Broadening the Paradigm of Marketing as Exchange: A Public Policy and Marketing Perspective

The academic discipline of marketing faces concerns of relevance, which scholars ignore at their peril. These concerns evolve from three sources: (I) theoretical disregard of the majority of people in favor of a narrow, affluent socioeconomic subset; (2) languages of research and practice that dehumanize people with whom marketers engage and exchange; and (3) paradigmatic constructs that eliminate systemic realities and challenges from consideration. Consequently, most theories and practices strip away people's heterogeneity in favor of simplistic ways of measuring success. In this article, the authors argue that this situation demands a new paradigm to guide public policy and marketing scholars. These new perspectives advocate the theoretical understanding of people through bioeconomic exchange and recognize that the ability to market brings societal responsibilities beyond the limited efforts to date. Furthermore, measures of success must integrate what marketing does, how it is done, and what it fails to do so that scholars and policy makers can fully comprehend its larger impact.