if such were the case how could he take his supplier's marketing efforts seriously when they were so obviously at odds with the real world?
A series of exchanges with the executives responsible for the administration of a marketing department presented other forms of ambiguity.
"Agents and representatives falsify every damn document they touch and all you can hope to do is make sure that someone else is responsible for passing their junk upstairs."
Experience with this problem had taught these managers to build a measure of slack into the sales targets so that rapid adjustments might be made when one of the senior management demanded an improvement. If such a manoeuvre should prove inadequate it might well become necessary to discover unacceptable irregularities in the behaviour of certain salesmen who would then be back on the road again.
To be 'an the road' is tois, in cm unsettled state, where the phrase has a number of meanings, any one of which may apply at some point in a representative^ career. The first and perhaps most obvious of these is a straightforward reference to the travelling that
salesmen do to earn their living. Indeed, it would appear from the
fieldwork that a fair proportion of representatives actively resent the paperwork and sales briefings that keep them from the road* This, in turn, may be seen as a reflection of the value that salesmen put upon their mobility and the independence it gives them. These same attributes are also an important part of the camaraderie that
representatives and their fellow travellers appear to have developed as a defence against the rigours of being 'on the road' alone. In conclusion, the phrase may be seen as a paradox for even salesmen who are unemployed must go out 'on the road' and sell themselves.
Underpinning these interpretations was the suggestion that sales men could be seen as competent or even enthusiastic employees without ever showing any great degree of interest in the company that they were meant to represent. It was hoped that this somewhat contrary develop ment and its impact upon marketing managers would both become parts
of an attempt to render the role of the marketing manager more readily ; understandable by considering it in terms of deviancy theory (Douglas
36
1970)(Bryant 1974). The latter did seem to suggest that members of an organisation, who were uncertain of the details of their member ship and position within that organisation, might accentuate those characteristics which would otherwise have been subsumed to some extent through having to meet the norms of the group they hdd successfully
joined. However, the ambiguity apparent in the role of marketing manager is not immediately accessible in these terms; the difficulty being that of the managers who have still to establish a role for themselves
under any circumstances let alone emergent or 'pseudo- professionalism. Marketing managers may attempt to lessen interdepartmental
tension and the difficulties of their own role by adopting norms other than those which derive from their understanding of the theory and practice of marketing. Alternatively, they may succeed in establishing a role on an individual basis but, because of the lack of the prof essional attribute of easy migration between organisations, be faced with constraints on their careers through having to re-establish them
selves after every move whilst overcoming the understanding of a marketing manager's role built up by the previous employee. Campanis
/ ,37
(1970) wonders l
"Why don't managers deviate more?:.Ashas been documented; it is hard to know what to deviate from".
Campanis goes on to note that
"No strong professional association or. in-plant ties with peers exist* Managers are not members of an association which sets rules, limits entry to the field, or sets standards of performance* "
38
Gross (1958) puts it less bluntly*
"One type of action that can easily create antagonism, cleav ages and even a loss of the market to charlatans is uncontrolled competition* Consequently every occupation (even that of
private business) tries to regulate competition by securing consensus on the "rules of the game*H The most celebrated form that such controls take are professional ''ethics11.
In a developing profession such as marketing these considerations would be partial at best but nevertheless significant for as Ctzioni
39
(1964) insists
"••• the ultimate justification for a professional act i3 that
it is, to the best of the professional's knowledge, the right act* He might consult his colleagues before he acts, but the decision is his* If he errs he will still be defended by his peers. The ultimate justification of an administrative act, however, is that it is in line with the organisation's rules and regulations, and that it has been approved — directly or by implication - by a superior rank."
The following insight into marketing management comes from an opportune meeting with a salesman of cavity wall insulation* U/e were at a party in his home town and he was clearly under pressure for
although he was willing to talk about his work, he was also keen to keep
an eye on his wife, who was near to hand but otherwise engaged* Whilst the salesman obviously had some expectations of consistent behaviour from both his wife and his work he would not talk about her*
"The blokes from Market Research are all right but those other bastards ars living off our backs* We shift the stuff and if we fail we get hurt a damn sight faster than they do* They just disappear ••• that's when they're not accusing you of cocking things up •«• you can never trust the sods*"
40
Garfinkel (1967) is altogether more sanguine.
"That the work of bringing present circumstances under the rule of previously agreed activity is sometimes contested should not be permitted to mask its pervasive and routine use as an ongoing and essential feature of "actions in accordance with common understandings*"
This process, uhich I shall call a method of discovering agree ments by eliciting or imposing a respect for the rule of practical circumstances, is a version ofwpractical ethics."
The ambiguity uhich arises from uhat appears to be a discussion of tuo sets of ethics is a result of the uncertainty surrounding the professional standing of marketing managers* It uas hoped that this ambivalence might in some uay be resolved by an evaluation of "members
accounts" for as Silverman (1975)^ points out
"To listsn to our oun language is to hear that community uithin our speech."
In effect, Silverman is arguing that ths transmission of ‘every day1 meaning is as much a matter of the speaker's behaviour, and the unspoksn assumptions that are shared uith an audience, as it is ths phrase in question. These, assumptions are themselves an important part of 'common sense' reality and tend only to become apparent uhen a given community's 'oun language' is reconsidered uithout its usual underpinnings.
The organisational cultures and "practical ethics" uhich can be inferred uhen these languages are used as evidencs, were assumed to be amenable to analysis in a manner similar to that used in the studies uhich inspired this research. It should, houever, be under stood that neither "professional" nor "practical ethics" ars vieued as anything other than a function of cultural activity and therefore
42
bound to continual reformulation. Campanis's (1970) objection is seen accordingly as someuhat artificial.
