The Spectre of Kotlerism:: a Literary Appreciation

Stephen Brown

European Management Journal, 2002, vol. 20, issue 2, 129-146

Abstract: It is forty years since Philip Kotler published his first academic paper. In that time, he has done more than anyone to disseminate the marketing message. Yet, despite Kotler's powers of proselytization and persuasion, there have been very few studies of these powers. This article, therefore, takes a literary approach to the literary works of Philip Kotler. More specifically, it employs Marxian precepts to penetrate the surface appearance and expose the scholarly essence of Kotler's corpus. Written in the extended essay format that characterizes works of literary appreciation, it argues that Philip Kotler and Karl Marx are indistinguishable in terms of both conceptual content and rhetorical form. This paper moreover, maintains that just as Marx aspired to the dictatorship of the proletariat, so too Kotler has pursued the goal of the dictatorship of the marketariat.

Keywords: Philip; Kotler; Marketing; Karl; Marx; Utopianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2002
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