Zach Borowski
WRA 110
October 30, 2012
Evolving Marketing
Can you believe social media marketing will eventually come to an end? This
may sound crazy to most but every other era of marketing as went through it. As of
now we do not know what the next marketing era will be but we do know it wont
last forever. There as been quite of few eras in the field of marketing and everyone
has an average of about twenty years before a new era evolves. During every era,
marketing strategies and techniques have to evolve to fit the current era. This new
era we are currently in might just be the biggest jump and change in the field of
marketing ever.
Some people may say there are about four or five different eras in marketing
but if you break it down there are seven. Each era has their own unique style that
helped them be successful. The first era dates back to the Pre-Industrial Revolution
and since then has changed many times. The seven marketing eras are the Simple
Trade Era, Production Era, Sales Era, Marketing Department Era, Marketing
Company Era, Relationship Marketing Era, and Social/Mobile Marketing Era (White
1). The new class has emerged and is still emerging faster then any others in the
past. The Social Media Marketing Era is the new class and has changed the field of
marketing forever. However, we wouldn’t have this new emerging class if it wasn’t
for the past eras.
The past eras are even dated back to the Pre-Industrial Revolution; this is
something many might not know but it was really the start of marketing. The era in
this time was the Simple Trade Era. During this era everything was harvested by
hand and wasn’t mass-produced so there was a limited supply. Exploration and
trade in resources was the focus of the economic activity, says White (White, 1).
There wasn’t a need for marketing before this because most of what people made
they consumed. Allison Marion said in her article, “however, that with the advent of
the Industrial Revolution, businesses rather than households became the producers
of many types of goods” (Marion, 1). This simple era was the building block for the
years to come.
The building block was set and in the 1860’s a new era was taking over. This
era is known as the Production Era. This was during and after the Industrial
Revolution when mass production was now a factor. Dr. White said, “This is the era
of the field of dreams business philosophy of “if you build it, they will come”,
successful only because there were few alternative products produced” (White, 1).
This was a key for marketers because they could focus just on their product and not
have to worry about competition. Prices didn’t change much either prior to this era.
In the article "Marketing: Historical Perspectives,” Marion says, “Companies felt that
exchanges could be facilitated merely by lowering manufacturing costs and, in turn,
passing along the cost savings to customers in the form of lower prices” (Marion, 1).
The key marketing strategy was simple and it was to make costumers aware of the
cheaper products. What many may now know is Henry Ford’s assembly line was
what drove the focus on production and lowering the cost of products. Most of the
eras only lasted about twenty years but this era was the longest and many can see
why. This era lasted sixty years!
No other era lasted sixty years and we all know everything must come to an
end because its part of life. The many years of the Production Era ended in the
1920’s with the Sales Era. This era was sparked by the fact that every company
couldn’t sell everything they produced like before. This was perfect for the field of
marketing because companies had to work harder to sell their products to
consumers. The competition was increasing, therefore so were the field of
marketing. This is when products became commodities and the price was the
competitive advantage because whoever had the lowest prices was looked at first
(White, 1). Marketers now had to focus on a variety of promotional techniques. They
now had to really persuade potential customers to buy their products because of the
competition. Now not every product was being bought so they had to come up with
ways to get raid of products. They relied manly on personal selling, advertising
signs, and singing commercials on the radio to “move” the product (Marion, 1).
Undoubtedly the first few eras were huge in the society and would set up the
new class we have today. Yet, there were still a few more eras before this new up
roaring class. In the 1940’s the Marketing Department Era came about. This was
when manufacturing firms realized that the sales orientation of the past wasn’t
working well with the consumers, describes Dr. White in his article (White, 1). The
power was beginning to fade away out of the producer’s hands and into the
consumer’s hands. Producers had to make and sell how the consumers wanted
because they were the ones buying the products. This era was after WWII and the
companies had to rebuild themselves and change the way they produced products.
Before they would make a variety of products but this changed and they began to
focus more on their consumers. This era can be summed up in one sentence that
Allison Marion said and it was “Firms with a customer orientation attempt to create
satisfying products that customers will want to buy.” From this era and forward the
marketing strategies would be focused on the consumers and the consumers only.
