Marketing and the Common Good

Essays from Notre Dame on Societal

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I am most impressed with this collection of thoughtful essays from Notre Dame’s
distinguished faculty to help us think about the impact of marketing and its
contributions to society.
Philip Kotler, S.C. Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing,
Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, USA

Most insightful and comprehensive collection of essays on marketing and society

authored by scholars from diverse disciplines and perspectives! Each essay in
Marketing and the Common Good is thought-provoking and challenges the existing
dogma in marketing.
Jagdish N. Sheth, Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Marketing, Emory
University, USA

The Fighting Irish beat their scholarly swords into societal ploughshares with a
collection that is catholic in scope and Catholic in spirit. Ecumenical and enlight-
ening, Marketing and the Common Good is a Notre Dame antidote to the B-school
diseases of devil-take-the-hindmost and sin-to-win. This book is better than
brilliant, it’s uncommonly good!
Stephen Brown, Professor of Marketing Research, University of Ulster, UK

In a world where there is so much vanilla writing on marketing, this book adds
welcome flavor. Issues about ethics, society, sustainability, Catholic social thought,
public policy: all these have been sidelined in academic marketing too long. Using
a cast of leading voices, Marketing and the Common Good tells a compelling story
about why values matter, even when those values reach beyond consumer taste.
Thomas Donaldson, Mark O. Winkelman Endowed Professor, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania, USA

With the increased attention in our field of Marketing to issues related to ethics,
macromarketing, and transformative consumer research, this book about societal
impacts on the Common Good offers timely insights into topics of increasing
urgency. In short, the book provides required reading for both academics and prac-
titioners concerned with the problem of contributing to the moral and spiritual
elevation of our market-driven economy.
Morris B. Holbrook, W. T. Dillard Professor Emeritus of Marketing, Graduate
School of Business, Columbia University, USA

This book is a manifesto for stakeholder-centric marketing.The essays focus on how

marketing serves the common good and specifically addresses major dimensions of
social responsibility, including social issues, sustainability, planned obsolescence,
childhood obesity, firearms, personal selling issues, as well as many other dimensions.
O.C. Ferrell, Professor of Marketing, University Distinguished Professor and Bill
Daniels Professor of Business Ethics, University of New Mexico, USA
An impassioned plea for the re-enchantment of Marketing by targeting fairness,
social justice and sustainability. An exciting and persuasive collection of essays which
argue that Marketing can make a major contribution to the common good.
Richard Elliott, Dean, School of Management, University of Bath, UK

This volume is a remarkable and demanding book. It is distinguished by its positive

intentions, its largeness of view, and immense thoughtfulness. It confronts and
stimulates the reader to ruminate about the marketing system. Ever since I read it
I have been obsessively brooding about a profound question: Is there such a thing
as the common good?
Sidney J. Levy, Coca-Cola Distinguished Professor of Marketing, Eller College of
Management, University of Arizona, and Charles H. Kellstadt Professor Emeritus
of Marketing, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University, USA

I can’t envision a more thoughtful set of essays about the interface of marketing and
the common good of the planet than these. They are both immediately actionable
and deeply philosophic. They are historical, contemporary, and forward looking.
They will comprise a valuable asset for anyone interested in human development,
sustainability, global inequality, social marketing, transformational consumer research,
quality of life, or business and consumer ethics. And they showcase the intellectually
powerful and spiritually profound group of marketing scholars that Notre Dame has
attracted and produced. This is a timely and compelling book.
Russell Belk, Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing, Schulich School of
Business, York University, Canada

The University of Notre Dame has long been a towering lighthouse of guidance
across the turbulent sea of inevitable moral dilemmas in social and economic life.
This new volume from its Mendoza College of Business reaffirms the continuing
leadership of its marketing faculty in advancing profound and lasting knowledge
about the nature and the necessity of virtues, values, and ethics in the practice of
business today, and beyond.
David Glen Mick, Robert Hill Carter Professor of Commerce, McIntire School
of Commerce, University of Virginia, USA

Combining marketing and the common good may seem implausible to some, but
the Notre Dame faculty has a longstanding history of recognizing that our profession
not only can but should be concerned with our larger societal impact. As a com-
munity of scholars they have celebrated the ways in which marketing has contributed
to the common good, while fully recognizing the downside of our actions and the
role of government to rectify resulting problems. This volume is a must-read for
executives and students alike who wish to understand and advocate for the common
good in ways that can truly make the world a better place.
Ronald Hill, Richard J. and Barbara Naclerio Chairholder in Business, Villanova
University, USA
This is a pioneering and significant contribution shaped by institutional context
and the visible hand of moral sentiment. The authors assemble the thoughtful
work of a cohort of scholars that is truly unique in key regards: unique not only
in terms of the stature of their contribution to the evolving moral tone of the
discipline over the last 50 years; nor in their in penetrating accounts of the knots
of ethical construct and social justice that frame the marketing gaze on societal
impact; but in their virtually unprecedented return to discourse of the ‘com-
mons’ and the ‘common good’ to suggest pathways towards the moral turn in
marketing studies.
Douglas Brownlie, Professor of Marketing, University of Stirling, UK

I heartily recommend Marketing and the Common Good. This provocative collection
of essays, written by prominent researchers in the field, provides a critical assess-
ment of marketing and its role in some of the most pressing social problems facing
humanity. Ultimately, their message is hopeful as readers are challenged to imagine
a world where we are citizens first, and business and marketing practices serve our
collective interests.
Julie L. Ozanne, Sonny Merryman Professor of Marketing, Virginia Tech
University, USA and Chair, Advisory Committee on Transformative Consumer
Research (ACR)

At a time when turning on the news frequently yields a new crop of corporate
scandals, it is clearly appropriate that the scholarly community reflect on their role
in affirming the present economic system. This collection is an admirable response
to such a task. It scrutinizes the role of marketing in society, looking at its contribu-
tion to social justice and environmental sustainability. For those who require an
introduction to the many complex debates surrounding the relationship between
marketing and society, Murphy and Sherry’s volume is essential reading.
Mark Tadajewski, Professor of Marketing, Durham University, UK

While marketing journals and textbooks overflow with a firm-centric and customer-
centric micro lens on marketing, the Notre Dame marketing faculty for over five
decades have telescoped out with a macro lens to debate and engage in dialogue
about the social impact of marketing. This book celebrates that continuing dialogue
and will benefit all that read and reflect upon the insights shared in this book.
Robert Lusch, James and Pamela Muzzy Chair in Entrepreneurship and
Executive Director of the McGuire Center for Entrepreneurship, University of
Arizona, USA

As modern Business Schools grapple with how to best embed ethics in the cur-
riculum, Notre Dame showcases its prowess and long-standing interest in this area
in this collection of thought-provoking and enlightening essays. Covering a diverse
and comprehensive range of topics, the essays invite us to contemplate both specific
consumption-related problems, such as obesity and firearms, and general marketing
system issues. This volume is a worthy addition to the limited but growing body
of work addressing the role of marketing in a fair and just society.
Simone Pettigrew, Professor of Marketing and Director of the Health Evaluation
Unit, University of Western Australia, Australia

Marketing so often seems at odds with the common good, not least given some of
the unintended consequences of marketing activities. However, as this wide-ranging
and thought-provoking collection of essays shows, marketing can be conceived and
practiced in ways that promote the common good as well. It offers insight for
marketing practitioners and scholars alike. It is also testament to the long-standing
commitment of marketing faculty at Notre Dame to scholarship on issues of mar-
keting and society, marketing ethics, and marketing and public policy—in short, to
marketing and the common good.
N. Craig Smith, INSEAD Chaired Professor of Ethics and Social Responsibility,
France

Marketing is widely demonized as being synonymous with egocentric materialism,

a shallow consumer culture, broken promises, intrusiveness and other ills.The collec-
tion of essays now published by two of the most eminent marketing scholars and
business ethics researchers, John F. Sherry, Jr. and Patrick E. Murphy, provides a wel-
come antidote to these prejudices. The contributions demonstrate that the field of
marketing has substantially more intellectual gravitas than is commonly assumed.
Illustrating the interconnectedness of marketing to ethics, moral economy and public
policy, this book is a must read for anyone who is interested in societal aspects of
marketing and in the fundamental question of how we all want to live together.
Bodo Schlegelmilch, Professor of International Marketing and Management, and
Dean, Executive Academy,Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria

A unique and important collection of essays join together in a coherent whole to

make a powerful case for marketing’s role in strongly influencing the common
good. The common thread that underlies a multitude of specific marketing and
society issues (ethical practices, sustainability, guns, childhood obesity, and et. al.) is
revealed, placed in its historical and intellectual context, and even debated. Reading
this volume will give many marketing scholars and students a far better under-
standing and perspective of our field’s future.
Josh Wiener, Professor of Marketing, Carson Professor of Business Administration,
and Director of the center for Social and Services Marketing, Oklahoma State
University, USA

This book is a remarkable collective effort to re-imagine marketing as a means

of identifying and achieving the common good. It provides a post-postmodern
perspective of the intersection between marketing and society and paves the way
for the remaking of marketing as ‘societing’.
Bernard Cova, Professor of Marketing, Euromed Management and Visiting
Professor, Bocconi University, Italy
This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in consumerism, marketing
and society, marketing ethics or stewardship. Notre Dame has been at the forefront
of research and thinking in these areas for decades. The authors are luminaries in
the field.
Cornelia Pechmann, Professor of Marketing, Paul Merage School of Business,
University of California, Irvine, USA, and Editor of Journal of Consumer Research

For more than three decades, the Marketing Department at the University of Notre
Dame has served as both thought leader and social conscience of the marketing
discipline.While others in our field have focused on publishing in significant journals,
the Notre Dame faculty have focused on publishing significant work – work that
makes the world a better place (much of which appears in significant journals). This
focus reflects their individual, collective and institutional orientations that marketing
should serve a high purpose, that it should make a world a better place, and that it
should empower people to think and act beyond their personal interest. If, as a mar-
keting manager, you strive to improve the lives of your customers and community, as
well as your firm, then your decisions are likely shaped by the thinking and teaching
of Notre Dame. If, as a marketing scholar, you can articulate to others how marketing
can make the world a better place, your argument almost certainly includes the
thinking and teaching of the faculty of Notre Dame.
John Mittelstaedt, Professor and Chair, Department of Management and
Marketing, University of Wyoming College of Business, USA

Drawing on the interdisciplinary concept of “the common good” as its central motif,
this inspiring collection from Notre Dame scholars focuses our attention on the
complex and powerful role that marketing and consumption play in contemporary
society.Together the provocative chapters leave the reader with a much keener appre-
ciation of the many ethical and moral ramifications of marketing activities and their
societal impact, taking us through a wide range of pressing issues that cover topics as
diverse as firearms, kidney donations and childhood obesity. This book is essential
reading for all current and future marketers to understand the broader implications
of their actions and how the discipline can affect the common good in positive as
well as negative ways.
Pauline Maclaran, Professor of Marketing & Consumer Research, Royal
Holloway, University of London, UK

The authors included in this volume are among some of the most respected in
the marketing discipline. It is hard to imagine that they all have some connection
to one school (Notre Dame). Personally, I was especially attracted by the fact that,
E.J. McCarthy, professor of the very first marketing course I ever enrolled in, was
included in this volume. I believe that the topics covered should be useful to
marketing students, academic researchers and business leaders alike.
Scott J. Vitell, Hardin Professor of Marketing, University of Mississippi, USA
and Marketing and Consumer Behavior Section Editor for the Journal of Business
Ethics
Not only does this text pay tribute to the continued voice and multifarious con-
tributions of the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame in helping us
understand what marketing can do to help us realize the common good but also
provides another important part, alongside scholarship in macromarketing and
public policy, of a collective cornerstone for enlightened marketing. This should be
essential reading for all business school students across our world!
Pierre McDonagh, Dublin City University Business School, Ireland and
Associate Editor, Journal of Macromarketing

I applaud this important effort at scholarly reflection on how marketing can serve
the common good. It brings together serious scholarship on marketing with
consideration of our obligation to serve society.
Rev. John Jenkins, President, University of Notre Dame
MARKETING AND THE COMMON
GOOD

Marketing is among the most powerful cultural forces at work in the contemporary
world, affecting not merely consumer behaviour, but almost every aspect of human
behaviour.While the potential for marketing both to promote and threaten societal
well-being has been a perennial focus of inquiry, the current global intellectual and
political climate has lent this topic extra gravitas.

