A Speeddating Story: The Lover's Guide to Marketing Excellence

Abstract

Without love – or, at least, its persistence as an idea – our cultural economy would collapse. Who else but the haves, the hopefuls and the have-nots of romantic liaison would sustain the business of restaurants, nightclubs and bars, not to mention the sale of films, books, music, magazines, of everything really? An Italian poet once wrote 'any time that is not spent on love is wasted.' Yet the marketing academy rarely engages in the business of lovemaking, at least in a scholarly capacity. This paper then, considers a potent manifestation of the search for love, speeddating – a form of dating that offers men and women the opportunity to partake in short, multiple dates in one night. It concludes with some guidance for lovers of marketing everywhere, distilled from the speeddating parable, contending that sagacity, self-confidence and courage, while important, are not nearly as fundamental as loving itself, which truly offers a route to marketing excellence.