Abstract
Three decades ago a number of researchers interested in industrial markets were struck by the fact that the prevailing view in BtoC marketing literature was of a world that didn't tally with their own experience and empirical observations. It just wasn't so. As a consequence, since its very first papers, the IMP Group broke with BtoC marketing and its traditional pillars. Thirty years after, it appears that in the IMP community, the representation of BtoC marketing still relies on these pillars. However, this representation of BtoC marketing tends to be outdated. Why the IMP community still relies on the old kotlerian stuff? In order to answer this question, we will use contributions made in the sociology of sciences, especially the works if Bruno Latour. As for any social grouping, the IMP community needs rituals to assert and reassert its existence and the adherence of its members. If the ritual vision of BtoC marketing adds consistency to the life of many members of the IMP community, we wonder if it does not lead to scientific limitation. This limitation does not allow them to take into consideration some interesting post-kotlerian BtoC contributions.