Through original research and scholarship from the influential Mendoza College of
Business, this book looks at marketing’s ramifications far beyond simple economic
exchange. It addresses four major topic areas: societal aspects of marketing and
consumption; the social and ethical thought; sustainability; and public policy issues,
in order to explore the wider relationship of marketing within the ethical and moral
economy and its implications for the common good.

By bringing together the wide-ranging and interdisciplinary contributions, it

provides a uniquely comprehensive and challenging exploration of some of the
most pressing themes for business and society today.

Patrick E. Murphy is Professor of Marketing at the Mendoza College of Business,

University of Notre Dame, USA. Pat specializes in marketing and business ethics issues
and his recent work has focused on normative perspectives for ethical and socially
responsible marketing, distributive justice as it relates to marketing decision making,
emerging ethical concerns in advertising, stakeholder theory, and marketing as well as
ethics and corporate social responsibility for marketing in a global marketplace.

John F. Sherry, Jr. is Herrick Professor of Marketing and Chairman of the Department
of Marketing at the Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, USA.
John is an anthropologist who studies the sociocultural and symbolic dimensions of
consumption, and the cultural ecology of marketing. His recent work has focused on
experiential retailing, holistic branding, and consumption aesthetics. Among his current
project is a study of the social rituals involved in tailgating during football games.
This page intentionally left blank
MARKETING AND
THE COMMON GOOD
Essays from Notre Dame on
societal lmpact

Edited by
Patrick E. Murphy and John F. Sherry, Jr.
First published 2014
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
 2014 Patrick E. Murphy and John F. Sherry, Jr.
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced
or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means,
now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording,
or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Marketing and the common good: essays from Notre Dame on societal
impact/edited by Patrick E. Murphy and John F. Sherry, Jr.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Marketing—Moral and ethical aspects. 2. Social marketing. I. Murphy,
Patrick E., 1948– II. Sherry, John F.
HF5415.M2186 2013
306.34—dc23
2013002577

ISBN: 978-0-415-82882-6 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-203-36630-1 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo
by Book Now Ltd, London
To our colleagues who set us on the path toward the common good:
David L. Appel
Wesley C. Bender
Yusaku Furuhashi
John R. Malone
This page intentionally left blank
CONTENTS

List of illustrations xvii

Notes on contributors xix
Acknowledgments xxiii

PART I
Introduction 1

1 The common good: The enduring effort to re-center marketing 3

Patrick E. Murphy

2 A larger view of marketing: Marketing’s contributions to society 13

William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

PART II
Societal aspects of marketing and consumption 41

3 Slouching toward Utopia: When marketing is society 43

John F. Sherry, Jr.

4 The case for clarity 61

Joel E. Urbany

5 How marketing serves the common good: A long-term

consumer perspective 81
John F. Gaski and Michael J. Etzel
xiv Contents

6 Social issues of marketing in the American economy 93

Y. Hugh Furuhashi and E. Jerome McCarthy

PART III
Catholic Social Thought issues in marketing 103

7 Caritas in Veritate: Updating Catholic Social Teaching for

responsible marketing strategy 105
Gene R. Laczniak, Thomas A. Klein, and Patrick E. Murphy

8 A commentary on Catholic Social Teaching and “wanting

the right things” 119
Timothy J. Gilbride

PART IV
Sustainability issues in marketing 125

9 Consumption in the un-commons: The economic case

for reclaiming the commons as unique markets 127
F. Byron (Ron) Nahser

10 Marketing’s contributions to a sustainable society 153

Jenny Mish and Alexandria Miller

11 Creative destruction and destructive creations: Environmental

ethics and planned obsolescence 175
Joseph P. Guiltinan

PART V
Public policy issues in marketing 189

12 Should marketers be persuading our children?

A controversial question 191
Elizabeth S. Moore

13 Firearms and the common good: A meaningful discussion

about solutions 212
Kevin D. Bradford

14 Notre Dame and the Federal Trade Commission 231

Patrick E. Murphy and William L. Wilkie
 Contents xv

PART VI
Ethical issues in marketing 251

15 From twins to strangers: Considerations of paired kidney

donation across gift and market economies 253
Tonya Williams Bradford

16 Ethics in selling: A case-oriented, stakeholder-focused approach 267

John A. Weber

17 Discerning ethical challenges for marketing in China 281

Georges Enderle and Qibin Niu

PART VII
Conclusion 307

18 Can we get there from here? Charting the contours

of the common good 309
John F. Sherry, Jr.

19 Afterword: A blast from the past 316

John J. Kennedy

Index 319
This page intentionally left blank
ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures
2.1 Marketing system for coffee 17
2.2 Selected marketing system activities 21
2.3 Criticisms and problems of the aggregate marketing system 34
3.1 The three evolutionary stages of our understanding of the
societal impact of marketing 45
4.1 Uncertainty at various points in the consumption process
and firm investments in clarity production 67
5.1 Index of Consumer Sentiment toward Marketing, 1984–2011 86
9.1 Michigan’s Great Lakes 145
10.1 The four system conditions for sustainability 155
10.2 Uncontrollable and controllable factors in marketing 161
11.1 Product obsolescence and the environment: decisions and
influences 176
13.1 Representation of the primary market distribution and the
major channels for diversion 216
15.1 Example of organ donor chain 257
16.1 Stakeholder impact chain for “golfing for dollars” case 275

Tables
5.1 Index of Consumer Sentiment toward Marketing and its
components, 1984–2011 85
6.1 Chapter titles and question headings in Furuhashi and
McCarthy (1971) 101
xviii Illustrations

9.1 Four types of goods 141

13.1 The illegal market in the United States 215

Boxes
2.1 Propositions on the aggregate marketing system 23
7.1 Key principles of Catholic Social Teaching 106
16.1 Examples of some selling ethics issues 271
16.2 A framework to evaluate sales ethics 277
CONTRIBUTORS

Unless otherwise specified, all contributors are Notre Dame faculty members.

Kevin D. Bradford is an Associate Professional Specialist in Marketing whose

research addresses significant issues within the marketing system (marketers, cus-
tomers, and public policymakers) and its relationship to society. His recent work
has centered on sales management and the development of relationships, firearm
diversion, and distribution channel responsibility.

Tonya Williams Bradford, Assistant Professor of Marketing, is pursuing two

research streams: gift-giving and relationships. Some of the projects included in
these streams are dispositions of gifted assets, intergenerational reciprocity, charita-
ble gifting, gift registry, brand loyalty transitions, cross-cultural consumption of
voluntary migrants, and service providers as family members.

Georges Enderle, John T. Ryan Jr. Professor of International Business Ethics, con-
ducts research on the ethics of globalization, wealth creation, and corporate respon-
sibilities of large and small companies, with a view on developments in China. He
has investigated the ethics and corporate responsibilities for marketing in the global
marketplace; the potential of the Golden Rule for a globalizing world; and Muslim,
Christian, and Jewish views on wealth creation.

Michael J. Etzel, Emeritus Professor of Marketing, specializes in the study of con-

sumer decision making, services marketing, and sales force management. He is a
past Chair of the Board for the American Marketing Association. He also served as
Chair of the Department of Marketing at Notre Dame from 1980 to 1987 and
from 1993 to 1994 and is viewed as the “architect” of the current department.
xx Contributors

Y. Hugh Furuhashi was Professor Emeritus of Marketing, and a former Dean, on

multiple occasions, of Notre Dame’s College of Business, where his research
focused on international marketing, and in particular on American–Japanese rela-
tions. He was instrumental in setting up summer internships for ND MBA students
in Japan and a summer program at Notre Dame for Japanese executives.

John F. Gaski, Associate Professor of Marketing, treats issues of larger signifi-

cance in his research, such as social power – in this context, that which prevails
among firms in a distribution channel. His primary current emphasis is the
macroscopic societal impact of marketing activity, that is, how marketing
impinges on human welfare.

Timothy J. Gilbride, Associate Professor of Marketing, investigates empirical

methods applied to marketing problems. He specializes in Bayesian statistics devel-
oping new methodologies and models to describe consumer and firm behavior.
Current projects include modeling shoppers’ unplanned purchasing behavior, con-
sumer decision-making under risk, and advertising and channel management.

Joseph P. Guiltinan, Emeritus Professor of Marketing, researches the management

of a firm’s product line, including product line pricing, bundling of products, and
product obsolescence. His recent projects include: framing of price discounts in
bundling; pricing strategies for durable replacement products; environmental ethics
and planned obsolescence of durable goods.

John J. Kennedy, Professor of Marketing, studies both quantitative and behavioral

dimensions of marketing, and is especially interested in gender issues. He is cur-
rently examining chaos theory for its relevance to management. He has served on
the marketing faculty at Notre Dame for nearly 50 years.

Thomas A. Klein, Emeritus Professor of Marketing from the University of Toledo,

where he served as Dean and in other administrative positions, specializes in the
areas of macromarketing, ethics and Catholic Social Teaching. He served as a visit-
ing professor at Notre Dame during the 2001–02 and 2002–03 academic years
teaching marketing as well as ethics courses.

Gene R. Laczniak, Emeritus Professor of Marketing at Marquette University,

researches marketing ethics, marketing strategy, business ethics, corporate social
responsibility, and marketing in society. He and Pat Murphy have collaborated on
ethics articles and books for over 35 years beginning when they were colleagues at
Marquette.

E. Jerome McCarthy is Professor Emeritus at Michigan State University, and intro-

duced the concept of the four Ps into the marketing literature. His research interests
centered on marketing strategy. He and Yu Furuhasi co-authored an innovative
 Contributors xxi

book on social issues in marketing and recognized the larger societal role of market-
ing to the larger society 40 years ago.

Alexandria Miller, a Notre Dame BBA and MBA alumna, is a research associate
at Bovitz, Inc., a design-driven research and strategy firm. Her primary interests
include consumer information processing, sociocultural influences on consump-
tion, and the emotional dimension of consumer–product relationships.

Jenny Mish was an Assistant Professor of Marketing whose research focus is the
development of sustainable markets. Her recent work includes a study of exem-
plary triple-bottom-line firms and another of the role of sustainability-
related product standards in the US food system. She pursues understanding
of stakeholder marketing, the role of meanings in value creation, multi-
stakeholder market self-regulation, and co-creation and decentralized diffusion
of innovations.

Elizabeth S. Moore, Associate Professor of Marketing, studies the effects of adver-

tising on children, intergenerational family studies, and the impacts of marketing
in society. She is currently investigating public policy issues related to the online
marketing of food to children, the impacts of recent self-regulatory advertising
initiatives, family impacts on childhood obesity, and the relationship between
childhood obesity and the functioning of the aggregate marketing system.

Patrick E. Murphy, Professor of Marketing, specializes in marketing and business

ethics issues. His recent work has focused on normative perspectives for ethical
and socially responsible marketing, distributive justice as it relates to marketing
decision-making, emerging ethical concerns in advertising, stakeholder theory
and marketing, as well as ethics and corporate social responsibility for marketing
in a global marketplace.

F. Byron (Ron) Nahser, is currently a Senior Wicklander Fellow at DePaul

University’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, and also Provost
Emeritus of Presidio School of Management, San Francisco. His research inter-
ests include business values, vision, marketing strategy, branding, social responsi-
bility, and integrative sustainable management. He is a Notre Dame alumnus and
has spoken in classes and participated in conferences on the ND campus for over
four decades.

Qibin Niu, a Professor at China University of Petroleum, Beijing, studies chal-

lenges for marketing in China and strategic management of Chinese corporations
going global, particularly in the oil industry. He has published numerous case stud-
ies on corporate behavior in China and in other countries. He spent the 2009–10
academic year as a visiting professor in the Department of Marketing working on
ethics projects and attending a number of classes in ethics.
xxii Contributors

John F. Sherry, Jr., Herrick Professor of Marketing and Chairman of the

Department, is an anthropologist who studies the sociocultural and symbolic
dimensions of consumption, and the cultural ecology of marketing. His recent
work has focused on experiential retailing, holistic branding, and consumption
aesthetics. Among his current project is a study of the social rituals involved in
tailgating during football games.

