Marketing 3.0: From Products to Customers to the Human Spirit

CHAPTER TWO

Future Model for Marketing 3.0

THE PAST 60 YEARS OF MARKETING: A BRIEF RETROSPECT

Marketing has been one of the most exciting subjects in the business world during the past six decades. In a nutshell, marketing has revolved around three major disciplines: product management, customer management, and brand management . In fact, marketing concepts evolved from a focus on product management in the 1950s and 1960s to a focus on customer management in the 1970s and the 1980s. It then evolved further and added the discipline of brand management in the 1990s and the 2000s. The continuous adaptation of marketing concepts to different eras of human lives is what keeps it exciting.

Ever since Neil Borden coined the infamous “marketingmix” term in the 1950s and Jerome McCarthy introduced the four Ps in the 1960s, marketing concepts have undergone significant transformation while adapting to the changing environment.¹ The manufacturing sector was the center of the U.S. economy in the postwar 1950s and continued to soar during the 1960s. In such an environment, it was logical to see the development of marketing concepts simply focused on the product management discipline.

Marketing was initially viewed as just one of several important functions supporting production, along with finance and human resources. The key function of marketing was to generate demand for products. McCarthy’s four Ps concisely explained the generic practices of product management in those days: develop ...