Web-based social movements contesting marketing strategy: The mobilisation of multiple actors and rhetorical strategies

Abstract

Previous studies suggest that marketing strategy is developed and used to mobilise and configure the actions of firm actors, creating a set of stabilising activities focused on the firm–customer dyad. Destabilising forces precipitated by the Internet and associated digital technologies involving contention and disruption by multiple actors are much less prevalent in the marketing literature. The central point we advance is that rather than marketing strategy being a controlled and stabilising force for firms in their relationships with customers, it can often lead to socially produced spaces where consumers and, importantly, other multiple actors form a social movement to actively attempt to destabilise it and contest its legitimacy. Using an innovative research approach, the findings of this study show how social movements proactively enrol and mobilise a wide range of relevant actors into a network of influence. Critical to this are rhetorical strategies, acting as important levers in attempts to destabilise and delegitimise a dominant firm’s marketing strategy.

Keywords:

• marketing strategy
• social movements
• marketing legitimacy
• Internet marketing
• rhetorical strategies

Acknowledgements

The British Academy grant (SG-52497) funded the research upon which this paper is based. We would also like to thank the three anonymous reviewers for the time and thought they put into providing insightful comments on our paper.

Notes

1. ¹Issue debates are established when individuals enter a site and position views vis-à-vis others in the issue network. In doing so, they become hot routes through which the debate emerges. Therefore, rather than randomly selecting a number of websites with a series of hunches, we sought to identify and map out an issue network – that is, major and minor organisations (and the deeper pages on their sites dealing with specific issues) which publicly positioned themselves vis-à-vis other constituencies with vested interests debating particular issues.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Palmer

Mark Palmer is Professor of Marketing at the Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast. Mark’s research focuses on market driving practice challenging and/or maintaining the dominant institutional logic and industry boundaries in global value chains. His research has been published in journals such as: European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Management, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Economic Geography, and Environment & Planning A.

E [email protected]

Geoff Simmons

Geoff Simmons is a Senior Lecturer in Marketing at the Queen’s University Management School, Queen’s University Belfast. Geoff’s research focuses on marketing strategy with a particular interest in the influence of digital technologies. His research has been published in journals such as: European Journal of Marketing, Environment & Planning A, Industrial Marketing Management, International Small Business Journal, and Journal of Strategic Marketing.

Katy Mason

Katy Mason is a Reader in Marketing at Lancaster University Management School, Lancaster University. Katy’s research focuses on understanding how managers develop promising market-making practices through business model innovation. Her research has been published in journals such as: Journal of Management Studies, European Journal of Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, and Long Range Planning.

E [email protected]