Hhn Judit* POSTMODERN MARKETING OR THE WAY TO THE HOLY GRAIL?

1. INTRODUCTION I was a second-year university student when I first met the concept of postmodernism in one of the optional cultural courses. Looking back, I can state that this was the least understandable series of lessons in my academic studies, and not only because of the numerous foreign words and expressions. Only several years later, when I was thumbing through the Harvard Business Review, did I come across articles mentioning this term again. As it was an old acquaintance of mine, I was interested in what respect the authors discussed this phenomenon. The expression postmodern marketing aroused my attention. The more I read about this concept, the more shocking statements I met. A considerable part of the papers on postmodern marketing were harshly criticizing KOTLERS Marketing Management the Marketing-Bible of all time. Instead of veiled allusions, several authors overtly stated the crisis in modern marketing, arguing that the traditional interpretation of marketing cannot be accepted in a postmodern era. A new conceptual framework, postmodern marketing, should be followed under the slogans of fantasy, nostalgia and mystery. This revolutionary style captivated my interest and induced me to explore this topic. What made the investigation on postmodern marketing even more thought-provoking was the fact that some researchers firmly denied its relevance, saying that this concept is built merely on criticism and lacks innovative ideas. They were convinced that KOTLERS marketing theory and practice, with certain smaller modifications, were still applicable. Few extremist authors would even refer to the followers of postmodern marketing as false prophets, who disgrace the church of marketing. Since this heated debate seemed to be worth further analysis, I systematically began to structure the arguments for and against postmodern marketing. Presuming that marketing is dependent upon the given social, economic and cultural factors, my hypothesis was that the change of era from modernism to postmodernism justifies the denial of the traditional marketing concept. To test my hypothesis, I consulted the literary resources of my previous studies, and read several articles on postmodernism, most of which were published in the European Journal of Marketing. SCHUMPETER says, the stock-exchange is a poor substitute for the Holy Grail (BELL 1992, 213). The statement refers to the emotional emptiness of the modern era: a society based on rationalism, capital and production does not compensate the people for the loss of myths and legends. Postmodernists believe that todays world may bring us the opportunity to revive the hidden magic. Does postmodern marketing show the way to the Holy Grail?

Pcsi Tudomnyegyetem, Kzgazdasgtudomnyi Kar, Gazdasgmdszertani Intzet, nyelvtanr, PhD-hallgat.

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2. MODERN AND POSTMODERN Before discussing the debate on the relevance of postmodern marketing, the definition of modern and postmodern is unavoidable. 2.1. Modern From an etymological point of view, modern originates from the Latin modo, meaning right now (APPIGNANESI & GARRATT 1995). Modern as an economic historical era is estimated to begin in the 16th century, its geographical starting point being Western Europe (PETH 1992). Religion gradually lost its legitimating power: the development of sciences and technology separated sacred and profane. Although there were signs of crisis in the 19th century, the second wave of the industrial revolution gave a new impetus to modernism, and mass production could start at the beginning of the 20th century (APPIGNANESI & GARRATT 1995). Modern society is built on rationality, which permeates all spheres of life from the operation of the economy to the organisation of communities. Instead of religion it is science that embodies legitimating power: everything that can be proved by positivist methods is to be accepted. In modernity the categories are clearly defined: home and production get separated, for instance, and society is divided into classes based on the financial status of the individuals. Order and rationality provide the pillars of society. The individual who believes in development has an independent will and bears the responsibility for his decisions. The myth of the American dream stems from this: by working hard any person can reach the desired social status. This kind of individualism does not necessarily bring happiness: the individual becomes a member of the crowd, and soon gets alienated from the machine-centred environment (PETH 1992). The rationalized world of modernity characterizes the first half of the 20th century, i.e. the era of mass production. The signs of crisis indicated the beginning of something new in the 1960s and 1970s. Many believe that was the time when postmodernism was born. 2.2. Postmodern It is a challenging task to define either the meaning of the word or the time of its birth. LYOTARD considers postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives (LYOTARD 1993, 8), referring to the end of those grand philosophies (like Marxism) that provided the people with explanatory frameworks. BAUMANN defines postmodern as the intention to bring magic again into the overrationalized world (BAUMANN 1994, 44), while PetH discusses the term as the beginning of a new era (PETH 1992, 20). The word itself first appeared in 1870, but became wide-spread only decades later, at the end of the 1960s, as a result of peoples disappointment in modernity. The postmodern society is