Marketing has become so convenient for many companies nowadays that many of these companies take it for granted. Some of these newer companies and big startups became masters of digital marketing without knowing its origins and how it started. The evolution of marketing into digital media has seen the success of many of these companies and the exploration into its history is essential for anyone who wants to master the field of marketing.
The Beginning of Marketing
Contrary to what many companies say today, physical marketing isn’t dead. The essentials of marketing are captivating the audience, engaging them, and turning their engagement into sales and revenue. Today’s reality is that a website development and SEO company can do all these things through blogging, backlinks, and content creation. They can also do it in a very efficient manner. But certain consumers have their own preferences, and some consumers still believe that physical marketing pays homage to human innovation and creativity better than digital marketing.
Physical marketing has been around for a very long time. People started doing it without even knowing its term. Back then, it was mainly advertisements, and it was called in such a way. But the concept of marketing was already there, and physical marketing was king for about two centuries or so. One of the main examples of this and considered to be the origin of branding is in China.
Back in 2700 BC, the Chinese already placed certain information on various items. This information usually contains where the product was made and the name of the people who made it. This eventually became the norm in the Song Dynasty (960-1127) when this labeling of products created premodern brands that we never heard of because of China’s closed culture back then. One of the more famous brands that revolutionized physical marketing that we all know is Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola and the Revolution of Marketing
We all know it. The color, the font, and the label. It’s iconic, unique, and memorable, and nothing can surpass its marketing strategy back then. Coca-cola was the king of physical marketing and one of the known progenitors of the concept. It started its marketing during the late 1800s, and it was iconic in a way that it decided to use a timeless logo to be its face.
The company placed its logo on every product it made. Eventually, it made its way to various posters near movie theaters and busy streets. Until today, the same logo and font are used with little variation. If you have noticed, Coca-Cola still has its presence in physical marketing despite billions of people in the world knowing about the brand. This is because the company believes that marketing is the key to the success of any company, and the moment you stop doing it, is the moment you fail. But technology has other marketing plans.
The Invention of the World Wide Web
Tim Berners-Lee made the World Wide Web (WWW) a platform to share information for universities and scientists from all over the world. However, as you know, it did so much more than that. The first advertisement on the internet was made just a couple of years after creating the World Wide Web. In 1993 when the first clickable banner was created, and it was in 1994, Yahoo took advantage of it.
Yahoo got to more than a million hits that year from digital advertisements alone. Many companies saw the power that was digital marketing, and eventually, companies worldwide decided to take advantage of it. The creation of Google, MSN, and other search engine made digital marketing essential. Every company started to optimize their websites. Many of these companies are willing to spend millions of dollars on the front page of Google’s search engine.
Digital Marketing and Beyond
Digital marketing has become a priority for many businesses out there. They believe that if you control digital marketing, you control the industry. This has some truth to it. However, we must take a step back and see that other aspects of marketing, such as physical marketing, are still working out today.
One of the biggest companies out there that is still earning billions of dollars without spending much on digital marketing is Trader Joe. You wouldn’t see Trader Joe’s face in online advertisements out there. If you visit the company’s website, you’ll see that it’s a bare-bones website that only shows its essentials. And yet, the company is earning billions of dollars every year. Why is that? It’s because there is an emphasis on tradition and customer loyalty, something that isn’t easily captivated by digital marketing stunts out there.
Ultimately, digital marketing still plays a big role in many companies. Quantity and presence in the online market is a key strategy for this kind of marketing. However, there are still various ways you can do this without using digital marketing. Creativity is still king, and if you have found ways to captivate your audience without digital marketing, then go for it!
