Marketing Research

It has become increasingly common, in recent years, for marketing to become accepted, primarily, as a process of exchange. Bagozzi (1975) writes: ‘In order to satisfy human needs, people and organisations are compelled to engage in social and economic exchanges with other people and organisations... Social actors obtain satisfaction of their needs by complying with, or influencing, the behaviour of other actors. They do this by communicating and controlling the media of exchange, which in turn, comprise the links between one individual and another.’ The process of communication, in a marketing context, comprises a two way exchange between the principal ‘social actors’: the producers and the consumers. The former communicates with the latter by means by the provision of goods and through advertisements and promotions. The consumer communicates with the producers of the goods and services by the purchase of their offerings.