History of marketing

The term 'marketing' comes from the Latin, 'mercatus', meaning a marketplace. Pictured: La Boqueria, Barcelona, Spain
Scholars have found evidence of marketing practices in the marketplaces of antiquity. Pictured: The Moorish Bazaar, painting by Edwin Lord Weeks, 1873

The study of the history of marketing, as a discipline, is meaningful because it helps to define the baselines upon which change can be recognised and understand how the discipline evolves in response to those changes.[1] The practice of marketing has been known for millennia, but the term "marketing" used to describe commercial activities assisting the buying and selling of products or services came into popular use in the late nineteenth century.[2] The study of the history of marketing as an academic field emerged in the early twentieth century.[3]

Marketers tend to distinguish between the history of marketing practice and the history of marketing thought:

  1. the history of marketing practice refers to an investigation into the ways that marketing has been practiced; and how those practices have evolved over time as they respond to changing socio-economic conditions
  2. the history of marketing thought refers to an examination of the ways that marketing has been studied and taught

Although the history of marketing thought and the history of marketing practice are distinct fields of study, they intersect at different junctures.[4]

The publication, in 1960, of Robert J. Keith's article, "The Marketing Revolution", was a pioneering work in the study of the history of marketing practice.[5] In 1976, the publication of Robert Bartel's book, The History of Marketing Thought, marked a turning-point in the understanding of how marketing theory evolved since it first emerged as a separate discipline around the turn of last century.[6]

  1. ^ Jones, Brian D. G.; Shaw, Eric H. (2006). "A History of Marketing Thought". Handbook of Marketing. Weitz, Barton A.; Wensley, Robin (editors). Sage. pp. 582 pages. ISBN 978-1-4129-2120-6.
  2. ^ English Language and Usage, http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/335201/etymology-of-marketing-how-when-did-it-change-meaning
  3. ^ Brian Jones, D.G. and Shaw, E.H, "The History of Marketing Thought," in Handbook of Marketing, Weitz, R. and Wensley, R. (eds), London, UK, 2003, p. 50
  4. ^ Hollander, Stanley C.; Rassuli, Kathleen M.; Jones, D. G. Brian; Dix, Laura Farlow (2005). "Periodization in Marketing History". Journal of Macromarketing. 25 (1): 32–41. doi:10.1177/0276146705274982. S2CID 9997002.
  5. ^ Keith, R. J., "The Marketing Revolution," Journal of Marketing, Vol. 24, No. 1; Jul 1959 – Apr 1960, pp 35–38
  6. ^ Bartels, R., The History of Marketing Thought, Columbus, Ohio, Grid, 1976.