Games people play with brands: An application of transactional analysis to marketplace relationships

Mike Molesworth*, Georgiana F. Grigore, Rebecca Jenkins

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Relationships have been normalized in marketing theory as mutually beneficial, long-term dyads. This obscures their emotional content, ignores critical conceptualizations of corporate exploitation and fails to capture the range of possible marketplace relationship forms, including those that may result from individuals’ biographical psychology and that lead to repeated dysfunctional exchanges. In this article, we offer Berne’s (1964) transactional analysis (TA) as a way to uncover the biographical psychology that informs marketplace relationship structures and their accompanying emotions and to provide a critique of such arrangements. We first explain TA, its origins, its relationship with psychoanalysis, its limitations and contemporary extensions beyond therapy. We then present the structural basis of marketplace relationships from a TA perspective, before illustrating how a game in TA can be applied through an analysis of the iPhone and related mobile phone contracts and the Games If I didn’t Love Apple and Smallprint. Finally, we discuss the implications of such an approach for transforming market practices based on recognition of marketplace Games and their modification.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)121-146
Number of pages26
JournalMarketing Theory
Volume18
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2018

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © The Author(s) 2017.

Keywords

  • Eric Berne
  • games
  • loyalty
  • marketplace relationships
  • transactional analysis

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Marketing

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Games people play with brands: An application of transactional analysis to marketplace relationships'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this