Marketing discipline re-institutionalization for Generation Z consumers

Business Marketing: Reading Critique

Answering 1B

For Re-Institutionalizing the Marketing Discipline in Era V

The new question that could be raised for this article is whether the marketing discipline’s major predicaments could still be followed like a hard and fast rule for the new generations, especially in the current era, i.e., Generation Z? Since Generation Z is the one that is still evolving and whose preferences are still being explored by the marketers, they are new for the marketing researchers as they research on their own defined rules. Social media has become a resourceful tool for them to look for comments, feedback, word-of-mouth marketing, and reviews from social media influence to make up their minds about the products and services they are about to purchase. Their final decisions are mostly based on previous comments, feedback, and criticisms, which certainly need to be explored in the current marketing discipline.

Age and generation gap are two factors that could shape or re-institutionalize how marketing models and predecessors have been working. Internet, technology, and social media have transformed how consumer marketing works nowadays. As the article talks about “specific educational preparation” and developing “cognitive identity” through teaching the mainstream and theoretical knowledge along with generalized knowledge that historical experts set in the past, the nourishment that this discipline should offer in the current age of digital marketing might create central problems presented by the subject of Marketing (Hunt, 2020). Since marketing has been progressing over time and with each generational period, for example, in era one and era 2, etc., the relevant techniques in the past could be questioned. 

The new question is unique and meaningful for future research since purchase intention. Brand loyalty has been more dependent now on peer recommendations based on electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), artificial intelligence is now in more use for B2B and B2C companies for dealing with the big data, increased dynamism in future research would be based on more reliance on mobile marketing and advertising, augmented reality soon to become a norm for the consumers providing a more futuristic approach to marketing, etc. have been shaped with the incoming of internet and technology (Dwivedi et al., 2021). Ethical issues are of more concern compared to the previous decades since breaches on the internet for privacy and confidentiality of the customers have been risker than before. An insight into traditional e-commerce models and disrupted supply chains with digitization is expected to change product portfolios and stakeholder interests for the businesses, both physically and virtually. 

Marketing’s Identity Crisis: Insights from the History of Marketing Thought

The new question that could be raised for this article is whether the fourth paradigm of marketing would answer the anomalies of the technology and its produced uncertainty for the consumer decision-making process. As mentioned in the previous section, technology has metamorphosed the way consumers make purchase decisions. Younger generations have been the most interesting to study; marketing does rely on investing in new technologies so that consumers’ changing preferences can be catered to, well and promptly. However, heavy investments in technology during the fourth paradigm, which is still unpredictable, would be an astute decision by the marketers. 

In marketing, selling and buying are done for the final consumer so that the transaction determines an exchange of goods or services that would be beneficial for both the buyer and the seller (El-Ansary, Shaw & Kazer, 2017). Marketing does rely on investing in new technologies for this purpose. Marketing research with new ways could prove fruitful for transferring knowledge about the consumer and his preferences (Hoffman et al., 2022). However, the adoption cycle could be time-consuming, particularly when the fourth paradigm has numerous market dynamics concerning the still-being-researched Generation Z’s methods of reaching their final decision. 

A Theories-in-Use Approach to Building Marketing Theory 

The new question that could be raised for this article is whether the theories-in-use (TIU) approach, which is organic as it represents people’s approach to marketing’s problem solving, could be applied to current changes in service quality, market orientation, consumer buying process, customer solutions, and market dynamics, etc. Could old people’s thinking apply to certain contexts of marketing that have themselves been changed with the advent of technology? Even if a single area of digital marketing and the adverse impact on the brand image with only one negative e-WOM from a consumer posting online reviews on a social media page is taken, for example, the borrowing of one’s concepts would be pertinent to stakeholders of digital marketing of that particular brand? The same query goes on for the other areas and businesses of marketing as well.

The question stands for TIU’s approach that one person has long-established cannot be suitably implemented on current paradigms in this discipline. The article mentions that people’s thinking is distinct and complex, and their TIU approaches are based on their personal experiences of ‘if-then’ relationships (Zeithaml et al., 2020). Now, one persons’ proven relationship, for example, digital marketing and customer purchase, might not be helpful for the other marketer. Considering the complexities of modern markets and the way consumers behave due to the presence of social media, the TIU approach would need to be scrutinized if a previously settled theory could help engage consumers more psychologically and measure their engagement based on their interaction on social media. 

Answering 2A

Marketing’s Identity Crisis: Insights from the History of Marketing Thought

The new insights that could be generated for this article are that the new megatrends that have reconstructed the marketing discipline these days, such as digital content management, globalization, management of big data with confidentiality of the customers, and being environmentally responsible, the marketing discipline has become more complex and volatile. Marketing can do wonders only on its own, but it now requires collaboration with management. The marketing management inculcates the complex contexts to be addressed each day so that brand image and market competitiveness are sustained through consumer buying behaviors. 

New marketing models are in process and are still required in the future to become predictive of future trends in a dynamic environment. The optimal behaviors of both the consumers and the business markets have to be managed with more cunning than before so that global expectations are met on time. Therefore, the marketing systems need to become a value-producing system with the necessary reconfigurations so that the transition for the discipline to cater to the new generations becomes feasible and profitable. 

As the article stresses upon the fourth paradigm of marketing that is proposed for micro, mezzo, and macro perspectives by infusing key concepts of hierarchy of market systems, research should be done for the formulation of new transformation with exploration, mobilization, and stabilization (Moller, Nenonen & Storbacka, 2020). These three key aspects could be interweaved with innovation procedures, formation of coalitions, institutionalization that would influence the market processes, and the forces affecting all the above three. These processes are expected to create structures, beliefs, and choices for the consumers that would again hit their psychological forces intriguing them to buy a certain product after their final decision-making, even if it is through digital technologies, social media platforms, or e-WOM. 

Since the article also highlights that human agents like to evolve by continuously becoming aware of newly gained information, searching for alternatives, and making better decisions with newly gained knowledge, they want to change their living and adapt to the changing environments. The old and traditional marketing concepts might not be further applicable to consumers’ preferences, goals, and expectations in recent times that still need to be fulfilled with marketing management and solving the intricacies of the marketing systems. The purchase intention is a connection of trust of the source and the brand that is offering a particular product or service so that influencing of people’s attitudes and behavioral buying could be detected through the communication taking place over the social media, which could lead to the formulation of new information adoption models, likely to be of value for the marketing discipline as well as marketers for theory building in the fourth paradigm.