built on imagined communities (BAUMANN 1994, 51). The nuclear family is not as general as it used to be in modernity: the individual can choose from a range of alternative forms of life (e.g. cohabitation, open marriage, etc.). Being independent of the spatial and chronological constraints of modern society, the individual tends to keep a virtual relationship with the world through television, telephone, fax or computer (COVA 1997). Instead of classes, smaller, often virtual communities become orientating points for self-identification (COVA & COVA 2001). The main characteristics of postmodernism are openness, tolerance, hyper-reality, nostalgia, fragmentation and the lack of clear boundaries. Openness and tolerance refer to the acceptance of difference: people can live in harmony only if they tolerate different religions, lifestyles, cultures. Hyper-reality is often seen in connection with BAUDRILLARD, who defined it as the result of simulation based on models (BAUDRILLARD 1992, 220). Such created realities are presented to us on television screens, on the internet or in Disneyland (FIRAT & SCHULTZ 1997). Alike modernism, postmodernism shows an eager interest in the past, the retro-feeling becomes fashionable again. Fragmentation can be seen in the lack of social bonding, the breaking-up of families or in the selfconstructed net-identities (GOULD & LERMAN 1998, 649). In postmodernism, old boundaries tend
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to disappear: e.g. between high- and mass-culture, news and entertainment, home and workplace, holidays and working days, etc. The differences between modernism and postmodernism raise the question whether and how marketing should adapt itself to the new conditions. 3. THE CRISIS (?) IN MODERN MARKETING 3.1. The birth and development of modern marketing The 1950s revolutionized marketing: the product-orientated view was gradually replaced by the customer-orientated approach. The key to success in the ever intensifying competition proved to be the consideration of consumers needs and the pursuing of the consumers satisfaction. Strictly speaking, modern marketing is this consumer-centred trend born in the 1950s and 1960s. The names of two marketing experts should be mentioned here, whose writings were milestones in the history of this science: Keith, who regarded this change of approach as a Copernican turn, and LEVITT, who was one of the main representatives of consumer-orientation. Marketing soon became an important management function; moreover, the key to business success (BROWN 1997). In the following decades several questions have been raised on the conceptual borders, the distinctive features and the relevance of marketing. Since the 1970s PHILIP KOTLERs views have become widely known and worshipped by marketers. In his opinion, marketing is an all-pervading activity that is applicable in every single field of life, from political campaigns to soap-selling (BROWN 1997). He re-defined the meaning of product, consumer and marketing tools, and promoted the broadening of the marketing concept. Megalomaniac was the word his critics used when characterising his views that established the basis of modern marketing. 3.2. The main features of modern marketing The marketing revolution of the 1950s can be summarised as a change of views: the selling concept was replaced by a new guideline, the marketing concept. While the selling concept focuses on aggressive promotion, the marketing concept revolves around the needs of the consumer. According to KOTLER, the marketing concept is built on four pillars: target market, customers needs, integrated marketing and profitability (KOTLER 1998, 52). Choosing the right target market is of crucial importance since it determines the marketing programme. In order to launch the right product, the company must discover the needs and wants of the target consumers. The aim is to satisfy these needs because a satisfied consumer will remain loyal to the companys products or services, and will definitely buy a bigger quantity, have a more favourable opinion, become less price-sensitive and cost less to serve than a new customer (KOTLER 1998). To achieve customer satisfaction, all the departments of the company must become customerorientated, i.e. external and internal marketing should be pursued to realise integration. Customer satisfaction is understood to bring profit. The marketing concept lends itself to conclusions that help the understanding of modern marketing. The selection of the target market presumes that the population can be divided into parts on the basis of certain variables. The segments are homogenous from the point of view of the given variable (e.g. age, sex, income, etc.), and their members are supposed to have similar shopping habits. The needs and wants of the consumers can be assessed since people are aware of their own needs and can express what they want. Customers are sovereign: they have independent, stable and analysable personalities (FIRAT et al. 1995). If we provide them with the right products or services, they will be satisfied. Products have values that the customer perceives and considers when making his shopping decisions. The tools that influence the image of the product are in the foreground: the elements of the marketing mix (FIRAT et al. 1995). The careful selection of the elements (product, place, promotion, and price) should result in the products favourable positioning in the customers mind. The company can be profitable if it serves the customers; therefore, the satisfaction of needs is of utmost importance.
