The subject of 'marketing' as a field of agricultural policy and applied research is discussed in this paper. Agribusiness approaches to marketing advanced in recent years are argued to have made little contribution to policy or research and are rejected in favour of the more traditional framework of applied economic analysis. Developments in government policy on national statutory marketing authorities for agricultural products are appraised along with some evidence on the allocation of research effort revealed in professional journals. It is argued that more research should be conducted on the impact of the promotion of agricultural products and on the efficiency and distributional impact of marketing policies of statutory marketing authorities.