Marketing as a Means to Transformative Social Conflict Resolution: Lessons from Transitioning War Economies and the Colombian Coffee Marketing System

Abstract

Social conflicts are ubiquitous to the human condition and occur throughout markets, marketing processes, and marketing systems. When unchecked or unmitigated, social conflict can have devastating consequences for consumers, marketers, and societies, especially when conflict escalates to war. In this article, the authors offer a systemic analysis of the Colombian war economy, with its conflicted shadow and coping markets, to show how a growing network of fair-trade coffee actors has played a key role in transitioning the country's war economy into a peace economy. They particularly draw attention to the sources of conflict in this market and highlight four transition mechanisms—empowerment, communication, community building, and regulation—through which marketers can contribute to peacemaking and thus produce mutually beneficial outcomes for consumers and society. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for marketing theory, practice, and public policy.

Ambiguity of Purpose and the Politics of Failure: Sustainability as Macromarketing’s Compelling Political Calling

“…Despite macromarketing’s undisputed theoretical centrality to the field of marketing as a whole (Wilkie and Moore 2006) we note that few have risen to the political challenge, and this is especially so within the sustainability field. While a former editor, Clifford J. Shultz, along with other colleagues too, have attempted to shape policy, particularly in war ravaged nations (see for example Shultz et al (2005) Shultz (2007; 2012), Sredl et al (2017), Barrios et al (2016), elsewhere in macromarketing such political mobilization is in short supply. Perhaps it is a nettle deemed too risky to grasp.…”

Biases in Charitable Giving to International Humanitarian Aid

“…The IHA system (see Figure 1) could be considered such a system, with some important differences, as it includes a variety of individuals and organizations that require a “process for managing the flow of goods, information and finances from donors to affected persons” (Ernst 2003, p. 5). The macromarketing literature has examined similar marketing systems such as those involved in natural disaster recovery (Baker 2009; Baker et al 2015), post-war rebuilding and transition economies (Barrios et al 2016; Sredl, Shultz, and Brečić 2017; Shultz 1997; Shultz 2015; Shultz and Pecotich 1997), as well as with vulnerable and subsistence consumers (Baker 2009; Saatcioglu and Corus 2014; Viswanathan et al 2014; Viswanathan, Rosa, and Ruth 2010).…”

Marketing an End to War: Constructive Engagement, Community Wellbeing, and Sustainable Peace

“…Analyzed more scientifically, social conflict occurs when two or more parties pursue interests that said parties consider to be mutually interdependent and incompatible; a zerosum game whereby one or more parties achieve goals at the expense of one or more other parties (Deutsch 1973). Social conflicts moreover can be complex, and expand great stretches of time and space; they can be local and/or global, with interacting and interdependent actions by many people and institutions, with implications literally for everyone (e.g., Barrios et al 2016;Deutsch 2006;Marcus 2006;Osgood 1962;Ostrom et al 2002;Shultz 2015a). When stakes are especially high, when the conflict seems intractable and/or losses are calculated to be especially damaging or even an existential threat, social conflict often becomes violent and prolonged (e.g., Coleman 2014).…”

“…A synthesis of that literature suggests that social traps are best mitigated, managed or prevented by regulations, positive incentives and penalties, organization, cooperation, communication, and many tools well understood by marketers that can complement other processes and initiatives (e.g., Shultz 2015a). When the social trap results in or becomes war, or other forms of systemically violent and politicized conflict in which multiple systems have fractured, and have become corrupted and criminalized, constructive engagement and peacemaking can foster predictable, transparent and enforceable rules, empowerment of the vulnerable and disenfranchised, communication among stakeholders, and community building at multiple levels (Barrios et al 2016).…”