The Evolution of Marketing

Since its inception as a field, marketing has been changing and evolving. The history of
marketing is an important aspect to understanding marketing as a concept as well as a tool for
business. An integrative history of the field, both as an academic abstraction as well as a
business tool must be considered to trace its successes and failures.

Marketing as a proposition in business originated in the 1950s as a support for the sales
function. This entrance came about with the emergence of two new concepts: the philosophy
of emphasizing customer orientation and the use of quantitative and analytical methods along
with the field of behavioural science. This rise of marketing was enabled due to the large
industrial and consumer development that took place in America post World War II. It was
characterised by pent up demand, growth of customer affluence and spending power as well as
the development of the television as a mass medium. These early days were focussed more
towards a philosophy of customer orientation and using qualitative approaches to marketing.

The first shift in the philosophy of marketing came about due to a changing attitude in
academia. As the field matured, quantitative analysis and analytical methods gained greater
prominence as a tool for both the validation and driving force for marketing. The qualitative
approaches of customer orientation and the marketing concept lost favour among many
marketing educators and scholars. This was compounded by the increasing availability of
computers and reliable databases. Scholars were encouraged to emphasize empirical data and
mathematical models in their research.

This led to the integration of marketing into the strategic functions of an organisation in the
1970s and 80s. Key marketing concepts were included into the strategic management field.
Both the shift of marketing into quantitative realms as well as its evolution into a strategic
function can be explained by the difficulties faced to quantify monetarily, marketings role in
an organisation. Due to this, marketing often loses out to the selling function. During this time,
it was observed that 80% of the marketing budget in many organisations was focussed on
selling. Considering that sales is a direct financial metric for performance, it no surprise that
sales promotion became the most rigorously studied area of marketing.

In recent times however, the original idea that marketing is much more than selling and is
distinct from it, has been steadily growing in prominence. This shift has been led by the growth
of the integrative approach to marketing. This approach arises out of changes in media usage
patterns, focus on marketing efficiency and effectiveness, and generation of value through
customer engagement. Thus, it is a strategy that combines both the qualitative aspects of
customer orientation as well the quantitative aspects of resource and investment oriented
thinking. Marketing scholars too have started to emphasize the role of managerial relevance in
marketing research. The core focus of marketing is shifting back from firms to customers,
products to benefits and to the creation of relationship and value.