1 - Introduction

Summary

This book is about a unique type of organization: a marketing company. Although most people know what marketing is – or, at least, think they know – we know surprising little about these organizations, how they work, and the experiences of people in them. According to Svensson, a leading scholar of marketing in the real world, there is even ‘little agreement as to what should be included in the notion of marketing work’ (2019: 156). Marketing is, in this sense, an example of the kind of black box that keeps society ticking over (Latour, 1994). It is something which we all know exists but rarely stop to consider how it works.

Ask someone on the street and they will probably tell you that marketing involves selling products and creating brands. They may complain about being bombarded with invitations to complete surveys, describe nuisance cold callers, or annoying online adverts (Cluley, 2016). They will most likely point to advertising agencies, shopping malls, call centres, and tech companies as places where marketing happens (Heath et al, 2017).

Yet, marketing organizations rarely think of themselves in these terms. They tend to speak about fulfilling consumers’ dreams (Marchand, 1985). At marketing industry events and in practitioners’ accounts, you hear marketers talking about how they make mundane objects magical and invest them with meaning (Hegarty, 2011; de Waal Malefyt, 2017). They talk about helping their clients to make better decisions, driving economic growth, and improving social welfare (Wilkie and Moore, 1999). They present themselves as possessing unique knowledge about consumers and markets (Alvesson, 1994).

Although people might not immediately associate these ideas with marketing, they are not completely alien to many of us. We see them in critical studies of marketing. Here, marketers are described as hidden persuaders (Packard, 1957), captains of consciousness (Ewen, 1976), and conquerors of cool (Frank, 1998). They are also reflected in popular culture. TV series such as Mad Men present the world of advertising agencies to us in a way that makes it seem cool, stylish, and attractive. In this show, ad agents such as Don Draper and Peggy Olsen pull inspirational ideas out of thin air as they swig glasses of whiskey in tailored suits.

In making these claims, marketing organizations, marketing theorists, and cultural producers draw on two stereotypes about marketers (Nyilasy and Reid, 2009). They sometimes speak about marketers as creative artists.