Re: the consumers behaviour

In fairness I must clarify something. I hope to refine the context of my
post about outmoded books.

I was primarily speaking reflectively to the group since you were not
the person posting a question but answering one .. so for
clarification...I say the following to you but only as applicable ...
and moreover to the group, particularly those seeking sources for more
marketing knowledge.

A 22 year old book is too old to run a business by. Too many definitions
, assumptions, conventions, methodologies, criteria, technologies, and
realities have CHANGED. If you are new to marketing and use a book that
old, buy a newer one too and use them together.  

However...that being said, this does not necessarily mean that the
student is being dealt a misdeed by the professor who chose the book
within a given context , one which I do not know (for lack of details).
It's use could be validated by any number of applications.


 It's possible that the course could be planned in such a way that the
professor will construe or develop certain assumptions and ideas as the
the students reference point during the first semester by highlighting
certain historical definitions and concepts related to marketing, only
to collapse or deconstruct the same theories and ideas of past times
against the framework of todays new realities and definitions, in order
to better illustrate what has changed and what has remained constant
over time.

For example, there used to be a lot of books in physics about the
"centrifugal Force". This was the "force" behind the workings of the old
overhead slingshot. Turns out there IS no centrifugal force. There are
only various applications of inertia that make up this dynamic
phenomenon.. Now if you were giving a talk in physics without the
benefit of knowing that, you could make a fool or yourself real fast,
and lose your credibility, which in business, is everything.
 
For the same reason, I personally would not want to study a book written
before elevators to learn about  architecture. Consider that the
elevator not only meant higher buildings, but meant different materials
and joining methods, different electrical resources meaning that the
location of the buildings (the site) would be affected, it changed the
demand for the architect, the academic demands upon the architect.  and
it changed the connotation of the very word architecture. It gave rise
to vertical sprawl making city scapes possible, and consequently it
largely determined american demographics as we consider the relationship
between steels and logistics and between commerce and facilities
planning. 

 So to study the books about buildings before this invention, when no
buildings rose past the third story because the rent was just too low,
is to miss out on much of what architecture is really all about today.

But back to the book from 1982, the course could be "Marketing history
101." although that seems unlikely because history is best understood
against the contemporary reference point.

Here again, without the course description and table of contents .. its
all guesswork as to why a fella would be using a book 20 some-odd years
old to prepare to be a future focused creative leader as required by
todays standard dynamics.
 
I'm sure that there is more to the story. I would hope so seeing as how
this is a university level course.