Talk:History of marketing/Archives/2016

For the record: Emergence of the marketing mix

On various Wikipedia pages, it is possible to find many different accounts of the Emergence of the Marketing Mix - many of which are factually incorrect. Here follows a brief account in dot points, with references (and which another editor found so objectionable on the 'Marketing' Page that it was deleted). If anyone cares to write this up, it could be included on this page:

• The first known mention of a marketers as 'mixers of ingredients' has been attributed to Prof James Culliton as early as 1948 (Reference: Culliton, J. The Management of Marketing Costs, [Research Bulletin] Harvard University, 1948).
• Culliton's colleague, Professor Borden, claims to have been instrumental in popularising the term 'marketing mix' because he used it consistently from the late 1940s onwards. Borden did not coin the term 'marketing mix' (he clearly gives credit to his colleague, James Culliton for this). Borden makes this claim in an article, published much later Reference: Borden, N.H., "The Concept of the Marketing Mix," Journal of Advertising Research, 1964, pp 2-7 and reprinted in: Baker, M.J. (ed), Marketing: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management, Volume 5, Routledge, 2001, pp 3-4 and available online at Google Books
• Borden is said to have used the term, 'marketing mix' in an address to the American Marketing Association in 1953

Reference: Dominici, G., "From Marketing Mix to E-Marketing Mix: A Literature Review," International Journal of Business and Management, vol. 9, no. 4. 2009, pp 17-24

• Although the idea of marketers as 'mixers of ingredients' caught on, there was no real consensus about what elements should be included in the mix until 1960. The 4 Ps, in its modern form (i.e., the marketing mix), was first proposed in 1960 by E. Jerome McCarthy in his text-book, Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach Irwin, Homewood, Ill., 1960. Note that McCarthy used the 4 Ps as an organising framework for the entire work, so that it is not appropriate to cite specific page references for the 4Ps.
• Some sources, including some Wikipedia pages, incorrectly attribute Phillip Kotler with developing the 4 Ps. Kotler, who was a prolific writer, was certainly instrumental in popularising the concept of the marketing mix (i.e. 4Ps) and the managerial approach, but credit must go to McCarthy for being the first to publish the marketing mix in a text-book (or indeed in any book).
• The prospect of expanding the marketing mix first took hold at the inaugural AMA Conference dedicated to Services Marketing in the early 1980s (and built on earlier theoretical works pointing to many important limitations of the 4 Ps concept). Taken collectively, the papers presented at that conference indicate that service marketers were thinking about a revision to the general marketing mix based on an understanding that the nature of services required different tools and strategies. Since then there have been a number of different proposals for a service marketing mix (with various numbers of Ps - 6 Ps, 7 Ps, 8 Ps, 9 Ps and rarely more). This suggests that the expanded marketing mix (regardless of whether you like 7 or 8Ps) evolved organically rather then being proposed by a single theorist as many have suggested. A useful reference for this discussion is Fisk, R.P., Brown, W. and Bitner, M.J., "Tracking the Evolution of Services Marketing Literature, Journal of Retailing, vol. 41, (April), 1993 and of course, the AMA Conference Proceedings.

BronHiggs (talk) 04:37, 23 October 2016 (UTC)