The modern economic world is characterized by a vast number of different customer requirements, products, and variations of products, as well as ideas, meanings, opinions, and arguments. Marketing activities are nowadays embedded in a complex world characterized by a multitude of interdependencies and interrelations between different stakeholders and interest groups. Hitherto, economic systems, and above all marketing strategies, strive to separate concerns in order to control the whole. The development of autonomous and stand-alone marketing concepts in the past reflects this paradigm. To cope with the global and networked conditions of the presence, suitable strategies have to be designed which are able to manage the requirements of transitional relationships. The combination of transverse reason and the open society as well as the conceptual transfer to the field of marketing leads to the concept of reason-oriented marketing. The generic character of reason-oriented marketing is enabled by methodical patterns which presents solutions to selected aspects of the marketing process. These patterns constitute generic blueprints for sample solutions that can be systematically arranged to design a strategic implementation of reasonable thinking within the marketing process. The patterns consider particularly the relationships and interactions between the interest groups of the macro environment, by integrating: -the perception and recognition of needs, interests, and requirements of the macro environment. -the association and combination of different rational aspects to form a holistic viewpoint on the totality of arguments and opinions. -the foresight in terms of future impacts and consequences of marketing decisions and instruments. -the principles of criticism and discourse to enable a dialog between the involved stakeholders and interest groups. -the ability to change perspectives systematically within the entirety of rational aspects. -the management of transitions between the core marketing processes and the interest groups of the macro environment. -the justice of decisions and procedures within the marketing process to ensure fairness and appreciation concerning different interests and arguments. -the cooperation and participation between the participants of the marketing process and the interest groups of the surrounding macro environment. The reason-oriented marketing approach enables the involved parties in the field of marketing to contribute their needs and interests to the marketing process and to develop reasonable concepts of products that consider the requirements of the stakeholders as well as the constraints and conditions of the macro environment. In fact, reason-oriented marketing is not designed to replace traditional marketing strategies and concepts, but rather to integrate them into a universal approach to marketing. The concept of reason-oriented marketing widens the perspective of marketing into greater awareness and responsibility for our future.

