Call for paper Journal of Marketing Management 2007:
Deadline for submission of paper: 1 November 2006
Guest editors: Tore Kristensen and Kjell Gronhaug
Questions and submission of paper to: [log in to unmask]
Marketing Management as a Design Process
"Design, stripped to its essence, can be defined as the human capacity
to shape and make our environment in ways without precedent in nature
that serves our needs and gives meaning to our lives"
Heskett (2002) Toothpicks and Logos
The design concept is not restricted to giving form, but includes
objects, systems, services and experiences which are both functional
and give meaning. It takes place in settings where imagination,
preparedness and situatedness puts the decisionmaker in the dilemma
of long time to prepare for action and very short time to respond to
the immediate requirements when action is required. Action requires
"situatedness" on the spot or "on-line" to use a metaphor. Another
metaphor is "stir fry cooking". Strategic cognition is "embodied" in
physical people and "embedded" in physical and cultural contexts. We
take time to prepare the ingredients we want to cook, but the process
of cooking itself is very brief. In practice modular designs and
platforms for action seems to be appropriate.
The issue of epistemology is different than in science and the
humanities (Romme 2003). Science is concerned with causal
explanations of what has already happened and humanities are
reflections on what is happing and how we feel about it. Designing is
the imaginative faculty in action enabling us to build a future. The
validity claim is whether it will work when the situation arrives.
Marketing managers face on a regular basis such situations. Facing
competitive action, failing campaigns, or just being summoned to the
boardroom to give a statement to the board of directors, all the
analyses and preparations are suddenly put to an acid test where
designs are made instantly with strategic implications strategic. How
does our marketing manager prepare diligently for such situations?
Knowledge creating systems, scenarios, platforms for modular elements
of strategy and the imagination to see what is conceivable seems to
be the tools. How does it work?
Contributions can focus on, but are not restricted to:
Situated decision making in marketing
Personal and verbal approach to strategic marketing decisions
Design and marketing collaboration
How the senses may affect marketing management decisions
Emotional issues (and gut feeling) in situated marketing management decisions
Knowledge sharing in MM
The use of cognitive artefacts in MM (e.g. bulletin boards, visual
scenarios, prototypes)
Marketing management as distributes cognition across business functions
Planning and analysis for situated action MM
Staging physical space for MM (e.g. a design studio metaphor)
Decision processes in situated marketing action
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