Marketing, Rhetoric and Control

9A Sophistic Marketing

In Chapter 4, I presented a tentative definition of marketing based upon my exploration of the middle position of the marketer. This definition stated that:

Marketing is the provision of intermediary services that facilitate the continuing exchange of attention between firm and stakeholders.

In this chapter, I would like to improve and deepen this definition by framing it clearly within a Sophistic understanding of rhetoric, an understanding which combines particular perspectives on relativism, the performative/magical power of language, competition, and the place of irrationalism in the ‘business’ of persuasion.

First, I will return to the subject of control that we have seen to be an important motivation in the ...