Towards a Theory of Marketing—A Comment

The thought-provoking article by Alderson and Cox in the October 1948 issue of this JOURNAL, entitled "Towards a Theory of Marketing," merits ~he attention of all students of marketing problems and phenomena. In it the authors express the hope and the be!ief that I) a systematic theory of marketing can be developed and 2) marketing may become scientific and perhaps even a science. Each of these propositions seems to me to be open to discussion which, perhaps, the authors realized. Useful discussion of the propositions just stated requires definition of the term "theory." This the authors do not undertake. Among the dictionary definitions, the one that seems to me best in accord with their usage is: "a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class ~f phenomena." For the purposes of this note I shall assume that this is what the authors had in mind. Two elements in this definition well may be emphasized, namely: I) a coherent group of propositions is involved; 2) this group is used in explanation of something. In the light of this definition I propose to make three brief comments on the article. I. Marketing, like engineering for example, is a multiphase activity of great complexity. (I doubt that anyone would undertake to write an article under the title "Towards a Theory of Engineering.") Its performance involves such diverse things as the physical movement