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 Journal of Marketing Management

Vol. 28, Nos. 1–2, February 2012, 8–13

Marketing management and marketing research

Sidney J. Levy, University of Arizona, USA

Abstract   This article describes elements of the author’s long career as amarketing researcher and professor of marketing, giving examples from hisexperience studying marketplace issues for many organisations and researching

the nature of marketing. He cites the value of a broad educational backgroundand the benefits of working with managers on a diversity of practical problems.As a practitioner and an advocate of the use of qualitative methods of research,

he notes specific instances of their application to the concerns of managers.He sums up the awareness he gained about marketing management and the

use of marketing research. He tells how he drew from that experience to makecontributions about the role of marketing in society and the study of consumersin the theory and literature of the field.

Keywords marketing; management; research

Introduction

In response to the Editor’s request, this paper is a personal reflection on theproduction of knowledge in marketing and consumer research as I experienced thisissue during my career as a researcher, a marketing research service provider, anda professor of marketing. I will address how I came to study marketing problemsand especially those related to consumer behaviour; what I learned about marketingmanagement from working with managers, and what I think about contemporarymanagers and research scholars.

 At the University of Chicago, I was a liberal arts student as an undergraduate.I was uncertain whether to study the humanities or the social sciences in graduatework. Having studied painting, dancing, and acting, I was interested in the fine arts,

great music, and literature. As a result, my first advice to students, researchers, andmanagers is to appreciate and to participate in the richness of life represented by thehumanities. Being a child of the Great Depression, I was also concerned with theinfluence of economics on everyday life and the importance of politics, especially inour democratic society; but I was most notably concerned with people. I observedthem closely and was curious about their varied personalities and the complexity of their motives and actions. That interest – and the influence of friends on campus – ledme to graduate study with the interdisciplinary Committee on Human Development

ISSN 0267-257X print/ISSN 1472-1376 online

© 2011 Westburn Publishers Ltd.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.645688

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Levy  Marketing management and marketing research   9

where our coursework included biology, genetics, physiology, psychology, sociology,anthropology; that is, working on the relationships among the body, its psyche, thesocial group, society and its culture, and the whole wonder of their expressions ineveryday life. Our work as scholars essentially seeks to understand the interweavingof ideas and the people who have them – their cognitions, emotions, and conations –

within some context of interest. Thus, before focusing narrowly on the specificdemands of a professional contribution, I think it is of great value to gain as muchgrounding as one can in the many ways it is possible to think about people and howthey live.

 As a poor graduate student, needing to earn some money to pay for mypsychoanalysis, I took a job at Social Research, Inc. (SRI) where a behaviouralscience group offered to study problems for diverse organisations. I worked withbright colleagues from different disciplinary backgrounds and ways of thinking, andfound it invaluable to do that. We studied marketing problems for many companies,wholesalers, and retailers (from Atari, Burson-Marsteller, Chevrolet – ABC – to

Zenith) and their advertising agencies (Marlboro/Leo Burnett, Kraft/ J. WalterThompson, Coca-Cola/D’Arcy), for hospitals (Michael Reese), schools (University of Michigan), government agencies (INS), associations (Society of American Archivists),and media (Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, Toronto Star, True Confessions,Better Homes and Gardens). I will describe a few examples to suggest the range of issues we studied and my relationships with practitioners.

SRI’s work was innovative and creative, and appealed to smart, alert, and open-minded managers. We carried out the first qualitative study for AT&T in 1955, ‘ASocio-Psychological Study of Telephone Users’, at the behest of Ted Smith. His titlewas Chief Statistician, but after our study he changed it to Director of Research.Similarly, on behalf of the Coca-Cola Company, after its more than half a century in

business, I was hired by the D’Arcy advertising agency in New York to conduct its firstqualitative study that inquired into why people drink soft drinks. This interest wasstimulated by the post-war rise of energetic competition from Pepsi-Cola. They flewme to Atlanta where Robert Woodruff was Chairman of the Board at the time. He satalone and patiently listened to me give a verbal report for two hours, sans PowerPoint.Thirty years later, D’Arcy Masius Benton and Bowles commissioned a study of ‘TheMeaning of Flowers’, on behalf of their client, Florists Transworld Delivery. I usedconversational interviewing, story-telling, systematic comparisons with other gifts,drawings, incomplete sentences, and ‘if you had a dream about flowers,’ to elicitconsumers’ experience, motives, perceptions, feelings, etc., and wrote an extensive

report. One of the creative people told me later that his copy of the report had beenso useful that it was tattered from his notes and handling.

