History of Marketing

Professor Kotler has sketched the history of marketing in the USA according to the following chronological events:1910 Emphasis on engineering; 1920 Financial restructuring, mergers, etc; 1930 Accounting or ‘making the books look better’ throughout the depression;1940 Production due to need of getting more goods out faster;1950 Sales because production overtook demand; 1960 Marketing identical with developing new products and markets;1970 Greater emphasis on strategic planning;1980 To ensure optimum use of resources. To summarize, the marketing concept had become necessary to correct the following:
The preoccupation with production as the overriding business activity;
The communication gap that had developed between customers and their suppliers.

For many companies in especially the west, successful marketing had been a question of developing a product that could be manufactured continuously in large quantities, to achieve economies of scale. This in turn meant the ‘mass marketing’ of products to large numbers of people, who had to be persuaded (often through high-pressure promotional techniques) to ‘need’ a limited range of product options.

According to the Japanese Marketing expert Ken’ichi Yasumuro, to be able to compete with western manufacturers, Japanese manufacturers, in turn, used ‘adaptable marketing systems’ or AMS. Linked with flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) this offers a significantly different approach. The AMS and FMS combination allows a wider range of product variants to be produced economically in smaller batches. This in turn enables a closer degree of matching to customer’s real needs.

The 21st century is marked by the true dominance of the customers. Although this shift from sellers market to the buyers market has already started with the rise of competition from especially Asia (Japan, South Korea, China, etc), it has become more intense in the last few years. Companies must combine three things to survive: product orientation, technological innovation, and customer value. Too many companies still design their products without customer input, only to find them rejected in the marketplace. Too many companies forget about their customers after the sale, only to lose their future business. The key to success on the rapidly changing marketing landscape will be a strong focus on the marketplace and a total marketing commitment to providing value to customers.