The Evolution Of Marketing

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Updated 8 years ago

The Evolution Of Marketing

TRADE

Throughout history people have exchanged what they have for what they have wanted. While some core marketing ideas (such as mutually beneficial exchange) were at play, formal definition of marketing did not exist.

LATE 1800s/EARLY 1900s

As technology and infrastructure were developed and build, businesses were able to produce greater volumes of an ever-changing and increasing range of products. Demand for these goods was strong. Marketing at this time could best be described by the concept of a 'production orientation'. Marketers Offerings were largely determined by what was available. This is summed up in the famous quotation of Henry Ford, 'Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as its black. (Black paint dried faster than any other colour, so it was the most efficient colour to produce.)

1930s

As competition increased, companies could no longer rely on consumers to want and buy everything they could make. This led to the 'sales orientation', which focused on increasing profits through advertising and one-to-one selling. Consider the American Marketing Association marketing definition in 1935: 'Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and service from producers to consumers.

MID TO LATE 1900s

In the second half of the 20th century, customers had so many products to choose from that they could not buy them all. When they did want to buy a particular product, they could choose from many similar items. In a new era of increased competition, businesses realised that customer would not automatically buy any product that a business happened to devise. The approach to marketing changed to a 'market orientation' in which businesses worked to determine what potential customers wanted and then made products to suit. Marketing became mainstream business practice. Successful businesses in the late 1900s were those that adopted a market orientation throughout their operations and responded to market's needs and wants.

WHERE NOW/WHERE NEXT

Today business are increasingly faces with not only satisfying customers wants but ensuring they are socially responsible corporate citizens. Businesses face well-informed customers with an enormous number of competing products vying for their attention. Marketers have broadened the concept of market orientation to view the market as not just their customers, but also broader society. This view is reflected in marketers' consideration of issues such as the sustainability of their products and the benefits their products might bring to society generally. This is known as a "societal market orientation'. Examples of a societal market orientation in action include supermarkets offering to pack groceries in reusable bags, potatoes chips marketers developing chips cooked in lower-cholesterol oils, and health clinics offering vaccinations. Companies with a societal market orientation have practices and policies that seek to minimise their negative impact on society and maximise their positive impact.