In this course, the students will be introduced to the evolution of current marketing techniques applied by companies and the downside of contemporary marketing practices by systematically reviewing the the forerunners of today’s markets and marketing and the different stakeholders impacted by it. In addition to the historical roots of our today’s (economic) background, this course will touch upon the topics of the ontological premise of critical marketing, the impact of the abundance of choice on different stakeholder groups, the concept of consumer sovereignty, vulnerable segments, critical perspectives of international marketing, defining ones' selves through brands, and beyond.

Topics covered during this course:

Introduction: Brief overview of what critical marketing is about; ontological denaturalization; Marx’ s commodity fetishism, Veblen’s theory of leisure class and the trickle-down effect, Frankfurt school and their culture industry, Critical sociology and its critique of marketing as manipulation of symbolic systems and mental processes, Foucault’s power games).

Body: Post WW II period where consumption in the US was promoted as everyone’s civic duty, the imaginative world without marketing, its positives/negatives, on choice (overload), psychological mechanisms causing the detriments of choice and its consequences, on “the customer is the king”, advertising and “the magic system” and reification of brands, adverting as a contaminator of public space and who it “hurts”, the “monkey business” across the marketing mix (prices, products, etc), the vulnerable groups, how and why they become an “easy catch”, how the consumers “act back”, but mostly just at face value due to affordability, attitude-behavior gap, underlying capitalist logic, pursuit of hedonism, etc., critical perspectives on international marketing, pursuit for new, western lifestyle and the shattered identity of the human being.

The aim of this course is to draw on the influence of marketing activities on consumer behavior by placing marketing ideas in a broader societal context. This course provides insights into potential and existing inherent conflicts which arise within the interplay of contemporary marketing practices and the society. By viewing marketing activities through different lenses (the company lense, the consumer lense, the wider societal lense, the „planet“ lense, among others), the students will acquire a balanced view of the effect of marketing and the inherent consumer culture on different stakeholder groups in the society.

In this course the student

• will be aware of the ontological realm or the foundational premisewhich has influenced contemporary marketing; - is able to evaluate the impact of contemporary marketing activities on the immediate and less immediate stakeholder groups;
• can identify the frequently “hidden agendas” of marketing techniques and campaigns used to create a reaction which often benefits the “company view” only;
• is able to critically evaluate various instances of misconduct within established marketing frameworks (the marketing mix, the segmentations variables, etc);
• is familiar with how consumers have started “acting back”;
• can evaluate and redesign contemporary marketing practices to benefit as many stakeholder groups as possible.

Participants must be present during the first session and attend at least 80% of the classroom hours to be able to complete this course.

Within this course, a variety of didactic elements are utilized to facilitate the successful completion of the learning outcomes outlined above. The course is delivered as a mix of lectures covering theoretical concepts and their application and utilizes classroom interaction to facilitate learning and welcome viewpoints and takes of different (cultural) origin. A key element in the course delivery is the group presentation during the last class, which allows for an immediate transfer of knowledge to the immediate environment that surrounds the various stakeholder groups.

1. Pre-course assignment (1000-1500 words in total) – an academic article review which serves as a “warm-up” for the course ( 25% of final grade) to be submitted by the 17th November 2024 (tbc)
2. Active participation - each student must participate actively during the class ( 25%  of final grade)
3. Group-work presentation (PPT; ~ 20 minutes + Q&A): in a group of 3-4 students ( 50%  of final grade)

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