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The financial services sector is traditionally known for its focus on quick profits of “making the numbers,” but industry leaders are now waking up to the need for an ethical reputation. John Harker describes how Citigroup is taking a bottom‐up approach to building a culture of ethics and shared responsibility.

This paper discusses the relevance of the “part‐time marketer” concept to customer perspectives on relationship marketing. It reports key findings on this topic produced by primary research involving customers from ten UK high‐street names. Foremost amongst these findings are; customer expectations prior to interaction with part‐time marketers, customer perspectives on the role and management of part‐time marketers, and the impact of personal experience on service encounters. It assesses what customers want from the members of staff that deal with them and concludes by considering the implications of these ideas for theory builders and planners of retailing strategy.

The Australian brewing sector has been subject to ever‐increasing concentration over recent years. Yet one firm, Coopers Brewery of South Australia, has managed to expand its market share in a highly competitive trading environment. This paper aims to consider how Coopers, one of the few family firms “of stature” in that sector, has succeeded.

The paper adopts a case‐study approach to illustrate the various factors which have contributed to the firm's success. Fieldwork took place at Coopers' headquarters in Adelaide and secondary data sources are also drawn upon.

With fifth‐generation family members in charge at the company, Coopers has been able to distinguish itself from its main competitors in the sector, two multinational conglomerates with a combined market share of around 90 per cent. Coupled with investment in production facilities, the case‐study firm's expansion into new domestic and international markets has proved to be profitable. Part of Coopers' success lies in the niche marketing strategies it has employed – strategies which emphasise the company's unique products and stress their history and traditions. The concept of the extended family is highlighted through the company's approach to its consumers and staff members. Philanthropic activities also enhance the company's reputation in the community at large.

For managers, the case provides clear indications of the various successful niche marketing strategies which a family business in the brewing sector has adopted.

The case provides evidence of how one company has been able to draw on its traditions whilst at the same time maintaining its relevance to the market.

The aim of this paper is to review the debate on the purpose, focus and necessity of UK undergraduate marketing education.

Assumptions in this debate are challenged by the collection and analysis of interview data from practitioners, alongside additional data from UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in respect of their current marketing programmes.

The results indicate that there is a large degree of commonality between the offerings at UK HEIs, and that some significant gaps between the teaching offered by the academy, and the knowledge and abilities required by practitioners do exist.

The data sets have limitations of depth and scope. Further research is needed in which the details of marketing education and the requirements of marketing practice are examined more closely, and at levels other than undergraduate, and in countries other than the UK.

This paper should be of interest to marketing programme managers, and also to marketing module co‐ordinators as a basis on which to consider the future development of their educational practices.

The collation of data about marketing modules offered by UK HEIs will be of interest to most marketing teachers. Further value will be obtained if this paper is used as part of the re‐engineering of a marketing programme.

Attempts to define “relationship marketing” have been varied and many, neatly reflecting the diverse academic and socio‐political backgrounds of RM scholars. This paper lists 26 such definitions, collected as a by‐product of a literature review. Presented alongside this resource are the results of applying a content‐analysis‐based methodology to these definitions. These results suggest that seven RM “constructs” enjoy general support. In a discussion of this, it is concluded that any integration of disparate RM theories implied by these findings is at best superficial and at worst misleading. It is further suggested that “true” and complete integration of RM theory must wait until a coherent understanding of these fundamental concepts has been developed. From the 26 definitions listed, one is judged as being more comprehensive and generally acceptable, and a new definition is presented as an inducement to further discussion.