Pierre Martineau of the  Chicago Tribune  sponsored a series of qualitative studiesof consumers’ use and perceptions of automobiles, beer, soaps and detergents, andcigarettes. He, in turn, presented the results of those studies as a service to thoseindustries to promote newspaper advertising. I tutored him in the thinking andmethods of our work, telling him how to defend what we called motivation research,when he met with resistance at his presentations. He was an apt pupil and gainedrecognition for his book, Motivation in Advertising  (Martineau, 1957).

 J. Walter Thompson’s Chicago office had a Marketing Research Director who

saw to surveys and statistics of traditional sorts, but managers George Reeves andSandy Gunn were interested in applying the new wave of qualitative research thatSRI represented. While waiting out the MR Director’s retirement, they involved me

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as an external researcher provider. I became acquainted with most of the accountexecutives and creative personnel at the agency, and worked on numerous projects fortheir clients, including Swift, Kraft, Oscar Meyer, The National Wholesale Druggists

 Association, Hyatt Hotels, etc. We studied the perception of many commodities(milk, wine, lemons, beer) and wrote inquiries into the nature of advertising,

including reports such as ‘The Value of Advertising in Everyday Life’, ‘ThematicCoherence in Advertising Approaches’, and ‘Television Commercial Longevity’.

 An article about consumption systems that I wrote with Harper Boyd at NorthwesternUniversity that the   Harvard Business Review   (1963) titled ‘New Dimension inConsumer Analysis’, led to its specific application to a study for Oscar Mayer about‘Makin’ Bacon.’

To illustrate the receptivity I encountered from some people: At one point GilPalen was the Thompson research director. He said he had a little money left in hisannual budget and invited a proposal from me. I said I would study the symbolism of the agency’s main advertising campaigns of the year and create a glossary of analysis

and interpretation. He said he did not know what I was talking about, but to go aheadand do it. The result was a report called ‘A Symbolic Glossary’ that I presented tomeetings of the agency staff and was for a time required reading by new hires. We alsohelped J. Walter Thompson hire a new director of research, Henry O. Whiteside, afriend from the Gardner Advertising Agency in St. Louis. He built his own qualitativeresearch group that we helped train, working ourselves out of projects. One of hispeople, Melanie Payne, became a good friend. She saw to focus groups for the agencyand later created her own company to provide this service.

From all this work I learned about the kinds of marketing problems faced bymanagers in different settings. I saw how managers think and how they cope with theintellectual and political conflicts within organisations. It was especially interesting

to observe the role of marketing research, when and how it was used and abused:as a way of learning and problem-solving, for decision-making, and as a weaponfor in-fighting. A large printing company in Chicago, R.R. Donnelly, prepared an adcampaign that used little animals to illustrate their competitors were slow (a snail),whereas Donnelly was fast (a rabbit) and would work all night (an owl). Testingshowed that the customers were amused, but a major salesman objected that ittrivialised him in the eyes of his serious million dollar clients. At times, managerswould have disagreements, sometimes minor and sometimes major, about how theorganisation should proceed. Should Sunbeam Company design the coffee makerwith a light that was on while it was brewing or that came on after it was finished?

Should the hospital build a new pavilion to keep doctors on staff or face the fact theneighbourhood was changing and doctors were determined to go elsewhere? Thesequestions were given to my company to resolve – although often the contending sidescontinued the battle.

I also observed that some managers wanted narrowly to know how buyers wouldreact to a specific marketing action (price, package, ad theme, colour, feature, etc.):that is, would it increase sales? But, curiously, customers reacted in a more complexway, thinking about how the proposed action was suited to their perceptions of the brands involved. I saw that, like the Donnelly salesman, they had images of thebrands that determined whether the marketing suggestion was a fitting one. That

is, not just whether it was a good or bad thing to do in itself but relative to whatthey already thought about the objects. That observation led to my writing thearticle ‘The Product and the Brand (1955),’ for the Harvard Business Review, thereby

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launching the concept of the  brand image. Introducing the article, the editor wrote,‘Qualitative research into consumer motives gives both company management andadvertising agency fresh insight into their joint task of building the product and thebrand’ (p. 33).