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Opinions on modern marketing can be arranged on a wide scale between two extreme poles. At one end of the scale the faithful believers can be found: those marketers who regard modern marketing as a church. At the other end of the scale there are the opponents who resolutely attack the eternal relevance of the marketing concept. The majority is in between, trying to find the golden mean. Indeed, by the end of the 20th century the views against the Kotlerian theory and practice explicitly stated the crisis of modern marketing. 3.3. The signs of the crisis In the 1990s articles questioning the reliability of modern marketing in a postmodern world appeared in academically acknowledged journals. Among the triggers of the epistemological avalanche were STEPHEN BROWN, FUAT FIRAT, ALLADI VEKANTESH, RICHARD ELLIOTT, ALAN SMITHEE and MICHAEL J. THOMAS. In 1995 BROWNs book, Postmodern Marketing was published, which criticized the previous marketing theories and called the marketers attention to the importance of applying a postmodern viewpoint. In 1997 the following title shocked the readers in the European Journal of Marketing: KOTLER is dead!1 The papers written against the traditional marketing approach raised questions on the subject of the marketing concept, customer-orientation, segmentation, positioning, the marketing mix and market research. Most authors reckoned that modern marketing was defunct in todays postmodern society, and, as a consequence, should be replaced. One of the most determined critics, STEPHEN BROWN, directly attacked PHILIP KOTLER. In his opinion King KOTLER or Prince PHILIP is reigning like LOUIS XIV in the marketing empire: he [KOTLER] has established an intellectual empire on which the sun never sets (BROWN 2002, 317). He elaborates on this metaphor, saying that this Versailles was built from poor quality materials, thus it cannot exist until the end of time. The same passionate criticism permeates the article written by ALAN SMITHEE (SMITHEE 1997). His paper is in fact a dialogue between an assistant lecturer called Alan and a professor called KOTLER. The views represented by the latter are described as old-fashioned, inflexible and ponderous compared to the postmodern views of the assistant lecturer. KOTLER himself is depicted as a conservative, stubborn and narrow-sighted person who is reluctant to acknowledge and tolerate postmodernism. In addition to KOTLERS personality, the other frequent target of the attacks is the lack of correspondence between the theory and practice of marketing. MICHAEL J. THOMAS believes that marketing is suffering from epistemopathology (THOMAS 2000, 322), i.e. a disease caused by a false theoretical system. Experts are striving to press obsolete and wrong ideas onto the working practice of global markets, which leads to the default of the expected results. Even some of the opponents of postmodernism admit the need to revise modern marketing from an epistemological point of view (MAYER et al. 2000), while others, stating that only the usual positivist-realist contradiction is responsible for the gap between marketing theory and practice, deny the crisis of the traditional approach (ROBSON & ROWE 1997). In the case of marketing, one of the reasons for the distance between theory and practice can be the old-fashioned interpretational framework, in which some still blindly believe, while others already use a new framework. Modern marketing is generally understood to be based on positivist pillars. Positivist sciences describe reality first, then devise rules grounded on observations. Once the rules are stated, not only can new phenomena be analysed in a deductive way, but future tendencies can be predicted. The theory of marketing, like many other sciences, is also built on a system of observation-based principles. However, the relevance of positivism is a debated question.