"Managers are not paid to develop neu moral codes, but to make the existing slippery ones uork. They are not initiators of norms themselves but reactors to them."
The follouing may therefore be S88n as the "existing codes" being made to uork.
A marketing manager from the North of England uas describing the difficulties he faced in trying to maintain ths considerable markst leadership enjoyed by the mutlinational firm of handtool manufacturers that employed him. These engineers produce a range of vsry high
quality products uhich are easily identified by their uniform colouring and standard of finish. They are also very expensive. The company grounded its marketing policy in the analysis of statistics from the construction industry and the application of ‘bought in' Market Research* The competitive edge uhich derived from this policy uas backed up by a mixture of managerial guesses, the debriefing of sales men and uhatever might be squeezed out of current production capacity* The firm's market research lead to the belief that uhilst their products uere, as ever, "fit for craftsmen" the market itself uas changing* A recession amongst commercial builders and burgeoning opportunities in the Do-It-Yourself trade meant that the hand tool business uas fast becoming a matter of selling to customers uho neither recognised nor uantsd tools of such a standard. Part of this expan sion uas the result of uomen buying or prompting the purchase of articles that uere intended for perhaps one or tuo jobs, neither of
uhich uould involve the kills associated uith the traditional market* i
As these neu customers uere accustomed to 'one stop' shopping and self service, the engineers attempted to protect the profit margins deriving from their dominance of the market by a move auay from the more
traditional specialist outlets such as ironmongers to those shops uhsrs the neuer conditions prevailed.
The tool makers compounded their innovation by adapting uhat my respondent claimed uas a marketing technique from the 'Fast-Food' industry and better suitBd to customers uho had no need for the specialist skills of an ironmonger. 'Top Tool Bars' uere introduced into department stores, supermarkets and similar outlets uhere paint, tiles and uallpaper might be purchased* The intention behind these
'in-store' promotions uas to offer the dozen or so most frequently bought tools in individual 'bubble' packs uhich uould be clearly
accessible to the customer uhilst doing auay uith the need for anything other than a cashier. In an attempt to learn more about the genesis of the 'Tool Bars' I presented the marketing manager uith some
hypothetical competition*
What uould he envisage doing in the face of "A Marketing Co*" an organisation uhich did not make hand tools but packaged and sold uhatever could be found at a suitable price? Perhaps a moderately
costly range from West Germany or Sueden and a cheaper series from
Korea or Taiwan? These imported items would then be offered to retailers who were already benefitting from the engineers* realisation that
consumers now expected handtools to be on sale almost everywhere* Retailer's dependence upon established manufacturers uould diminish accordingly for the cheaper alternatives would surely shift the
competitive emphasis from product quality to packaging and pricing, a move which would, in turn, mean more competition*
This was one of the most difficult moments of the interview for the marketing manager was visibly shaken. I had clearly touched on a tender spot. My informant was a member of the Institute of Marketing and after learning of my own background, had come to rely on 'theoret ical' answers as a means of avoiding questions which he felt were too sensitive to be commented on directly* I had inadvertently breached an informal arrangement uhich had developed as a feature of a
conversation that began uith his announcement. "You'll find this place parochial. Not just here, within the company, but the whole area". The implied limits, the feeling that I shouldn't expect too much, were I thought, at odds with the privacy we enjoyed. The manager told his secretary to hold his calls and not to interrupt him so the two of us were alone in his office for well over two hours. A rapport did develop but it became apparent that my respondent uould never be
completely at ease. He seemed to worry about what he said as much as he needed to talk these selfsame things.
"It uas bad enough getting everyone to accept even the idea of the 'Tool Bars* but we've got another problem now. The 'Tool Bars' have become ever so successful and we're selling all we can make on some lines but there's a feeling that a lot of these customers would buy cheaper versions if they could get them"
The tool makers had engaged a 'professional' designer to draw up proposals for a range of cheaper tools uhich might replace the 'up market' ones in the 'bubble packs. The 'craftsman's' range would still be available from specialist outlets uhilst the new tools would
be used to secure the burgeoning middle and low price ranges in the
'amateur* market. The designer offered two series of hand tools; one
of uhich would be clearly middle priced because of its quality of construction and its colour, green, and the other somewhat cheaper and recognisable by its colour, perhaps orange. The designer's new ranges of hand tools never went into production.
’’The senior managers didn't like them. They said the samples didn't look like screwdrivers. They were the wrong colour”. The idea, however, seemed worthy.
”liie attempted to import some hammers from South America and
give them a trial in the 'bubble* packs. If that worked we would pick other suitable products from our world subsidiaries and see how things shaped up. The Managing Director decided that the hammer wasn't made well enough for a product carrying our name in this country even though it was the best hammer available in South America. The pricing argument was seen as a debasement of our current range, against everything tbB company stands for, everything the board has worked for. All our arguments about differentiation and market segmentation fall on deaf ears.”
This would appear to constitute the company's idea of marketing and the proper use of market research for whilst the public were known to be interested in cheaper tools they were never consulted about the suitability or otherwise of the new designs or the cheap hammer. Similar indifference was shown to the designer for he was not included in any evaluation of the market other than that which was supplied by the engineers as his original brief. "These tools (the established range) are the result of years of work by people who know what they're doing ... real craftsmen".
The engineers do, however, buy Market Research and whilst this attempt to promote "trade by assessing customers' needs and initiating research to meet these needs" may be seen to support some aspects of bialker's (1976)^ thesis there is also the assertion that
"every time our Marketing Director goes to Company H.Q. in the U.S.A. he comes back full of new techniques and ideas about Marketing but he's soon knocked back into shape by the rest of the Board."