TABLE OF CONTENTS Marketing is not a modern invention. In fact it is an age-old human behavior that was in use even before the invention of money. Even when bartering was the means used to exchange one good for another, unless both parties to the exchange were equally motivated, it was necessary for one party to convince the other to make the deal. When businesses started to develop they were at first small and located within the community. Everyone knew the business owners, so it was in their self-interest to keep their neighbors satisfied by producing the goods they needed and desired. When businesses were located in the community, marketing practices could be based on the owners' personal knowledge of their customers.
When the size of businesses grew, they were no longer located in the community. With the mass production of goods, owners no longer personally knew their customers and now had to seriously consider how to market their product. Businesses now needed to communicate the benefits of their product to potential consumers they did not know who had many products from which to choose. For this complicated task the business needed to employ people with marketing knowledge. During the early 20th century the demand from businesses for trained marketing professionals started to increase. To supply these professionals, marketing became a field of academic study at colleges and universities.
The marketing approaches used to motivate people to make the exchange of money for a product have changed...
