Purpose The aim of this overview is to reflect on the family resemblances between psychogeography and marketing history. Design/methodology/approach The paper is informally predicated on the perspectives and philosophies of literary theory in general and New Historicism in particular. Findings...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the widely‐held belief that marketing holds customers in thrall and persuades them to buy things they otherwise would not. Design/methodology/approach – Rather than adopt a scientific approach to the mesmeric marketing phenomenon, it...

Purpose – In a world where commerce and culture are still somewhat estranged, the purpose of this paper is to show that high culture’s supreme exponents were commercially minded masters of marketing. Design/methodology/approach – Historically situated, the paper adopts a biographical...

Marketing academics have recently been exhorted to embrace postmodernism, the so‐called “new perspective on life and the human condition that is sweeping across the globe”. Using postmodernism′s own tools of playfulness, paradox and irreverence – in the shape of the multiplex cinema as...

Thirty years ago, Philip Kotler drafted the modern marketing constitution and most would agree that it has served the discipline well. A generation on from Kotler’s conceptual charter, however, our rainbow coalition is in a state of disarray. Marketing is doubted by its scholarly citizens,...

Purpose – To show how consumer researchers can learn from novels and analogous works of fiction. Design/methodology/approach – Close reading of two recent novels, The Savage Girl by Alex Shakar and Jennifer Government by Max Barry. Findings – The paper shows how works of fiction can be...

Although Belfast contains a number of well‐known British retail names, there are still plenty of British multiples who are reluctant to invest in central Belfast. This is partly because of the bombing campaign and the general high risks, and partly because of the scarcity of suitable sites....

A number of British multiple non‐food retailers are represented in Northern Ireland; they include Marks & Spencer, Boots, C & A, the Burton Group, Olympus Sport, Chelsea Girl and others. However, none of the major British grocery chains trade in the province. Our contributors examine the...

What conceivable connection can there be between religion and retailing? In this original article Stephen Brown shows that the relationship — at least in Northern Ireland — is significant. It goes beyond the obvious subject of Sunday trading; ethnic factors are very apparent. For example,...

The internal layout of a shopping centre and the spatial relationships of the individual shop units within it are important, to retailers and planners alike. However, relatively little work has been done on analysing the behaviour of pedestrians within shopping centres. To remedy this a...