Social networking: an old process in a new form

Melanie Howard

The article describes how marketing has developed from understanding individual needs, based on psychology, to understanding collective actions, based on sociology.

Social networking: an old process in a new form

Melanie Howard

The question about the future of social networking should remind us how dependent marketing has become on insights from the social sciences over the past half century.

Without a sophisticated concept of society and an understanding of its workings, there could be no grasp of the power of the newly identified 'social media'.

Looking ahead to the next 50 years, the emergence of such phenomena emphasises marketing's need to continue to embrace new learning in order to reinvigorate itself and stay in touch with the reality of consumer lives...

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