Conformity around dominant Marketing Cognitive Products : Networks, mediators and storytelling

The purpose of this article is to offer a set of propositions to explain why new paradigm announcements in the field of marketing ideas failed to trigger breaks with the dominant approaches. This field is considered a market where Marketing Cognitive Products (MCPs) are competing. Insofar as the quality of an MCP is neither perfectly observable nor fixed, we would argue that whether in the academic or practitioner segment of the cognitive market, its perceived quality is contingent upon processes of qualification. Three strong social processes increase the probability of conformity around dominant MCPs: the consequences of their market share; the network of interaction with mediators within a market segment; and the effects of MCPs' story-telling power. In this stagnant situation, dominant MCPs gradually change and their domination is reinforced through the re-interpretation and co-optation of challengers. In the global cognitive market the dissemination of dominant MCPs is increasing the conformity of practitioners around these ideas, while the proliferation of MCPs is leading to customer confusion.