Knowledge that Transforms

The authors present a case for integrating technology and marketing strategy as key elements that affect corporate success in rapidly changing environments. After describing the implications of technological change for firm behavior, the authors propose a framework for developing a technology strategy and introduce the technology portfolio. The technology portfolio serves both as a model for technological resource allocation and as an aid in choosing an optimal set of technologies from a set of feasible alternatives.

Marketing theory and practice have focused persistently on exchange between buyers and sellers. Unfortunately, most of the research and too many of the marketing strategies treat buyer-seller exchanges as discrete events, not as ongoing relationships. The authors describe a framework for developing buyer-seller relationships that affords a vantage point for formulating marketing strategy and for stimulating new research directions.

As product lines have broadened in many industries (particularly service industries), the use of mixed price bundling has increased. In mixed price bundling, a firm offers its customers the choice of buying one or more products/services individually or of buying a “bundle” of two or more products or services at a special discount. The author presents a normative framework for selecting appropriate types of services for different mixed-bundling discount forms. The framework extends the economic theory of bundling (which historically has been applied to tie-in sales) to permit explicit consideration of different types of complementarity relationships and strategic marketing objectives.

Forms of control systems used in salesforce evaluation and based on the monitoring of outcomes or of behaviors are described, contrasted, and evaluated in terms of emerging theories in economics, organization theory, and cognitive psychology. Generally, the principles of behavior control as opposed to outcome control are found to be consistent with these theoretical perspectives with exceptions as noted, though studies of descriptive trends suggest that outcome control remains useful as a sales management philosophy. The authors conclude with a set of propositions intended to stimulate research on the managerial and behavioral consequences of the two control philosophies.

The author responds to Pollay's review of the “conventional wisdom” or “prevailing opinion” about the unintended consequences of advertising. After (re)constructing the implicit train of thought underlying Pollay's reflections, he suggests that the thin strands of the arguments Pollay cites compose only the weakest logical thread. The author finds unfairness in the attacks of critics who would smash the advertising mirror because they do not like what they see in it.

The basis of any service positioning strategy is the service itself, but marketing offers little guidance on how to craft service processes for positioning purposes. A new approach suggests that within service systems, structural process design can be used to “engineer” services on a more scientific, rational basis.