Write-up on “Value”

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Recommended: Values and Ethics sociology

The concept of value – in terms of being a descriptive ‘goodness’, physically external to a person – has been discussed and researched since the times of ancient Greek philosophers – Plato & Aristotle. It was one of the central themes of Adam Smith’s work (1776) and of Karl Marx (1909). In marketing, the discussion on value was initially centred on utility added by the marketer; the consumers were seen as rational and utility-maximising individuals (Arndt, 1981; Converse, 1945; Holbrook, 1987; Kotler, 1967, 1973; Schaefer & Crane, 2005; Tauber, 1972; Thomas, Challagalla, & McFarland, 1999). Value research has been debated widely in the last three decades and some distinct schools of thought have emerged, which I have discussed in the next section. The American Marketing Association has also given due importance to value in its last three definitions, replacing product as the intended object of exchange. The latest definition (as of January 2014) reads: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large” (“Definition of Marketing,” 2013, emphasis added).

Some important conceptions of value from Philosophy, Sociology and Economics

One of the foremost thinkers on value – Plato – proposed the idea of intrinsic value and instrumental i.e. extrinsic value. The concept of intrinsic value refers to value that something has in itself, while items with instrumental value are good to have as they become a means to achieve some other purpose (Seung, 1996; Zimmerman, 2010). Plato’s student, Aristotle divided value into two types – use value and exchange value (Fleetwood, 1997). According to...

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...romarketing, 25(1), 76–92. doi:10.1177/0276146705274987
Seung, T. K. (1996). Plato Rediscovered. Lanham, MA: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Smith, A. (1776). An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1st ed.). London: W. Strahan. Retrieved from http://goo.gl/QrfBc8
Staveren, I. van. (2001). The Values of Economics: An Aristotelian Perspective (1st ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.
Tauber, E. M. (1972). Why Do People Shop ? Journal of Marketing, 36(4), 46–49.
Thomas, W., Challagalla, G. N., & McFarland, R. G. (1999). Anatomy of Exchange. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 7(4), 8–19.
Zimmerman, M. J. (2010). Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Value. In E. N. Zalta (Ed.), The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 201.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University. Retrieved from http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2010/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/

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