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Introduction
Marketing evolution is a process and stages through which marketing concepts, philosophies, mechanisms, tools and techniques, and orientations have changed throughout marketing history. It also describes the various stages businesses have gone through as they look for fresh and innovative ways to generate, maintain, and raise revenue through customer sales and relationships.
Marketing is the performance of influencing people to purchase a product or service. We have been observing this act of marketing since we started commercialization, and over time, we have witnessed the evolution of marketing. Since the 1900s, various strategies have been employed as different industries have created and refined their marketing approaches.
When did the Evolution of Marketing Begin?
According to our dictionary, the first cited use of the word “marketing” in its modern business sense, the “process of moving goods from producer to consumer with [an] emphasis on advertising and sales,” comes from 1897.While it took some time for the arena to move from a product-centric tactic to what we now understand as a marketing orientation, the discipline’s roots go back to the early 20th century.
Stephen Williams, the CEO, founded Marketing Evolution. He is well-versed in modern marketers’ challenges in the changing privacy landscape and works diligently to alleviate pain points through technology. Stephen has a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Nevada, Reno.
Causes of the Evolution of Marketing
Two main factors drive the evolution of marketing:
- Marketing Technology – When the field began, it demonstrated print advertising was one of the sellers’ only feasible communication channels besides in-store merchandising and in-person interactions. Today, digital marketing takes advantage of technologies ranging from multimedia text messages to email.
- Customer needs – What do consumers want today that they didn’t ask for yesterday? What can they afford now that was out of reach in the previous? If you can’t retain up with your audience, your challengers definitely will.
Stages of the Evolution of Marketing
Marketing development began during the Industrial Revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. We can hint at the entire evolution of marketing in four different phases:
- Production orientation
- Product Orientation
- Sales Guidance
- Customer orientation
- Social Orientation.
Production Orientation
- Products were mass-produced and reasonably priced.
- Companies used to think that if they shaped something, somebody would buy it, increasing their profits.
- They are focused more on quantity than quality.
- Profit through mass production.
- The products are readily available anywhere.
- For example, ballpoint pens are produced in bulk and sold for little.
Product Orientation
- Goods and services are of good quality.
- Emphasis on producing a better product with more unique features.
- Focus more on quality than quantity.
- Profit through product quality.
- The prices are higher due to the limited edition.
- Ex- Good beer does not need a push. If the product is decent, there is no need for Marketing
Sales Orientation
- Sales volume was more important to companies than Customer satisfaction.
- Whether buyers like it or not when pushing or selling a product doesn’t matter to them.
- Focus more on sales volume.
- Profit through max. Sales
- Advertisements in a variety of media, including radio, print, and television,
- For example, the sale of insurance policies
Customer Orientation
- Based on what the client wanted and expected.
- First, understand the customer’s needs and pain points, then launch the product.
- Focus on customer satisfaction instead of “quick sales.”
- Benefit from healthy, long-lasting customer relationships
- Take customer feedback and then work on product improvement.
- Online courses were needed in Corona Times, so he started offering them to customers.
Social Orientation
- Customer satisfaction plus social welfare.
- Produce high-quality products that are also environmentally friendly.
- Focus on the environment and consumer welfare.
- Profit through customer satisfaction and social welfare.
- Provide human beings with a quality lifestyle and a pollution-free environment.
- For example- Avoid plastic packaging and sell contamination-free cigarettes
According to ERA, five stages of marketing evolution:
The growth of marketing is lined up in the sentences that follow:
- Production era: Customers select readily available and reasonably priced products.
- Product era: Good products don’t need marketing techniques.
- Sales era: Selling is said to involve tricking customers.
- Marketing era: The buyer is the King
- Association marketing era: The upcoming of our company depends on our relationships with customers.
Let us consider the importance of marketing & understand each one of them deeply –
- Production orientation
- Based on this, people believe that when the quality of a product is good enough, it does not require any extra effort in promotion, as people will buy it anyway. This was the approach widely used during the industrial revolution.
- People focus on higher production at low cost to get better returns. However, before the revolution, most of the products were made by hand, which made the production cost of the product high.
