ANZMAC 2000 Visionary Marketing for the 21 st Century: Facing the Challenge 230 Green Eggs and Market Plans: Learning Marketing from Dr Seuss. Dr Stephen Dann, School of Marketing, Griffith University When this paper was first drafted, the true nature was concealed behind a veneer of post modern marketing acceptability, as I proposed to have uncovered a hitherto unknown marketing genius by the name of Theodor Geisel. Theodor, for those not versed in literary history, is none other than Dr Seuss. The message is still the same - long before Andreasen strode amongst mortal marketers, Dr Seuss was laying down some valuable marketing lessons. This paper sets out to uncover the Seuss, the whole Seuss and nothing but the Seuss (so help me Kotler). Between 1950 and 1965, a range of marketing texts were released by an unheralded marketing scholar by the name of Theodor Geisel. At the time, the marketing texts were unrecognised by industry and academia, who discarded the theories concerning relationship marketing, promotion, service recovery, and the dangers of product over complication and neglect of front line service staff. This paper sets out to recognise the role and value of the texts of Geisel, in light of post modern marketing theory and practice. The paper takes a historical perspective of how Geisel's works of the 1950s and 1960s integrated many of contemporary marketing's theories and practices, and how post modernist marketing can benefit from the insights of this unheralded scholar. Dr Seuss's work spanned several decades, with the publication of a range of children's books which acted both as literary training, and introduction to marketing texts. At the time, their value as marketing texts were unrecognised by industry and academia, who failed to notice the lessons concerning relationship marketing, promotion, service recovery, and the dangers of product over complication and neglect of front line service staff being taught to children. For the most part, the texts were dismissed as childish, nonsensical and irrelevant to industry. Strangely enough, marketing itself is often on the receiving end of such criticisms, and accused of being merely applied commonsense instead of being a scientific discipline. But what if the reason the methods of marketing seem so commonplace and "obvious" is because they are inadvertently taught to us as children? The 'brandwidth' of the Dr Seuss franchise rivals Disney, and leaves Kotler as a comparatively unknown phenomena. In order to explore this idea further, it is first necessary to examine the contemporary view of marketing in society, before examining the inherent marketing messages in the works of Dr Seuss Contemporary Marketing, And Marketing In Society Marketing's role in contemporary culture has been under scrutiny in recent years with the rise in prominence of key marketing and promotional techniques. Tiger Woods wins a major golf tournament by a record margin, and a portion of the television and news coverage discusses the marketing implications for Nike. Releases of major movie blockbusters come complete with coverage of the marketing, promotion and merchandising budgets, and these often make headlines ahead of the actors, storylines or movie itself. More interest was shown in the marketing of the Blair Witch Project than in the movie, possibly for justifiable reasons, but most likely because marketing has become a phenomena in itself. Since marketing went out of the boardroom and into the mainstream, post modern marketing research has examined the impact marketing has had on society. Usually this impact comes in the form of marketing's role for image creation (McEnally and Chernatony, 1999), use of ethnic groups (Szmigin and Carrigan, 2000), and the usual array of ethical considerations (Hunt and Vitell, 1986, Waller, 1999). Marketing has also started to become a marketable element of contemporary culture, with pop icons such as Dilbert (www.dilbert.com) featuring sketches on marketing, and marketing making cameo appearances in other aspects of contemporary culture. The prevalence of marketing in contemporary culture has often disguised the two way interaction between marketing and society. Society has gained an understanding, and misunderstanding of many of the key aspects of marketing whilst giving back many ideas to the study of marketing. Marketing, by responding to popular culture, has gained an understanding of green marketing, the importance of relationship marketing, and the appreciation of its role within society as a conveyor of information, attitude and ideal. What has been lacking in marketing's understanding is how many marketing theories have been taught from childhood in the most unexpected marketing education medium.