Marketing
over the course of the 20th century has transformed as technology
has advanced. Today it continues to evolve as further advances are achieved. Originally,
marketing was as much as someone standing in one place, talking to people as
they walked by. Then print media came to be a new way of marketing with posters
and the newspaper. Then came radio and television, and now there is web
marketing. Web marketing, though it is vastly different than what has been seen
in other marketing ways, has similar traits to an older way of marketing that
pre dates the technology era that is known today.
 |
| Traveling Salesman |
Marketing
in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s saw a face to face type of marketing.
Salesmen would travel from city to city trying to sell products to consumers,
acting like a moving marketing platform. The salesmen would either set up on a
street and talk to people about the product that was being sold, or he would go
door to door, making sales pitches to people in their own home. In 1900 “there
were an estimated 350,000 traveling men doing business in America,” making it a
popular way to try and advertise products to consumers [1]. By going up to
people, interrupting what they are doing and talking to them directly, salesmen
were able to get consumers to actively be engaged in what was trying to be sold
to them. It was more personable in the sense that there was a one on one
interaction, and the salesmen knew for sure that people were informed about
what was being sold because they were personally giving the information
directly to the potential customer. By providing the information directly to
the potential customer, salesmen were able to adjust their selling strategy to
make the product something that the person wanted. This tactic later became a
problem because salesmen ended up lying to people about the product. This
situation happened enough that guidelines were later put in place as to how
marketing should be done.
Around
the same time, newspapers and other print media were used to also market and
advertise products to consumers. However, print media were not as personable as
the salesmen were, and led to the advancement of mass marketing [2]. Newspapers
were able to reach many people at one time, while posters did the same, just in
different locations. Mass marketing was revolutionized when the radio was
introduced [1]. The radio gave way for new ways to market and advertise to people,
since people who listen to the radio also have to listen to the advertisements.
Instead of reading advertisements, people were able to leisurely listen to them
through the radio, making it easier to reach people.
 |
| 1930's Poster Ad |
The marketing
business was revolutionized once again when televisions came out. Now there was
yet another way to have mass marketing reach many
people all at once. In the
late 1940’s television ads were limited to major cities with local content. Then
in the early 1950’s three major networks started to broadcast nationally, and
ads were nationally transmitted. The short, local only advertising era was
over, and soon mass marketing to the masses once again prevailed as the way to
market. In 1956 Wendell Smith, who worked for the research firm Alderson &
Session, published an article that discusses how marketing needs to be narrowed
down into smaller segments, a tactic called market segmentation. Smith
advocated for segmentation because “segmentation had become a feasible strategy
in the mid-1950s for two reasons: the development of more flexible production techniques
and the conditions of prosperity that allowed consumers to pay a little more to
get closer to what they wanted [2].” While segmentation was being used, the end
result was still mass marketing, just to a smaller group of people who had similar
preferences. Towards the end of the 20th century product placement in
“television, movies, and sporting events” became popular. Product placement
used segmentation to determine what types of movies, television shows or
sporting events would best fit a certain type of product for a certain audience
[1]. Still, mass media was used to communicate the advertisement as it reached
homes with televisions. Segmentation can also be seen now in cable TV or satellite
TV. For example, “Home and Garden channel viewers get advertisements for paint
and other building products while Travel Channel viewers see ads for airlines
and vacation spots [1].” While the selected audience is narrowed down, this is
still mass marketing because of how many people watch certain channels, and
because the advertising isn’t just meant for one individual, and their specific
needs.
 |
| Family watching TV on an early set |
Web marketing
is meant for one individual, and surprisingly has similarities to the personal ways
of the salesmen. Web marketing uses information that is gathered by each
individual to make a personal advertisement on the screen for them. For example,
based off of search history web marketing can adjust what it displays to people
on websites, making it completely unique. This is similar to the marketing
before the discovery of all of the technology that is known today. The salesmen
“adjusted his pitch to the needs and interests of his audience” just as web
advertising today adjusts to each individual person [1]. While the two ways of marketing
are very different, the idea in personalizing it for everyone is the same.
Personalizing
marketing advertisements by salesmen back in the early 20th century
made people question the way marketing was done. Today this is also seen in web
marketing. Once again there is a clear relationship between personalizing web
marketing and personalizing face to face marketing. Today people are
questioning how marketers are obtaining and using information gathered from consumer’s
past internet search results and so forth. The question of how is this
information being obtained is being asked by consumers [3]. Skepticism is therefore
entering the minds of individuals, just as it did in the early 20th
century. It seems that personalization is questioned when it comes to marketing
ethics, due to it possibly invading privacy or not being entirely truthful. Only time will tell if the way marketing is
done will change again in terms of an ethical concern.
Marketing
over time has changed drastically as new technologies are invented and then
used as marketing tools. In the beginning of what is known as marketing today,
salesmen pitched sales to individuals on an individual, personal level. Then came
new types of media, like newspapers and posters, opening the door to mass
marketing. This mass marketing passed up the personalized way of marketing with
the introduction of radios and televisions. While it may seem that eventually
television made its way back towards the strategy of personalized marketing, in
the end it is still mass marketing reaching many people at the same time who
have similar interests. It is not until web marketing comes into existence that
marketing is reintroduced to personalized marketing, where everyone has
advertisements that suits their specific interests and wants. Web marketing
also comes with the same problems of skepticism that is seen with personalized
marketing. While there may be problems and questions as to how web marketing is
done, it seems to be successful and seems to be here to stay, unlike the traveling
salesmen.
[1] William M., O'Barr," A Brief History of Advertising in
America.
[2] Katherine E. Jocz and John A., Quelch, " Milestones in Marketing,” pg. 829-830
[3] Jan H. Schumann, Florian von Wangenheim, & Nicole
Groene, " Targeted
Online Advertising: Using Reciprocity Appeals to Increase Acceptance Among
Users of Free Web Services,”
pg.59-60.
Image Sources:
http://design.tutsplus.com/articles/satisfy-your-sweet-tooth-with-these-delicious-vintage-advertisements--psd-11704
No comments:
Post a Comment