Joel E. Urbany, Professor of Marketing, explores consumer and managerial

decision-making around issues of information, values, and decision-making.
Current projects include how a firm’s clarity in designing, pricing, and presenting
products and services influence customer choice and assessment of value, and
how/why managers’ beliefs about customer needs/requirements frequently vary
from actual customer beliefs.

John A. Weber, Emeritus Associate Professor of Marketing, researches both profes-

sional sellers and customers to assess comparative attitudes regarding the integrity
of specific selling practices and is attempting to uncover creative alternative strate-
gies and tactics that professional sellers can use to avoid compromising selling
integrity, without compromising sales performance.

William L. Wilkie, Nathe Professor of Marketing, studies marketing’s impacts on

consumers and society in general, the topic of his latest book. He has recently
been active in revising the American Marketing Association’s official definition of
the field, and on research projects involving (1) stemming the illicit diversion of firearms
from legal channels of distribution, and (2) exploring the epidemic of childhood
obesity in the United States and elsewhere.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are indebted to numerous colleagues who contributed the many selections in

this book. We thank each of them for (mostly) meeting our deadlines and respond-
ing in a good-spirited manner to our incessant requests.
We gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by the Dean’s Office of the
Mendoza College of Business that allowed us to host the 2011 Notre Dame
Symposium on Marketing and the Common Good that became the platform for
this volume.
In addition to the publishers who permitted us to reprint articles in this text, we
are especially grateful to Jerry McCarthy and Mitsuko Furuhashi for allowing us to
reprint work from a book that Jerry and Yu Furuhashi published over 40 years ago.
Assembling, editing, and formatting material for this volume posed particular
challenges. Two individuals at the University of Notre Dame assisted in this
endeavor. Diane Stauffer, of the Faculty Support Office in the Mendoza College
of Business was indispensable in taking many disparate chapters and transforming
them into the coherent and editorially consistent contributions that you see here.
Sandy Palmer, long-time Administrative Assistant for the Department of Marketing,
worked meticulously to seek permission for reprinted chapters and figures
included in this book, and supervised some of the research assistants that supported
contributors’ efforts. We are indebted to Diane and Sandy for their fine work.
We thank Jacqueline Curthoys, Alex Krause, and Emily Senior at Routledge,
who commissioned and shaped the initial project, and Richard Cook and his asso-
ciates at Book Now for guiding the volume through production.
Despite the efforts of these individuals, errors may always occur. We take full
responsibility for them (as we should, as editors of an ethics book!).
Patrick E. Murphy
John F. Sherry, Jr.
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PART I

Introduction
This page intentionally left blank
1
THE COMMON GOOD
The enduring effort to re-center marketing

Patrick E. Murphy

The genesis for this book outlining the contributions of the Marketing faculty
members in the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame
came in a conversation that John Sherry and I had about similar books in which
he had been involved at another university.These texts promoted the wide-ranging
interests of the marketing faculty at that school. What we discussed was the unique
positioning and longstanding commitment of Notre Dame’s Department of
Marketing to the general area of marketing and society, including ethics, public
policy, and a number of societal issues.
This conversation led to a symposium entitled “Marketing and the Common
Good” (MCG) in April 2011 held on the Notre Dame campus. The common
good was the university-wide theme of a year-long set of discussions, presentations,
and symposia on the topic. The MCG symposium explored the tendency of mar-
keting to ramify far beyond simple economic exchange, into the realms of ethics
and moral economy, issues of public policy, and practices of accommodation and
resistance to consumer culture. Early versions of most of the chapters in this book
were presented at that time.
The ensuing period has been one of revising, polishing, and in some instances,
generating new manuscripts that fill the pages of this volume. The contributions
fall into one of five general parts – societal aspects of marketing and consumption,
Catholic Social Thought (CST) issues, sustainability issues, public policy issues, and
ethical issues. The book ends with a concluding chapter and an afterword. At the
end of this introductory essay, I offer a preview about each of the seventeen chapters
that make up the text.
4 Patrick E. Murphy

Origins of the common good

The concept of the common good has many parents. The disciplines of political
science, ecology, education, philosophy, and theology all have contributed to our
understanding of the concept.
The study of ecology examines the inter-relationships between people and
nature. Two significant articles appeared in the 1960s that argued against a selfish
view of humanity. In “The Tragedy of the Commons,” Garrett Hardin (1968) per-
suasively argued that individuals pursuing narrow self-interest would use up the
commons and leave few resources for the future. This theme ties in with the com-
mon good in that the “commons” must be protected. About the same time,
Kenneth Boulding (1966), a Nobel laureate, coined the phrase “spaceship earth”
and contrasted it with the prevailing cowboy economy which looked at natural
resources as being unlimited. Although he did not use the common good to bolster
his position, his view of the limitations of a resource-depleting economy flies in
the face of what most would view as being good for others.
Within the philosophical literature, the common good is thought to have
originated over two thousand years ago from the classic writings of Plato,
Aristotle, and Cicero. One more recent conception of the common good follows
the utilitarian theory which examines outcomes of decisions that maximize the
happiness or utility of individuals within a society (Mill 1979). Some call it “the
greatest good for the greatest number” and thus would state that such an ideal
would lead to the common good since most are better off. Critics might argue
that utilitarianism does not account for distributive justice (e.g., some individuals
are harmed significantly while the majority may benefit moderately) and within
the business sector, the concept of “economic utilitarianism” may mean that the
common good could be reduced to whatever decision leads to the most profit or
financial return for the company.
The late contemporary ethicist, John Rawls, offers a complete account of the
basic structure of society and provides a more robust definition of the common
good as “certain general conditions that are . . . equally to everyone’s advantage”
(1971, p. 246). In fact, he makes the distinction between the “good,” actively creat-
ing a better world, and the “just,” which creates a fair, liberal social infrastructure. In
taking a bit of poetic license with his theoretical and much acclaimed position, we
might argue that the “common” good would be a society with both (the) good
and just characteristics.
Within theological circles, a general position that is advanced is that the
“Golden Rule” promotes the common good. In what is not a surprising finding,
the Golden Rule is present in virtually all organized religions (Murphy et al. 2005).
Some would criticize this position in that such a rule leaves much open to inter-
pretation and the common good goes beyond what one would consider as his/her
duties to others.
The most extensive theological treatment of the common good is found in
Catholic Social Teaching. Several of the Papal encyclicals make reference to the
 The common good 5

common good and this ideal is considered one of the major principles of CST
that is not only followed by Catholics but many other faith-centered individuals.
Although there are many references to the common good within these docu-
ments, one of the best summaries of what the common good entails is captured
by the following passage:

Because of the increasingly close interdependence which is gradually

extending to the entire world, we are today witnessing an extension of the
role of the common good, which is the sum total of social conditions
which allow people, either as groups or as individuals, to reach their fulfill-
ment more fully and more easily. The resulting rights and obligations are
consequently the concern of the entire human race. Every group must take
into account the needs and legitimate aspirations of every other group, and
even those of the human family as a whole.
(Paul VI 1965)

The common good and contemporary society

In the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, further discussion of the com-
mon good has occurred by a number of observers. They come from a variety of
perspectives:

We face a choice between a society where people accept modest sacrifices

for a common good or a more contentious society where groups selfishly
protect their own benefits.
(Robert Samuelson, Newsweek writer,
quoted in Velazquez et al. undated)

Solving the current crisis in our health care system – rapidly rising costs
and dwindling access – requires replacing the current “ethic of individual
rights” with an “ethic of the common good.”
(Daniel Callahan, bioethics expert, quoted in Velasquez et al. undated)

This kind of constructive, enlarging experience with the other counters

the tribal fear of the outsider and tills the ground in which a seed of
commitment – not just to me and mine, but to a larger, more inclusive
common good – can be planted.
(Parks et al. 1996, p. 65, emphasis in the original)

These quotations place the common good in a larger context than mere individual
selfish interests. Furthermore, the seeds and planting analogy in the Parks quote
underscores the importance of commitment to the common good. In the business
6 Patrick E. Murphy

and marketing, the stakeholder orientation presupposes that a broader view of the
firm is necessary in today’s complicated and interconnected world (Laczniak and
Murphy 2012). In fact, the emphasis on sustainable marketing practices views
future generations, or even the environment itself, as a stakeholder. Similarly, dis-
cussions of corporate social responsibility highlight the necessity of taking into
consideration the needs of society beyond just those of customers, employees, and
stockholders.
Common good in marketing presupposes a broader context than just consum-
ers buying products from marketers. Many other stakeholders must be drawn into
the discussion. In an article entitled, “The Stakeholder Theory and the Common
Good,” Argandona (1998) argues that the common good should serve as one of the
foundations of stakeholder theory. Within a particular company, the common good
is the fulfillment of the company’s purpose to create the conditions where all par-
ticipants in the firm can accomplish personal goals. Thus, there can be a common
good both inside and outside the firm. This foundation for stakeholder theory in
the common good is not to say that the common good can be translated into a list
of rights and duties for a company. Rather, Argandona explains what these two
concepts mean in practice:

However, the theory of the common good introduces a major change in

the traditional approach to stakeholders. The approach identifies stake-
holders as being those who have an “interest” in the company (so that the
firm, in turn, may have an “interest” in satisfying their demands) and this
may provide a sufficient basis for a positive theory of the organization
(although, probably, incomplete). The theory of the common good is
based on the classic concept of “good”: the company does “good” to many
people, to some by obligation and to others more or less involuntarily. And
“it must do good” to certain groups by virtue of its obligation to contrib-
ute to the common good, which goes from the common good of the
company itself to that of the local community, the country and all human-
kind, including future generations. In any case, the concept of good seems
to provide a more appropriate foundation for an ethical theory than the
concept of interest.
(Argandona 1998, p. 1099)

In a recent influential book (What Money Can’t Buy), Michael Sandel, a Harvard
government professor, takes aim at what he calls the “era of market triumphalism”
by persuasively advocating that there are many things in life that money cannot
buy. He criticizes the commodification of blood donorship, using the criteria of
fairness and corruption. By fairness Sandel means that some individuals in society
can readily afford to pay a financial price for virtually anything, but the poor,
uneducated, and vulnerable will be left out. The corrosive tendency of markets
means putting a price on the good things in life can corrupt them. In his chapter
on “Naming Rights” he notes that the corrosive effects of advertising matters less
 The common good 7

in the grocery aisle than it does in the public square, where naming rights and
corporate sponsorships are becoming widespread (p. 189). These naming rights
have become pervasive, going beyond ballparks and skyboxes to police cars and
school buses with corporate logos on them.
In the last few pages of his book, he takes aim at our consumer culture dominated
by marketing, but concludes with a call for the common good:

It isn’t easy to teach students to be citizens, capable of thinking critically

about the world around them, when so much of childhood consists of
basic training for a consumer society. At a time when many children
come to school as walking billboards of logos and labels and licensed
apparel, it is all the more difficult – and all the more important – for
schools to create some distance from a popular culture steeped in the
ethos of consumerism ….

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that
citizens share in a common life. What matters is that people of different
backgrounds and social positions encounter one another, and bump up
against one another, in the course of everyday life. For this is how we learn
to negotiate and abide our differences, and how we come to care for the
common good.

