Many members of the business community tend to believe that while history may be an interesting diversion, it has little to contribute to the workaday world of the private sector. Thus, in our era of technological change, globally focused tactics, and e‐commerce, business thinkers often insist that they are too busy making history (by revolutionizing the way in which products are marketed) to sit back and contemplate the past. A few writers (such as myself) and a number of progressive journals in contrast, affirm that history is more than irrelevant tales of “days gone by” because, when properly interpreted, the past provides useful clues that shed light on the problems we face today. What has long been needed are book‐length monographs that deal with historical subjects in strategic/tactical ways that are relevant to business. Mary Ellen Zuckerman’s A History of Popular Women’s Magazines in the United States, 1792‐1995 is such a book.
Zuckerman provides a rich account of how the marketing of a specific consumer product (women’s magazines) can provide useful strategic and tactical insights of value to the business community. Basically, Zuckerman deals with three eras of woman’s magazines: the end of the Civil War to the end of the First World War; the end of the First World War to the end of the Second World War; and the end of the Second World War to 1995. This method of organizing her materials in a chronological order is very useful in a number of ways. First, Zuckerman shows how the top editors of popular women’s magazines (i.e. strategic marketing managers), from 1865 to the present, were clearly conscious of the pressures and threats they faced, and responded accordingly. Thus, Zuckerman provides a narrative that demonstrates how the marketing and positioning of woman’s magazines evolved as a response to evolving circumstance.
Second, since Zuckerman demonstrates how strategies and tactics influenced decisions, her analysis makes it clear how current trends are largely outgrowths of earlier choices. Thus, the last chapter “New Contenders” deals with contemporary changes that are taking place in women’s magazines. Looked at outside of the context that Zuckerman provides, the tactics of today’s editors could easily appear to be a clear break with the past. Viewed within the historical context provided by Zuckerman’s analysis, however, the present situation can be seen to be a continuation of earlier strategies and choices.
In essence, Zuckerman provides a useful example of the marketing strategies of a specific consumer product over a period of 130 years. The book emphasizes the context of this change and it deals with the evolution of strategies and tactics in historic ways. In a narrow sense, the book can be read as an analysis of the tactics of a specialized component of the publishing industry; more generally, it provides an investigation of marketing strategies and how they respond to an ever‐changing world.
Although Zuckerman’s book is highly relevant to the study of business strategies and tactics, thus far the business community does not seem to be aware of it. This is probably due to the fact that the book is published as a part of Greenwood Press’s well known Contributions In Women’s Studies series. And it certainly has found an appropriate home there. Unfortunately, because women’s studies is a branch of the humanities, the book, apparently, has not been adequately introduced to business scholars. The book certainly provides a significant contribution to women’s studies, but it simultaneously provides a well documented and readable account of both stability and change within the marketing of a specific consumer product. Approached from this perspective, it presents the business community with a "good read" that is filled with tactical and strategic insights of value to those who are concerned with marketing consumer products in an ever‐changing world.
