Four era in the history of marketing

The essence of marketing is the process of sharing, in which two or more parties to meet their needs, communicate with each other something valuable. In some cases, people give money for material goods, such as CD, clothes or cars. In other intangible receive money for services such as child care, a haircut in a barbershop or a concert. There are situations where people are giving their money or free time, say donating blood to the Red Cross, donate money to build a new sports hall, a church or a school or take part in the campaign to improve the environment.

Although marketing has always been and remains a part of the business, its importance varies considerably. Consider the four eras in the history of marketing: 1) the era of production, and 2) the era of sales, and 3) the era of marketing, and 4) the era of the relationship.

The era of production

Prior to 1925, most companies, even those who acted in the most developed countries of Western Europe and North America, mainly focused on the production. Manufacturers have concentrated on producing high-quality products, and then looking for people who will be engaged in their sales. A great example of a company focused on the production, gives the history of Pillsbury. The late Robert Keith (Robert J. Keith), who at one time was its chief executive officer, described Pillsbury in the early years of its operations.

We are a professional millers. Thanks to the good supply of fine North American wheat, huge flows of water and a great mill equipment we produce flour of the highest quality. Our main function - to produce high quality flour, although, of course, we have to hire salespeople to its sales and accountants, who are our accounting records.

In this era, the prevailing view that a good product (which has a high physical quality), he will be able to sell yourself. Focusing on the production of asking business philosophy for decades, and indeed, the success of a business is often determined only in the parameters of the achievements in the field of production. The era of production has ceased, not even reaching its peak, and it happened in the beginning of XX century. Take full advantage of this orientation represents the assembly line, Henry Ford (Henry Ford), which he used for the mass production of cars. The most common in those days to do with marketing clearly reflects Ford's famous expression: "They (consumers) can be of any color (the car), which want to, as long as it is black." For those years were characterized by a lack of capacity and an active consumer demand. It is easy to see how in such circumstances, the priority was productive activities.

The essence of the era also made good passes declaration made over 100 years ago, philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (Ralph Waldo Emerson): «If a man writes a good book, playing with a good sermon or create a better mousetrap than his neighbor, even if it the house is in the woods, people protopchut necessarily a path to his door. " However, a more perfect mousetrap does not guarantee success, and marketing history shows many huge errors that have occurred in spite of the excellent design "mousetraps." In fact, over 80% of new products are unsuccessful. Moreover, the invention of the new desired product is insufficient. It must also meet the needs that are felt in the market. Without this, even the best engineering design finest quality product fail. Remember that even horseless carriages took some time to achieve relevance. At first, people were afraid vehicles with a motor, which gave a lot of noise, raised clouds of dust on the muddy roads, stuck in the mud and prevent movement of horses. A huge speed 7 miles per hour resulted in various accidents and other difficulties on the roads. Therefore, to change people's opinions about his proposed new product, the first sellers of cars had to resort to a variety of clever marketing techniques that eventually worked: people had a clearly perceived need for a new product.

The era of sales

Manufacturing techniques in the United States and Europe becoming more sophisticated, and in the period from the 1920s to the 1950s, the volume of products all the time growing up. Therefore, manufacturers have increasingly paid attention to the effective work of sales staff, so that they more actively searched for their consumers. In this era of the company were trying to agree on the amount of output to the potential number of consumers who want to receive it. Companies with a focus on sales proceeded from the assumption that consumers will resist buying goods and acquisition services that they do not seem basic, and that the main task of the sales and advertising - to convince them to buy.

While this time of marketing departments began to emerge from the shadow of production, finance and engineering, they are nevertheless usually still remained a secondary position. This is reflected even in the name of job positions: many senior managers of marketing services at that time were called salespeople. Here is how this period is described in the company's history Pillsbury.

Our company engaged in the milling of flour, produces for the consumer market a variety of products. We have to have a first-class sales organization that can realize all our products at competitive prices for us. To help our sales staff, we resort to consumer advertising and marketing knowledge. We want our sales representatives and our dealers have all the necessary tools to enable them to sell all the products of our businesses.

But sales are not the only component of marketing. Professor of Marketing at the University of Harvard University Theodore Levitt (Theodore Levitt) so to say on the subject: "Marketing is different from the sales as well as chemistry from alchemy, astronomy from astrology, chess, checkers from."