And so, in the end, the question of markets is really a question about how
we want to live together. Do we want a society where everything is up for
sale? Or are there certain moral and civic goods that markets do not honor
and money cannot buy?
(Sandel 2012, pp. 200–201)

Another recent text (Skidelsky and Skidelsky 2012) outlines what the authors
indicate is the “good life” and their description is very similar to what we are call-
ing the common good in this volume. Their contention is that almost all things are
viewed as marketable and this detracts from a larger vision of society:

The continued pursuit of growth is not only unnecessary to realizing the

basic goods; it may actually damage them. The basic goods are essentially
non-marketable: they cannot properly be bought or sold. An economy
geared to maximizing market value will tend to crowd them out or to
replace them with marketable surrogates. The result is a familiar kind of
corruption. Personality becomes part of the jargon of advertising, with
consumers of the most everyday products said to be “expressing” or
“defining” themselves. Friendship is no longer the ethically serious rela-
tionship it was for Aristotle but an intrigue for the enjoyment of leisure.
Meanwhile, leisure itself is subject to the same economizing logic that
governs production, with sports, games and nightclubs striving to pack the
8 Patrick E. Murphy

the maximum of excitement into the minimum of time. “The market

penetrates areas of life which had stayed outside the realm of monetary
exchange until recently,” writes sociologist Zygmunt Bauman (2005,
p. 88). “It relentlessly hammers home the message that everything is or
could be a commodity, or if it is still short of becoming a commodity,
that it should be handled like a commodity.”
(Skidelsky and Skidelsky 2012, pp. 170–71)

In the concluding page of this influential book, Skidelsky and Skidelsky (2012,
p. 218) make the following statement: “Could a society entirely devoid of the
religious impulse stir itself to pursuit of the common good? We doubt it.” This
philosophy is echoed in Part II of our book and is an undercurrent of many of
the other selections.

Overview of the book

Part I contains this chapter and the next by William Wilkie and Elizabeth Moore.
Their chapter is adapted from an influential Journal of Marketing article. This selec-
tion presents a comprehensive examination of marketing’s contribution to society.
It outlines both marketing’s positive aspects and several criticisms and problems
with the aggregate marketing system. The chapter concludes with six lessons
learned and the final one speaks directly to the common good.
Part II includes four chapters. In the initial one, John Sherry outlines the
intersection between marketing and society from several perspectives. His chap-
ter firmly positions the topic of the common good as a central one for all who
are interested in the societal aspects of marketing. Joe Urbany examines the issue
of clarity and how commercial marketers have until recently obfuscated the
information that they made available to consumers. He proposes a model that
places a premium on transparency and clarity as a marketing strategy. He sees this
approach as quite consonant with the common good. The third selection is co-
authored by John Gaski and our emeritus colleague, Mike Etzel. These authors
propose the narrowest conception of the common good as only pertaining to fair
relationships with consumers. They reject the notion of taking a broader stance
where both unintended consequences from marketing activity and marketers’
assuming some social responsibility might occur. Readers will be reminded of
Milton Friedman’s words that they only social responsibility of marketing is to
maximize profits. The fourth selection in Part II is a reprint from the first chapter
of a book co-authored by our late colleague, Yusaku Furuhashi, and a former
Notre Dame faculty member, E. Jerome McCarthy. Although their book was
published over 40 years ago, the chapter has a timeless quality to it in that many
of the issues they identified back then remain with marketing well into the
twenty-first century.
Part III features only two chapters. Laczniak, Klein, and Murphy examine the
last encyclical by Pope Benedict and its relevant passages for marketing.
 The common good 9

They identify nine specific paragraphs in the document that have application for
marketing. Some of the topics are ethical issues in business, the stakeholder concept
and the importance of stewardship for the natural environment. They conclude by
tying these paragraphs to the theological conception of the common good. Tim
Gilbride offers additional insight into CST and its relevance to marketing as well
as its acceptance as a normative ethical theory.
Part IV focuses on sustainability issues in marketing. Ron Nahser provides a
broad discussion of the essential nature of markets, commons, and marketing to
better understand the sustainability challenges that the marketplace faces now
and into the future. As a native Chicagoan, he examines a number of sustainabil-
ity initiatives undertaken in the Chicago area both recently and historically. Jenny
Mish and Alexandria Miller use the familiar 4 P’s conception of marketing to
examine sustainability. Their approach contains both micro- or firm-level sugges-
tions as well as macro/societal perspectives as well. Joe Guiltinan’s contribution
was originally published as an article in the Journal of Business Ethics. He has long
studied the concept of planned obsolescence and in this chapter he firmly
grounds the issues surrounding this controversial marketing tactic to the ethics
of sustainability.
Part V explores several public policy issues facing marketing. Betsy Moore
examines the important societal issue of childhood obesity. She contends that
manufacturers of food and beverages as well as food retailers all have contributed
to growth of this issue (pun intended). If the larger society is to help alleviate this
problem, the lens of the common good is a proper paradigm to better understand
the scope of the obesity epidemic. Kevin Bradford chronicles the societal issues
that have arisen in the distribution of firearms in the United States. Many of the
problems arise from the “diversion” of guns from traditional retail channels to
unregulated sales through gun shows, back of trucks, and cars. Bill Wilkie and I
are both “alums” of the Federal Trade Commission. Our chapter traces the rich
intertwined history of Notre Dame’s link to the FTC. It started with Edward
Hurley, the benefactor of the first College of Foreign and Domestic Commerce
building on Notre Dame’s campus and has continued with the five current and
former faculty members in the Department of Marketing who spent time work-
ing at the agency.
Part VI touches on several ethical issues associated with marketing. Tonya
Bradford discusses the complicated process associated with kidney donation and
why much of the enterprise is fraught with ethical implications. She identifies a
recent matching procedure that helps both donors and recipients and is a very
good application of the common good. John Weber examines selling activity and
the multiple ethical problems associated with it. He proposes a stakeholder-based
approach to alleviating, if not solving, a number of these issues. He sees a central
role for ethics training to better sensitize salespeople to the ethical challenges they
may face. Georges Enderle and Qibin Niu discuss several case studies of ethics in
global marketing with a focus on China. Because the regulatory framework is not
nearly as advanced in the Chinese economy, they see an expanding role for
10 Patrick E. Murphy

companies in raising the ethical standards for marketing in that country and around
the world.
Part VII consists of a concluding essay by John Sherry which shows that CST is
a relevant concept for much of contemporary marketing and challenges the disci-
pline’s thought leaders to re-imagine marketing as a means of identifying and
achieving the common good. John Kennedy’s afterword ruminates on the history
of the Notre Dame Marketing Department and its contributions to the common
good over the past half century.

Urgency and relevance of perspective: Some recent

illustrations
The events of 2012 have added great impetus to the notion of the common good
and the selections in this volume. Some of the most significant are illustrated below.

 The horrific shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown,

Connecticut on December 14, with the deaths of 20 children and six adults
have led to increased pressure for more stringent gun control laws in the
United States. (For a summary of the news accounts of this tragedy, see
Cooper 2012; Friedman 2012; Nagourney 2012; and Shear 2012 on Sandy
Hook and the episode’s implications for gun control.) The chapter by Kevin
Bradford could help to inform these deliberations.
 The findings that Walmart was involved in bribing government officials in
Mexico (Barstow and von Bertrab 2012) and the fact that Foxconn (Mozer
2012) remains in the news adds credence to the chapters by Enderle and Niu
and Weber on the importance of ethics in marketing both at national and
international levels.
 The Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2012) published Vocation of a
Business Leader: A Reflection that outlined how business leaders can contribute
to the common good. While some of the responsibilities noted in this recent
document are slightly different, they echo the contributions of Laczniak,
Klein, and Murphy as well as Gilbride in the chapters on Catholic Social
Teaching and its relationship to the common good.
 The Economist (2012) published a special section to its magazine in December
on obesity. The adjoining editorial and six articles focused on food companies
and fast food in particular and their responsibilities to alleviating this problem.
The chapter by Moore in this volume indicates that special efforts should
focus on the young so as to reduce the likelihood of a lifelong battle on con-
taining one’s weight. The Wall Street Journal also reported on the fact that food
companies are trying to hook kids into mobile games that are linked to com-
pany promotions (Troianovski 2012). This issue is one that is central to the
common good ideal and is growing in importance.
 The United States Federal Trade Commission (2012; Wyatt 2012) promul-
gated a new set of “Green Guides” in October. These guides updated earlier
 The common good 11

ones and set new rules for marketers that are advertising sustainability efforts.
This guidance lends further urgency to the chapters by Nahser, Mish, and
Miller and Guiltinan. Furthermore, the FTC has been increasingly active in
the children’s online privacy issue (Singer 2012). This renewed activity by the
FTC shows that this matter is a complex problem that warrants close study
by observers concerned with the common good, as noted in the Murphy and
Wilkie chapter.

These events, and a host of others, draw attention to the many ways that the role
of marketing is intertwined with the quality of life in contemporary society.
The contributors to this volume have described the societal impact of marketing,
and outlined ways in which the discipline can, and should, affect the common
good. We invite our readers to join in this critical assessment as they ponder the
following pages.

References
Argandona, A. (1998) “The stakeholder theory and the common good,” Journal of Business
Ethics, 17: 1093–1101.
Barstow, D. and von Bertrab, A. (2012) “The bribery aisle: How Wal-Mart used payoffs to
get its way in Mexico,” The New York Times (December 18): A1 and B6–8.
Bauman, Z. (2005) Liquid Life, Cambridge: Polity.
Boulding, K. (1966) “The economics of the coming spaceship earth,” in H. Jarrett (ed.)
Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy, Baltimore, MD: Resources for the Future/
Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 3–14.
Cooper, M. (2012) “Debate on gun control is revived, amid a trend toward fewer restrictions,”
The New York Times (December 15).
Economist, The (2012) “Special report: Obesity” (December 15): 1–16.
Friedman, R. (2012) “In gun debate, a misguided focus on mental illness,” The New York
Times (December 17).
Hardin, G. (1968) “The tragedy of the commons,” Science, 162 (3859, December 13): 1243–48.
Laczniak, G. and Murphy, P. (2012) “Stakeholder theory and marketing: Moving from a
firm-centric to a societal perspective,” Journal of Public Policy & Marketing, 31 (2): 284–92.
Mill, J. (1979) Utilitarianism, Indianapolis, IN: Hackett.
Mozer, P. (2012) “Foxconn workers: Keep our overtime,” The Wall Street Journal (December 18):
B1 and B2.
Murphy, P., Laczniak, G., Bowie, N., and Klein, T. (2005) Ethical Marketing, Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Nagourney, A. (2012) “States’ leaders proposing steps to control guns,” The New York Times
(December 18).
Parks Daloz, L., Keen, C., Keen, J., and Parks Daloz, S. (1996) Common Fire: Leading Lives of
Commitment in a Complex World, Boston: Beacon Press.
Paul VI (1965), Gaudium et Spes, paragraph 26. Reprinted in A. Flannery (1996), Vatican
Council II: Constitutions, Decrees and Declarations, Northport, NY: Costello Publishing,
p. 191.
Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice (2012) Vocation of the Business Leader: A Reflection,
Vatican City: Pontifical Council.
Rawls, J. (1971) A Theory of Justice, Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University
Press.
Sandel, M. (2012) What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, New York: Farrar,
Strauss and Giroux.
12 Patrick E. Murphy

Shear, M. (2012) “Obama promises fast action pressing for gun control,” The New York Times
(December 19).
Singer, N. (2012) “U.S. tightening web privacy rule to shield young,” The New York Times
(September 28): A1 and A3.
Skidelsky, R. and Skidelsky, E. (2012) How Much is Enough? New York: Other Press.
Troianovski, A. (2012) “Child’s play: Food makers hook kids on mobile games,” The Wall
Street Journal (September 18): A1 and A14.
United States Federal Trade Commission (2012) Revised Green Guides, accessed at: www.ftc.
gov/os/fedreg/2012/10/greenguidesfrn.pdf (May 30, 2013).
Velasquez, M., Andre, C., Shanks, S.J., and Meyer, M. (undated) “The common good,”
Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, Santa Clara University, accessed at: www.scu.edu/
ethics/practicing/decision/commongood.html (February 5, 2013).
Wyatt, E. (2012) “F.T.C. issues guidelines for ‘eco-friendly’ labels,” The New York Times
(October 2): B4.
2
A LARGER VIEW OF MARKETING
Marketing’s contributions to society

William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

Introduction
Our goals for this chapter
This chapter is an adapted version of a journal article1 summarizing the results of
a major project we undertook to address the topic: “What does marketing contrib-
ute to society?” We originally chose to study the field of marketing because we
found it to be among the most stimulating, complex, and intellectually challenging
of academic areas in a university. In contrast to its general reputation as a “soft” area,
we have found that the marketing field welcomes insights from many disciplines,
including economics, psychology, history, mathematics, sociology, law, political sci-
ence, communications, anthropology, and the creative arts. It combines objectivity
and subjectivity, demands both quantitative and qualitative insights, requires persis-
tence yet rewards creative leaps, and allows imaginative freedom yet grounds its
efforts in actions with measured consequences.
In the spirit of the special “Millennium Issue” of the Journal of Marketing, we
view this article as an effort to clarify, illustrate, and celebrate some special aspects
of our field and its relationship to society. As the academic field of marketing nears
its 100th birthday, its focus is squarely on firms, markets, and household consumers –
few persons are examining marketing’s contributions to society. However, the
subject is well worthy of consideration (likely why the Marketing Science Institute
named it a key topic for this Special Issue). Thus, our purpose here is to provide a
different look at marketing, one that engages thoughtful deliberation on the larger
system and its contributions to the common good.

