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Top1. Introduction
Marketing is a relatively young academic discipline. The first lectures in this field were delivered at American universities in the 1890s; interest in the subject grew at the turn of the century when the discipline became established within the academy as evidenced by the introduction of the first marketing courses in 1902 (Plank & Canedy III, 1989; Baker & Saren, 2010; Berghoff et al., 2012). Also, the advancement of marketing as a formal academic discipline is predated by the study of marketing thought—which originated within firms in the late 1800s and was successfully practiced in the first branded goods markets by managers and marketing experts (many of them had no formal training) (Baker & Saren, 2010; Berghoff et al., 2012).
Pragmatic approaches dominated the academic discipline initially—with marketing “experts” coming from the practice— where intuition and experience were valued over theory— which was in many cases considered irrelevant (Carson & McCartan-Quinn, 1995). Many practitioners at the time viewed marketing as an “art” or “craft”. Veteran marketing practitioners often held the belief that experience, intuition, and common-sense— tools that developed through practice over time were the necessary components for successful marketing (Carson & McCartan-Quinn, 1995). Arons (2011) credits these early marketing practitioners working at large companies including Procter and Gamble, General Foods, and Unilever with bringing brand management to marketing; it was “brand managers” who were responsible to give a new product an identity—distinguishing it from similar offerings marketed by competitors. Branding was developed as a tactical response to the improved quality of products being made by less established firms seeking entry into the marketplace (Arons, 2011).
The fact that brands created during the heyday of Madison Avenue have endured and remained successful today—examples include, Tide, Kraft, Lipton, and Coca-Cola— are evidence of the power of branding (Arons, 2011). The formula for “winning” in the marketplace at the time, was to understand and target the consumer through getting the “brand mix” right; this involved positioning the brand in the market with the best logo, price, packaging, advertising, and promotions (Arons, 2011). The brand mix ensured that the brand offered more than just function; there was an emotional component associated with owning the item—marketing sold a feeling or belief that bonded the customer to the product, often inducing a sense of trust (Arons, 2011).