Marketing’s metaphors have expired: An argument for a new dominant metaphor

Abstract

The discipline of marketing uses many metaphors. Historically, the dominant metaphors in marketing strategy have been adapted from warfare and military science. The purpose of this conceptual article is to analyze and evaluate commonly used warfare metaphors in marketing strategy. A cross-domain comparison of these metaphors and conceptualizations of war are assessed to determine whether they are still appropriate in light of the advancements in both military science and marketing theory. The analysis found that there are many fundamental and questionable differences between these two domains; therefore, a new conceptual metaphor for marketing strategy is proposed.

Meaningful gamification for psychological empowerment: exploring user affective experience mirroring in a psychological self-help system

“…VIMs are effective tools for meaningful game design that can be used to create a lively virtual context or environment to stimulate a user's mental association between game features and the subject matter of concern. VIMs potentially manipulate how users interpret a certain phenomenon and subsequently shape their thoughts and actions (Delbaere and Slobodzian, 2019).…”

Re-thinking brand extension theory: Parents, siblings and off-spring or landlords and tenants?

“…Similarly, when brands are metaphorically humanised, consumer and brand relationships can be imbued with intense emotions – consumers are considered to be ‘enslaved’, ‘divorced from’ or ‘having affairs’ with brands (Fournier, 1998). ‘Marketing as war’ – a grand metaphor combining micro and macro level phenomena (Phillips and McQuarrie, 2009) – is amongst the most dominant of all the marketing metaphors with a lexicon of victors and losers (Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018)) and target markets, defending market share, attacking the competition and winning customers (Ries and Trout, 1996).…”

“…Set within the context of relationship marketing and concepts of value co-creation, as well as more performative forms of marketing such as advertising, Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018) searched for suitable alternative metaphors and proposed the metaphor of dance. As dance demonstrates a reliance on co-operation and co-ordination to result in the exchange of value and emphasises the changing landscape of marketing, they suggest this new metaphor can help to theorise marketing practice.…”

“…This exploration aligns with Tähtinen and Havila's (2019) call for fundamental marketing concepts to be re-visited, as marketing landscapes change and their resonance is challenged. Seeking alternative metaphors has been an important element of the development of the marketing discipline with Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018) stressing the need and value of seeking alternative metaphors particularly for those that have become dominant in marketing. Furthermore, Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018) argue for marketing to develop metaphors that are more relevant to current contexts.…”

“…Seeking alternative metaphors has been an important element of the development of the marketing discipline with Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018) stressing the need and value of seeking alternative metaphors particularly for those that have become dominant in marketing. Furthermore, Delbaere and Slobodzian (2018) argue for marketing to develop metaphors that are more relevant to current contexts. Hence, with the ubiquity of brands and brand extension strategies set within the era of liquid modernity, we argue this exploration is warranted.…”