The title Unboxing Marketing is a play with the unboxing phenomenon that has become widespread in social media, where someone buys something and then films when the product is unpacked. This is what we think should be done with the whole subject of marketing. Both as consumers and as a prospective marketers, we carry a lot of baggage that concerns what marketing is all about. If someone has also read an introductory marketing course, these assumptions are typically solidified, which hinders looking at marketing with fresh eyes. Therefore marketing needs to be unboxed, or unpacked, so that we can become aware of all the implicit assumptions that shape both the theory and practice of the subject. So in this context, unboxing is simply about the fact that we want to bring about a questioning of what we often take for granted when we study and research marketing.
- We want the reader to become a critical marketer insofar at that implies questioning the conventional ways of thinking about and doing marketing today. More specifically, we hope that the readers can contribute to turning marketing into an important tool in the ambition to create a better, more sustainable world says Jacob Östberg.
On the one hand it is important to be critical of consumer culture and reflect on one's own consumption. On the other hand it is important to be critical of the conventional practices of many companies, as well as what one has learned in introductory marketing courses.
The idea is that this book will serve as an in-depth study and a complement to an introductory textbook by presenting a coherent perspective on the subject and providing a good basis for criticizing other points of view. Of course, our perspectives and what we draw upon in making our points can also be criticized. The aim is that this book should be a small - but important - piece of the puzzle in the students’ intellectual development.