One hundred years of academic marketing

Three early insights we’ve gained are that marketing’s contributions (1) accumulate
over time, (2) diffuse through a society, and (3) occur within the context of everyday life.
14 William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

This makes them hard to discern at a given time. Thus we begin with a look over
a very long period.

A view across time: Marketing’s impact on daily life in the

United States, or “it’s a wonderful life”
Here we join Mary Bailey as she reads a diary her mother recently had given her as
a family heirloom. It had been written by Mary’s great-grandmother Anne at the
turn of the century, 100 years ago. As she settles under a lamp on a cold winter’s
evening in Bedford Falls, Mary is imagining her ancestor’s times and how much life
has changed.
(Daily activities) As she reads, Mary is surprised to discover how Anne spent her
days.2 Largely dependent on walking or horses, families centered on the home and
local community. Daily life meant physical labor. Equipped with only a scrub
board, the typical housewife spent 7 hours a week doing laundry and carried 9,000
gallons of water into the house each year, which she then had to boil before using
(only 25 percent of homes had running water). Cooking, baking, and food preser-
vation required substantial time, some 42 hours per week! Products that now
routinely are bought, such as clothing, often were produced in the home. Central
heating would not arrive until the 1920s; Anne’s family heated only the kitchen for
the winter, using fuel hauled in daily by family members. Only 3 percent of house-
holds had electrical lighting, so most families relied on coal, kerosene, or oil to light
their homes. As she reads on under her bright lamp, Mary wonders how bright the
lighting had been for the author whose words she was reading.
(Health and safety improvements) Mary is reading deeply as Anne described relief
that her baby Aaron had survived; infant mortality was common in Bedford Falls
at the time (about one in every ten births). In checking the family tree, Mary finds
that Anne herself had died at a relatively young age (life expectancy in 1900 was
only 47 years of age). In contrast, life expectancy today is nearly 80 years of age,
and Mary has not had to worry seriously about infant mortality (now significantly
less than 1 percent) or death from infectious disease. Thinking more about this,
Mary realizes that her family’s health, safety, and ability to enjoy life have been
assisted by the fruits of advances in diagnostic equipment, pharmaceuticals to com-
bat disease, pain relievers, bacteria-safe foods, safety-tested products, and so forth.
(Impacts of technology and growth of the marketing system) The academic field of
“marketing” began about the time Anne was writing her diary. During the ensuing
century, we have experienced many changes in daily life in the United States. The
aggregate marketing system, in conjunction with the other aggregate systems with
which it interacts (e.g., technology, finance, production) has delivered most of these
changes to society. For example, the availability of home electricity was followed
by the creation of many new appliances – clothes washers and dryers, vacuum
cleaners, air conditioners, dishwashers, music systems, television, and so on – that
bring efficiency and enjoyment to homes today. Home refrigeration and supermar-
kets mean fewer trips to the store; together with appliances, this has allowed the
average time spent on food preparation to fall from 42 hours to less than 10 hours
 A larger view of marketing 15

per week! With economic growth (gross national product is 400 times greater than
a century ago), higher incomes, and technological innovations new opportunities
arise. A vast array of goods and services is now available. Moreover, real prices for
many goods (e.g., television, autos) have fallen to the point that they are accessible
to almost every member of US society today.
Mary Bailey closes her diary and begins to think about other changes as well. She
and her family are informed readily about national and global events and can travel
from Bedford Falls to anywhere in the world. Her family’s daily life is far, far removed
from that of her ancestor’s. As she ponders this, she realizes that the world for her
children will be different from hers today, in as yet unknown ways, as the aggregate
marketing system continues to deliver change to their society in the future . . . .

The importance of perspective

Viewing a topic from a single perspective highlights certain characteristics but can
hide other aspects that also may be important: for example, a person looks different
from the front than from the back and different again if viewed from the side. To
understand a topic well, it is helpful to walk around it mentally, adopting different
perspectives on it. Four perceptual barriers in this topic involve time, system limits, cul-
ture, and personal experience.The Mary Bailey illustration addresses the slow diffusion of
marketing’s contributions over time by contrasting two extremes, and when viewed
in this way the contributions the marketing system has delivered to Americans today
are clarified. With respect to system limits, not only is the marketing system vast (as
we shall demonstrate shortly), but its operations converge and coordinate with the opera-
tions of other aggregate systems within a society’s larger economic system. (In a Venn
diagram, we might conceive of aggregate systems in marketing, finance, technology,
production, and so forth as partially overlapping large circles that reflect areas in which
activities are in common and those in which activities lie only in that field.)
With respect to culture, marketing is a social institution that is highly adaptive
to its cultural and political context. Thus, we can move easily around the world to
locate societies with very different marketing systems. In some global locations, we
would find rudimentary marketing systems offering none of the conveniences
Mary Bailey is enjoying; people there may be living as Anne did a century ago.
Elsewhere, as in parts of Brazil, we would find people just discovering installment
credit and using it to obtain the first home conveniences they have ever enjoyed.
In parts of China, we would find incredible levels of investment – one of every five
construction cranes in the world is reportedly at work just in Shanghai – to bring
modern elevators, air conditioners, and other conveniences to the citizenry. Thus,
coverage of aggregate marketing systems is culture-bound. We must take care to
distinguish which lessons are generalizable and which are not. With regard to per-
sonal experience, many marketing contributions are “behind the scenes,” unseen
by those not directly involved. It is thus important that we remain mentally open
to discovery of new possibilities about marketing.
We have come away from this project with a new, richer view of our field and
hope that readers will as well. There are four sections to the chapter. First is an
16 William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

overview of the aggregate marketing system (AGMS), which provides a “larger

view” of the field of marketing.We then draw upon the AGMS to profile the range
of benefits marketing offers to society in the second section. Our third section adds
balance, as we summarize criticisms of the marketing field, and our fourth section
provides a brief summary of the lessons we’ve learned in this undertaking.

The aggregate marketing system

Studies have shown that the less familiar a person is with the marketing field, the
more likely he or she is to equate marketing with advertising or selling. As a person
learns more, the view broadens, and the richness of the marketing field emerges
(Kasper 1993).We now turn to the aggregate marketing system (although marketing
systems used to be a central topic, the current emphasis on managerial decisions). If
marketing thinkers are to appreciate the range of contributions of our field, it is
good to remind ourselves about the scope of its work.

The system at work

The idea for the following illustration is based on a longer discussion used by Vaile
et al. (1952) to begin their classic textbook on marketing. We have updated and
changed the description, here opting to join Tiffany Jones and her family in New York,
as Tiffany reaches for her breakfast pastry and blows softly across her cup of coffee. . . .

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s”
(A cup of coffee) Although a commonplace event, the breakfast setting also represents
the confluence of a powerful set of forces from the AGMS. Let us first consider
how her coffee arrived at this morning’s meal. Tiffany has chosen a leading brand,
one that delivers a consistent color, scent, and taste favored by its many customers.
The marketing system for this brand reflects considerable attention to achieving
efficiencies as well as a continuing emphasis on quality control. How exactly does
this system operate? The major steps are shown in Figure 2.1.
First, the coffee that Tiffany has prepared is actually a combination of beans
grown in a number of different countries, then brought to the United States and
blended into a prespecified mixture to deliver the unique qualities associated with
this brand (because of different geographic growing seasons and inherent product
characteristics, the source countries for the beans will change as the year pro-
gresses: coffee is grown in some fifty nations around the world). As shown in
Figure 2.1, let us assume that some of the beans in this cup began their journey
on a Colombian hillside, hand-picked (to ensure ripeness) in the grower’s field.
The process from field was highly structured: from basket, to tractor, to truck, the
beans were transported to the coffee grower’s de-pulping mill, where the inner
beans were separated from their cherries. Still “wet” and protected by a parch-
ment-like cellulose shell, the beans were spread on a sun-filled patio to dry for
several days. The beans were then milled (a process of removing the parchment
 Retail store
Retailer’s (A1...n)
(T)
warehouse Retail store
Exporter (T) (B1...n)
(T)
Large chain retail
Manufacturer’s store (C1...n)
Grower’s (T)
Coffee Manufacturer’s regional Large chain retail
depulping
grower roasting plant distribution store (D1...n) Mass
(T) mill (T)
(T) center merchandiser
CONSUMERS

(E1...n)
(T)
Grower’s Mass
(T)
warehouse (T) Wholesaler’s Retail store merchandiser
warehouse (G1...n) (F1...n)
(T)
Retail store
(H1...n)

FIGURE 2.1 Marketing system for coffee (T = transport).

18 William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

sheath to produce a “green” bean), then graded according to established national

coffee standards. Samples of the beans were forwarded to both buyers and the
government coffee board to allow checking of the grading process. The green
beans were then placed into 60-kilo (132-pound) burlap or polyester bags, which
were marked with the grower’s name and assured quality level, and warehoused at
the grower’s facility. Either at this point, or earlier, exporters and large buyers were
contacted by the grower to arrange for sale and delivery. In the case of Tiffany’s
major coffee brand, this purchase was made on the basis of a long-standing busi-
ness relationship with this grower, built on trust in both the quality and grading
accuracy of his beans, his capability to deliver agreed-upon quantities at agreed-
upon times, and his willingness to stand behind his agreements. The seller holds
similar views about potential buyers, and will only deal with certain firms in his
form of “relationship marketing.”
Continuing with Figure 2.1, once the buyer was determined, the beans were
loaded on trucks and driven from the mountains down to the port city (humidity
levels near the ocean could damage the beans had they been warehoused there).
There they were loaded directly into 20-ton “piggyback” containers designed to
transport seamlessly amongst ships, trains, and trucks. After 4 or 5 days at sea, the
beans arrived at the port of New Orleans, again sampled for quality, and turned
over to the care of a warehouse service retained by the purchasing firm. This ser-
vice handled custom’s clearance and unloaded the bags into hopper trucks destined
for the coffee firm’s “silo” facility, in which loads of different beans are stored, then
blended together into 20-ton hopper trucks and taken to the firm’s New Orleans
roasting plant (alternatively, the beans might have been directed to the firm’s
Midwest or Southwest roasting plants in 80-ton hopper cars). Here the final coffee
is carefully prepared, tested for quality, and packaged into the familiar red cans or
“bricks.” As indicated in Figure 2.1, from this point the exact route of the finished
product is a function of the type of purchaser: it may be shipped in large volumes to
one of the firm’s seven regional distribution centers, thence to be sold to wholesalers,
then to retail outlets, or – in the case of very large national accounts – delivered
directly from the plant in entire 40,000-pound truckloads. As Tiffany had pur-
chased her coffee from the neighborhood IGA store, it had traveled along the
longer route. Even so, the vacuum-pack containers had kept it quite fresh through
the distribution channel, and lent pleasure to her cup this morning.
Thus we see how a marketing system has operated to provide a simple cup of
coffee to one American consumer on one typical morning. This provides us with
some useful insights, particularly those associated with physical flows. Coffee is,
however, a relatively simple product, and the AGMS deals with much greater levels
of complexity than this. Let us move along one further level, therefore, by consid-
ering another item in Tiffany’s breakfast: a breakfast pastry.
(A breakfast pastry) This product is a new entrant produced by a major food
marketer to compete in the fast-growing “premium” breakfast segment. Although
still a relatively simple product, the operation of its marketing system surpasses that
for coffee in several significant respects. We do not depict the system here, but in
comparison with Figure 2.1 we would see much greater complexity at the left side,
 A larger view of marketing 19

