Comments on: Wharton giveth and Wharton taketh away (or, why 57 million consumers must be wrong)

By: Bob M

Bob M — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:42:20 +0000

I’ve listened to several Knowlege@Wharton podcasts, and I think people there are mostly up to speed on consumer centric stuff.

By: Lester Hunt

Lester Hunt — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 12:47:16 +0000

The medical profession has an ancient delusion, a sort of moral fossil from more authoritarian periods of history, that it is ethical to think of the people they treat as passive recipients of their benevolence and wisdom, as patients and not agents. It actually gives them much more dignity to think of them as clients. Clients have rights with the liberty to dispose of them, while patients are merely places to dump your altruism.

By: steve

steve — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 18:38:38 +0000

If you read the article and substitute the word “book” for “blog” in the quotes from the blog skeptics, it’s pretty funny. It’s also interesting that the main objection raised is that the people writing blogs are allegedly not experts or authorities. But 1) can’t these people assess an argument for themselves?, 2) some of these people are experts (e.g. law professors, economists, etc.), and 3) Phillip Tetlock’s book, I’m told, is pretty convincing that experts aren’t much good at predictions outside their narrow areas.

By: jens

jens — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 14:03:22 +0000

interesting about the statements on “to blog or not to blog” is that the skeptics are all marketing and management people. those who teach and understand business as a combination of specialized tools, strategic moves and measurement. other than customers they have a highly fragmented picture of a corporation and at the same time they look at clients as masses or aggregated groups subject to corporate influencing.
to my concern the statements illustrates a classical problem that marketing – especially as academic discipline – has. marketing was not made for dealing with individuals. that’s why they can’t be seen – or have to be denied.
i am not in praise of ‘blog wisdom’ here. but even the most sober mind can identify the blog phenomenon as another step in the evolution of an individualized society. this fact alone should make marketing professors more than only interested in this funny world. the ignorance though speaks loud – and it probably also tells us about the crisis of marketing and its deep going roots.