A Brief History Of Marketing

In some ways marketing is as old as civilization itself. You may have seen films based in ancient Greece or Rome with images of active market stalls and traders keenly engaged in convincing communications. Of course these traders would not have called their activities marketing and their activities may seem far removed from someone ordering airline tickets via a website.

The concept of marketing that we now see has more to do with expansion during the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries. This was a period of rapid social change motivated by technological and scientific innovation (BBC history). One result was that for the first time the production of goods was separated from their consumption. Mass production, developing transport infrastructure and growing mass media meant that producers needed to, and could develop more refined ways of managing the distribution of goods.

The production orientation era

For much of the industrial revolution goods were generally limited and producers could sell pretty much all that they could produce, as long as people could afford to buy them. Their focus was therefore on production and distribution at the lowest possible cost and whatever marketing management that there was considered these issues (for example, reducing distribution costs, opening new markets).

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The sales orientation era

From the begining of the twentieth century to the era following the Second World War (although the development was interrupted by the wars) competition increased and the focus of marketing turned to selling. Communications, advertising and branding started to become more important as corporations needed to sell the mounting outputs of production in an increasingly swarming market. Marketing was therefore still a ‘slave’ to production, but focused on distribution, communication and persuading customers that one manufacturer goods were better than another.

The marketing orientation era

From the 1960s onwards most markets have become flooded (the size of the market remains the same). This means that there is now severe competition for customers. The refinement of marketing management has therefore evolved into what we now see in a modern marketing department. Marketers are involved at a strategic level within the organization and therefore inform an organization about what should be produced, where it should be sold, how much should be charged for it and how it should be communicated to consumers. Modern marketers research markets and consumers. They try to understand consumer needs (and potential needs) and allocate organizational resources properly to meet these needs. Modern marketers are mainly interested in brands. They are also increasingly concerned to ensure that employees understand marketing, i.e. that everyone within the organization involves themselves with marketing activities.

Evolution of marketing

It is hard for many to think, but when compared to economics, production and operations, accounting and other business areas, marketing is a moderately young discipline having emerged in the early 1900s. Prior to this time most issues that are now usually associated with marketing were either assumed to fall within basic concepts of economics (e.g., price setting was viewed as a simple supply/demand issue), advertising (well developed by 1900), or in most cases, simply not yet explored (e.g., customer purchase behavior, importance of distribution partners).

Led by marketing scholars from several major universities, the development of marketing was in large part aggravated by the need to dissect in greater detail relationships and behaviors that existed between sellers and buyers. In particular, the study of marketing led sellers to recognize that adopting certain strategies and tactics could extensively benefit the seller/buyer relationship. In the old days of marketing (before the 1950s) this often meant identifying strategies and tactics for simply selling more products and services with little regard for what customers really wanted. Often this meant companies embraced a “sell-as-much-as-we-can” philosophy with little concern for building relationships for the long term.

But starting in the 1950s, companies instigated to see that old ways of selling were wearing thin with customers. As competition grew rigid across most industries, organizations looked to the buyer side of the transaction for ways to progress. What they found was an emerging philosophy signifying that the key factor in successful marketing is understanding the needs of customers. This now famous Marketing Concept suggests marketing decisions should flow from initially knowing the customer and what they want. Only then should an organization commence the process of developing and marketing products and services.

Three Era’s of Marketing

In the first era of marketing, we were presented with eye catching beauty in the surrounding background, which presented us with a certain calming effect; just what the marketing ploy needed. Then you noticed the colorful wide variety of assorted fruits that were available. You could stroll endlessly about, taking your time to decide what you wanted. There were no pushy salesmen, definitely no television ads, and most assuredly no harassing phone calls. In fact, it didn’t take much more than a whisper of a suggestion to make the first marketing ploy work. It was simple, just tell the people they couldn’t have the one thing that would allow them to know and have everything they ever wanted. What began as a small “marketing ploy”, snowballed throughout history, and I believe began the very first marketing era.

The second era of marketing was easy to see coming. When the masses no longer sought out all that the market had to offer, it became clear that a new marketing era was forthcoming. Now was the time for the market to come to the consumer. A whole new range of strategies emerged amid declining sales. First there was the one on one, “door-to-door” marketing approach. While effective, it was a slow word of mouth process. It did not offer a quick response like the new profitable posters, or newspapers and magazine ads that followed. Even today, these marketing approaches continue, but by the time television and radio started selling advertising time, the marketing approach had again changed. Now advertisers could appeal not only to what the consumer needed and wanted, but to what they might want some day in the future. These avenues gave access to new marketing areas and ideas. This second marketing era gave people the ability to market things like houses, housing projects, and vacation resorts. Consumers no longer had to spend excess money on gas just to see what was available. In addition, college funds, burial arrangements and even retirement plans, were easily handled in the comfort o f your own home.

Finally, we come to the third and final marketing era. Now, because of satellite and Internet capabilities, mass marketing is always available; weather you want it or not. It resounds in your ears from television, radio, billboards and the like. It is the first thing you see in the morning and the last thing you hear at night, before you turn of you television. In this present third marketing era, every vain imagination of man is marketed. It is not only marketed to those who have the money, but to those who have no money. They even direct their advertisements under age kids who have no money. The marketing strategies are so perverse now, they actually encouraged the under age and the “low income” classification of people, to lie and begin buying things on credit.

Advertising is a form of communication intended to persuade an audience (viewers, readers or listeners) to purchase or take some action upon products, ideas, or services. It includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, to persuade a target market to purchase or to consume that particular brand. These messages are usually paid for by sponsors and viewed via various media. Advertising can also serve to communicate an idea to a large number of people in an attempt to convince them to take a certain action.

Commercial advertisers often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the minds of consumers. Non-commercial advertisers who spend money to advertise items other than a consumer product or service include political parties, interest groups, religious organizations and governmental agencies. Nonprofit organizations may rely on free modes of persuasion, such as a public service announcement.

Modern advertising developed with the rise of mass production in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mass media can be defined as any media meant to reach a mass amount of people. Different types of media can be used to deliver these messages, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor or direct mail; or new media such as websites and text messages.

Electronic Media Advertising

A television advertisement or television commercial-often just commercial or TV ad (US), or advert, commercial, advertisement or simply just ad (UK/US), or ad-film (India)-is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message. Advertisement revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks. The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes (as well as program-length infomercials). Advertisements of this sort have been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the dawn of television.

The USA’s first television advertisement was broadcast July 1, 1941. The watchmaker Bulova paid $9 for a placement on New York station WNBT before a baseball game between the Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies. The 20-second spot displayed a picture of a clock superimposed on a map of the United States, accompanied by the voice-over “America runs on Bulova time.”

The first TV ad broadcast in the UK was on ITV on 21 September 1955, advertising Gibbs S.R Toothpaste.

Rural Marketing

In recent years, rural markets have acquired importance, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into considerable increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities.

On account of green revolution, the rural areas are consuming a large quantity of industrial and urban manufactured products. In this context, a special marketing strategy, namely, rural marketing, has emerged. But often, rural marketing is confused with agricultural marketing – the latter denotes marketing of produce of the rural areas to the urban consumers or industrial consumers, whereas rural marketing involves delivering manufactured or processed inputs or services to rural producers or consumers.