EVOLUTION OF

MARKETING
Issues in Focus—
A. Evolution of Marketing
…Production Era
…Sales Era
…Marketing Era
…Societal Marketing Era
B. Marketing myopia
C. Marketing Challenges and Adjustments for
21st Century
D. Significance of Marketing
 PRODUCTION ERA
Salient Features—
• Prominent in the period of 17th Century to late
1920s
• Law of supply creates its own demand
• Sellers’ dominance in the market
• Focus on efficiency of production rather than the
product
• Wider and quicker supply base and lower price was
the fancy of marketers
• Perception of customers’ preference for product
availability rather than the product
• More demand and less supply
 RAMIFICATION OF
PRODUCTION ERA
• Industries kept concentrating on supply
and lost pulse of the demand and
supply started overriding the demand.
• Industries chose for efficiency and
lowering the price. This phenomenon
led to price war and subsequently
fuelled the competition.
• Margins shrank and product
differentiation was out of scene
 SALES ERA
• Prominent in late 1920s to early 1950s
• Production era fuelled the competition
because of low price and more supply in
the market
• Main thrust on SELLING the product
• Distribution and promotion became the
tools to outwit the competition
• Advertising, sales promotion, market
research received the focus
 RAMIFICATION OF SALES
ERA
• Promotion etc created clutter in the
market
• Products still incongruent to the
market
• Sales and distribution costs kept
crunching margins further
 MARKETING ERA-1
• Started in mid 1950s and it continues
• Consumerism in the air
• Customer orientation received the focus
and prime importance
• Customer information is also taken up as
input besides raw material, fuel etc.
• Selling becomes superfluous. Marketing
becomes the mantra for success
• Besides profitability customer satisfaction
also becomes the equally worthy objective
 MARKETING ERA-2
• Customer becomes the inception and
terminus of the manufacturing process
• Functional integration earns the significance
for ultimate aim of customer satisfaction
• Differentiation at every possible mean of
satisfying the customer, if feasible
• Need, want and demand concept take birth
 RAMIFICATION OF
MARKETING ERA
• Customer status is elevated to the top of
hierarchy of companies
• Companies are evaluated not only in
terms of profitability but also on account
of customer satisfaction and long term
sustainable relationship
• Concepts of CRM, ERP, Reengineering,
SCM, debottlenecking,six sigma emerge
for more functional integration to
understand and satisfy the customer
 SOCIETAL MARKETING
ERA
• Companies realize the importance of society for
long term sustainability
• One more facet added for evaluation of
corporate- Profitability, Customer and BENEFITS
TO SOCIETY
• Economic, Environmental and social feasibility of
companies operations get into the board rooms
• Corporate Responsibility Profile is added in the
vision of the corporate
• Term—Corporate Citizen becomes the buzzword
 RAMIFICATION OF
SOCIETAL MARKETING ERA
• Increasing environmental consciousness is
further buttressed
• Concept of green marketing, three bottom
line approach, Corporate Responsibility
Profile come into existence
• Global and national certifications ISO, Ag-
mark, BIS, ISI for process and product
become important for goodwill of corporate
 LEARINING BY
EXAMPLES
• ITC, a major in tobacco, fertilizers and
FMCG; promulgates the concept of THREE
BOTTOM LINE approach. ITC will evaluate
and do accounting of its operations on
three bottoms-Economic, social and
environmental concerns
• HLL, a major player in FMCG; starts a
campaign named “ SHAKTI” for upliftment
and welfare of rural women in Gujarat and
Rajasthan
 MARKETING myopia
“Industries fail not because markets are
saturated but because of failure & short
sightedness of management.”
…Theodore Levitt in Harvard Business Review.
Reasons of Marketing myopia-
• Marketers’ fancy for the product , process and
selling
• Demand is in the function of population and its
income rise
• No substitutes nearby
• Lower price means more demand for the
product
 REMEDY TO RECOVER FROM
MARKETING myopia
• Be customer led
• Market orientation should flow to every
facet of organization
• Proactive and visionary management
• Search for differentiation, positioning
and
new combinations of product and
services
 NEW CHALLENGES IN 21ST
CENTURY

• Frequent changes in customer

profiles
• More fragmented and more informed
audience
• Technological development shortens
life for technology-in-use
• More customers ,more players and
more expectations
 NEW DIMENSIONS
• REENGINEERING the existing processes
• OUTSOURCING the peripheral or none-core
functions for more focus on core and crunching the
cost
• e-COMMERCE to assist in making quick decisions
and continuous updating of market movement
• BENCHMARKING against the latest performance
• SUPPLIERS RELATIONSHIP for long run economic
benefit
• TERRITORIAL EXPANSION to the new markets
• DECENTRALIZATION of operations to adjust with
local ambiance