A century of marketing

For more than a decade a growing number of academics have questioned the basis and value of many core marketing principles and have brought into question the credibility of the dominant historical account of the development of marketing (Fitchett 2005). Despite this criticism, and the growing disdain heaped upon marketers, change is notoriously slow in marketing education. This paper traces the history of marketing during the twentieth century to see if any lessons or indeed patterns can be distinguished for the new millennium marketers. While there is always a danger that much of what we each perceive as history is post-hoc rationalisation, there is value in looking back at how and what we have achieved, the perceived expectations along the way and (crucially) whether these have changed. The paper seeks to explore the apparent links between each generation of marketing thought in an attempt to understand, clarify current developments and raise possible research issues. It concludes that marketing thinking is dominated by its time and place and that the fruitless quest for the next new paradigm is more paralysing than stimulating in the marketing debate.