The article was written by Alan Smithee (Smithee 1997). 33

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3.4. Change of paradigm? According to THOMAS KUHN (1984) a change of paradigm is needed if there are too many unanswered questions within a given system of rules. Scholars work under the auspices of paradigms, i.e. systems of principles that function a an interpretational framework. The change of paradigm will happen when certain phenomena cannot be explained with the help of the given theories. Following this logic, modern marketing can be defined as a paradigm that provided scholars with a reliable conceptual framework for a long period of time, but now the change of paradigm is inevitable due to the arising questions around its justification. FEYERABEND (2002), relying on KUHNs basic assumptions, develops this theory further, claiming that paradigms can live next to one another. If we accept FEYERABENDs way of thinking, there is no need to exile the theory of modern marketing: it can nicely live together with the postmodern theory in the name of epistemological anarchism. This solution, however, would not be favoured either by the modernists, or the postmodernists, all of whom would argue that there is only one form of true faith to be practiced in the church of marketing. 4. THE RELEVANCE OF POSTMODERN MARKETING 4.1. The theoretical way of justification Being one of the social sciences, marketing cannot be interpreted independently of the given space-time dimension. Its definition clearly states its social, economic and cultural embeddedness: Marketing is the social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others (KOTLER 1998, 39). The key terms of the definition (social, individuals, groups, product, value, need, and exchange) underline the fact that marketing cannot hide itself from its changing environment, but must accommodate itself to it to operate successfully. Todays society is different from that of the 1950s and 1960s in many respects. Consumers habits have changed; value-systems have been rearranged. New conditions mean new challenges in the field of selling. The question is only whether these changes justify the need for the abolishment of the Kotlerian marketing concept, or the fundamental principles of marketing are still applicable in a postmodern world. There are several different approaches concerning the relationship between marketing and postmodernism. FIRAT and his colleagues (FIRAT et al. 1995) are of the view that marketing and postmodernism are almost synonymous because in both cases presentation, the recreation of images and simulation are in the focus of interest. Others, like BAUDRILLARD and JAMESON consider marketing as the trigger of the shift from modern to postmodern: with the increasing influence of the media and the strengthening of the popular culture, the role of marketing has become crucial in the realisation of the change of era (FIRAT et al. 1995). We must not forget about those experts who are determined to regard postmodernism as a temporary burst: it is merely a part of modernism, certainly not a new paradigm requiring a new marketing theory. I would like to discuss two studies from the papers disputing postmodern marketing. One of them is the article written by IAN ROBSON and JIM ROWE in 1997. They believe the postmodern approach has a negative effect on the theory of marketing since this criticism simply destroys and does not create solutions. Postmodern thinkers attack the principles based on positivism as they misunderstand the nature of abstract laws. The world is constantly changing, which does not necessarily mean the abolition of old laws. Biological, geological and chemical systems are not permanent either; all the same, no one argues against the law of gravitation or the periodic table (ROBSON & ROWE 1997). The authors deny the need for postmodern marketing because marketing will defend itself against the attacks, and will prove to be viable relying on its own laws, even in todays social-economic environment. MAYER, JOB and ELLIS (2000) are of the same opinion: they regard postmodern marketers as false prophets. To illustrate their conviction, they refer to the fable about the sun and the wind, which ends with the moral that a negative and destroying approach is less effective than a positive,

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constructive one. In their interpretation postmodernism is like the wind: it ruins everything that blocks its way. The revival of marketing is a must but this can only be achieved if its followers return to the original church, to the true faith. Most marketers are somewhere between the two extreme views. They admit the change of era between modern and postmodern, which influences all sciences (e.g. law, medicine), including marketing: postmodernism is something of which marketing managers should be aware (PATTERSON 1998, 68), postmodernism has very serious implications for contemporary marketing thought (THOMAS 1997, 54), marketing cannot choose to ignore postmodernism (BROWN 1995, 5). According to this group of thinkers, postmodernism does have an effect on marketing, so marketing must adapt to the altered conditions. This adaptation has already begun, since many postmodern features can be identified in todays marketing practice. 4.2. Examples of postmodern features in marketing practice A chapter listing examples of postmodern marketing features is an almost inevitable part of the studies on postmodern marketing. The lists often seem to be inflexible or even forced; still, they describe the interaction between marketing and postmodernism relatively well. I have selected six features from the most often analysed ones: fragmentation, de-differentiation, hyper-reality, playfulness, rootlessness and nostalgia. Fragmentation can be related to segmentation. Instead of populous crowds, companies target smaller, more specific markets: since the 1980s the hunt for niches has become a determining strategy (BROWN 1997). This trend results in the enlargement of the product range because by altering the product features very specific products are launched that satisfy the needs of different segments. If we compare the numerous types of shampoo sold in todays outlets with the ones offered twenty years ago, we can