Blackwell Reference Online

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Marketing was apparently taught as a business subject as far back as 1902, at the University of Wisconsin, although the first textbooks on the subject were not written until several years later ( Converse, 1951 ; Bartels, 1962, 1970 ). The concept has no single universally agreed definition and perspectives on the nature of marketing have shifted considerably over time. Halbert (1965) has suggested that this is due to marketing having no recognized central theoretical basis such as exists for many other disciplines, the natural sciences in particular. The development of “marketing” is often seen in terms of at least three “eras” (see, e.g., Webster, 1988 ; Gilbert and Bailey, 1990 ). The first of these is most commonly termed the “production” era ( Keith, 1960 ) and is considered to have taken place between 1870 and 1930, when the primary focus of marketing was limited to overcoming constraints on supply rather than paying attention to sales methods or customer requirements. The production era was apparently followed by the “sales” era, between 1930 and 1950, where marketing's responsibility was to sell what the organization produced, with a consequent focus on sales techniques. The shift from the production era to the sales era has been attributed to increased competition in many industrial sectors ( Keith, 1960 ). Finally, the “marketing” era signified a widespread adoption ... log in or subscribe to read full text