Evolution of Marketing Concept NET exam - paper 2,

Evolution of Marketing Concept

Marketing has changed over the centuries, decades and years. The production centered system systematically changed into relationship era of today and over the period; the specializations have emerged such as sales versus marketing and advertising versus retailing. The overall evolution of marketing has given rise to the concept of business development. Marketing has taken the modern shape after going through various stages since last the end of 19th century. The Production oriented practice of marketing prior to the twentieth century was conservative and hidebound by rules-of-thumb and lack of information. way people

. Following is a short summary of the various stages of evolution of marketing

 Exchange oriented Stages: 

             After the stages of nomads people started to settle on the banks of rivers and engaged in agriculture and other economic activities. Then the problem of deficit and surplus in production came into existence. In order to have smooth exchanges “Barter System” came into existence. This is the starting point of marketing activities.

 Production oriented Stages

                     This stage came with the dawn of industrial revolution which started during 1760. The concept behind this stage was if you can offer products with reasonable price and quality, nothing can prevent you from selling and making profits. Here producer gave more emphasis on their production not on the customer requirement .The prevailing attitude and approach of the production orientation era was -“consumers favor products that are available and highly affordable” .The era was marked by narrow product-lines; pricing system based on the costs of production and distribution, limited research, primary aim of the packaging was to protect the product, minimum promotion.

 Sales oriented Stage:
                      Technological development, improving living standard, development in communication and transportation lead people to believe that they can demand more quality goods from the producers than they were offering. Producers started realizing consumers will normally not buy enough unless approached with a substantial selling and promotional efforts. Under this concept the greater emphasis was on increasing the sales than on customer satisfaction

Product stage
                 The attitude changed slowly and approach shifted from production to product and from the quantity to quality. The prevailing attitude of this period was that consumers favor products that offer the most quality, performance and innovative features and the mantra for marketers was ‘A good product will sell itself’, so does not need promotion

 Marketing oriented Stages:
              As the consumer demand and producer’s supply came into equal positions, the producers were forced to rethink over the selling concept and thus it leads to introduction of marketing concepts. Moreover, intense competition in the market made producers realize that products could not be sold without having a strong understanding of consumer needs and preferences.
           The shift from production to product and from product to customers later manifested in the Marketing Era which focused on the “needs and wants of the customers” and the mantra of marketers was ” ‘The consumer is king! Find a need and fill it’.

Consumer oriented Stage:
               This stage have totally opposite view than the other stages above. Here producers started producing products keeping in mind the requirement of the customer. Production process are adjusted and re-adjusted in order keep align with ever changing needs of customers. Competition becomes a keen factor here.

Management oriented Stages: 
          This is the present stage of the evolution of marketing concept. Consumer marketing became an accepted marketing philosophy. Today marketing is the most crucial in business planning and decision-making.