The article summed up that marketing action should be regarded as ‘a contribution

to the complex symbol which is the brand image – as part of the  long-term investmentin the reputation of the brand.’ It also required further explanation of the reference to‘complex symbol’, which I developed in ‘Symbols for Sale’ (1959). Forty years later,I received the Converse Award for ‘contributions to the discipline of Marketing,including “Symbols for Sale.”’ For the occasion I wrote ‘Household Policies: AConverse Idea’ (Levy, 2000). Over the last 30 years I have continued to supportqualitative research in marketing. To further the qualitative analysis of symbolismand symbolic thinking, I penned ‘Interpreting Consumer Mythology: A Structural

 Approach to Consumer Behavior’ (Levy, 1981). It is instructive to know that of theblind reviews, two thrashed it as poorly written and largely incomprehensible, and

the third said it was great; and it went on to receive the Maynard Award for the besttheoretical article in the 1981 volume of the Journal of Marketing , making me wonderabout the system. I still wonder about it when I see current reviewers’ variegatedcomments.

These articles were widely anthologised and cited, and had a strong impacton both practice and research. Although branding had gone on since at least2700   BC E   the concept of brand image launched awareness and diffusion of theimportance of branding. Since 1955 it has become common usage in the world, withgrowth of interest in its application to concerns about brand loyalty and switching,brand personality, brand equity, brand relationships, and brand communities.My belief in its universal relevance and experience with studies of such diverse

kinds, led to writing (with Philip Kotler) the article ‘Broadening the Concept of Marketing’, which, despite resistance, took root and flourished as an assertion that allorganisations and individuals must inevitably engage in marketing by the ways theypresent themselves and seek response, all in their own versions of the famous 4 Ps of product, price, place, and promotion.

 All along, my work on a series of marketing research projects for beverageproducers of milk, beer, soft drinks, coffee, wine, etc. gave me the content toillustrate how the symbolism of beverage consumption functions to express societalissues of growth and development, gender and sexuality, and levels of social status.I called this illustration The Synchronic Beverage Structure, using it to show the

relationships among products and their forms, their meanings, and their marketsegments. I used the practical information from each of the studies to abstracttheir more general implications, to create the overall structure shown in the article‘Meanings in Advertising Stimuli’ (1986).

Throughout my career and continuing with recent projects, I have often found ituseful to work with people who had other perspectives. Harper Boyd’s practicalinterests in marketing led us to interview executives and write ‘What Kind of Corporate Objectives?’ (Levy & Boyd, 1966). We wrote ‘Cigarette Smoking and thePublic Interest’ (Levy & Boyd, 1963a), and ‘New Dimension in Consumer Analysis’(Levy & Boyd, 1963b). Philip Kotler and I wrote a series of articles about ‘Broadening

the Concept of Marketing’ (Levy & Kotler, 1969), ‘Demarketing, Yes, Demarketing’(Levy & Kotler, 1971), and ‘Buying is Marketing, Too!’ (Levy & Kotler, 1973). JohnCzepiel and I wrote about ‘Marketing and Aesthetics’ (Levy & Czepiel, 1974). Dennis

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Rook and I explored ‘Brands, Trademarks, and the Law’ (Levy & Rook, 1981), and‘Grooming Rituals’ (Levy & Rook, 1983); Deborah Heisley and I described the useof photography in consumer research (Levy & Heisley, 1991). Beginners have to bemore programmatic about their research to satisfy promotion and tenure committees,but I was tenured (and determined), so I could enjoy the stimulation of working with

and thinking about this diversity of topics. As a researcher I was committed to using qualitative methods – which incorporate

using quantitative methods when usefully integrated with a holistic approach. Thatmeant applying what my education and experience taught me about interviews,ethnographies, projective techniques, personal histories, case studies, participant-observation, and the different points of view provided by different intellectualdisciplines. I tried to communicate this thinking in ‘Motivation Research’ (Levy,1958), ‘Qualitative Research’ (Levy, 1994), ‘Mammon and Psyche’ (Levy, 1968),‘Social Class and Consumer Behavior’ (Levy, 1966), ‘Hunger and Work in a CivilizedTribe, or the Anthropology of Market Transactions’ (Levy, 1978), and in various

other instances. The most recent is the publication of ‘Intègraphy: A Multi-method Approach to Situational Analysis’. I coined   intègraphy   to refresh thoughts aboutintegrating research methods.

There has clearly been growth of awareness, interest, and application of qualitativeresearch. Practitioners were early to respond, although their exaggerated preferencefor the efficiencies and economies of group interviewing created the ‘focus group’industry, with its many shortcomings that I wrote about in ‘Focus Groups: MixedBlessing (1973).’ As a group, academicians came later in adopting and applyingqualitative methods and some such as Russell Belk, Rob Kozinets, Craig Thompson,etc., have become noted for their work. This acceptance seems greater amongEuropeans and Asians, and is especially notable among Consumer Culture Theorists.

