Lauren
Whether you are scrolling through your Instagram feed or watching a funny video on YouTube, you would be hard-pressed to avoid seeing an advertisement or two. Nowadays, with more consumers using the Internet and social media than ever before, businesses have strong digital marketing strategies that make sure that they are able to reach consumers online.
However, this was not always the case. Marketing strategies have shifted since the earliest examples of marketing, and now marketing is more pervasive than ever.
Here are a few random facts about the history of marketing:
1. Marketing has existed for centuries
Years before social media advertisements, television commercials, and even mainstream printed advertising, business owners used branding and marketing to sell their products and services.
In the Middle Ages, China exhibited early practices related to marketing like putting family names on packaging and creating retail signs for their markets.
During the late seventeenth century and the early eighteenth century, England saw the creation and rise of promotional flyers, handbills, trade cards, and posters. These were small displays that were affixed on buildings or distributed among local civilians.
In the eighteenth century, pottery makers Josiah Wedgewood and Matthew Boulton helped create different marketing tactics that are still used today like mailed advertising, traveling salesmen, and product segmentation.
As innovations with transport in the nineteenth century made it easier for people to travel across the country, businesses focused on building brands and brand recognition in order to sell their products on a national scale.
While marketing might seem like a product of increased consumerism in the twentieth century, and many people point to examples from newspapers and magazines when they think about early forms of branding and advertising, the truth is that marketing tactics have been used throughout history by business owners and individual sellers alike.
2. The first billboard was created to advertise the circus
When you drive by billboards on your way to work, have you ever wondered how they first came to be? Although you likely pass by several billboards on your morning commute, these giant advertisements were not always this popular.
In the early nineteenth century, the closest thing cities had to billboards were the small promotional flyers local merchants would hang up for passersby to see as they went through town. This changed when a man named Jared Bell began printing large advertisements, now known as billboards, to advertise traveling circus acts.
A few years later, his idea took off, and the first billboard was leased for advertising purposes in 1867.
3. The first marketing course was taught at University of Michigan
Today there are hundreds of thousands of college students majoring in marketing, and many businesses rely on professionals with marketing majors to develop and implement their marketing strategies.
However, just a century ago, marketing education was just getting started. The first marketing class was taught at the University of Michigan in 1902 by Edward David Jones, who went on to become a professor of Political Economy.
The next time you contact your brand’s marketing specialist, remember you have pioneers like Jones to thank for the creation and success of marketing education.
4. Printed advertising took off during the Industrial Revolution
As inventions began to change society, making it easier for people to manufacture and mass produce goods, print advertisement marketing began to grow.
The 1700s saw a rise in the mass production of newspapers and the emergence of magazines. The first American magazine in history was published in 1971, and from then on, magazine advertisements became increasingly popular for businesses and brands trying to expand their reach.
5. Telemarketing became popular in the 1900s
Do you get annoyed when you are bombarded by robocalls and telemarketers? So were people in the mid twentieth century when telemarketing first started.
When a growing number of households started buying telephones, marketers found a way to take advantage of this new resource. In 1957, the first telemarketing firm, DialAmerica, started operating. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, telemarketing was a common tactic that businesses used to sell their products to consumers.
6. Search engine marketing began in 1995
While most people today use Google when browsing the web, early Internet users had search tools that were far different and trickier to use like Archie, Gopher, and AltaVista. Although these search engines do not seem to have a lot in common with the ones that are popular today, they do share one trait: search marketing.
Search engine marketing and developing websites that rank high on search engine results pages have been around since 1995, and it shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. In fact, search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the best modern marketing tools that businesses need to focus on in order to grow.
While the tools and resources used for marketing have changed considerably over the past few decades and centuries, the main focus of marketing has stayed the same throughout history.
