INTRODUCTION
The origin of marketing as an identifiable economic activity can be traced to the
time when human beings organized themselves as a family unit Going by the historical
accounts of trade practice, some conclude that as long as there have been people, some
form of marketing has been going on. "Over 6,000years of recorded history document
that the roots of both Western and Eastern civilization included some form of trade
Marketing is commonly believed to have progressed through five distinct phases
of evolution since the beginning of time
(a)- simple trade era,
(b)-production era
(c)-sales era
(d)-marketing department era
(e)-marketing company era.
These are the five classical era progression is taught in business schools. In addition to this, there are seven distinct eras which are apparent;
Simple trade era: where everything available has made or harvested by hand and available in limited supply. Exploration and trade in resource was the focus of the
economic activity, Commodities ruled the day. This era is described as having lasted from
the beginning of time through the mid 19th century "Whenever a person made more than
he needed or wanted more than he made, the foundation was laid for trade, and trade is
the heart of marketing». Thus man began to think in terms of exchanging one item for
another. Even food and materials cultivated in one farm was exchanged for tools and
animals.
Production era: The simple trade era was replaced by the production era at the
time of industrial revolution. Mass production increases the availability of product option
in the market place. This is the era of the field of dreams business philosophy of "if you
build it, they will come", successful only because there were few alternative product
option available. This marketing era lasted approximately for 60 years from the 1860's
until 1920's, goods began to be produced in large quantities by small producers for future
use. Some wealthy producers began to engage the services of labours under them to work
in their workplaces. They also employed agents to find markets for their products. "As the
size of wealthy class increased some goods and shops emerged that catered to the rich,
and here some of the characteristic consumer oriented retailing first appeared
Sales era(1920's-1940's): During this era, the primary marketing concept belief
held that consumers if left alone would not buy enough of the organization’s products therefore, the organization must undertake an aggressive selling and promotion effort.
The selling concept assumes that the consumer must be coaxed into buying. It also
assumes that the organization has effective selling and promotional tools to stimulate
more buying. Today, this concept is still practiced most aggressively with unsought goods,
such as insurance, funeral plots and even fundraising activity by non-profit groups. These
industries have perfected various sales techniques to locate prospects and had to sell
them on their product benefits. Most firms practice the selling concept when their aim
(knowingly or unknowingly) is to sell what they make rather than make what the market
wants.
In today’s competitive environment, most markets are buyer markets and sellers
have to scramble hard for customers. Prospects are bombarded with commercials, print
ads, direct mail, telemarketing and sales calls. At every turn, someone is trying to sell you
something. Unfortunately, as a result, the public often identifies marketing with hard
selling and advertising. Marketing based on hard selling is unhealthy and carries high risks,
especially customer dissatisfaction.
It is a surprise to most people when they learn that selling is not the most
important part of healthy marketing. Selling is only one part, be it an integral part, of the
marketing mix. As management and marketing Guru Peter Ducker states: “There will
always, one can assume, be a need for some selling. But the aim of marketing is to make
selling superfluous. The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well
that the product or service fits him and sells itself. Ideally, marketing should result in a
customer who is ready to buy. All that should be needed then is to make the product or
service available.
Marketing department era: where manufacturing firm realized that the sales
orientation was not resonating with consumer. New levels of affluences provided
consumers with more power in the market place. Business consolidated marketing
related activities (advertising, sales promotion, public relations etc) into single
department, this period lasted from the 1940's through the 1960's
Marketing company era: The marketing company era emerged once the promises of the marketing concept became widely accepted. The marketing concept, in brief contents that business exist to address customer needs that is the customer is the focus of our business endeavors no longer marketing was marketing compartmentalized it became the goal of the business all employees became part of the marketing effort either
directly or indirectly and customer became the king. It began in1960's and still in play
Relationship marketing era: The 6th era is identified as the relationship marketing
era the goal is to build a long term mutually beneficial, relationship with a customer. the
focus changed to life time customer value and customer loyalty CRM and data mining
became the buzz words in marketing clearly the relationship marketing era exists and is
in play today from the 1990's to 2010
Social/mobile marketing era: It subsumes of knowledge and theories of its
predecessor era but focuses as real time connection and social exchange based on
relationship driven by the consumers in this era business are connected 24/7 to current,
future and potential consumer in real time communication and exchange of information
is a critical success factor.
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