The causes of inappropriate marketing

"A problem which manifests itself in many large companies and organisations is ascendancy alienation. The higher up the tree an executive goes, the higher he or she is from the "grassroots" and the more rarified the air becomes. A number of American Presidents have remarked on the difficulty of staying "in touch' with everyday people - consumers - after being in office for several years. …
Management consultants refer to "institutional lag" - the inertia in large companies and organisations to adapt and react to outside stimuli. Often this is because management does not know what has happened. President of the Work in America Institute, Jerome M. Rosow, points to the sweeping social change in today's society. By contrast, Rosow says, conditions have remained relatively static in the workplace in terms of power and control. The point is best made in Rosow's own words:

"Many large corporations are almost self-contained societies; they remain relatively immune to the outside, the external social forces.

Sheltered from the winds and torrents of social change, the organization's leaders continue to respond best to the muted, cushioned sounds of the cloistered world they work in.

Corporate leadership is angry and confused by the external noises and views them as an unwelcome disruption to the relative tranquillity of the past and as a constant threat to efficiency.""

- Macnamara (1990)

Macnamara J. The Australian Marketing and Promotion Handbook. Melbourne, The Business Library. 1990