Supply Chain Management Marketing History

When it comes to the marketing end of supply chain management, it is first important to understand what marketing is, what it entails, as well as the history and criticism of marketing. In fact, it is hard to say exactly what marketing is, as it does not have a commonly agreed upon definition.

Today, within the realm of academia, debates as to marketing’s true nature and purpose continue to rage on. But to put it in practical terms, marketing entails the management and social process by which different products and services are exchanged in order to fulfill the needs or wants of a particular group of customers. Marketing may include advertising, but is not limited to advertising.

History of Marketing

The history of marketing extends back to the very beginning of our civilization. In the old days, people would go to markets in order to buy goods or services they needed for their daily lives, usually at a certain time and place. These markets formed the basis of today’s global marketing techniques, entailing a need for mutual understanding between customers and businesses that includes psychological awareness, needs, and capacity – all essential aspects for the exchange of a good or service. In fact, the New York Stock Exchange also started out as an open air market in New York City on Wall Street.

The roots of marketing can be traced back to the development of agriculture. It used to be that everyone would grow his or her own food for personal consumption. Then, as more advanced agricultural techniques were developed, it became possible to grow a lot more food than what one’s own family would consume. In order to get rid of that excess food before it went rotten, farmers had to come up with ways of exchanging it with others who might be able to use that food for their own needs.

Then, in the early 1960s, a man named Theodore Levitt came up with a clever idea that he published as a magazine article called “Marketing Myopia.” It is this article that is credited with launching the modern day form of marketing that we know. His critique of the major industries of his era was that they did not understand what industry they were actually a part of. Until you had a better grasp on what kind of industry you were actually working in, you would not do well in business. So if you are in the railway industry, for example, you should not forget that in addition to competing with other railway companies, you are also competing with other transportation companies in general, including bus and airline companies.

The idea of relationship marketing evolved in the 1980s. Relationship marketing is based on the concept that it is more effective to build a long term relationship with a customer rather than focusing all of one’s marketing energies on a one time transaction. This entails a comprehensive understanding of a customer’s needs as they go through various phases in their life span. Therefore, a relationship marketing based approach is contingent on offering a variety of different products to accommodate customers’ needs at different times.

A decade after Levitt’s thoughts were introduced, Phillip Kotler came up with his own theory called societal marketing, which entailed making good marketing decisions that would take in to account society’s long run interests, as well as the customer’s needs and the firm’s requirements. These ideas were later evolved in to the concept of “corporate social responsibility.”