since each unit of pastry comprises 15 ingredients. Each of these basic ingredients
has its own system, similar to coffee, for collection, processing, and transport to the
ingredient processors, who then create and deliver the final ingredients to the
manufacturer. The pre-production marketing system here, therefore, is substantially
more involved than is the relatively linear system for coffee. The pastry brand is
similar to the coffee brand, however, in that both will fail if their quality control
procedures do not operate at a very high level of consistency. Thus we find exact-
ing product specifications for each ingredient, with careful attention by buyers and
sellers to product quality standards, delivery dates, and so forth.
This is a new product introduction, which allows us to consider its product man-
agement and marketing-mix decisions. Stimulated by the success of competitors’ new
entries, growth in the category, and consumer research indicating emerging unmet
demand for bakery-fresh quality with the convenience of home storage, the firm
initiated a major new product development process. Experts in food science, nutri-
tion, and related technologies were challenged to translate the benefit concept into
an actual food to meet all the criteria for marketplace success. A lengthy, iterative
process ensued, as a number of attributes – size, icing, taste, consistency, flavoring,
shelf-life, preparation mode, packaging, acceptable costs for pricing, production fea-
sibility, and so forth – had to be brought to acceptable levels. Numerous consumer
tests were run during this process, including reactions to prototypes, in-home use
tests of alternative product forms, and BehaviorScan controlled-store market tests of
alternative prices, promotional vehicles, and effects on consumers’ purchase substitu-
tion patterns. Based upon these tests and financial projections, the firm’s Board of
Directors faced a decision whether or not to launch the product. Key factors in this
decision were the internal rate of return over a six-year time frame, capital equipment
requirements (new plant vs. conversion), possibilities for co-packing or outsourcing
production, and implications for other offerings in the firm’s product line. Because
the new entry would be directly positioned as a “bakery quality” item, the Board was
quite concerned that the ingredient sources of supply – the marketing system to the
left of the producer – would be regularly available, cost-controlled, and precisely
geared to meeting the approved recipe quality. Given the green light, the pastry
brand’s entire marketing mix was then finalized and implemented. To the right side,
the distribution system was similar to that for the coffee brand. Tiffany had, in fact,
purchased both at the same market.
(Further considerations) Although our illustration is getting long, we are still only a
little way along toward capturing the true immensity of the AGMS (thankfully, how-
ever, we will dispense with further details here, and simply point to major issues for
consideration). For example, we have only discussed two of the items available for the
Jones’ breakfast.Tiffany and Robert have two children, and the family members have
some different taste preferences. The AGMS is easily able to accommodate these, so
that a variety of products and formulations are available for the meal. Finally, the
breakfast meal actually depends upon much more than simply the food: an entire
kitchen support system – appliances, utilities, and accouterments – is available to assist
this consumption episode.We should take special care to notice that all aspects of the
kitchen system have been brought to the Jones household through the workings of
20 William L. Wilkie and Elizabeth S. Moore

the AGMS, some many years ago (e.g., the plumbing and the furniture), others more
recently (e.g., the new dishwasher bought on sale last week), and others just yesterday,
including the coffee, pastry, and fruit for this morning’s meal. We should further rec-
ognize that each element listed has had its own complex marketing system. Global
sourcing was involved for some – the mug from England, the coffeemaker from
Germany, microwave from Japan, and so forth. In every case, a system had been
planned, created, and run for the purpose of delivering these products and services
to households like Tiffany’s. In most cases the provider was a competitor who had to
win out over others to gain Tiffany’s attention, then win her patronage. In summary,
if we were to analyze each element of this breakfast setting as we have the coffee and
the pastry, many pages would be used – the total number of system interactions
needed to create this breakfast is impressive! When we then realize that the system
routinely provides, in one fashion or another, breakfast for some 100 million American
households every morning – and that this is only a trivial element of its total activity – we
can further sense its immensity and significance in our daily lives.
(Marketing-system activities) Figure 2.2 provides a partial listing of system activities
that enabled this breakfast to occur. Several points emerge:

 There are a surprisingly large number of entries; the AGMS undertakes a wide
range of activities to provide for a simple breakfast meal.
 There are participants other than marketers in the AGMS. Business customers
and ultimate consumers are key players (buying is crucial at each stage), and
governments provide services to facilitate system operations (shown at the
right in Figure 2.2, these cross all stages).
 As indicated by the keyed entries in Figure 2.2, marketing managers only
control (“1”) some of the activities of the AGMS. Other necessary activities
are carried out by persons who do not consider themselves marketers. In most
of these cases, marketing managers serve as influences (“2”) on these actions,
whereas in some cases (“3”), necessary system activities are carried out with
little or no direct influence from marketers (this is particularly apparent in the
consumer realm). Note that this property of the system calls for a perspective
on marketing that reaches beyond a sole focus on a manager’s controllable
decisions. (Also, the numbers assigned to each activity are generalized, and
readers may wish to consider whether they would agree.)
 The three classes of participants all engage in activities apart from the AGMS:
the system is very broad but not entirely dense. Some parts of virtually every
organization work on tasks only indirectly related to the marketing activities
listed and carry these out independently (shown as “n” in the bottom flight of
Figure 2.2). We would not define these as AGMS activities, nor would we
include government agencies’ or consumers’ activities that are directed entirely
toward other sectors of society and life. Thus, our visual conception of the
AGMS would resemble a cross-section of fine swiss cheese or steel mesh,
similar to Figure 2.1, with linkages between organizations as we move across
to the right, but with holes inside each organization to represent parts where
the work arguably is outside the marketing system.
Another random document with
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 Rhesus Monkey and Young.—Page 253.

There are two specimens of the Toque (Macacus radiatus), odd little
creatures, which look just as if they had been crying. One looks as if it had
been drinking as well, for its face is quite red and flushed. They are not quite
so strong-jawed as some of the species, and, therefore, prefer buns to nuts,
the shells being often too hard for them. This species is sometimes called the
Zati, and sometimes is described under the name of Capped Macaque. It is a
native of India. The common Macaque (Macacus cynomolgus) is also
represented by several specimens. The colour of its fur is greenish brown
above, and yellowish or whitish below. All the species of this genus bear a
great resemblance to each other, and the young naturalist will find that the
task of distinguishing them is at the same time difficult and instructive.

The Rhesus is a lively and amusing animal. There are no less than ten
specimens of this monkey in the establishment, one of which, a remarkably
fine fellow, called Jumbo by the keeper, is in the habit of displaying some very
singular antics.
He climbs upon a strong bar that crosses his cage, and, fixing his hands
tightly, jumps up and down rapidly with his hind paws, bringing them down on
the bar with a mighty thump, and shaking the whole place with the violence of
his exertions. The keepers have their pet names for all the conspicuous
monkeys. Jumbo is the largest of them, and next in order come Jim and
Nancy. Nancy is not permitted to associate with the other monkeys, because
she has a baby, and her companions would assuredly tease and worry both
the mother and her child.
By special favour the reader may, perhaps, be permitted to see this
interesting pair of animals, and it is pretty to watch the care which the parent
takes of her offspring, and the extreme jealousy with which she regards the
least movement of the spectator. She flies forward with grinning teeth and
flashing eyes, shakes the bars of her cage violently, and chatters her wrathful
defiance to the imagined enemy. The little one is in its way quite as shy, and
whenever it takes alarm it leaps at its mother, clasps her round the neck and
waist with its hands and feet, and lies, not on her back, as artists so frequently
misrepresent, but under her belly, pressed so tightly to her body and buried so
deeply in her fur, that at a little distance it cannot be distinguished. The
rapidity of the movement is really astonishing. There is a quick spring, and in
an instant the little creature is snugly settled in its natural cradle.
The baby looks ten times as old as the mother. Its face is puckered into a
hundred wrinkles, and its skin hangs loose and flabby on its cheeks.
While I was watching this interesting pair, both mother and child became
actuated by a common emotion. Their eyes sparkled with excitement; they
glared anxiously through the bars of the cage, and they chattered with eager
expectation. The keeper had put his hand into the pocket where he kept his
apples, and the monkeys had seen the movement. The desired fruit was cut
and given to the expecting animals, and then, I regret to say, the mother
monkey displayed a more unamiable character than I should have thought her
capable of possessing.
In spite of her evident fondness for her offspring, and her jealousy of
strangers, she behaved very selfishly, snatched a piece of apple from her child
and ate it herself, scolding it the while for daring to eat anything which she
wanted.

Anubis Baboon.—Page 255.

 Wanderoo Monkey.—Page 255.

The child, however, was by no means disposed to acquiesce in this

appropriation, and when its mother came to take away the next piece of apple
that was given to it, the little creature popped the morsel into its mouth. The
piece of apple was, however, so large, and the young monkey’s mouth so
small, that the greater portion projected from its jaws. The mother made a
sharp snatch at the projecting portion, but this time the young one was too
quick for her, and, striking the apple smartly with the back of its hand, drove it
fairly into its mouth. I really thought that the little animal would be choked, so
greatly were its cheeks distended. But by some ingenious process it contrived
to nibble away the apple, and seemed rather pleased than inconvenienced by
the huge morsel which it had forced into its mouth.

In another cage is a small specimen of the Wanderoo (Silenus veter).

When adult and in good condition, this monkey is notable for the enormous
mane which falls over the head and shoulders, and bears a remarkable
resemblance to the full-dress wig of a judge. In the young specimen this hairy
mass is but short and scanty, and it is not until the creature has reached its full
growth that the wig flows around its head in such massy waves. The top of the
head is black, but the wig—if we may retain that term—takes a greyish and
sometimes a white hue along the sides, and gives a very venerable aspect to
the monkey.
The fur of the Wanderoo is very black, without any gloss, and in allusion to
this hue the Indians call it Neel-bhunder—i.e., Black monkey.

In a large cage at one end of the room sits in solitary state a fine specimen
of the Anubis Baboon (Cynocephalus Anubis). In all the members of this
genus the face is lengthened into a decided snout, at the extremity of which
are placed the nostrils. This peculiarity gives a very morose aspect to the
animals, which is certainly not belied by their tempers. All the Cynocephali are
natives of Africa.
The fur of the male Anubis is very thick over the shoulders and upper parts
of the body, and has a greenish cast, each hair being alternately black and
yellow. The nose and bare skin of the face are brown.
This specimen is rather tetchy in disposition; and as he is an enormously
powerful animal, the bars of his cage are defended by strong wire network, so
that he cannot pass his hand between them. One day a gentleman who was
visiting the Monkey House chose to act contrary to regulations, and poked his
stick through the bars for the purpose of irritating the baboon. The animal
immediately seized it, and a pulling match commenced in which the baboon
was easily victorious, dragging the gold-headed stick into his cage and
keeping it.
In spite of all precautions, I regret to say that some of the visitors behave
very badly to the animals. On Mondays especially, when the price of
admission to the Gardens is only sixpence, the monkeys are shamefully
teased.
The Anubis is always in a constant state of irritation on those days, and on
one occasion had recourse to a rather curious device. He took up a handful of
straw and fixed it on his perch close to the wires. This bunch of straw he
seemed to regard much as the combative Irishman regards the coat-tail which
he is trailing on the ground—resented with his utmost fury every attempt to
touch it.
I once put him in a terrible passion. He is very fond of raw eggs, and the
keeper produced a fine fresh one from his pocket. The Anubis saw it at once,
and descended from his perch in anxious expectation. Wishing to see what
the animal would do, I took the egg from the keeper, put it under my coat, and
walked away. The baboon immediately flew into a fury; his eyes shot forth
angry fires, and he jerked himself about in the oddest manner; he uttered
guttural grunts, and followed me about with his eyes as if he would kill me.
I then returned the egg to the keeper, who opened the door of the cage and
flung the egg at the baboon. The animal caught it with the dexterity of a
juggler, and put it into his mouth. He then held his nose in the air so as to
permit the egg to roll to the back of his jaws, and with the under-teeth he
broke the egg-shell, permitting its contents to flow down his throat. After the
lapse of a few minutes, he just opened his mouth and protruded the fragments
of the egg-shell, each portion of which he licked with economical care before
he threw it on the floor of his cage.
On one occasion a gentleman, being anxious to discover the number of
eggs that the animal would take, purchased sixpennyworth on his way to the
Gardens. Eggs were then sold fourteen for a shilling. When he arrived at the
Monkey House he produced the basket of eggs, and threw them to the
baboon in rapid succession. The animal caught them all, and stowed away six
in his cheeks, three on either side. There was no space for the seventh, so he
ate it at once, and finished the others at his leisure. Once or twice a rotten egg
has intruded into his mouth, and on such occasions his wrath is extreme.
This animal has a curious habit of sitting with his face to the wall, and fixing
all his four paws against it on a level with his nose.

