• The study of the history of marketing, as a discipline, is 
   meaningful because it helps to define the baselines 
   upon which change can be recognised and understand 
   how the discipline evolves in response to those 
   changes. The practice of marketing has been known for 
   millennia, but the term "marketing" used to describe 
   commercial activities buying and selling a products or 
   services came into popular use in the late nineteenth 
   century. The study of the history of marketing as an 
   academic field emerged in the early twentieth century.
  Marketers tend to distinguish between the history of 
  marketing practice and the history of marketing thought:
  1. the history of marketing practice refers to an 
    investigation into the ways that marketing has been 
    practiced; and how those practices have evolved over 
    time as they respond to changing socio-economic 
    conditions
  2. the history of marketing thought refers to an examination 
    of the ways that marketing has been studied and taught
           Etymology
  • According to etymologists, the term 'marketing' first 
   appeared in dictionaries in the sixteenth century 
   where it referred to the process of buying and selling 
   at a market.
  • The contemporary definition of 'marketing' as a 
   process of moving goods from producer to consumer 
   with an emphasis on sales and advertising first 
   appeared in dictionaries in 1897.
  • The term, marketing, is a derivation of the Latin word, 
   mercatus meaning market-place or merchant
      Orientations and philosophies
  • In the marketing literature, continuing debate 
   surrounds the orientations or philosophies that 
   might have informed marketing practice at different 
   periods of time. 
  • An orientation may be defined as "the type of 
   activity or subject that an organization seems most 
   interested in and gives most attention to".
  • In relation to marketing orientations, the term has 
   been defined as a "philosophy of business 
   management"
       Production orientation
  The production orientation is one of the oldest 
  philosophies that guides sellers
  • A production orientation is often proposed as 
   the first of the so-called orientations that 
   dominated business thought. Keith dated the 
   production era from the 1860s to the 1930s, 
   but other theorists argue that evidence of the 
   production orientation can still be found in 
   some companies or industries.