The Evolution Of Marketing
Marketing has come a long way since its early days, but its basic concept remains– to promote a business’s products or services. In the past, marketers relied heavily on impersonal, broad campaigns such as print ads, TV commercials, and billboards. Now, marketing is a game of building authentic relationships, earning customer trust, and targeting a niche audience.
The Industrial Revolution
We’ll begin our look into the history of marketing with the Industrial Revolution between the 1860s and 1920s. It was a period of unprecedented change in the way goods were produced.
With the advent of new technologies, mass production became possible for the first time, and factories could generate greater quantities of goods more efficiently than ever before.
This technology greatly impacted marketing, as businesses could now reach a much wider audience. The mass production of goods also decreased prices, making them more affordable for consumers.
As a result, the industrial revolution era was a pivotal time for marketing, as it laid the foundations for modern mass-marketing techniques.
Auto manufacturer Ford was among the first companies to benefit from the industrial revolution. They created an assembly line that made the production of their Model T automobile much more efficient and streamlined. This allowed them to sell their cars for a lower price, making them more affordable to the average consumer.
Only a little was needed in terms of marketing or sales tactics during this era, as demand was high and competition was scarce.
The Sales Era
The Sales Era (the 1920s – 1940s) was a time when more and more companies were competing for customers. The competitive landscape had started to evolve, and new companies were trying to take market share from established businesses.
The main goal during the Sales Era was simply to sell as many units as possible. In most cases, neither customer experience nor product or service quality was top of mind. Companies used eye-catching sales promotions, radio commercials, and door-to-door sales to entice customers to make a purchase.
For instance, Proctor and Gamble noticed in 1929 that orders were cut and inventory was piling up. Therefore, they started seeking new marketing avenues and chose radio broadcasts to communicate with their target audience. These ads became widely successful and were a critical reason that Proctor and Gamble survived the Great Depression when so many other companies did not.
The Marketing Era
The Marketing Era began to take shape in the 1990s and is still a predominant part of the marketing ecosystem. This era is all about understanding the needs of your target customers and then effectively customizing your marketing activities to address those needs.
We now know it’s much more effective to focus on quality over quantity regarding your customer base. By understanding your target customers’ specific needs and tailoring your marketing activities to address those needs, you’ll achieve much better results and higher lifetime value.
Take Apple computers, for instance. They differentiated themselves by creating a superior customer experience to their competitors. And as a result, they were able to capture a large share of the market.
As they highlighted in the commercial below, the “best” computer isn’t the one with the most memory or megahertz but rather the one that people use.
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