Producing marketing: towards a social-phenomenology of marketing work

Abstract

This article seeks to problematize and de-reify the phenomenon of marketing work by means of subjecting it to a social-phenomenological gaze. Drawing upon a discourse-analytical understanding of the productive nature of language, the interaction at a meeting between an advertising agency and a client is interpreted and discussed. This micro-event is moreover interpreted in relation to the particular socio-cultural milieu, here referred to as `the narrative archipelago', wherein marketing practitioners have to navigate. It is argued that a social conception of the phenomenon of `marketing work' is not only a prerequisite for carrying out marketing tasks; it is also one of the outcomes of marketing practice. In other words, marketing work is contingent upon as well as generative of the social and discursive accomplishment of a notion of `marketing work'.