The evolution of the concept of Marketing!.......
Marketing concept has evolved over the years.It has gone through some sort of evolution to where we are today.
It all started with the Industiral Revolution. In this initial phase, specialization took place.Also, with the industrial revolution, wages were introduced. The farmers could produce and sell to the industrial workers. The marketing and the business concept was simple but later become more complicated eventually.
In marketing, this stage is called the production stage. It took a while to settle down and Henry Ford perfected it. He came up with the car assembly and with it, the mass market was born. The choice available to the consumer was very limited.
The production stage was driven by providing product as well providing availability and affordability. The marketing mix at this point had 3 Ps, the product, the place and the price. Quoting Henry Ford on Model T, he said “they can have it in any color as long as is black”, this makes it clear that the customer had no choice. Such a simple quote from a business leader of the time summarizes the way the market was back then.
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| Henry Ford |
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| Model T |
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| Packaging gained importance!! |
As the market grew, a new phase came up. This stage was the product stage; it was a form of value addition to the production stage. This stage saw quality and packaging come to play. Mass market remained and the Ps were still 3, but there was some changes in the product P as quality become the most important factor. Consumers now were getting better value for their money.
Consumers could reject your product if it did not offer quality. A product was accepted because of its benefits and better packaging. Branding was setting in. The players were many, each offering quality and well packaged products making competition stiff.
The stiff competition brought the need to take the products
and talk about their benefits to the customers. This started what one may call, the selling phase! During the selling stage, products were promoted and customers were sought to buy the manufactured products. The selling stage ushered in the marketing concept; this is the concept where products are made to fit with the consumers needs. Consumers are consulted through market research and other interactive forums and products to satisfy their needs are made. Where the selling concept emphases on the product, the marketing concept emphasizes on the customer needs.
Past Marketing Methods
Now, let us delve into the various methods of marketing that were followed in the olden says.
Newspaper marketing:
Before the internet became available in most households,
the average consumer spent a lot of time reading the newspaper front page to
back. It was the best way to find out what was going in the community, and to
find vendors for specific products or services.
In person marketing:
It used to be that any new business owner benefited from
attending various social functions sponsored by local civic organisations.
Everyone in town would gather together for exhibitions and make business deals.
Cold Calls
You may have received a call where a person desparately tries to sell a product to you, hoping that you don't hang up the phone. That was the classic way of cold calling to market a product.
These were just few of the techniques that were followed. Other methods included print media like brochures, pamphlets. The key to successful sales of anything relies on forming
relationships and reaching interested parties. No longer are print ads,
business parties, or telephone calls the way to accomplish this. Instead, the
internet makes it easy to accomplish marketing tasks in the comfort and privacy
of your own home or office.
The Present Methods and the way to the Future.......
Marketing in today’s times is posing a big challenge to
the businesses with the ever-growing range of available marketing channels.
The business resources need to be better managed in order to create a more
streamlined brand presence.
Instead of relying on one or two channel marketing
approaches, more and more companies will link up their activities to create a
truly coherent brand across multiple channels. With print and television media
where consumers are spending very less time, businesses will start to recognise
the value of connecting up their marketing approach across the web, social
media.
To begin with Google’s recent change to its search
algorithm, on how it ranks sites, was the game-changer. In comparison to the
older algorithm, the new search algorithm gives significant weightage to how
frequently a company is being discussed on social platforms like Twitter.
With the amount of
time spent on social media now exceeding 23% and Facebook now accounting for 90% of that time,
it has become clear to companies that Facebook is a serious platform for
marketers. As companies have realized where their customers are really spending
their time, they have reallocated resources away from traditional media to
social platforms, with Facebook leading the pack. The gap between social media and the business brands
is getting smaller. Here is a video that illustrates the use of internet based marketing in today's world...
Thus, as you can see, online marketing is the need of the hour! The example of the popularity gained by "Why this kolaveri di" just through viral spread on social net working sites is an indicator of the strength of this marketing tool!
Thus, companies have started to harness htis powerful tool, then may it be huge multinationals or smaller businesses and startups!
Internet helps these big companies have a dialogue with the consumer on a personal basis, thus providing an excellent avenue for directly marketing the product!
Here is another video showcasing why internet based marketing is such a powerful medium today!
Marketing in tomorrow's world?
Next it looks like that video is set to be one of the leading marketing
trends.
Studies show far higher levels of engagement and customer conversion among
brands that use video on their websites as the content that comes direct from the potential
or existing customer is likely to grow in value. YouTube, with its new
organization and improved functionality making content creation and sharing
easier is facilitating in a big way. Finally video-powered social shopping
technologies like (e)-motional, a
tool that allows users to click, share and purchase items without ever leaving
a video, are catching up. Use of web services and social media sites are not
only making the voice of the user or the customer louder , with people increasingly
relying on their own online social circles to advise and comment on their
choice of services or products, but at the same time marketing is becoming more
personalised. Tailored content that is customised to the needs and interests of
a specific market or audience are growing in value and popularity because of growing
presence of online, niche communities. It is for this reason Businesses are
becoming smarter at integrating opportunities for customer feedback and
response within their marketing approach.
Moving on, the companies that
fully prepare their marketing approach for mobiles and tablets are the ones
that will benefit a lot due to a potential customer-base that browses and shops
on the move.
With increased channels and brand presence, businesses will look to
clarify and streamline their marketing data. Companies should recognise the
value of analytics that allows them to maximise on the flexibility of social
media marketing by adapting their content according to live viewer response.
All the marketing strategies point towards enhancing engagement and
improve interaction. In fact, time is not far when “social marketing” will
simply become “marketing”.
A few clips on the possibilities of tomorrow.......
We have thus journeyed from the old methods of marketing, through the present ones and can only wonder and guess what the future holds. With the advent of newer and better technologies, marketing can only become more efficient, bringing in an exciting phase for global business. We sign off with this small video by Steve Laughlin where he shows how the future trends will differ from the older ones and the present ones...
