TABLE OF CONTENTS The concept of marketing is neither complicated nor original. The customer is always right is a view that has been cited ever since the Industrial Revolution. Marketing acknowledges consumer sovereignty and this has now developed into a management discipline. The subject of marketing as a management discipline originated in the USA in the 1950s, but its origins go back further. America was the birthplace of modern marketing, but in terms of its earliest practice, it was applied much earlier in Europe. The carpenter, tailor, saddler and stonemason knew their customers personally and were in a position to discuss individual needs of size, colour, shape and design at an individual level. Craftsmen appreciated they had to provide satisfactory service to customers. The Industrial Revolution gave rise to large scale manufacturing, so this personal contact ended. With mass production came mass markets and mass distribution. Manufacturers were no longer able to offer a personalised service, and techniques of marketing were developed to fill this gap.
There is no universally accepted definition of marketing. The way it is understood conditions people's perceptions of its value and the contribution it can make both to the success of an organisation and to the competitive health of the economy. As a student of marketing, it is important to appreciate that the term marketing means different things to different people. We examine the subject from these different viewpoints later in this chapter.
Marketing is based on the premise that the customer is the most important...
