Reducing the Capitalist Bias in Marketing Available to Purchase

The marketing function is potentially a stumbling block to joint ventures between the East and West because marketing is conceived of and implemented in very different ways in these two systems. In the capitalist West, marketers view their job as discovering what the ultimate consumer wants and then winning sales by giving them exactly what they desire. In the socialistEast this degree of decentralisation has not traditionally existed, and the ultimate consumer is often not the decision maker who determines what products will be made and how they will go to market. Several useful paradigms of marketing are examined which, although not “fashionable”in the West, do provide a means for people involved in joint ventures to discuss the marketing function and the various goals served by it. By being aware of these differing orientations,marketing can avoid sterile discussion which focus merely on the customer‐orientated marketing management approach so popular in the capitalist countries today.