In order to understand marketing better it helps to look to the past and see the evolution of this subject through its various ‘eras’. But before considering the different eras of marketing one should ask oneself: Why does marketing even exist? You could summarize it as a company’s need to set itself apart in a crowded marketplace, in order to make its products desirable to the public. Therefore marketing is a technique used to create desire/want in an audience who cannot be relied upon to automatically purchase the products. It is creation of demand in order to have the supply sold.
This makes much sense when one looks back to the Trade Era or Production Era (the beginning of the industrial age, and before), where there was a scarcity of supply, and was great demand. Therefore little ‘convincing’ was necessary to sell one’s supply/products. The amount of ‘market research’ needed at this time was minimal.
Following the Industrial Revolution there was much competition and companies were forced to move from the passive view point of “supply creates its own demand”, and become active in actually selling their products. This is logical as there was now more supply than demand, therefore companies were forced to compete against each other to get customers. This was the Sales Era.
As the market began to become saturated with companies selling their products (1950’s and forward), it took a new idea and method to stand out from the crowd. Basically, instead of just making any old products they wanted, companies began doing research in the market to find out what consumers truly wanted/needed, and then with this information, created products to fill that need. One could say this was the first time that true marketing came into being. As from here on consumer needs/wants dictated what products/services a company would then create. This era is aptly named the Marketing Era.
Fast forward from the 90’s to present and we find a new era, the Relationship Era, with the mentality being that if you can increase your customer retention you will have less waste, as it costs less to keep a happier customer than to find a brand new customer. Companies achieve this by exceeding customer expectations with excellent service, and tightening up quality control to help prevent cancellations and poor PR.
Social Media Marketing Era?
Thanks to the power of social networking websites and applications, this has enabled companies to take the Relationship Era to the next level, by providing round the clock 24 hour support and resources. Additionally the ‘human/personal’ aspect of social media helps companies build even better relationships.
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