WEDNESDAY JULY 8TH

WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE ….

Stephen Brown, Noel Dennis and Jim Bell

Everyone is familiar with the 4Ps, plus the plethora of Ps that have proliferated in the post-McCarthy epoch, everything from People to Postmodernism.  From an academic perspective, perhaps the most important Ps are Publications and Presentations. Professional preferment, after all, is predicated on our publication output and presentational prowess.

Sadly, many of our published articles adhere to a stereotyped, pseudo-scientific structure.  They are not only well-nigh unreadable, but routinely condemned by practitioners and students alike.  Our presentations, likewise, are overly reliant on PowerPoint's stultifying software, tiresome templates, humdrum fonts.  Many make watching paint dry seem riveting by comparison.

In presentational and publication terms, we have painted ourselves into a corner.  It is time to get out of this place.  The special session thus considers alternative modes of marketing communication, specifically music, poetry and creative writing.  The first "paper" is performed by Noel Dennis (Teesside University) and his hot band of cool jazzmen.  The second paper is an epic marketing poem by Jim "dice man" Bell (University of Ulster).  The third, by Stephen Brown (University of Ulster) goes by the self-explanatory title: "Wrapping Messages in Thrilling Packages".

Stephen Brown

Quirky isn’t the only word used to describe Stephen Brown.  Professor of Marketing Research at the University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and best known for Postmodern Marketing, he has written numerous books including Fail Better, Free Gift Inside, The Marketing Code and Wizard: Harry Potter’s Brand Magic.  Stephen is also widely regarded as the Antichrist of marketing.  A danger to his discipline, he has challenged many of marketing’s most sacred cows and clashed with some of the field’s foremost gurus, including Philip Kotler and the late Ted Levitt. 

Noel Dennis

Noel Dennis is a Principal Lecturer in Marketing at Teesside University. He is also a professional jazz musician (trumpet and flugelhorn), having played the trumpet since he was eight years old. Noel has played a host of venues in the UK and Europe with internationally renowned musicians and regularly composes and records incidental music for television.  Noel has successfully combined his career in marketing with jazz and has published numerous articles on the subject. He is currently researching a PhD looking at the use of jazz improvisation techniques in marketing.

Jim Bell

Jim Bell is Professor of International Business Entrepreneurship at the University of Ulster. As a self-confessed 'lapsed' marketer he has very few 'real' friends left in Marketing, apart from Stephen Brown. He does, however, have a number of imaginary friends who continue to contribute to the discipline