The History of Marketing: From Trading to Technology

Today marketing is known as an advanced blend of strategy and technology, however, it hasn’t always been this way. The history of marketing as we know it began with the humble beginnings of simply trying to sell goods and services.

Attempts to accomplish this may be as old as civilization itself. Some believe it started with trying to presents goods in a certain way for trading. The effort to develop persuasive communications for selling goods and services has been around since ancient times. This activity may not have been recognized as marketing then, but it was a developing idea.

Concept of Marketing

The idea of marketing as it is understood in the modern era began during the time of the Industrial Revolution. This period spanned the late 18th century and lasted long into the 19th century. It was a time of rapid social change motivated by innovations in the scientific and technological industries.

It was during the Industrial Revolution that purchasing goods began to be easier for a consumer than make things themselves. Mass production created many industries engaged to serve the needs of a growing consumer market. The infrastructure for transportation, as well as, mass media took hold. Its focused producers to find better ways to develop products customers needed and a more sophisticated approach to informing them about these commodities.

Increased Competition

Starting in the early twentieth century to the late 1940s competition in the business world, became intense. The need to increase selling by using marketing techniques created the need of being competitive. The ability to develop a brand and market, grown in value.

The competition also drove the need to increase production and market shares within all industries. Marketing began to emphasize distribution methods, as well as, types of consumer communication. The goal soon became to convince consumers, the goods and services provided by one company were better than another company offering the same thing.

Marketing Business

Starting in the 1960s the markets in many industries became saturated with competition. The need to get and keep customers required specialists in the area of direct marketing. This was the time when companies began dedicating entire areas of their business for the one purpose of marketing a company’s products or services.

Then marketing management developed the sophistication necessary to be an essential part of business success. Marketing managers began to be involved with strategic planning. Their input was important for determining the cost, the methods to communicate information to consumers.

Strategic Branding

The world of marketing began to change during the 1990s. A product or service was created and instantly a brand was developed. Companies began to realize they could focus on selling more high-quality products and build a better brand for them. This resulted in companies experiencing an improvement in their margins, but also expanded their reputation. It also increased the awareness of the brand they had created. Some companies with a private label were able to improve their market share by more than 49 percent.

Internet Marketing

With the evolution of the web, websites started being an essential tool for commercialization. During the late 1990s, simple, text-based company websites began to flourish. They were initially utilized to provide information about a company’s products or services.

The first company to have an online marketing campaign was Bristol-Myers Squibb to promote their Excedrin product. The campaign was a success, and Bristol-Myers Squibb was able to add tens of thousands of names to their customer list. Today, hundreds of billions of dollars are spent each year on the marketing business.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Within the past 25 years, the importance of using the web and search engines for marketing has increased dramatically. In the beginning, web search engines were not the most efficient operations. Getting a good ranking with a search engine was not complicated. Search engine results were easy to alter, and the quality of the results was poor.