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The fair treatment of women in the workplace, where they experience both opportunities and constraints, has been on and off higher education agendas for decades. Yet, institutionalised gendered constraints still shape the careers of female academics, including those in the marketing academy, resulting in disrupted or obstacle-heavy career journeys and the underrepresentation of women in senior positions. Furthermore, progress towards gender equity is hampered by institutional resistance to change, favouring performative rather than genuine and transformational institutional allyship. We draw upon personal experiences, recollections and anecdotes garnered over the years – synthesised with literature – to examine systemic gendered constraints within our collective career span. We propose institutional allyship as the intentional efforts needed by the marketing academy to address systemic and structural gender inequities and achieve second-order change by integrating gender equity outcomes throughout organisational decision-making. Specifically, we suggest nominated actions within a Gender Equity and Inclusion Charter for the Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy (ANZMAC) and its member universities as a first step.

Prior research stresses the importance of consumer participation in service coproduction. We examine the coproduction of aesthetic services, which are services in which beauty is a critical outcome. Consumers face challenges communicating their aesthetic tastes because of technical constraints that are understood by service providers but that consumers do not fully understand. To fill this gap, consumers do aesthetic work in communities of practice. Service providers also face challenges, as they must coproduce with consumers whose aesthetic tastes are formed amid shifting social standards. In this qualitative study, we highlight aesthetic work as a different type of consumer work that involves developing cultural competence. We identify four types of aesthetic coproduction in which cultural competence is distributed differently within the service dyad: aesthetic codesigning, aesthetic consenting, aesthetic yielding, and aesthetic reigning. We explore the managerial implications that arise as consumers increasingly use online social resources that shape and increase aesthetic expectations. We examine the unintended consequences of aesthetic service coproduction in which providers’ technical and aesthetic expertise is difficult for consumers to understand often leading to disappointing outcomes.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine marketing tactics used in the clinic websites of cross-border reproductive care (CBRC) providers and analyse what ethical implications exist when targeting the vulnerable consumer group of infertility sufferers. Design/methodology/approach The sampling design was to collect clinic websites from regions known to be popular destinations for CBRC, and who were marketing directly to US-based consumers through their online websites. There were three stages of data collection: organic Google search that displayed Google AdWords of clinics who advertised; organic Google search results; and searching via the WhatClinic.com database for additional private clinics with websites. The websites were then audited for their marketing tactics according to the best practice guidelines from the American Medical Association, American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, ethics committee of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM). Findings Through this analysis, it was confirmed that these clinics are attempting to establish their credibility and attract foreign consumers through their promised rates of success, years of experience and use of testimonials. In total, 32 of the 35 sites contained at least one factor considered misleading by ASRM guidelines, such as the publishing of inaccurate or non-transparent success rates, the use of sales promotions and guarantees often used in consumer products, or the use of misleading language. Out of the 24 sites that posted success rates, 17 of those rates would be considered deceptive by not clarifying the source of the numbers or by being so far from the global averages of 30 per cent. Research limitations/implications Marketing practitioners have a specific responsibility to recognise vulnerable market segments; therefore this initial study seeks to add to the understanding of consumer vulnerability through an intersectional view of global reproductive service consumption. Practical implications A global standard of marketing guidelines specific to CBRC clinics needs to be implemented across all regional/countries in order to communicate ethically, improve credibility, reputation and trust among consumer and international bodies. Counselling services need to be integrated within all assisted reproductive technology services. Service-country to home-country continued care protocols should be created for patients travelling home in order to collect data on CRBC experiences. Originality/value This study contributes to the CBRC literature in providing new insights into current clinic marketing trends and highlights ethical implications to industry stakeholders.

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