Marketing: A phenomenon of flourishing through care

Responding to calls to approach marketing as a phenomenon, this commentary examines ontological, epistemological, and ethical perspectives that make marketing intelligible. The dominance of activity-centered and positivist orientations have limited the field’s capacity to articulate its underlying purpose, but adopting relational and more-than-human views allows for a conceptualization of marketing as a sociomaterial phenomenon within which knowing, being, and doing are inseparably intertwined. More-than-human flourishing then becomes marketing’s higher-order orientation, shifting attention from episodic value creation to the cultivation of conditions that sustain well-being and well-becoming over time. To ensure flourishing is more than just aspirational, care is required, as both a condition of its possibility and a manifestation of the relational and material work through which markets and ecosystems can be maintained and rendered livable. This integrated, societally grounded approach can redefine marketing’s purpose.