In Obstructive Marketing, Maitland Hyslop deals with a very negative kind of activity which embraces activities, legal or otherwise, designed to prevent or restrict the distribution of a
product or service, temporarily or permanently, against the wishes of the product manufacturer, service provider or customer. When the author defined this phenomenon as Obstructive Marketing
and started to research it more than a decade ago, it was seen as a valid concept that was perhaps ahead of its time. The World has moved on and in the era of globalization a study of this
negative aspect of marketing is now required. Obstructive Marketing is now seen as the business equivalent of asymmetric warfare, which is increasingly understood because the rise of the South
and East at the expense of the North and West has brought some Obstructive Marketing stratagems into sharp focus. Using the author’s own research, this book explains what Obstructive
Marketing is and why it is not called Anti-Marketing. The author explains who practises Obstructive Marketing, where, when and how; and why businesses are particularly vulnerable when entering
new markets and engaging in change and innovation. Intriguing concepts such as cultural risk are illuminated along with formal links between Obstructive Marketing, asymmetric warfare and
terrorism. This all leads to identification of the need for a strong Government/Business partnership to counter the effects of this darkest kind of marketing.
