The French Marketing Association (Association Française du Marketing or AFM in French) was created in 1984. Its main goal is to promote marketing training and research taking the best international standards as its benchmarks.
The French Marketing Association brings together Faculty (professors, scholars, etc.) and Ph.D. students from Universities and Grandes Ecoles, as well as practitioners — consultants, marketing managers, senior executives.
With more than 500 individual and institutional members — essentially companies and educational institutions — from 24 countries (France of course, but also Germany, Canada, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the U.K., Spain, Morocco, Tunisia, Norway, Lebanon, …), the AFM is definitely much more than a purely French association. Moreover, for nineteen countries, National Coordinators endeavour to promote the French Marketing Association. Close links have also been established with similar Associations such as the European Marketing Association (EMAC), the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS), ESOMAR, … as well as with well-known national associations of practitioners.
Despite its large membership and a board of directors composed of 42 people elected by all its members, the AFM has always kept a user friendly atmosphere.
Scientific Publications
Recherche et Applications en Marketing (RAM), published four times a year with the support of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), is undoubtedly the scientific reference in French. About sixty well-known experts and researchers make up the Editorial Board of RAM which covers the entire area of marketing. The articles are grouped under 5 headings in this high-quality medium: Research, Applications, State-of-the-art reviews, Pedagogy and Book reviews.
Décisions
Marketing (DM)
Compared with RAM, this is a more managerial and decision making oriented publication.
Special attention is paid to strategies, practices and techniques developed
in France and elsewhere. The selection of topics is particularly suited to practitioners
eager to be informed of the latest developments in their domain.
Conference Proceedings
Published at the very beginning of each International Annual Conference, the
proceedings provide the full texts of all the papers selected for presentation
during our annual Conference.
News and Support for Research
In order to be in touch with the life of the French Marketing Association, Les Nouvelles du Marketing, published three times a year, provide useful information on all the activities organized by the members, special issues of the different marketing journals, calls for papers in France, in Europe, in Australia, in Asia, in North America, etc., conferences and seminars, recent publications, …
Since 2001, our Annual Conference is preceded by a Doctoral Colloquium where Ph.D. students have the opportunity to discuss their research projects with Faculty members. In addition, the AFM — in collaboration with the FNEGE (Fondation Nationale pour l’Enseignement de la Gestion des Entreprises) — also presents an annual award for the best French-language doctoral dissertation in Marketing defended in France.
Academics Interacting with Business Leaders
Four times a year the AFM Club offers marketing managers and senior executives
the opportunity to present their most recent empirical research and problems
and discuss them with AFM members. Top managers and top researchers are invited.
Annual International Conference
Organized each year in France or in a French speaking country (e.g. in Quebec
in 2000, in Tunisia in 2003), our main Conference contributes to the confrontation
of different research traditions, and allows speakers to present their theoretical
reflections as well as their empirical studies in order to contribute to the
body of knowledge. The reviewing board endeavours to select the best papers
among the many that are submitted each year.
Firms Meeting the Academics
Two to four times a year, the largest private and state owned firms (from France and abroad) agree to reveal some of the most crucial features of their marketing strategies, getting to the “heart of the matter”, for AFM members.
Topical Workshops
All AFM members are invited to a series of meetings whose aim is to discuss research projects on specific topics (such as "marketing and children", "brand-equity", "co-branding", "distribution channels in Europe", or "perceived risk").
For Further Information
This overview only gives a brief outline of what the AFM is about. So do not hesitate to visit the other pages of our website if you need any further information.
The former AFM Chairmen (from 1984 to 2002) are Bernard Pras, Alain Jolibert, Pierre-Louis Dubois, Christian Pinson, Jérôme Bon, Jean-Pierre Helfer, Gérard Hermet, René Darmon, and the present Chairman (since 2002) is Christian Derbaix.
The National Coordinators are Hans Mühlbacher, Universität Innsbruck (Austria), Christian Derbaix, FUCaM Mons (Belgium), Eliane Karsaklian, NEGOCIA Paris (Brazil), Michel Laroche, Université Concordia Montréal (Canada), Suzanne Beckman, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), Josep Gali, Esade Barcelona (Spain), Susan P. Douglas, New York University (U.S.A.), Ilias Kapareliotis, Athens University of Economics (Greece), Tibor Mandjak, Groupe E.S.C. Bordeaux (Hungary), Frank Bradley, University College Dublin (Ireland), Enrico Colla, NEGOCIA Paris (Italy), Georges Aoun, Université Saint-Joseph Beyrouth (Lebanon), Sigurd Villads Troye, University of Bergen (Norway), David H. Buisson, University of Otago (New Zealand), Michel Wedel, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (The Netherlands), Thomasz Domanski, University of Lodz (Poland), Lars Gunnar Mattson, Stockholm School of Economics (Sweden), Jean-Emile Denis, Université de Genève – HEC (Switzerland).