Marketing Theory of Exchange

Exchange Theory

Back in 1975 a chap called Bagozzi introduced the Marketing Theory of Exchange that has become essential to all elements of marketing research and practice. He posited that there were three types of exchange: Restricted, General and Complex. What we are going to now do is see how it relates to social marketing.

The first, ‘Restricted Exchange’ (see figure 1) refers to a two party reciprocal relationship and is the classical customer (A) to salesman (B) association or in the context of social marketing the targeted individual and the social marketing organisation.

Restricted Exchange

Figure 1: Bagozzi’s Restricted Exchange.

The second ‘Generalised Exchange’ (see figure 2) involves at least three parties who do not directly benefit from each other: an example could be a health charity (B) receiving a quantity of drugs from a pharmaceutical company (A) for use on individuals (C) in a third world country. (A) would use the stories gathered from (C) to promote their Corporate Social Responsibility programmes.

General Exchange

Figure 2: Bagozzi’s Generalised Exchange.

The third, ‘Complex Exchanges’ (see figure 3) is where all parties have a mutual relationship, i.e. shared goals: an example could be England’s Department of Health (A) funding a breast feeding programme which local GP surgeries (B) would deliver to new mothers (C) to support with the growth of healthy children, providing a benefit to the whole healthcare system.

Complex Exchange

Figure 3: Bagozzi’s Complex Exchange.

The theory of exchange has now become essential to all social marketing research and practice, you now need to select which is the most appropriate for your particular campaign.

To  find out more about this theory please review: Bagozzi, Richard P. “Marketing as exchange.” The Journal of Marketing (1975): 32-39.

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Credits:

The lead picture is an adaption of the work by arztsamui:
http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

 

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Dr Alan Shaw is a Senior Lecturer and Marketing consultant focusing on a range of sectors. His main interests are in strategy development, social marketing, digital marketing, advertising, consumer behaviour and marketing application.
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