Bridging marketing's intentions and consumer perceptions

Purpose – The paper's aim is to explore consumer perceptions of marketing and test the malleability of those perceptions. Design/methodology/approach – Study 1 is exploratory in nature, and employs a free-response sentence completion to, “marketing is […]”. Study 2 employs an experimental design, testing whether the framing of communications about marketer performance (firm-oriented vs consumer-oriented) influences consumer perceptions of marketing. Findings – Based on free responses to “marketing is […]”, findings indicate that US consumers generally see marketing as something that is bad for them, but good for businesses. However, this asymmetry disappears when marketer performance is communicated with a consumer orientation. Practical implications – Marketers aim to create relationships with consumers based on value exchange, yet consumers do not see such value exchange. They see the value of marketing for business, but not for consumers themselves. By being more cognizant of how marketer performance is discussed, marketers can overcome such perceptions and build better relationships with consumers. Originality/value – Other research on attitude toward marketing focuses solely on people's feelings about marketing; here we capture an extra dimension – namely, consumer perceptions of who marketing serves. Further, extant research on consumer attitudes toward marketing tend to describe their current state; this paper does the same but also tests and offers a specific solution for improving perceptions of marketing.