Marketing has evolved drastically in the past 2 centuries. People changed the way they live and work through different phases of Marketing evolution. Progressively that evolution affected every single field of modern era.
The 7 Main Stages in Marketing’s History
Theorists identified seven distinct stages of the evolution as follows:
1. Simple Trade Era
- This stage begins parallel to the existence of human kind until 1860, when trade revolved around local economies.
- In this earliest stage, the focus was on simple barter and trade, without the need for formal marketing strategies.
2. Production Era
- This stage stretches between 1860 and 1920 when mass production became the main focus.
- The emphasis was on manufacturing efficiency and product availability rather than customer preferences.
3. Sales Era
- This stage emerged between 1920 to the 1940 as the production era gave away and modern marketing began to take shape
- The focus was on persuasion and promotion to stimulate demand for existing products.
4. Marketing Department Era
- This stage of branding and positioning became very important during 1940 to 1960, due to the fact that marketers began to understand the great value of brand reputation and customer loyalty.
- Also, companies began to recognize the importance of having dedicated marketing departments.
5. Marketing Company Era
- From the 1960 to the 1990, this stage phased out what is called the manufacturing concept in favour of the marketing concept.
- Companies started to focus on building strong customer relationships, understanding consumer behavior, and delivering customer value.
6. Relationship Marketing Era
- At this stage marketers started to believe in long-term customer relationships, viewing it as a key to company growth.
- Loyalty programs, customer service, and personalized marketing strategies became key components.
7. Digital Marketing Era and Beyond
- Some times it is risky to set a title during a processing event because things may change drastically.
- Although the less risky title may be Digital Marketing Era or the Social Marketing Era.
- This era is characterised by making building relationships and personal connections on a huge global scale, directly involving customers in product development and using the Internet to push word-of-mouth marketing in order to leverage loyal customer relations.
Conclusion
Understanding how to leverage modern marketing technology and new communication strategies in the new marketing era can help you to build deeper relationships in the marketplace. Read more about the opportunities offered by the Digital Marketing Era.
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