Short description:

How can we overcome the rapidly ageing postmodernist paradigm, which has become sterile orthodoxy in marketing? This book answers this crucial question using fresh philosophical tools developed by New Realism.

Long description:

How can we overcome the rapidly ageing postmodernist paradigm, which has become sterile orthodoxy in marketing? This book answers this crucial question using fresh philosophical tools developed by New Realism. It indicates the opportunities missed by marketing due to the pervasive postmodernist ideology and proposes a new and fruitful approach pivoting on the significance of reality to marketing analyses and models.

Intensifying reference to reality will boost marketing research and practice, rather than impair them; conversely, neglecting such a reference will prevent marketing from realising its full potential, in several contexts. The aim of the book is foundational: its purpose is not a return to traditional realism but to break new ground and overcome theoretical obstacles in marketing and management by revising some of their assumptions and enriching their categories, thereby paving the way to fresh approaches and methodological innovations. In that sense, the book encourages theoretical innovation and experimentation and introduces new concepts, like invitation and attrition, which can find fruitful applications in marketing theory and practice. That is meant to be conductive to the solution of important difficulties and to the uncovering of new phenomena. The last chapter of the book applies the new approach to eight case studies from business contexts.

This book will be of interest to philosophers interested in New Realism and to researchers, scholars and marketing professionals sensitive to the importance and fruitfulness of reference to reality, for their own purposes.

"Marketing has often been considered as an art of illusion. In the era of post-truth, and with a solid managerial and philosophical approach, this radically innovative book teaches us how to rethink marketing while respecting reality, and provides us with new conceptual tools" Maurizio Ferraris, Full Professor of Philosophy, University of Turin, Italy

"Philosophy once again shows its face where many philosophers are unable or unwilling to look for it: in this case, marketing. Through an extended meditation on the rise of contemporary realism, the authors offer a thorough critique of existing approaches to marketing, and give us a resounding case for the relevance of new realism in their field. You will be astonished, just as I was." Graham Harman, Southern California Institute of Architecture, USA

"Giannasi and Casarin?s book is indeed conceptually rich as well as challenging. They question several current marketing approaches such as experiential marketing, consumer culture theory, relationship marketing and service-dominant logic." Nicholas J.C. Santos, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska

Table of Contents:

Part 1. Antirealism and Its Consequences 1. What Went Wrong With Reality 2. The Postmodernist Challenge to Realism 3. The Legacy and Consequences of Postmodernist Thought Part 2. The Significance of Realism 4. The Persisting Relevance of Reality 5. Marketing, Management, and the Return of Reality