The Why and The What..

This blog is being written with the purpose of penning down the culmination of discussions on the extremely interesting topic of marketing and its applications in the real world. There is also an intention of studying all the concepts discussed on a common basis-a common product on the basis of which every topic will be discussed is an attempt to achieve this. Apart from this are involved voluntary and involuntary academic interests like maintaining an archive for all the marketing studies ever attempted, trying to create a page which might make studying a tad simpler and few similar ones..

Now that we are done with the WHY, we could get on with the first (and most necessary) discussion of "WHAT!". Hence, before diving into concepts in marketing, I would like to start with how exactly the concept 'Marketing' as we study it started (from the point when it was officially documented as a concept). So with that in the agenda, here goes:

Earliest uses of the concept of Marketing have been traced to the ancient Babylonian, Greek, Hebrew and Roman periods. Marketplace and similar terminologies have found their way into early dialogues of Plato. The phrase ‘process of moving goods from producer to consumer with emphasis on advertising and sales’, is attested by 1897 It has been argued by researchers that the term marketing was used for the first time in the 1980’s to describe agricultural product distribution and selling activities. However, in spite of its long etymology, the process of giving an official definition to the word marketing began in the early nineteenth century:

1. In 1935 the National Association of Marketing created the first official definition of Marketing.
   “Marketing is the performance of business activities that direct the flow of goods and services from producers to consumers.”
   This was adopted by the AMA in 1948 and in 1960, AMA revisited the definition and decided not to change it. This original definition stood for 50 years until its modification in 1985.
2. 1985-the first revision.
   “Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”
   This definition was adopted as it ‘juxtaposed the 4 Ps’ and focused on the word ‘exchange’. The reason this change was brought about was that the previous definition of the concept of Marketing had been unchanged for the last 50 years. According to the experts reviewing the definition, it did not talk about planning, customer satisfaction and feedback.
3. 2004-the second revision.
   
   
   “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.”In the new definition, a focus on creating and delivering value through customer relationships replaces the historical focus on the exchange paradigm.
4. 2007-the third revision.
   
   
   “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.” 
   
   The new definition includes the role Marketing plays within society at large and has shown Marketing as a science, educational process and a philosophy-not merely a management system. One of the most important changes is that Marketing is presented from a broader perspective. Instead of a function, it has been termed as an educational process. This definition is one which recognizes role of non-marketers for the first time.

So broadly, I think I can safely say that this thing called 'Marketing' is a set of rules which have been (and probably will continue to do so) changing according to the mentality of the target group in the minds of marketers. The definitions, if you see have been evolving over the times as and how the mentality of the target groups have changed.

It would be safe to assume that it will become even more consumer (mentality) centric as the consumer begins to grow more aware of his needs. But currently, for the scope of this chain of posts, we should be good to move on. The next post should read about the selected product (and why is this THE selected product). Until the next post, Ameya Sawadkar logging out of blogger.