The era of marketing

After the Great Depression in the early 1930s, personal income and consumer demand for goods and services have increased dramatically because of what marketing has come to play a much more important role. The survival of the organization demanded that the managers have paid extra attention market their products and services. This trend ended with the outbreak of the Second World War, during which food rationing and shortages of consumer goods were the most common. However, during the war there were only a kind of a pause in the overall increasing trend in the business: a more dynamic transition from the focus on the product, and sales to the satisfaction of consumer needs.

The emergence of the marketing concept

Marketing concept, a radical change in management philosophy can best be explained as a transition from a seller's market, where there were a lot of buyers a limited number of goods and services to a buyer's market, which offered more goods and services than there are consumers who want to buy them. The Second World War ended, and the plants stopped making tanks and ships, and again returned to the production of consumer goods, ie to the type of activity that had stopped because of the situation in early 1942

The emergence of a strong buyer's market has given rise to the need for the kinds of business focused on the consumer. Companies are now required to go out with their goods and services to the market, and not just to produce and sell them. This understanding was the impetus for the emergence of the marketing concept. Forming the concept and its dominant role in the business refer to 1952, when General Electric proclaimed a new philosophy of management.

The Concept is a marketer in the beginning, not the end of the production cycle and integrates marketing with every phase of the business. Therefore, through its marketing research and analysis shows engineers, designers and manufacturers, the consumer wants to have a particular product, what price he is willing to pay for it and where and when he wants to get the product. So marketing is necessary authority in product planning, production planning and inventory control, as well as sales, distribution and services related to the product.

Marketing is no longer seen as an additional activity performed after the completion of the production process. On the contrary, marketing is beginning to play a leading role in the planning of the product. Now, marketing and sales are no longer terms, synonyms.

A fully developed marketing concept is a consumer orientation of the entire company, which aims to achieve long-term success. It comes from the fact that all service organizations should contribute to the definition of consumer needs and desires, and then to their satisfaction. Marketers are not the only professionals involved in this. Employees of the credit department and engineers developing products also play important roles. Focus on achieving long-term success - that's what distinguishes considered here the concept of the orientation for a maximum short-term profits. Since the initial assumption of the marketing concept is the continued existence of the company, the general orientation of the consumer in the long run will lead to higher profits than the options management philosophy focused on the achievement of immediate objectives.

A clear market orientation, ie, situation where the company has adopted the marketing concept, generally contributes to market success and overall improved performance of the company. It also has a positive impact on new product development and introduction of innovative products. Companies that are adopting the strategy determined by the market, are better able to understand the experience of consumers, their purchasing habits and requests. Therefore, these companies can develop products that give advantages over rivals and achieving the level of quality that meets the requirements of consumers. Consumers in this case more readily accept new products. This is the beginning of marketing, defined by consumers.

The era of relations

The fourth era in the history of marketing emerged in the last decade of the XX century and continues to this day, in the XXI century. Organizations today are transforming consumer orientation characteristic of the era of marketing and doing in this direction the next step, with special attention to the establishment and maintenance of relationships with both customers and suppliers. This focus reflects a sharp change from the traditional concept of marketing as a simple exchange between buyer and seller. Relationship marketing in contrast to the past approach is based on developing long-term and eventually the relationship between buyers and suppliers that add value to both parties. Strategic alliances and partnerships manufacturers, retailers and suppliers generally allow you to win all the participants. Ryder System, owner of the famous yellow trucks that take a car, made alliances with companies such as Delphi Automotive, the largest supplier in the U.S. automotive parts and Toyota Tsusho America, supplying iron, steel, and textiles to automotive companies. Ryder and Toyota formed a joint venture, which they called TTR Logistics, which supplies materials Toyota Tsusho, a Ryder manages the flow and storage of various materials such as plastic and wires. Ryder expects that this alliance will yield revenues of $ 22 million already in the first year and hundreds of millions in the future. Participants consistently implemented relationships produce an estimated 25% more sales than firms operating in isolation. Having a wider access to potential buyers of their products, they also reduce the risks arising from the demand on the market of new products.

References

For preparation of this work were used materials from the site http://www.elitarium.ru/