Macromarketing

Macromarketing is an interdisciplinary field that studies marketing as a provisioning technology of society. It focuses on marketing-society interactions including such topics as marketing systems, aggregate consumer behavior, market regulation, social responsibility, justice and ethics in markets, and sustainable marketing. By comparison, "micromarketing" deals with how firms decide what to make, how to market it, and how much to price it. Some of key topics include the tragedy of the commons, subliminal advertising, market symbolism and environmental sustainability. The notion of "marketing systems" is at the heart of macromarketing thought.

Macromarketing may be a fairly recent term, but the ideas and interests that it comprises have existed as long as human history. For example, History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, Magna Carta, and The Travels of Marco Polo are works that embody macromarketing themes. Macromarketing practice moreover is perhaps as old as society itself. Societies emerged for the welfare of the group; the need for specialization and then exchanges of items produced by specialists surely was evident early on. Greater specialization and support for it begat trade, and eventually markets—which linked many systems in any given society, from production to consumption—were an efficient mechanism to sustain a society, which, fundamentally is a series of institutions and systems agreed upon by the members of the group. For example, even ancient markets like the agora at Athens or a bazaar at Mesopotamia would have been built on systemic organization and coordination, bringing people together.

Modern macromarketing literature on contemporary society may discuss topics like subliminal advertising, environmentally friendly packaging, and transgender consumers.^{[citation needed]} Articles in the Journal of Macromarketing were about marketing ethics, how American muslims use social media to connect with verified halal markets, destination marketing and place branding at gastronomy, and how U.S. nonprofits are addressing the "wicked problem" of gun violence through macro-social marketing.

Macromarketing models are normative constructs, and the discipline that reflects society's value judgments and takes a stance on "how the general marketing process should be conducted in the best interests of society". Some scholars argued that "improving our knowledge of marketing" was a sort of "social process of resource mobilization that, among other things, focuses on an understanding of processes of social learning, adoption, and innovation". In fact, some scholars worried that it was falling out of the spotlight, perhaps because the field was seen as "the conscience of marketing practice", which was less appealing in an academia that values "objectivity and scientific enquiry". macromarketing focused on