Marketing Philosophies: From Customer Abuse to Customer Intimacy, and Again a Little Customer Torment

Abstract

Following the transformations of economy and expansion of business practices, marketing field has evolved during distinctive eras. The aim of this paper is to explore various marketing philosophies in four eras of production, sales, marketing, and relationship marketing that have started in Industrial Revolution and lasted to the third millennium. Ultimately, 10 marketing philosophies will be contrasted based on such criteria as main topics, actors, time horizon, power center, etc., so that a comprehensive view toward this discipline would be achieved.