An exploration of marketing tactics for turbulent environments
| Published date | 13 March 2009 |
| Date | 13 March 2009 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570910930082 |
| Pages | 173-190 |
| Author | Roger B. Mason,Gavin Staude |
| Subject Matter | Economics,Information & knowledge management,Management science & operations |
An exploration of marketing
tactics for turbulent
environments
Roger B. Mason
Department of Marketing, University of Wolverhampton,
Wolverhampton, UK and
Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, and
Gavin Staude
Rhodes Investec Business School, Rhodes University,
Grahamstown, South Africa
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose that the choice of marketing tactics is influenced by
the company’s external environment. It aims to illustrate the marketing tactics suggested for a complex,
turbulent environment, when marketing and the environment are viewed through a complexity lens.
Design/methodology/approach – A marketing mix model, derived from complexity literature,
was assessed via a multiple case study to identify the type of marketing mix suggested for a complex,
turbulent environment. The study was exploratory, using in-depth interviews with two companies in
the IT industry.
Findings – The results tentatively confirmed that the more successful company used a destabilizing
marketing mix, and suggest that using complexity theory to develop marketing tactics could be
helpful in turbulent environments.
Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited by the study’s exploratory,
qualitative nature and the small sample. Generalizing should be done with care and therefore further
research with larger samples and in different environments is recommended.
Practical implications – The paper will benefit marketers by emphasizing a new way to consider
future marketing activities of their companies. The model can assist marketers to identify the tactics to
use, dependent on the nature of their environment.
Originality/value – Most work on complexity in marketing has concentrated on strategy, with little
emphasis on tactics and the marketing mix. Therefore, the paper is an important contribution to the
understanding of marketing mix choices, of interest to both practising marketers and marketing
academics.
Keywords Complexity theory,Chaos theory, Marketing mix, Marketingstrategy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The business environment is becoming extremely complex, experiencing continuous,
rapid change (Doherty and Delener, 2001). In stable environments, coping is relatively
easy, but as complexity increases, and change happens faster, coping becomes
problematic. Traditional methods, such as strategic planning and scenario planning,
have become inadequate to cope with the speed, volume, and unpredictability of
discontinuous change (Edgar and Nisbet, 1996). Therefore, finding new ways of coping
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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An exploration
of marketing
tactics
173
Received 24 July 2008
Revised 16 September 2008
Accepted 26 September
2008
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 109 No. 2, 2009
pp. 173-190
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/02635570910930082
are essential. One way of finding such new ways is by applying theories from outside
marketing to obtain fresh insights. Many authors believe the new sciences, chaos and
complexity theories, can provide a better understanding of marketing (Smith, 2002;
Gundlach, 2006). Wollin and Perry (2004, p. 569) maintain that:
Complexity theory [...]has implications for marketing managers as a holistic, self-consistent
framework for understanding profound forces within a market and provides some guides for
action when operating within such a system.
Another method of finding new ways is to use emerging markets as laboratories to
expand marketing knowledge, as these markets are significantly different to those in
industrialized countries (Burgess and Steenkamp, 2006). Theories and assumptions
can be tested in contexts different to those in which the traditional marketing theories
were developed.
This paper assesses a model of marketing activities for turbulent environments,
developed from a review of the chaos and complexity literature as applied to marketing.
A case study approach is used, comparing two South African companies against the
model to identifyif their marketingactivities and resultant performanceis as predictedby
the model. Thus,this study uses both the new sciencesand an emerging market context.
Business environment
The business environment is comprised of relationships between environmental
stakeholders, which “co-create” the fast changing environment (Conner, 1998). Change
occurs in two major dimensions; complexity and turbulence. As complexity increases,
the ability to understand, plan and predict becomes more difficult (Black and Farias,
2000). The increasing complexity leads to more change (Conner, 1998), and making
sense of it and predicting its behavior becomes more difficult (Black and Farias, 2000).
Turbulence involves rapid, unexpected change in the environmental
sub-dimensions (Conner, 1998). It is caused by changes in, and interaction between,
environmental factors, including technology and the confluence of the computer,
telecommunications, and media industries. This turbulence results in less orderly
competition, increasing need for information, quicker development cycles and mor e
difficulty in predicting customer, product and service requirements (Chakravarthy,
1997). The net result of these changes is an environment with strong Knightian
uncertainty, which states that the future is unknowable (Wilkinson and Young , 1998).
Many authors see such complex, turbulent environments as complex adaptive
systems (CASs) (Holbrook, 2003). Others highlight the presence of complexity and
chaos constructs in business environments, such as eco-systems (Ritter et al., 2004;
Gundlach, 2006), self-organiza tion and emergence (Wilkinson, 2006 ), sensitive
dependence on initial conditions (Tedesco Analytics, 2001), and nonlinearity (Black
and Farias, 2000; Tedesco Analytics, 2001, p. 3).
Furthermore, Black and Farias (2000) explain how actions taken to reduce
uncertainty can lead to nonlinearity and unpredictability, causing the marketplace to
be in a continuous state of disequilibrium. Since environments do appear to be CASs, a
complexity or chaos perspective should be used to understand their dynamics and
behavior and to guide strategy development (Tedesco Analytics, 2001; Mason, 2007).
For example, an entrepreneurial approach of constructing the future, rather than trying
to predict the future, can be helpful (Mason, 2006).
IMDS
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