The main focus on consumers was now in play and in the 1960’s it became
strong with the Marketing Company Era. The marketing concepts became widely
accepted (White, 1). It was no longer just the marketing departments in a business
that focused on the selling but it was now the whole company. They were now
marketing companies. As Marion as noted, “In marketing companies, the marketing
department sets company operating policy, including technical research,
procurement, production, advertising, and sales” (Marion, 1). This era did end, but
not totally. This began in the 1960’s but is still in play today.
Previous eras still played a role in marketing but many of the classical theory
marketing evolutions think the Marketing Company Era was the last phase. This
however seems not to be true. Between the 1990’s and 2010 a new era emerged
known as the Relationship Marketing Era. In the past marketing eras, the focus
changed a lot from manly on the company to mainly on the consumer. This era was
when the company built long-term satisfying relations with its customers in order to
keep them buying their products (Marion, 1). Back in the day as long as the firms
products were being sold they didn’t care how. When the products were no longer
selling as fast and as much they had to begin to focus on the customers. At this time
it became even harder to sell ones product so they had to make a relationship
therefore, they could at least have consist buyers market.
Unquestionably, all these eras had a huge role in marketing today. However,
none of them can quite compare to the new era we are now in. This era might be the
biggest era and leap in marketing that will ever take place. This era is known as the
Social Media Era and has created a whole new class in the field. Many of the old
strategies are gone and new ones are appearing. In my interview with Marketing
teacher, Tyler Thompson, I asked him how he has seen the ways the strategies have
evolved. His response was this, “The strategies have change tremendously just from
the time I was your age till now. It used to be all about billboards, newspapers,
magazines, and email. Now it is all about internet and social media.”
How many times do you read a billboard a day? How many times do you
check social media websites a day? Ask yourself these two questions and its pretty
simple to figure out which one you do more. Marketers don’t have to do test and
surveys to figure this out because it’s so obvious. Ever since the Internet, most jobs
have changed. Social media is growing more and more every day. There are over
800 million active users on Facebook, over 140 million active users on Twitter, 90
million users on Google plus, and 800 million unique users per month on YouTube
(Kumar, 5). These facts were from the summer of 2012, which means all them
numbers are even higher now.
Looking at the number of people involved in social media it shows how big
this new “class” is and how much is has evolved. Marketers don’t need to waste
time researching now that there are databases they can look right into. “Social
networks are increasingly attracting the attention of marketing scholars and
practitioners (Goldenberg, 561). Mr. Thompson said in our interview “Everything
about my class has changed in this new era. Every book is new and everything they
want me to teach has changed to focus on Social Media.”
Remind you that this era has only been around for two years. It’s only been
two years but everything about marketing is changing. Mr. Thompson has been
around for a few eras and when I asked him if this is really the biggest era ever? His
response was simple, “YES.” The new class of Social Media marketers is taking over
the field and is fastest moving era ever. There is no class like this one and there may
never be one bigger.
Works Cited:
Goldenberg, J., B. Libai, E. Muller, and S. Stremersch. "Database Submission--The
Evolving Social Network of Marketing Scholars." Marketing Science 29.3 (2010):
561-67. Print
White, D. Steven. "The Evolution of Marketing." D. Steven White. WordPress, 18 June
2010. Web. 11 Oct. 2012. <http://dstevenwhite.com/2010/06/18/the-evolution-ofmarketing/>.
Kumar, V. "Regulated Social Media Marketing Offers Increased ROI." Marketing
Research. By Bala Sundaram. 2nd ed. Vol. 24. Chicago: American Marketing
Association, 2011. 4-7. Print. Summer2012.
Thompson, Tyler. Personal interview. 25 Oct. 2012.
Marion, Allison. "Marketing: Historical Perspectives." Encyclopedia of Business and
Finance. Ed. Allison McClintic Marion. Vol. 2. Gale Cengage, 2001. eNotes.com. 29
Oct, 2012 <http://www.enotes.com/marketing-historical-perspectives-reference/>
***Permission for some non scholarly sources***