But there are still many schools that are unwilling to hire such workers; and thecurrent dominance of lab experiments among professors, students, journals, andreviewers has a stifling effect. We need all kinds of workers including of course allthe quantitative researchers, the modelers, and the lab experimenters. We also needthe people who study situations in a so-called holistic way, not limiting themselves toisolating the interaction of a couple of variables in a way that overly simplifies themand often dismisses individual differences. We must try to comprehend the richnessand complexity of real people.

This narrative is perhaps sufficient to indicate my experience, how I have workedand how my mind has worked. In summary, I would recommend to young scholars:

focus in depth on a topic and methods that makes you expert without lookingdown on alternative approaches; broaden your thinking about varied rich, important,interesting issues in life; work with other people; engage with managers aboutpractical problems and the consequences of theory. I sometimes think that my senseof humour and enjoyment of my work have been my greatest assets; and I wouldwish the same sustenance for you.

References

Levy, S.J. (1958). Motivation research. Community Organization, 1958 Proceedings. In  85th Annual Forum of National Conference on Social Welfare, New York, Columbia Press.

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Levy, S.J., & Boyd, H.W. (1963a). Cigarette smoking and the public interest.   Business Horizons, Fall, 37–44.

Levy, S.J. (1963a). Thematic assessment of executives.  California Management Review,  5(4),3–8.

Levy, S.J. (1963b). Symbolism and life style.  Proceedings, American Marketing Association,December, 140–150.

Levy, S.J., & Boyd, H.W. (1963b). New dimension in consumer analysis.  Harvard Business Review, October, 129–140.

Levy, S.J., & Boyd, H.W. (1966). What kind of corporate objectives?  Journal of Marketing ,October, 63–68.

Levy, S.J. (1966). Social class and consumer behavior. In J. Newman (Ed.),  On knowing theconsumer  (pp. 146–160). Chichester: Wiley.

Levy, S.J. (1968). Mammon and psyche. In M.S. Sommers & J.B. Kernan (Eds.),  Explorationsin consumer behavior  (pp. 119–133). Bureau of Business Research, University of Texas.

Levy S.J., & Kotler, P. (1969). Broadening the concept of marketing.  Journal of Marketing , January, 10–15.

Levy, S.J. (1978). Hunger and work in a civilized tribe, or the anthropology of market

Transactions. American Behavioral Scientist, March–April, 557–570.Levy, S.J., & Kotler, P. (1971). Demarketing, yes, demarketing.   Harvard Business Review,

November–December, 74–80.Levy, S.J., & Kotler, P. (1973). Buying is marketing too! Journal of Marketing , January, 54–59.Levy, S.J., & Czepiel, J. (1974). Marketing and aesthetics.   Proceedings   (pp. 386–391),

 American Marketing Association.Levy, S.J., & Zaltman, G. (1975).   Marketing, society, and conflict. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:

Prentice-Hall.Levy, S.J., & Rook, D. (1981). Brands, trademarks, and the law. In   Review of marketing 

(pp. 185–194). Chicago: American Marketing Association.Levy, S.J. (1981). Interpreting consumer mythology: A structural approach to consumer

behavior.  Journal of Marketing , Summer, 49–61.Levy, S.J., & Rook, D. (1983). Psychosocial themes in consumer grooming rituals,  Advances

in Consumer Research, 10, 329–333b.Levy, S.J., & Heisley, D.D. (1991). Autodriving: A photoelicitation technique.   Journal of 

Consumer Research, December, 257–272.Levy, S.J. (1994). What is qualitative research? In   Marketing manager’s handbook

(pp. 270–286). Chicago: Dartnell.Levy, S.J. (2000). Household policies: A converse idea. In 15th Paul D. Converse Symposium,

Chicago.Levy, S.J., &. Kellstadt, C.H. (in press). Intègraphy: A multi-method approach situational

analysis. Journal of Business Research.

Martineau, P. (1957). Motivation in advertising , New York: McGraw-Hill.

About the author

Sidney Levy   is the Coca-Cola Distinguished Professor of Marketing at the Eller College of Management of the University of Arizona.

Corresponding author:   Prof. Sidney J. Levy, Eller College of Management, University of  Arizona, 1130 E. Helen Street, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA.

E   slevy@email.arizona.edu