent
,
G.L. Lillien
and
B. Pras
(eds) Research Traditions in Marketing , pp.
405-25. Boston:
Kluwer Academic Publishers.
97.
Webster, F.E.
(1992)
`The Changing Role of Marketing in the Corporation'
, Journal of Marketing56(October): 1-17.
98.
Whittington, R.
and
Whipp, R.
(1992)
`Professional Ideology and Marketing Implementation'
, European Journal of Marketing26(1):
52-63.
99.
Wodak, R.
and
Meyer, M.
(2001) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis.
London:
Sage.
