Marketing for good or for ill?

McKenna (1991) and Klein (2000) provide very different perspectives on what marketing is all about. Using the critical thinking techniques provide a critical analysis of their views (A example of critical thinking is provide in file), and use it to support your own ideas about the marketing function. Sourses: McKenna, R. (1991). Marketing is everything. Harvard Business Review, 69(1), 65–79 Klein, N. (2000). No logo: Taking aim at the brand bullies. New York: Picador. (Chapter 1: New branded world) What is critical thinking: 1. Accuracy: • Difficult to judge without an independent source of information • Can use proxies to decide: – Are there obvious errors? • Simple grammatical, spelling, citing errors (apply to your own writing!) • Logical errors • Precision and authority (see below) help to gauge accuracy 2. Precision: • Good evidence is appropriately precise • General statements are less convincing than quantified metrics. For example: – Mutual fund XYZ did quite well last year, versus – Mutual fund XYZ made 9.2% more last year • How to increase precision: – Use numbers (to an appropriate decimal point – over-precision can detract from credibility too!) – Use direct quotations of what people said] 3. Sufficiency: • Unlikely that a claim can be supported by a single piece of data • Amount of evidence required depends on: – Importance of the claim – Potential damage caused if claim is incorrect • When evidence is insufficient we are guilty of the fallacy of hasty generalization] 4. Representativeness: • The variety in the sources of information should match the variety in the population relevant to the claim • Single anecdotes (stories), while compelling, may not represent the broader phenomenon] 5. Authority: • We often don’t have first-hand knowledge so must rely on others • Which others? Authority is increased with: – Special training – Professional credentials – Considerable experience • Potential missteps: – Fallacy of false appeal to authority – Fallacy of argumentum ad populum or the bandwagon effect]