IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/bushor/v53y2010i1p69-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Stealth marketing as a strategy

Author

Listed:
  • Roy, Abhijit
  • Chattopadhyay, Satya P.

Abstract

Stealth marketing has gained increasing attention as a strategy during the past few years. We begin by providing a brief historical review to provide some perspective on how this strategy has been practiced in a myriad of ways in various parts of the world, and how it has consequently evolved in the emerging new marketplace. A more inclusive definition of stealth marketing is then proposed to conceptually understand its use in various contexts. Specifically, we propose a new typology of stealth marketing strategies based on whether businesses or competitors are aware of them, and whether they are visible to the targeted customers. We further provide suggestions of how firms can counter the stealth marketing strategies used by their competitors. Contrary to conventional wisdom, evidence is also provided about how such strategies can be used for "doing good" for society. Finally, the assessment of efficiency and effectiveness of stealth marketing strategies, and their related ethical implications, are discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Roy, Abhijit & Chattopadhyay, Satya P., 2010. "Stealth marketing as a strategy," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 69-79, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:53:y:2010:i:1:p:69-79
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007-6813(09)00143-8
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eric von Hippel, 2006. "Democratizing Innovation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262720477, April.
    2. William Boulding & Markus Christen, 2003. "Sustainable Pioneering Advantage? Profit Implications of Market Entry Order," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(3), pages 371-392.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mennecke, Brian E. & Peters, Anicia, 2013. "From avatars to mavatars: The role of marketing avatars and embodied representations in consumer profiling," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 387-397.
    2. Pehlivan, Ekin & Berthon, Pierre & Hughes, Mine Üçok & Berthon, Jean-Paul, 2015. "Keeping up with The Joneses: Stealth, secrets, and duplicity in marketing relationships," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 58(6), pages 591-598.
    3. Anamaria-Cătălina Radu & Ivona Stoica (Răpan) & Aida Catanã & Andra-Victoria Radu & Monica-Lavinia Dan, 2021. "European Funds in Tourism Sustainability—A Case Study of Beneficiaries’ Satisfaction Regarding the Process of Accessing," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-13, August.
    4. Fournier, Susan & Avery, Jill, 2011. "The uninvited brand," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 193-207, May.
    5. Hani Fadhil Jumaah Al-Shawi, 2021. "Solving the Problematic Relationship between Irregular Marketing Behaviours and the Principles of Social Responsibility," Business and Management Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 7(3), pages 34-52, December.
    6. Dongmei Li & Ung T’chiang Chow & Cecilia Yin Mei Cheong, 2022. "A Critical Genre Analysis of Covert Advertising Through Short-Videos in Douyin: The Chinese Version of Tik-Tok," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, November.
    7. Fedorenko, Ivan & Berthon, Pierre & Edelman, Linda, 2023. "Top secret: Integrating 20 years of research on secrecy," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 123(C).
    8. Stoeckl, Verena E. & Luedicke, Marius K., 2015. "Doing well while doing good? An integrative review of marketing criticism and response," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(12), pages 2452-2463.
    9. Stoenescu Alexandra-Oana, 2018. "The Impact of Unconventional Marketing Communications," International Conference on Marketing and Business Development Journal, The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, vol. 1(1), pages 85-94, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Claude Paraponaris, 2017. "Plateformes numériques, conception ouverte et emploi," Post-Print halshs-01614430, HAL.
    2. Jae Wook Yoo & Richard Reed & Shung Jae Shin & David J. Lemak, 2009. "Strategic Choice and Performance in Late Movers: Influence of the Top Management Team's External Ties," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(2), pages 308-335, March.
    3. Jarle Hildrum & Dieter Ernst & Jan Fagerberg, 2011. "The Complex Interaction between Global Production Networks, Digital Information Systems and International Knowledge Transfers," Chapters, in: Cristiano Antonelli (ed.), Handbook on the Economic Complexity of Technological Change, chapter 16, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    4. Gordon G. Sollars & Sorin Tuluca, 2012. "The Optimal Timing of Strategic Action – A Real Options Approach," Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Innovation, Fundacja Upowszechniająca Wiedzę i Naukę "Cognitione", vol. 8(2), pages 78-95.
    5. Balashankar Mulloth, 2021. "Exploring Social Business Pathways: Green Map System as a Case in Point," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 25(3), pages 190351-1903.
    6. Paskaleva, Krassimira & Cooper, Ian, 2021. "Are living labs effective? Exploring the evidence," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).
    7. Margaria, Chiara, 2020. "Learning and payoff externalities in an investment game," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 234-250.
    8. Daniela Dobreva Pastarmadzhieva & Mina Nikolaeva Angelova & Stefan Atanasov Raychev & Blaga Petrova Madzhurova & Kiril Valkov Desev, 2022. "Ensuring Sustainability during a Crisis Using an Innovative Flexible Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-20, March.
    9. Berchicci, L. & King, A.A. & Tucci, C.L., 2008. "The Strategic Determinants of Tardy Entry: Is Timeliness Next to Godliness?," ERIM Report Series Research in Management ERS-2008-070-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam.
    10. Zhe OuYang & Peng Cheng & Yang Liu, 2020. "The role of product line breadth, product pre-entry experience, and market uncertainty in explaining followers’ speed of feature entry," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1221-1249, December.
    11. Scott Dexter & Aaron Kozbelt, 2013. "Free and open source software (FOSS) as a model domain for answering big questions about creativity," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 12(1), pages 113-123, June.
    12. Humberto Merritt, 2015. "The Role of Human Capital in University-Business Cooperation: The Case of Mexico," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(3), pages 568-588, September.
    13. Giovanni Ramello, 2011. "Property rights and externalities: the uneasy case of knowledge," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 123-141, February.
    14. Ping Chen, 2023. "The Effect of Value Creation on Startups Performance in the Digital Environment: Evidence from Chinese Digital Startups," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    15. Verniers, Isabel & Stremersch, Stefan & Croux, Christophe, 2011. "The global entry of new pharmaceuticals: A joint investigation of launch window and price," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 295-308.
    16. Thierry Burger-Helmchen & Patrick Llerena, 2012. "Creativity, Human Resources and Organizational Learning," Chapters, in: Guido Buenstorf (ed.), Evolution, Organization and Economic Behavior, chapter 8, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    17. Steven M. Shugan, 2004. "Endogeneity in Marketing Decision Models," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 1-3.
    18. Wilfred Amaldoss & Amnon Rapoport, 2005. "Collaborative Product and Market Development: Theoretical Implications and Experimental Evidence," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(3), pages 396-414, February.
    19. Fiona Sussan & Zoltan J. Acs, 2017. "The digital entrepreneurial ecosystem," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 55-73, June.
    20. Claude Paraponaris, 2017. "Plateformes numériques, conception ouverte et emploi," Working Papers halshs-01614430, HAL.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:bushor:v:53:y:2010:i:1:p:69-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/bushor .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.