(International Library of Sociology) Celia Lury - Brands_ The Logos of the Global Economy-Routledge (2004)

(Quoted in Mitchell, 2001:76–77)
The consolidation of the role of marketing was linked to the changing
role of retail; no longer a passive activity, driven by the manufacturer, it
was increasingly becoming a complex and aggressive activity in which
information about the consumer was a pivotal resource. So, for
example, major retailers were able to exert greater control of the supply
chain through their use of information systems technology to
co-ordinate and organise store management, logistics and the
distribution chain. The post-war period also sees the rise of self-service
systems in retail outlets, in which the ‘silent salesman’ of brands,
promotion and packaging was increasingly able to co-ordinate selling
(Bowlby, 2000). But the increasing legitimacy of marketing was also a
consequence of internal developments: the abandonment of institutional
economics by marketers and the adoption of a combination of
quantitative techniques and behavioural sciences (Cochoy, 1998). On
the one hand, the implementation of operations research and
econometrics led to the birth of marketing science, a research stream
that could model and optimise market activities. On the other, the
importation of statistics, psychology and behavioural analysis gave
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birth to what has come to be called consumer research. This involves
the use of economic, social and psychographic demographics to map the
target market. The combined use of these methods secured a growing
authority for marketers, an authority that legitimated an increasingly
important role for marketing in product development, product
differentiation and product classification.
Crucially, the active role awarded to marketing involves a
reorganisation of processes of what Callon calls product qualification
and requalification, and puts more and more emphasis on
differentiation. As Callon et al. say,
The characteristics of a good are not properties which already exist and
on which information simply has to be produced so that everyone can
be made aware of them. Their definition or, in other words, their
objectification, implies specific metrological work and heavy investment
in measuring equipment. The consequence is that agreement on the
characteristics is sometimes, in fact often, difficult to achieve. Not only
may the list of characteristics be controversial (which characteristics
ought to be taken into consideration?) but so also, above all, is the value
to be given to each of them. Once agreement has been reached it will be
characterized by a degree of robustness if the procedures used were
objective.