A bit of background history on the concept of marketing

Marketing didn't just emerge out of the blue. It's developed as society, business and organizations have developed. Organizations have used a range of orientations to their world over time, including the marketing concept which itself continues to evolve. Let's have a look at some of the other business orientations that have come before the marketing concept and also ones that are evolving from the marketing concept.

1. Production concept
2. Product concept
3. Selling concept
4. Marketing concept
5. Societal marketing concept
6. Experience concept

1. Production concept

The organization believes that consumers will buy products that are widely available and low in cost. So managers focus on achieving high production efficiency and wide distribution. Remember Henry Ford? You can have it in black, black or black. Not much need for customer input here. Just build it and they'll come, if it does the job and is reasonably priced. Historically, this approach begins with the industrial revolution and had its heyday until the beginning of the Great Depression. Some companies (and some libraries?) still believe this.

2. Product concept

The organization believes that consumers will buy products that offer the best quality, performance or innovative features. Managers focus on making the best products and constantly improving them, whether customers want them or not. The focus is on engineers and things rather than customers and solutions to their problems. I get the feeling that some tech companies (and some libraries?) are still a bit like this.

3. Selling concept

The organization believes that consumers, unless stimulated will not buy enough of the organizations products. So managers focus on an aggressive selling and promotion effort. From the time of the Great Depression, simply producing a product, or even producing a better product, wasn't enough. The 'hard sell' was required in an increasingly competitive marketplace. I don't know that too many public libraries ever had the luxury of enough money (running a sales force is expensive!) to adopt this view, but I'll bet many of you have come across companies that still treat you like this. The advent of a much more informed consumer society where people are much more 'savvy' about business practices makes this way a real turn off for most customers. Even some used car companies (a few? a couple? there must be?) have worked that one out!

4. Marketing concept

The organization believes that achieving its goals is best achieved by integrating its marketing activities, more effectively than its competitors, towards identifying and satisfying the needs and wants of target markets. Here managers focus on marketing, rather than selling, which influences all company planning. This stage began in Australia towards the end of the 1960's. Not many public libraries that I've come across have reached this stage yet. Some think they are there. Some are trying and are on the way. The customer becomes the focus here. I know that's a bit of a cliché, but that's what it's all about.

5. Societal marketing concept

The organization still has its marketing orientation but tries to do it in a socially, ethically and environmentally rsponsible way. This way has a more long term sustainable emphasis. Managers focus on the quality of life that they deliver to their customers in an attempt to build long term profitable and mutually advantageous relationships with them. This stage developed out of the social and economic conditions of the 1970s and 1980s. I think most public librarians that I know would be aspiring to this type of marketing. With the trend towards sustainability and triple bottom line reporting, I think this fits in well with the aims of our parent organizations and the communities that we serve.

6. Experience concept

This goes beyond marketing of goods and services to the point where companies use services as the stage and goods as the props to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event. Think about it. Once you get beyond price, what is the difference between the retail outlets that you use and the ones that you don't? Is it a combination of its closeness to your work/home, opening hours, the ease of getting around the aisles, the space, the range of goods on sale, the service of the staff, the safety and convenience of the shopping centre and the car parking and a myriad of other factors that contribute to the overall 'experience'? Think about the 'experiences' that your customers have in your public library and the factors that contribute to them. Is every 'experience' that they have of your library a memorable event?

If you want to find out more about these approaches, check out the references below.

Kotler, Philip, Marketing 6th ed. Pearson Education Australia, Frenchs Forest NSW, 2004. p 18-22,402-404

Stanton, William J et al, Fundamentals of marketing, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, Roseville, NSW 1992. p 16-18)

Pine, B.Joseph II and Gilmore, James H, Welcome to the experience economy, Harvard Business Review, July/August, 1998, pp 97-105.

Pine, B.Joseph II and Gilmore, James H, The Experience economy: Work is theatre and every business a stage, Harvard Business School Publishing, 1999,

Schmitt, Bernd H, Experiential marketing: How to get customers to sense, feel, think, act, relate to your company brands, The Free Press, NY, 1999.)