see an example of this increased segmentation process. At the end of the segmentation the individual can be found: the customizing of individual products involves fragmentation as well (THOMAS 1997). The other main form of fragmentation reveals itself in the build-up of TV-commercials and commercial breaks (FIRAT & SCHULTZ 1997). The advertisements that are swiftly shown one after the other during a commercial break consist of rapidly changing pictures that almost irritate the viewers eyes. The feeling of fragmentation is increased by the fact that these commercial breaks interrupt films and other television programmes. Advertisements also illustrate another postmodern feature, de-differentiation, i.e. the disappearance of boundaries between categories. Ads pop up not only in commercials breaks, but also in the plot-line of films. Correspondingly, the scripts of commercials often tend to rely on stories that can be continued like television series. The blurring of boundaries can be noticed in retailing, too. There are restaurants in shopping-centres and shops in restaurants. Instead of the producers brands, bigger retailers tag their own labels on some of the products, blending the concepts of producer and seller. It also happens that retailers overstep their usual authority by selling products or services totally different from their usual profile (BROWN 1997). Hyper-reality offers several opportunities and some danger in marketing practice. The reality marketers intend to offer the customers must be carefully created and served. Pretended kindness, for instance, is often so transparent that it elicits a negative reaction from the consumer (BROWN 1997). Let us think of those very personal, kind and nicely written direct mails that usually land in the dustbin. According to BROWN, such products and services should be launched that enable the customer to find himself in a more favourable reality. The examples range from such everyday devices as mobile phones, which make their holders seem important, to computer simulation games, on-line services, etc. where the consumers can hide behind created identities. Postmodern consumers are open to anything that is exciting, funny or strange. Marketing has always made use of playfulness and humour. An example of todays advertising practice could be the UPC (Hungarian cable television provider) commercials featuring with two well-known Hungarian humorists.
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Rootlessness refers to the distance between the signifier and the signified in postmodernism: contexts disappear, the signifiers float freely (FIRAT & SCHULTZ 1997). Advertisements and advertised goods/services tend to lose their close connection; the billboards of Benetton are typical examples because the advertised products often do not even appear on them. The role of nostalgia will be discussed in the section on retro-marketing in detail; here I want to highlight its relevance. Products reminding us of the feeling of the recent past have grown in number in the past ten years: e.g. chocolate bars Sport and Piros Mogyors, Tomi washing powder, Baba soap or Gabi toothpaste. By listing some examples of the six postmodern features, I only intended to demonstrate the connection between marketing and postmodernism. The result is, however, is rather fragmented, and certainly cannot form the basis of a new marketing paradigm. Instead of ad hoc examples, a more comprehensive description should be given of the real nature of postmodern marketing. The next sections provide insight into this question by discussing the issues of customer relationship, tribal and retro marketing. 5. CUSTOMER RELATIONS IN POSTMODERN MARKETING The consumer is in the focus of the modern marketing concept. The satisfaction of needs and the maintenance of customer loyalty are vital for success. In a postmodern society this customerorientated approach is generally considered to change since the central role of the customer ceases to exist. The postmodern consumer assigns symbolic importance to the product because it becomes part of his self-representation. Whenever possible, the customer tries to participate in the production process by tailoring the product to suit his personality. Both shopping and consumption are expected to be opportunities to gather experiences. According to STEPHEN BROWN, the traditional customer-orientated concept should be totally forgotten (BROWN 2002). In his opinion, postmodern marketing is not a democratic institution to serve the people. The only accepted way to arouse the customers interest is to tease them with the help of playfulness and imaginary power. Customers should be tantalised, titillated, tormented and tortured, and not served (BROWN 2002, 323). He suggests that an imagination-orientated approach should replace the customer-orientated one. FIRAT and VENKATESH believe that marketers should get to know the characteristics of postmodern customers first to formulate the appropriate marketing practice: e.g. if postmodern customers like simulated realities, they should be provided with shopping experience in such environments (COVA 1997). This view is based on the assumption that the needs of postmodern consumer are different from those of their modern counterparts. The consumer, as the starting-point of marketing, cannot be ignored. Not even the most dedicated followers of postmodern would dispute this because, as one of them claims, you cannot have one (marketing) without the other (customer orientation) (BROWN 2002, 320). The objective is still customer satisfaction, but this can only be achieved after understanding the characteristics and behaviour of consumers. The question to what extent modern customer relationship methods can be applied induces opportunities for further research. 6. COMPREHENSIVE ALTERNATIVES: TRIBAL AND RETRO-MARKETING Some of the studies on postmodern marketing refer to comprehensive, systematic interpretational frameworks. Two of these approaches are tribal and retro marketing. 6.1. Tribal marketing The tribe is a constantly changing community that is formed by different individuals via consumption. The idea of tribal marketing dates back to the so-called Latin-view, represented by the French BERNARD COVA, who has written several papers on this topic.
