A global perspective on the marketing mix across time and space

Julian R.K. Wichmann, Abhinav Uppal, Amalesh Sharma, Marnik Dekimpe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

35 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The marketing mix (MM) is an integral part of a firm’s marketing strategy sitting at the nexus between a company and the marketplace. As such, it evolves together with the marketplace and its stakeholders. Over the past decade, three fundamental global drivers have emerged—advancements in technology, socioeconomic and geopolitical shifts, and environmental changes—that have caused major ongoing and intensifying evolutions in the marketplace, its stakeholders, and, in turn, the MM. We describe the resulting evolutions in the MM along four central questions: who is involved in the MM, what constitutes the MM, how is it implemented, and where is it deployed. We identify a blurring of roles and responsibilities relating to the MM (who), an extension and integration of the MM instruments (what), an increase in customization and fragmentation of its actions (how), and a growing recognition of emerging-market idiosyncrasies (where). Taking a look into the future, we observe that along each of the four dimensions, the MM has arrived at a crossroad, with opposing scenarios for its future: (i) more inter-firm collaboration versus marketing-mix protectionism, (ii) added complexity versus increased simplicity, (iii) further automation versus an increased recognition of the human touch, and (iv) local adaptation versus global uniformity in the marketing mix. Applying a contingency approach, we derive relevant moderators for these forthcoming evolutions and provide an extensive set of future research questions.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)502-521
JournalInternational Journal of Research in Marketing
Volume39
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2022

Keywords

  • marketing-mix configuration
  • global marketing
  • inter-firm collaboration
  • marketing-mix protectionism
  • hyper-targeting
  • local adaptation

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