Postmodernism

Marketing is still widely perceived as simply the creator of wants and needs through selling and advertising and marketing theory has been criticized for not taking a more critical approach to the subject. This is because most conventional marketing thinking takes a broadly managerial perspective without reflecting on the wider societal implications of the effects of marketing activities. There is a constant need to take the critical, ethical, social and methodological issues facing contemporary marketing so that rigorous analysis of the implications for future thinking and research can be made.

An important concept underlying the critical theory is post-modernism. Although there is no clear definition of post-modernism, it’s philosophical roots lie in the poststructuralist rejection of the possibility of absolute ‘truth’. A post-modern society is one that is dominated by the media, filled with spectacle, hyper-reality and consumption.

In the world of marketing practice, there is no question that the information revolution has had an impact on various marketing activities such as, channels of distribution, networking of global markets, product design, new product development, customer data management, home shopping, home banking, real time manufacturing and marketing. The mere fact is that our society is rapidly transforming into an information culture, or cyber culture (Escobar 1994). More concretely, we are reminded that the era of information highway may have just begun and We are now in the world of multimedia , virtual reality and interactivity. The placid setting of the home to which we escape from the pressures of the outside world may no longer remain the same as these technologies make a concerted effort to change its interior and link it electronically to the exterior. (Berner & Kolbe).

The technological environment moves faster than the capacity of human beings to adapt to them. This asymmetry of technological production and consumption needs...