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According to the Latin-trend, marketing has community-forming power, i.e. it can facilitate the creation of groups in the society (COVA 1997). Its credo is the following: postmodern persons are not only looking for products and services that enable them to be freer, but also products and services which can link them to others, to a community, to a tribe (COVA 1997, 311). Therefore, it is not necessarily the use value of a product or service that influences the customer, but its link value. Companies often tend to ignore this during the developmental and innovational stages of production, which results in products without real competitive advantage. The secret of successful tribal marketing is the interaction between the company and the community, i.e. some kind of reciprocity (COVA & COVA 2001). A good strategy could be, for instance, to involve the members of the tribe in product development or even in marketing practice, while accepting the norms of the chosen tribe. This way the tribe will be integrated into the company and vice versa, which will lead to mutually profitable cooperation. 6.2. Retro marketing As its name indicates, retro marketing is a concept closely connected to the past. Nostalgic feelings are not new: remembering is a universal human ability. In a postmodern world, however, it is in the centre of attention; whether it be related to clothes, music, films or even toys. STEPHEN BROWN calls this trend retro-revolution, listing several examples in his studies (1997, 1999, 2001). It is not only West-European countries that have been infected by nostalgia, but Hungary as well. In the media, the first retro-voices could be heard at the end of the 1990s, when Slger Rdi (with the hits of the 1960s and 70s) started broadcasting, and some years later the nostalgic commercial television channel, Filmmzeum. The two Hungarian Television channels are working hard to attract more viewers with an image built on nostalgia by offering old Hungarian films and projecting a traditional design of Hungarian items (e.g. flowers, old household devices, graphical symbols) on the television screen. On the shelves of stores old brands tend to pop up again: e.g. Boci and Sport chocolate bars, Traubi drinks or Mos Masa books. Retro is invading East and Central Europe, and, as Brown says, this trend cannot be ignored by marketing. The reasons are manifold. It is very difficult to gain competitive advantage only on the basis of quality in the tight competition among companies, as there are a lot of products of similar quality within the same line (BROWN 1999). Retro-positioning (BROWN 1999, 367) gives an opportunity to realise unique selling propositions. The chance of success is relatively good because postmodern consumers have a preference for nostalgic products. According to BROWN (BROWN 1999), this is partly due to the fact that with the ageing of the baby boom generation, old people account for a considerable ratio of the population, and partly because retro-products embody an escape to happy childhood. The desire for the past permeates especially those countries where citizens feel insecure about their present and future. Retro marketing, in spite of Browns convincing arguments, should nevertheless be treated carefully. As BROWN himself admits, this approach cannot be applied for all products and for all types of customers. Like tribal marketing, it is an alternative that should be thought over before its application. 7. SUMMARY I began this paper with the presumption that postmodern is a change of era not only in an economic, cultural and social sense, but also in the field of marketing. Therefore, a new approach is required that would bring back the magic into the rationalized world of modern marketing and lead us to the Holy Grail of success. The critics of the Kotlerian view describe modern marketing as obsolete, extremely customerorientated and inflexible. They fail to notice that some postmodern features, like fragmentation, hyper-reality or nostalgia are already part of the marketing practice. Comprehensive marketing alternatives are emerging: tribal marketing targets communities formed on the basis of consumption,
