The History of Marketing
Marketing is a term that describes commercial activities related to promoting and selling products or services. Although marketing has been around for nearly 600 years, marketing strategies have drastically changed, even in the last decade, due to technological advancements and ever-changing consumer behavior.
The “modern era of marketing” started during the industrial revolution (1820-1840). During this time, consumers realized it was often easier and less expensive to buy something rather than make it from scratch. Consequently, companies needed to generate interest in their products. Newspapers and magazines were considered the best way to get the attention of the masses.
Today, marketing is a mixture of strategy and technology. It’s an art and a science. Since the internet’s invention, websites have been an incredibly effective marketing tool for businesses.
The Production Era (1450 to 1925)
Prior to 1925, most companies were driven by production and efficiency. The thought was that “products should be inexpensive and available everywhere.” Advances in the assembly line made mass production possible. The goal was to increase production and decrease costs.
All marketing efforts were based on securing the broadest possible distribution. Marketers wanted to get their products to as many people as possible. This strategy is still used today, especially when launching a new product. However, it isn’t always effective, as we will discuss later.
During that era, a company’s production capabilities defined its success. The more products you could produce, the more profit you could earn. In 1902, the University of Pennsylvania became the first to offer a marketing course.
The production era led to the product era, which focused strictly on the product. Company leaders believed that if a product were of good quality, it would sell itself. So build it, and they will come – how simple life was!
Marketing was about the product and its benefits. Marketing strategies highlight the product’s attributes rather than focusing on price, consumer needs, or distribution. Marketing ads often make exaggerated or unsubstantiated claims, eventually leading to advertising regulation, particularly for drugs and personal care products. Again, it was all about the product. This method worked just fine until the mid-1920s.
The Selling Era (1920s to 1950s)
The selling era was all about sales. Aggressive marketing was used to strongarm customers into buying, also known as “the hard sell.” The thought was that a product would succeed if promoted hard enough; unfortunately, companies focused on selling what they produced rather than producing what the market wanted.
TV and radio were two new channels for ad distribution. Now, potential customers could see how a product works or hear their favorite athlete endorse a business.
The hard sell could turn customers off and even push them toward the competition. Even still, this method worked from the 1920s until the 1950s.
The Marketing Era (1950s to 1990s)
The marketing era started around the mid-1950s, and there was quite a shift from traditional marketing. So rather than persuading customers to buy a particular product, companies began making products that customers wanted to buy.
Businesses quickly realized that convincing consumers to buy products they didn’t want was more challenging than producing products that customers wanted. Instead of focusing on the product’s attributes, they focused on consumer benefits.
During this era, the field of market research started to expand. Researchers sought to understand buying behavior and even turned to psychologists to understand consumer motivation.
The Relationship Era (started in 1990s)
This type of marketing is a strategy that considers the entirety of a company and the different marketing channels as a system. It is customer-centric and focused on what consumers want. During this era, companies also recognized the importance of brand recognition. They worked to promote their brand’s image externally through advertising and internally with their customers via accessible company culture and values.
The Digital Marketing Era (1990s to present)
Over the last 30 years, the internet has transformed the face of marketing. Search engines are now the easiest way to find products and services – almost every business has a digital marketing presence.
However, that wasn’t always the case. In the early days of internet marketing, search engines were easy to manipulate. Improving search engine rankings was pretty simple.
That is no longer the case, as search engines continuously adapt their algorithms. Companies like Google make it virtually impossible to manipulate SEO rankings, and if a company tries, they risk being manually or algorithmically penalized.
From the printing press to the radio and the internet, marketing has always adapted to changing technology and emerging communication channels.
Marketing is here to stay. It isn’t going away anytime soon. The concept of marketing started in the 1400s and not much changed until the 1900s. However, when the internet was invented in the 1980s, marketing jumped onto the information superhighway almost immediately, and it is how we entered the search hustle.
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