Several years ago, Kotler and Levy(69) brought out the interesting perspective that marketing is an all pervasive activity which extends far beyond the mere selling of soap, automobiles and insurance. Kotler (75) has provided a precise explanation of social marketing as design, implementation, and control of programs seeking to increase the acceptability of a social idea or practice in target group(s). Furthermore, he suggests that it utilizes the concepts of market segmentation, communication, facilitation, incentives, and exchange theory to maximize target group response.
The objective of this paper is to utilize this notion of an expanded version of marketing and examine the concept of marriage as an exchange process within the context of Indian (East Indian) culture. In Indian culture, as in many other cultures, both tangible and intangible assets may be inserted into the exchange equation. While some of the variables are universal in nature, there may be some that are unique to the Indian cultural environment. For example, the general idea in Indian culture is that marriage is a multi- interest, multi-party process which goes far beyond the agreement of alliance between two human beings for an indeterminable time span.
The authors intend to explore this idea of marriage as an exchange process by examining a series of matrimonial advertisements in a weekly news paper read by the Indian Diaspora in U.S.A., U.K., and Canada. Specifically,we are conducting a content analysis of three hundred advertisements to categorize the variables utilized in this exchange process.This analysis will enable us to get a better perspective of this exchange decision within the context of the Indian culture. A preliminary examination of the matrimonial advertisements indicates that there are four categories of variables or characteristics to be considered in this transaction: 1) characteristics claimed to be possessed by men searching for brides (handsome, high caste, family status, profession), 2) characteristics expected of future of brides as espoused by male advertisers (beautiful, fair, charming, caste, family status, education, employment), 3) characteristics claimed to be possessed by women searching for bridegrooms (fair complexion, respected family, beautiful and charming, caste, education, employment) and 4) characteristics expected of future bridegrooms as espoused by female advertisers (handsome, tall, profession, respected family, well-established).
The authors in a prior attempt studied the bridal market in isolation with the focus on the female participant and arrived at some interesting conclusions. But this is the first time that we are engaging in a comprehensive examination of the market where all four sets of characteristics that are available in these advertisements are utilized for analysis and further discussions. It is our hope that the broader scope of the investigation will give us a clear insight concerning the exchange process as it relates to the marriage market within the Indian Diaspora. The final paper will include the details of the content analysis, statistical interpretations, related discussion as well as all the relevant references.