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while retro marketing attracts past-sensitive customers. I believe that the time to change paradigm has not come yet. Most critics are motivated by the feeling of personal hatred toward modern marketers, especially PHILIP KOTLER. It cannot be denied that the concept of modern marketing has become closely associated with his name, but even if this is the case the concept and not the person should be attacked. The remarks on postmodern marketing are nevertheless worth considering. The suggestions made by postmodernist authors could be used to modify the modern view if the traditionalists were not so reluctant to change and did not defend their faith so blindly against the false prophets. Marketing should adapt to the changing economic, cultural and social environment, and they can do so in two ways in my opinion. One solution could be the development of a comprehensive and systematic approach by postmodernist marketers, which would be a worthy alternative to the modern concept. The other solution would be the cooperation of the two groups of believers, which would result in a common marketing concept in the name of ecumenism. There is not too much hope for either way in the present situation. Postmodern marketing, although containing several invaluable elements, cannot function on its own. It is too fragmented, too weak to apply it in practice. A temporary solution could be tolerating and assessing postmodern suggestions. Postmodern marketing, in its present form, may not be able to show us the way to the Holy Grail, but those enjoying adventures may find it useful to leave the beaten track and try this unknown and winding road. BIBLIOGRAPHY APPIGNANESI, RICHARD and GARRATT, CHRIS. 1995. NeszeNeked Posztmodern. Budapest: Ikon Kiad. BAUDRILLARD, JEAN. 1992. Szimulakrumok precesszija. In: A posztmodern. szerk. PETH BERTALAN. Budapest, Gondolat, 220-226. BAUMAN, ZYGMUNT. 1994. A vilg varzstalantsnak vge, avagy a posztmodern trtnete. Liget, 1994/3, 41-56. BELL, DANIEL. 1992. Kultra. Elsz: 1978. In: A posztmodern. PETH BERTALAN (ed.) Budapest: Gondolat, 198-220. BROWN, STEPHEN. 1997. Postmodern marketing. London: International Thomson Business Press. BROWN, STEPHEN. 1999. Retro-marketing: yesterdays tomorrows, today! Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 17/7, 363-376. BROWN, STEPHEN. 2001. Torment Your Customers (Theyll Love It) Harvard Business Review, October, 82-88. BROWN, STEPHEN. 2002. Vote, vote, vote for PHILIP KOTLER. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36., No.3, 313-324. COVA, BERNARD. 1997. Community and consumption. Towards a definitions of the linking value of products and services. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31., No. 3/4, 297-316. COVA, BERNARD and COVA, VRONIQUE. 2001. Tribal Marketing: the Tribalisation of Society and its Impact on the Conduct of Marketing. Revised Paper for the European Journal of Marketing, http://visionarymarketing.com. FEYERABEND, PAUL K. 2002. A mdszer ellen. Budapest, Atlantisz. FIRAT, FUAT A., DHOLAKIA, NIKHILESH and VENKATESH, ALLADI. 1995. Marketing in a postmodern world. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 29., No. 1, 40-56. FIRAT, FUAT A. and SCHULTZ, CLIFFORD J. 1997. From segmentation to fragmentation. Markets and marketing strategy in the postmodern era. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31., No. 3/4, 183-207. GOULD, J. STEPHEN and LERMAN, DAWN B. 1998. Postmodern versus long-standing cultural narratives in consumer behaviour: an empirical study of NetGirl online. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 32., No. 7/8, 644-654. KOTLER, PHILIP. 1998. Marketing menedzsment. Budapest: Mszaki Knyvkiad. KUHN, THOMAS. 1984. A tudomnyos forradalmak szerkezete. Budapest: Gondolat Kiad.
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LYOTARD, JEAN-FRANOIS. 1993. A posztmodern llapot. In: A posztmodern llapot. BUJALOS ISTVN (ed.). Budapest: Szzadvg Kiad, 7-146. MAYER, RICHARD, J OB, KATE and ELLIS, NICK. 2000. Ascending separate stairways to marketing heaven (or careful with that axiom, Eugene!) Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 18,6/7, 388-399. PATTERSON, MAURICE. 1998. Direct Marketing in Postmodernity: neo-tribes and direct communications. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 16/1, 68-74. PETH BERTALAN. 1992. Bevezet tanulmny. In: A posztmodern. PETH BERTALAN (ed.) Budapest: Gondolat, 15-122. ROBSON, IAN and ROWE, JIM. 1997. Marketing the whore of Babylon? European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31., No. 9/10, 654-666. SMITHEE, ALAN. 199. KOTLER is dead! European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 31., No. 3/4, 317-325. THOMAS, MICHAEL J. 1997. Consumer market research: does it have validity? Some postmodern thoughts. Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 15/2, 54-59. THOMAS, MICHAEL J. 2000. Marketing paradise: citizen professionals on the road to paradise (via Damascus) Marketing Intelligence and Planning, 18, 6/7, 321-327.

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