Just a hundred years ago great developments were pending in this country in matters relating to health and to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. It was in 1852 that Pasteur began his epoch‐making researches on the subject of bacterial fermentation. At about the same time the ophthalmoscope was introduced. In 1854 Florence Nightingale was busy demanding reforms in nursing, and in 1855 the hypodermic syringe was invented. In 1858 a register of qualified dentists was established for the first time. But the years 1851 to 1854 were remarkable also for the institution and prosecution for the first time in British history of an active campaign for the suppression of the adulteration of food. There was little knowledge of this subject and almost no laws, with two minor exceptions. It was nominally an offence under a statute of George IV to adulterate bread with alum—but no public official had any duty to enforce it. Also, there were certain Revenue Acts, enforceable by the Customs and Excise Department, which in the interests of the Revenue, not of consumers, forbade the adulteration of certain excisable articles of food. But the machinery of the Department was clumsy and inefficient. To two far‐seeing and very courageous men is due the credit for the overdue enactment in 1860 of legislation intended to protect the public from the wholesale adulteration which was rampant a hundred years ago. One was Thomas Wakley, F.R.C.S., Editor of The Lancet. Wakley in 1851 appointed an Analytical and Sanitary Commission, with Dr. A. H. Hassall, M.D., M.R.C.P., as Chief Analyst, to make investigations on a large scale, and promised that the results would be published in his journal, which would announce also the names and addresses of retailers, and of manufacturers when known, of all articles found to be adulterated. A great number of these reports appeared in The Lancet from 1851 to 1854, and were afterwards reprinted in a book by Dr. Hassall. They threw much light on many black spots. The first subject to be tackled was coffee, which was almost invariably adulterated with chicory. Analytical chemists until then had stated that it was impossible for them to detect the adulteration in their laboratories. But Dr. Hassall was a skilled microscopist, as well as a chemist and a doctor. He was the first person in this country to “ apply regularly and systematically the powers of the microscope to the elucidation of the subject of adulteration ”. He was able to detect by his microscope flagrant and widespread adulteration of the following, among many other, foods :—

You are the CEO of one of the world’s largest financial services firms. The company is facing a weak market and has been hit by internal scandals leading to the closure of its Japanese private bank and investigation from European regulators. The mood is not optimistic. What do you do? For Charles Prince, who took the helm at Citigroup in 2003, the answer was clear: the company must build a reputation for ethics to equal its fearsome track record as a financial powerhouse.

The role of ethical issues is growing in business and in society, but surprisingly, that role is sparsely examined in the relationship-marketing context. The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework describing the fundamentals of ethical relationship marketing and analyses the content of six selected textbooks on the subject.

The paper sheds light on ethics in a significant marketing sub-discipline, i.e. relationship marketing.

The findings confirm previous findings from analyses of teaching material in marketing, indicating that ethical issues are superficially treated. None of the books has separate sections devoted to ethical issues. Key words selected to represent ethical issues are sparsely used.

There is considerable room for improvement if business schools are to prepare their students for the challenges in the future business world. Through the analysis of the textbook, and the recommendations, this study contributes to such improvement in one marketing discipline which is considered to represent a paradigm shift in marketing because it is fundamentally different from transaction-based marketing.

The paper presents suggestions for how to encourage faculty and students to develop awareness about ethical relationship marketing, and recommends courses to improve learning about the subject.

The framework of the fundamentals of ethical relationship marketing, a textbook analysis, and implications for business school faculty.

This paper seeks to develop a clearer understanding of the operations and decisions made by Australian advertising standards bodies, the Advertising Standards Council and its successor, the Advertising Standards Board. It also seeks to identify whose interests have been served by these advertising standards organisations – those of the public or those of the advertising industry.

Using annual reports and reports in mainstream press outlets, this paper compares the two advertising standards bodies, their respective organisational structures, and their decisions, in order to identify the key issues that have confronted Australia's advertising regulation bodies.

In addition to demonstrating the fundamental similarities between the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board, this paper raises serious questions about self‐regulation and the way that it serves the advertising industry's interests ahead of the public interest.

This is the first long‐term comparative survey of the operations, activities and decisions of the Advertising Standards Council and the Advertising Standards Board that also reveals the fundamental shortcomings of the current advertising standards codes.