(management For Professionals) Wing Sun Li (auth.) - Strategic Management Accounting_ A Practical Guidebook With Case Studies-springer Singapore

International Conference KNOWLEDGE-BASED ORGANIZATION

Vol. XXIV No 2 2018

FROM MARKETING 1.0 TO MARKETING 4.0 – THE EVOLUTION OF THE

MARKETING CONCEPT IN THE CONTEXT OF THE 21ST CENTURY

Mircea FUCIU, Luigi DUMITRESCU

“Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, Romania

mircea.fuciu@ulbsibiu.ro, luigi.dumitrescu@ulbsibiu.ro

Abstract: The evolution of the society and that of the information and communication technologies of

the last decades have brought great changes in the business world and in the way, companies relate

and view the consumers. In this context of the everchanging world of the 21st Century, we must see

how the concept of marketing has evolved in the last century and how these shifts must be applied in

today’s world. Our paper presents a brief the evolution of the marketing concept from the first ideas of

marketing in the beginning of the last century and up to our days, we underline the shifts that have

occurred in an interconnected world from an exclusive to an inclusive approach, from individual to

social actions etc. We also point out the need to change and adapt the marketing strategy to deliver

value to consumers, employees, to business partners and vision to shareholders. We consider that

delving further into these aspects will bring forth further knowledge and allow the companies and

academics to understand better the changes that will come in the years to come.

Keywords: marketing, evolution, consumer, values, change

1. Introduction

The evolution of today’s society is

changing the business world, therefore the

companies and the institutions, as well as

their managers and employees must change

with it. Some important changes have been

caused by the development and extreme

usage of the Internet.

This communication tool, has brought us

connectivity, has brought us as consumers

closer to the companies, but also it has

made us (companies and individuals) more

vulnerable. The great majority of the people

are more and more connected via social

media networks, via email, via YouTube

and many other communication channels.

In his latest book, Marketing 4.0, Philip

Kotler mentioned that “the top of the

world’s most populous countries is the

United States of Facebook, with its

population of 1.65 billion people” [4].

In these conditions we must think how we

got here. How the evolution of the society

has influenced the business world, how the

evolution of social media has changed the

way we communicate and ultimately how

the marketing concept has evolved from its

beginnings at the dawn of the 20th Century

to the digital, social and holistic approaches

of the 21st Century.

Our demarche is a combination of literature

review in this area as well as, underlining

several important aspects of general

marketing strategy that must be considered

by the companies if they want to succeed in

the business world of this century.

2. From marketing 1.0 to marketing 4.0

Before going towards the main evolution of

the marketing thought, we must point out

several definitions of the marketing

concept, that have evolved over the years

DOI: 10.1515/kbo–2018-0064

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and which can reflect the marketing way of

thinking. The word marketing comes from

the verb “to market”, which is of anglo–

saxon origin and it represents the idea of

selling and buying a certain product [1].

The first recognised definition of the

marketing concept was presented in the

1960’s by the American Marketing

Association [9], “the development of

economic activities (business activities) that

direct the flow of goods and services from

producers to the consumers”. The

evolution of the marketing definitions over

the years is presented in table 1.

Table 1 Evolution of the definitions of marketing over the years

Author

Definition of the marketing concept

Denner, 1971 [1]

“The permanent analysis of the demand on one hand and

on the other hand, the development and usage of the

means to satisfy this demand in the condition of having a

profit”

Stanton, 1974 [8]

“Marketing represents an entire system of economic

activities regarding the programming, pricing, promotion

and distribution of products and services meant to satisfy

the needs of current and potential consumers”

Baker 1976 [2]

“Marketing is a process of exchange between individuals

and/or organizations which is concluded to the mutual

benefit and satisfaction of the parties’”

AMA, 1985 [3]

“Marketing is the process of planning and executing the

conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas,

goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy

individual and organizational goals”

“Marketing is an organizational function and a set of

its stakeholders.”

with the consumers to obtain a certain value from them”.

products and of services that carry value”.

processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and

clients, partners, and society at large”.

requirements profitably”.