Text Sample: Chapter 2.2.1, Reason Considering Rational Relationships: The definition of the term rationality and its interpretation depends on the prevailing context, in which rational attitudes and behavior are embedded. Rationality is context-sensitive, as it is focused on a specific single issue of the reality. The meaning of rationality differs according to cultural, social, political, ethnographical and not least economic circumstances. Therefore, several types of rationality have been developed over time, like ethical, political, and public rationality - each of them concentrating on a specific field. At the same time, the different fields of rationality show connections and interdependencies, as for example political as well as economic decisions imply ethical principles and rules. The mutual dependencies between rational aspects form a complex network of relations and structures. It is therefore the purpose of reason to analyze and to discover the relationships and connections between rational aspects. Insofar, it is the particular quality of reason to deal with rational relationships, ‘to reflect and to clarify the ratios of rationalities’. The identification and consideration of specific rational issues that have a connection with one another, requires an open-minded and tolerant attitude, the ability to listen to all kind of arguments, the analytical competence to find differences and parities between them, the willingness to make the arguments available to answer criticism, the ambition to find out the argument which is right, and the methodical skills to abstract a generic and reasonable solution from the individual rational case. The prerequisite for the above-mentioned attitudes and behavior is a holistic and integrative concept of reason which looks for the overall view and the general idea rather than adopting a specific point of view. Reason in this context is not practical but pure reason, including different arguments and meanings, analyzing their relationships and consequences. The aim of reason is not to substantiate or justify, but rather to clear up and to produce transparency. To make reasonable and transparent decisions requires ‘to reveal the causes of decisions, and to make transparent the tangle of their preconditions and circumstances’. However, especially against the background of economic decisions and processes, it is important to take advantage of both, rationality as well as reason. While the first considers details in terms of content, the latter regards relations, conditions, and circumstances. As a consequence, both viewpoints need to be integrated to establish reasonable decisions and behavior and to achieve a holistic course of action. 2.2.2., Reason in Terms of Rational Totality: As described in section 2.1.1, reason can be associated with a far-sighted, integrated view on realities and facts by integrating far-reaching repercussions into daily decisions and activities. In this respect, reason represents a far-seeing attitude in human life. Compared to rationality, reason is the more comprehensive idea and bears the connections between rational aspects in mind. Therefore, reason can be seen as a holistic concept, which integrates and combines individual and separated issues to a general and universal perspective. Reasonable decisions take all aspects affected into consideration, just as the underlying relationships between the different rationalities. In the end, such an extended viewpoint leads to the definition of reason ‘as lawyer of the whole’. However, the whole does not represent a unique, homogeneous area which can be interpreted from a uniform and standardized perspective. On the contrary, the whole comprises all kind of rational arguments and alternatives, so it represents a heterogeneous multitude of the reality. While the single rational aspects can be separated by clear boundaries in terms of rules, regulations, and characteristics, the sum total of all rational issues is rather a diverse and varied mixture of single components without following any fundamental regulations. To take reasonable decisions and to behave in a reasonable manner, all multiple opinions and views have to be taken into consideration in order to gain a principle understanding and to strive for a holistic solution by integrating the differences while increasing the points of parity. An extensive idea of reason requires understanding the individual before developing the common good. Insofar, the total perspective of reason comprises all different aspects of thinking by considering the individual rational aspects, and by exceeding their limits and boundaries. Reason therefore represents the cognitive overview of consciousness, and it enables clarity as well as completeness and totality. It is the extraordinary claim of totality which combines the diverse rationalities to an absolute and complete whole, representing the world as composition of all possible phenomena, and joining together all rational aspects to a fundamental cosmologic idea of reason. In this way, reason enables on the one hand an extensive overview, but on the other hand it comprises a detailed insight into rational facts. Effectively, the holistic perspective of reason is crucially characterized by the individual insight, or in other words: ‘the unity of reason is perceptible merely by the multiplicity of its voices.” Nevertheless, the encompassing perspective of reason does not dominate the particular rational aspects in a negative manner by suppressing their statements and meanings. On the contrary, reason is a kind of sounding board which amplifies the individual rational arguments, so that ‘the multiple can be restored to the one, and thus can be understood in the whole, as totality.” After all, the comprehensive cross-border quality of reason plays an important role in the concept of transverse reason, as it provides permeability and transitions between individual and separated rational aspects (see section 2.2.4). Moreover, a reasonable course of action concentrates on searching for the hidden truth, and it prevents overlooking important aspects and disregarding essential thoughts. Therefore, reasonable behavior requires empathy to perceive mental states, and it requires esteem toward differences and contrasts. Of course, multiple arguments and meanings could cause conflicts, so that besides open-mindedness there is a need for an attitude that is able and prepared to manage conflicts and multitude. On the other hand, multitude assumes a perspective ‘which does not only allow sober and precise insight but more freedom and justice as well.” Insofar, reason is an important methodical approach to generate holistic decisions by integrating rational issues. The concept of reason seems especially helpful in the different economic markets, as they are ideal examples of multitude environments that are composed of many different elements and individuals.

• Marketing

• Pattern

• Rationality

• Reason

• Open Society

• Macro Environment

• Transverse Reason

Martin Masuch, born in 1969 in Germany, completed a degree course in Computer Science at the University of Applied Sciences in Rosenheim and finished a master’s degree programme in Business Administration at the AKAD University of Applied Sciences in Stuttgart. He is working as an IT consultant at Capgemini in Munich. The current book is based on the author’s research for his master thesis, which he completed successfully in 2011 to receive the degree of Master of Arts in business administration, specialized in marketing management. The author combines the strategies, concepts, and methods of modern marketing management with philosophical aspects of economic ethics to develop a generic, pattern-based approach for the design of reasonable marketing strategies and concepts.