The History of Marketing: Part One

October 14, 2011

With this post, we’ll begin a monthly series examining the history of marketing in print. We’ll look at famous campaigns, do some analysis, and feed our inner history-geek. Marketing is a relatively new concept, emerging as a formal discipline in the early 1900’s. We know, of course, that marketing extends back far beyond that.

From the dawn of time, people have been trying to convince others to do something; buy a product, support an idea, take some kind of action. From this perspective, marketing has existed for millenia.

Take a look at this example:

Clearly, this is a marketing campaign for meat fresh from the day’s hunt!

Maybe not, but the point stands. As long as humans have existed, we’ve tried to convince others to do things, and that’s really what marketing is.

We hope you enjoy this series, and if you have ideas for us to explore in these posts, let us know in the comments or talk to us on Twitter or Facebook.

TO THE TOP