Modern Marketing Characteristics and the Post-Modern Kick-Starting of Consumer Behaviour: Critical Analysis of the Proposed Positioning Using the Meeting Points Theory

Abstract

Because of the vertiginous advances associated with the market globalization phenomenon in the fields of information technology and communication processes, traditional theories of consumer behaviour find it difficult to explain, in a satisfactory manner, mechanisms that rule the market, mainly segmentation-related concepts and reference groups. Since the 1930’s, when Marketing became an autonomous discipline born from the theory of administration, numerous concepts have emerged referring to the usage of modern and postmodern theories related to the positioning strategies in the multidimensional search for consumer behaviour in contemporary society. The objective of this study was, through a qualitative research and convenience sampling undertaken with the associates of ADVB/FBM and participants of the Marketing Professionals Meeting, held in Sao Paulo, t attempt to evaluate the relevance of one of the postmodern theories, the Melting points theory. A questionnaire was the means adopted to collect all the data. It was instructed based on the thirteen assertions of Gerken, which were converted into thirteen punctual statements as variable components. The results of this field research lead to a latent variable, pointing to the non-agreement of the interviewed professionals regarding the presented dictations and, consequently, the irrelevancy of positioning strategies proposed by the Melting Point theory concerning the market’s actual practice. DOI: 10.5585/remark.v9i2.2160