In the opposite cage are two specimens of a North African species—

namely, the Arabian Baboon, sometimes called the Tartarin (Cynocephalus
Hamadryas). This is a very handsome species, with a mass of long grey hair
falling from the shoulders of the male, giving it a very poodle-like aspect,
especially when it is seated. It is much more quiet than the Anubis, and is fond
of assuming very remarkable attitudes, too numerous and too varied to be
described. In Mr. Waterton’s museum at Walton Hall there is a splendid
specimen of this beast, prepared after the unique style of that eminent
naturalist, perfectly hollow, and without wires or any support whatever. It is so
lifelike, indeed, that it is not exhibited in the museum. This animal was
obtained from a large travelling menagerie, where it had lived for some time
under the grandiloquent title of Lion-slayer, though neither it nor any other
baboon ever slew a lion in their lives.
There is a small specimen of the Chacma, or Pig-faced Baboon
(Cynocephalus porcarius). This species inhabits Southern Africa, where it is
very plentiful in certain spots.
If taken when young the Chacma is easily tamed, and becomes a very
amusing animal, retaining its good-humour in spite of the teasing to which it is
so often subjected. The word Chacma is a corruption from the Hottentot name
of the animal, T’chakamma, the T’ representing one of those strange clicking
sounds peculiar to the South African languages, so difficult of imitation, and so
impossible of description.
In his native country the tame Chacma is often used for a very important
purpose—namely, the discovery of water. The animal is purposely deprived of
all liquid for a day or two, and is then suffered to go in search of water, being
led by a long rope. The keen instinct of the poor thirsty animal is sure to guide
it towards the desired object, and if any water be near the spot the baboon is
a certain guide to the stream or fountain.
Two other species of this genus are in the Monkey House, but neither of
them present any salient points of interest. One is the Guinea Baboon
(Cynocephalus papio), a very young and small specimen, and the other is the
Yellow Baboon (Cynocephalus papioides). This little animal can at once be
recognised by the peculiarity from which it draws its name, the fur being
conspicuously yellow. It is rather a good-tempered animal, and gives very little
trouble to the keeper.
The wonderful Mandrill (Papio Mormon) is, I am sorry to say, numbered
among the dead, but it is probable that its place may soon be filled by another
specimen. It is, without doubt, the most interesting among the monkeys of the
Old World, its ribbed cheeks being decorated with colours so brilliant that they
seem to have been laid on with a painter’s brush dipped in the brightest tints
which his palette could furnish.

NEW WORLD MONKEYS.

We now leave the true monkeys of the Old World, and pass to those of the
New. I say the true monkeys, because we shall, in the course of the present
paper, recur to a portion of the Old World, as certain beings are found there
which undoubtedly belong to the quadrumanous order, but which depart in
many points from the characteristics of the true monkeys.
 The rulers of the Zoological Gardens have done rightly in transferring the
greater number of the New World monkeys to a separate building. Their
peculiar temperament requires extended space, and their delicate lungs need
a combination of warmth and fresh air that cannot be obtained except in a
building devoted to the purpose.

Black-faced Spider Monkey.—Page 259.

Next to the Reptile House the visitor will see another door, upon which is a
placard calling attention to the Spider Monkeys. Passing up a few stairs, we
come to a room the centre of which is occupied by a magnificent wire cage. In
this cage are placed four specimens of the Spider Monkey, a few lemurs, and
a single specimen of the Moustache Monkey, a creature which has been
described at page 250 of our volume. This little animal has been transferred to
the Spider Monkeys’ cage for the purpose of enlivening the normal
inhabitants, who have a custom of squatting together on the floor, winding
their prehensile tails around the general assemblage, and scolding every one
who tries to disturb them.
There are three specimens of the Black-faced Spider Monkey (Ateles
frontatus), and one of the Greyish Spider Monkey (Ateles hybridus). The latter
animal can be at once recognised by the colour of its fur, which is of a very
light and nearly white grey, the hair being rather long and coarse. The others
are all known by their darker colour, a blackish brown pervading their whole
bodies, and their faces being darker than the rest of their persons. One
specimen of the Black-faced Spider Monkey is in excellent health and spirits,
and seldom fails to afford its visitors the gratification of seeing it go through its
wonderful performances.
It has a regular series of feats, and goes through them as systematically as
if it were an acrobat performing before the public. First it climbs up the wires
until it has reached the longitudinal rafter that runs along the top of the cage.
Along this rafter it springs, holding only by its hands, and swings along, hand
over hand, with a certainty and lightness that are peculiarly beautiful.
Having arrived at the other end of the rafter it grasps a rope, launches itself
into mid-air, swings once or twice, and then transfers itself to a second rope,
by means of which it swings diagonally across the cage, lands safely upon the
wires, and then goes to rejoin its companions.
When the four Spider Monkeys choose to gather themselves together,
scarcely any inducement can separate them. By a very necessary rule, no one
is allowed to feed the creatures in this room, so that these monkeys cannot be
enticed away from their companionship, and the cage is so large, that, even if
ill-conditioned visitors were to attempt to use violence, they could not succeed.
I hope that the young observer will lose no time in proceeding to the
Zoological Gardens and examining the peculiarities of the Spider Monkeys,
because all the quadrumana are delicate beings at the best, and these South
American species are peculiarly affected by our climate.
The first point of importance in their structure is the long prehensile tail, the
tip of which is bare of fur and covered with soft black skin, like that of the feet.
It can grasp with very great power, and the animal possesses the faculty of
directing it as accurately as an elephant directs its proboscis, so that it is able
to seize the branches of the tree, or to pick up any object within reach. I was
going to say that it can grasp the branches of the tree in which it resides, but
this expression would have been wrong. Monkeys have no residence; they
are essentially nomad in their characters, traversing continually the rocks or
forests of the country wherein they live, and neither needing nor possessing a
fixed residence. The chief use of a definite habitation is to furnish a secure
home for the young while they are helpless.
Thus, the rabbit retires to her burrow, the wolf or the lioness to her den, and
the squirrel to her cage. But the young of the monkey are never helpless, like
those of the animals just mentioned; they cling to their mother’s body, bury
themselves in her fur, and find therein a warm and living cradle. It is
noteworthy, too, that the young monkey suspends itself in such a manner that
it offers no impediment to its mother’s movements, nor does it interfere with
her equilibrium as she passes along the branches.
The next important point in these monkeys is the peculiar formation of their
limbs. All monkeys are agile, but these creatures are especially made for
locomotion among branches, and in consequence they combine strength and
lightness in a very wonderful manner. Their heads are very small and round,
their bodies are slight and of trifling weight, while their limbs are at once long,
slender, and powerful.
The fore paws are small, and the observer must remark that the thumb is
almost entirely absent. A monkey does not grasp with its fore paws, but
merely hooks its fingers over the branches, and so swings without wasting its
strength. The grasping power is chiefly evident in the hind paws, the thumb of
which is very large, and therefore possesses great force. The inner surface of
the hind paws is quite black, soft, and silken to the touch, and little indicative
of the enormous grasping power which resides in them.
As instruments of terrestrial progression the limbs possess but few
capabilities. All monkeys have an awkward air while on the ground; but these
long-limbed creatures are peculiarly ill fitted to a level surface. They can walk
on their hind feet, and often do so, but it is in a curious, waddling sort of gait,
with the arms extended as balancers, and the long tail curved high over the
head like the letter S.
They often proceed along the floor of their cage in a very curious manner.
Without changing their seated posture they gather up their legs, place their
hands on the floor, and swing themselves along, using the arms as crutches.
This movement is exactly like the mode of progression which has been related
of the kangaroos in books of Natural History. Awkward as this manœuvre may
seem, it suits them well enough, and they get along at a pace which really
surprises those who see it for the first time.
The nostrils are very wide apart, on account of a thick cartilage which
divides them, and the teeth present many remarkable peculiarities, which
need not be described except in a purely scientific work.
 “I have elsewhere written an account of a Black Spider Monkey named
Sally, who, like the monkey in the fable, had seen the world, having traversed
the greater part of the globe by sea and by land. I afterwards made her
acquaintance, and was much pleased with her gentle manners.
“She was terribly impatient of cold, and, when allowed to go near a fire, it
was almost painful to see the eagerness with which she drank in the heat.
She would hold up her arm, and expose her side to the fire until the hair
began to shrivel and scorch; she would then turn the other side, and repeat
the process. She would lie strangely curled up on the flat plate of the kitchen
fender, spin round and round, as if she were a joint to be roasted, and would
cry piteously when removed from the pleasing warmth.
“She was fond of climbing to the shoulders of those whom she liked, and
used to do so in rather a curious manner, not pulling herself up by grasping
the clothes, as is the custom with most monkeys, but by clasping the limbs
round the body. When she had reached the waist, she generally put her hand
into every pocket, in order to feel for apples or nuts, and displayed little
petulant signs of disapprobation when her search was unsuccessful.
“I regret to say that poor gentle Sally is dead. She had lived for years on
board ship, alike unaffected by tropical suns or Arctic snows, but the peculiar
British climate did not suit her constitution, and in a few months she
succumbed to its influence.
“The only signs of anger that I have known the Spider Monkeys to manifest
is a slight shooting out of the lips, accompanied by a short, sharp, impatient
sound, something between a whistle and a squeak.”

In a smaller cage may be seen a beautiful specimen of the Squirrel Monkey,

sometimes called the Tee-Tee (Callithrix sciureus).
Squirrel.
 Squirrel Monkey and Tee-Tee.—Page 263.

This pretty and elegant little creature is scarcely larger than a rat, with an
innocent, baby-like countenance, and large, full, dark eyes. It may at once be
recognised by the pink face with a blackish spot on the nose, and the yellow
limbs, contrasting with the olive-coloured back. Its tail is exceedingly long and
particularly prehensile, though I have not seen the creature suspend itself by
that member, as is the case with the Spider Monkeys.
In common with all its kin, it is a most gentle and delicate little being—quite
a lady’s pet—coming to the bars to be caressed, and occasionally uttering the
tiniest imaginable squeaklet. It does not possess the selfish, grasping
disposition which generally characterises the monkey tribe. On one occasion
the keeper gave two slices of orange to itself and the Douroucouli, which
inhabits the same cage. Just as the Douroucouli was about to take its piece of
fruit, a sharp-eyed and quick-limbed Moustache Monkey, that inhabited an
adjoining cage, leaped across the top of its house, dropped along the wires,
thrust its arm through the partition, and seized the orange, darting away with
its spoil to the farther corner of its cage.
For a few moments I was amusing myself by laughing at the impertinent
thief as he sat grinning and chattering defiance to the keeper, and when I
turned to see how the Douroucouli bore his loss, I found the Tee-Tee quietly
sharing his piece of orange with the bereaved animal. Both were nibbling and
sucking away with perfect amity, and they resorted to the same social
expedient when another slice of the juicy fruit was put into the cage.
In the same cage with the Tee-Tee is the curious Feline Douroucouli, or
Vitoe (Nyctipithecus felinus), a pretty, though sober-coloured, little animal,
mostly active during the night, but at times lively in the daytime.
The fur of this animal is thick, deep, and soft, though not drooping. It has a
round face, a short, stumpy nose, and very large round eyes of a beautiful
chestnut hue. The general colour of the fur is greyish-brown; there is a dark
stripe over the top of the head, and just above each eye is a patch of white. Its
fingers are very long, and the tail is large, full, and nearly black. This creature
is found, as are all the tribe, in the Brazils.
During the daytime it spends much of its time in its box, which is long and
narrow, with an aperture near each end, and the creature seems to find some
amusement in popping into one round hole, traversing the box, and poking its
head out of the other. When a slice of orange was given to the Douroucouli, it
did not attempt to eat it for some time, but only patted it, and then licked its
fingers, thus giving time to its neighbour, the Moustache Monkey, to rob it of
the dainty.