- Due to a high production cost, the producers had no choice but to sell it at higher prices.
- After the introduction of machinery, this cost of production was reduced comparatively, and the products were sold at 1/10 of the original price.
- Customers were ready to buy this product joyfully as it was cheaper than ever.
- Although we are going through this production orientation philosophy, we should know that some assumptions took place in framing this philosophy; since everything produced with the machinery could be traded, the production cost was kept to a minimum.
- During this phase of the development of marketing concepts, manufacturers sought more efficient production that moved from low cost to maximize profit.
- Product Orientation
- A more competitive approach came in during production to produce an ideal product.
- During this phase, the assumption , that if people already have a product of a certain quality, they will only suppose you to produce a better quality product.
- If they already benefit from the main features of creation, you will have to make something unlike and better if you want to trade your product.
- In this phase, each production process set a standard for itself.
- As customers searched for a product with more unique features, manufacturers also aimed to produce a better and better product. They were trying their best to solve the problem of the various needs of the customers.
- But there was a disadvantage during this approach to production: product prices were rising at a high rate.
- Every time the product restricted more and more features, manufacturers increased the product’s price, and sometimes even the customer could not pay the costs for what he was looking for in the product.
- Sales Orientation
- At that time, people began to recognize the position of the promotion process and why they should introduce marketing into their businesses.
- Producers began to realize that simply producing quality products is not enough to grow their business, and they will also need to invest in the promotion process.
- They realized getting their company’s product out was difficult without proper promotion or publicity.
- What we know today about marketing begun during that time. They began to feel that no matter how high quality their products were, people won’t buy them if they kept quiet.
- During this phase, manufacturers only looked at producing the highest quality product possible and convincing people in their prime to buy the products they made.
- They started using different tactics to affect people to buy their products. Even high-pressure tactics began to boost sales.
- This philosophy is since the 1940s, and the marketing we observe today is entirely on the same philosophy.
- Customer Orientation
- Under this philosophy, the main objective of companies is to understand and satisfy customer expectations.
- This is undoubtedly an ideal condition for any business where they are trying to find out the real needs of the customer and what they expect from their salesperson.
- Since the 1950s, this philosophy is the vital objective of any business.
- Customer satisfaction was the companies’ main goal during this phase of the evolution of marketing. As a result, they focused on the customer rather than just their product.
- What they produced depended on what the customer wanted and expected from them.
- First of all, business starts with the customer, and once they are clear about their needs and wants, they move on to the next step; production.
- What they will produce and how the manufacturing process will proceed depends on the features mentioned earlier.
- Below this orientation, many expectations , such as; Since companies are going to produce only those products that the customer wants, all management will work to improve their programs for the immediate satisfaction of their customer, and the business focuses on long-term goals rather than quick sales.
- Under this philosophy, the marketing campaigns also grew.
- The companies came to know the desires of their audience only through their marketing campaign, and they could learn about their product only through their marketing campaigns.
- Social or Societal Marketing Orientation
- Marketing campaigns were business, sales, product, and customer-oriented until now. As a result, we were not paying attention to environmental degradation due to our activities.
- Marketing theory underwent refinement during this phase as marketers and business owners began to pay attention to the environment.
- They began recognizing how their activities damaged nature and our society.
- Consumer welfare came into play during this stage of the evolution of marketing. Here the aim of the companies changed to give humans a quality lifestyle and, along with that, to ensure a pollution-free environment around us.
- Now companies not only focus on producing quality products but also on producing environmentally friendly products.
- His goal shifted from complete customer satisfaction to customer well-being and social well-being.
- Environmental safety was the main objective of the companies, and this philosophy of ecological protection monitored even today, and that is what we call Green Marketing
Conclusion
The evolution of marketing did not happen in a short period. Instead, it went through some phases, and what we see today is its refinements’ outcome. First, we must realize the importance of marketing. Secondly, Marketing is the backbone of the business, and we will see different aspects shortly. Lastly, the evolution of marketing is a pervasive process that will continue to occur regularly.