The last of the true New World Monkeys which can be described in these
pages will be found in the large Monkey House near the refreshment-room.
These are the Capucins, (Cebus Apella), of which there are several
specimens in the cages. They are funny little animals, of a singularly sedate
and grave aspect.
Two of them, called “Jack” and “Charley,” are notable for their nut-cracking
powers. Their jaws are too feeble to break the shell of a well-grown nut, and
accordingly they have learned to achieve that object in another manner. Some
time ago a very little monkey was placed in the cage quite unable to crack
nutshells, and the keeper, taking compassion on his weakness, showed him
how to break a nutshell by means of a large pebble. The other monkeys
learned the art by watching their comrade, and it is very amusing to see one of
them take a nut, put it into his mouth, hunt under the straw for the pebble,
drop the nut on the floor, pick up the stone in both hands, smash the shell with
a single blow, and pick up the fragments in haste, lest the others should avail
themselves of his ingenuity.
Jack is also very fond of eggs, breaking one end by knocking it against the
floor, and then, inserting his hand, pulling out the semi-liquid contents and
eating them. For the benefit of those who read Gulliver’s Travels, I may
mention that the monkey might have found little favour at the court of H.M.
Golbasto Momarem Evlame Gurdilo Shefin Mully Ully Gue, Emperor of Liliput,
being an obstinate Big-endian, and never breaking his eggs at the little end.
As to Charley, he developed tastes that to me were rather unexpected. The
keeper put his hand into his pocket, and, drawing out a dead mouse,
presented it to Charley, who received it with eagerness sparkling in his eyes,
and withdrew to the side of the cage, where he was nearly surrounded by his
fellows, who sat around him in eager expectation, watching every movement,
like small boys when one of their comrades has an apple.
His first operation was to put the head in his mouth, to bite the skull asunder
with a single effort, and eat the brains. He then deliberated upon the mouse,
pulled off a leg, and laid it on the ground, whence it was instantly seized and
eaten by a companion. He seemed anxious to make the treat last as long as
possible, and after a lapse of half-an-hour he had not quite finished the
mouse. The keeper told me that he preferred them just killed.
By some writers these monkeys are called Weepers. The colour of the
Capucin is rather variable: yellowish with an olive cast on the back, and paler
round the face.

MADAGASCAR MONKEYS.

In the wonderful island known by the name of Madagascar are several

members of the quadrumanous order, none of which are very like monkeys,
and one is so strange a being, that, for many years, systematic zoologists did
not know in which order it ought to be placed. In the same room with the
Spider Monkeys is a cage in which are placed two very fine specimens of the
Ring-tailed Lemur, or Macauco (Lemur catta). These handsome creatures are
very tame and gentle, and always grateful for a little attention.
They are very pretty creatures, with their long snouts, full chestnut eyes,
large, intelligent ears, and soft chinchilla-like fur. Their general colour is soft
and slightly mottled grey, blackish upon the top of the head, taking a warmer
tint upon the back, and becoming pure white below. The tail is very long and
round, nearly white, and ringed regularly with black throughout its length.
They are playful as kittens, and have great games in their cage, knocking
each other over, leaping about their house with wonderful activity, and
expressing amusement by jumping up and down from all the four paws, just
as a kitten does when she is greatly excited. One of them will swing by its hind
paws from a branch, give its companion a pat on the side of the head, drop to
the floor, and scurry off in hot haste, with its playfellow in full chase. Suddenly
it pulls up and sits on a branch, with its hind feet clasping the bough and its
tail swinging loosely below, and calmly contemplates the prospect.

Ring-Tailed Lemur.—Page 266.

They took a great fancy to my pencil, and tried very hard to obtain it,
dropping suddenly along the wires, and making a dash at the pencil when
they thought that I was off my guard. Owing to the slenderness of their limbs,
they can thrust their paws to a surprising distance through the bars. They
became greatly excited when I offered them some bread, jumping about, and
uttering curious little murmuring cries. Each tried very hard to monopolise the
dainty, but, when they found out that each had its proper share, they grew
contented with their gift.
Their paws are quite as hand-like as those of the true monkeys; and when
the creature sits upright, feeding itself with its fingers, and looking calmly in
various directions, it assumes a peculiarly wise and contemplative aspect. The
fore paws are quite soft and rounded at their tips, being finished off with a
round black pad, which projects from beyond the little blunt nails, so that the
Lemur is quite unable to scratch, though it can snatch and clutch quickly, and
pull with great force.
I have much more to say about these beautiful animals, but, as we shall
require some space for the description of the Aye Aye, I must pass to the
remaining specimens of the Lemur tribe.
In a smaller cage is a specimen of the White-fronted Lemur (Lemur
albifrons), a creature that at the time of my visit had hardly made up its mind
whether it would be playful or vicious. After some little experience it found out
that I meant it no harm, and so took up the former line of conduct.
By degrees it organised a kind of game, and would play as long as I chose
to humour it. The creature turned its back to me, and pressed itself against the
side of the cage. I gave it a poke with my finger or pencil, and the Lemur gave
a kind of chatter, dashed to the top of the cage, laid the side of its head upon
the bars, opened its mouth, squeaked, and then descended to resume its
game. Like its ring-tailed kinsfolk, it took a fancy to my pencil, and once or
twice nearly succeeded in pulling it out of my hand.
The general colour of this species is brown, with a warmer tinge upon the
sides, and round the face is a ruff of long, loose white hair, that gives the
creature an aspect not at all unlike that of a pantaloon in a Christmas
pantomime. I may mention that by many zoologists the White-fronted Lemur is
thought to be only the female of the Black-fronted Lemur (Lemur nigrifrons).
In a corresponding cage is a specimen of the White-whiskered Lemur
(Lemur leucomystax).
This animal has lived in the collection for nearly two years, and is quite tame
and gentle. It is rather larger than the preceding species, and is a very pretty
creature. The fur is long, soft, and of a reddish-brown colour upon the body,
taking a black hue on the top of the head. Instead of the ruff of white hair that
surrounds the head of the preceding species, there is a pointed tuft of white
hair projecting from each cheek, just like the whiskers of an old man.
It is fond of being caressed, and, when no one takes notice, it attempts to
call their attention by uttering a short grunt, frequently repeated, and
sometimes gives vent to its impatience by a rather loud and deep barking
sound. The observer should be careful to examine the eyes of the Lemur, their
peculiar lustre having at times almost a startling effect, their depths seeming
to be lighted up with a silvery fire.

We now come to the last of the monkey tribe.

Just now the Zoological Society is rich in treasures, possessing some of the
rarest birds and quadrupeds at present known to science. The hippopotamus,
for example, though not scarce in its own country, is so difficult a subject for
transmission, that we may congratulate ourselves on the two magnificent
specimens in the Gardens. The giraffe, too, partakes of similar conditions, and
is, therefore, most valuable. But perhaps the two most remarkable creatures
at present in the Gardens are the apteryx, a bird which is undoubtedly on the
road to extinction, and is notable for laying an egg that weighs one-fourth as
much as the mother bird; and the Aye Aye (Cheiromys Madagascariensis).

The Aye-Aye.—Page 269.

 This wonderful animal derives its name from the exclamations of surprise
uttered by some natives of Madagascar when the creature was first shown to
them. It is eminently nocturnal in its habits, and on account of its dark fur and
quiet movements is not likely to attract observation. It was first discovered by
Sonnerat, who kept a couple of specimens for some time, feeding them upon
boiled rice. They fed themselves in a very curious manner, using the long
slender fingers of the fore paws for the purpose of conveying the food to the
mouth.
A single dead specimen was brought to France by the discoverer, and the
stuffed skin placed in the splendid museum in Paris; and for many years this
was the only specimen in Europe. The accounts of the habits of the animal
were exceedingly meagre; nothing was known of its customs when in a state
of freedom, and the only trustworthy information which could be obtained was
that which described the colour of the fur.
We hope now to gain more extended knowledge respecting the Aye Aye.
On the 12th of August, 1862, a fine female Aye Aye landed in England. She
was in a delicate state of health, for on the voyage she had produced a young
one, which only survived its birth for a short time. However, by means of
careful treatment she soon improved in health, and is now in very fine
condition.
By day she does not appear to the best advantage. She hates daylight, and
very much resents its unwelcome intrusion upon her privacy, curling herself up
in the darkest corner of the cage, and shading her face with her magnificent
black tail. She is a stronger creature than might be supposed from her
dimensions, and displays much muscular power in pushing her way into her
house.
As she lies in repose the enormous bushy tail is curled round and laid over
the face, so that barely any outline is perceptible. It is curious to see how,
even in this condition, the large ears are gently moved at every sound, and
when the creature is roused from her torpor the brilliancy with which the eyes
gleam from among the heavy fur of the tail is really remarkable.
At night, however, the Aye Aye becomes a different being. She moves
about with ease and agility, making no rapid or sudden rushes, but quietly
walking about the cage, being perfectly indifferent as to the position in which
the body may be. She can walk steadily upon the smooth floor, she can walk
upon the rough branches of the tree which is laid across her cage, or she can
walk along the roof of her house, hanging suspended like the sloth. And she
appears to be equally at ease in either attitude, and walks with equal
adroitness.
 As to the food of the Aye Aye, it may safely be pronounced to be of a mixed
animal and vegetable character. Until this specimen was brought to England,
the Aye Aye was thought to feed only on insects, the long third finger being
supposed to be used in taking them out of the recesses of the rough bark. The
specimen, however, which is at present living in the Zoological Gardens totally
rejects insects of every kind, and feeds only on a mixture of honey, milk, and
the yolk of hard-boiled eggs, beaten up into the consistence of thick cream.
The mode of feeding is very peculiar. Mr. Bartlett, who has paid much
attention to this zoological treasure, has published in the Proceedings of the
Zoological Society a very interesting paper on the habits of the animal, and
gives the following description of its mode of feeding:—
“In feeding, the left hand only is used, although she has the full use of her
right one. The mode of taking her food requires careful attention, in
consequence of the very rapid movement of the hand during the process. The
fourth finger, which is the longest and largest, is thrust forwards into the food,
the slender third finger is raised upwards and backwards above the rest, while
the first finger or thumb is lowered so as to be seen below and behind the
chin. In this position the hand is drawn backwards and forwards rapidly, the
inner side of the fourth finger passing between the lips, the head of the animal
being held sideways, thus depositing the food in the mouth at each
movement; the tongue, jaws, and lips are kept in full motion all the time.
Sometimes the animal will advance towards, and lap from, the dish like a cat;
but this is unusual.” The keeper tells me, however, that, though she generally
prefers the left paw for feeding herself, she frequently employs the right hand
for that purpose.
These observations are very valuable, and, when taken in connection with
certain habits of the animal, lead us to suppose that in the wild state its mode
of feeding is as unique as its appearance.
The observer will see that the branches within its cage are cut about as if
they had been exposed to the fire of a rifle company, the boughs being deeply
wounded and grooved, with splinters projecting in various directions. These
wounds are made by the teeth of the Aye Aye, which, though no larger than a
fine cat, possess strength of jaw and sharpness of tooth sufficient to inflict
such wounds. It has been suggested that the creature partially feeds on the
sap of certain trees, and that by wounding their substance with its teeth it
causes the juices to flow, and then conveys them into its mouth by means of
the long fourth finger.
As Mr. Bartlett well observes, “I observe that our specimen returns
frequently to the same spot on the tree which she had previously injured. I am
also strengthened in my opinion by noticing the little attention paid by the