Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
The Essentials of Today's Marketing 4, Assoc.Prof.Dr.İnci ERDOGAN TARAKÇI,Assoc.Prof.Dr.Ramazan ASLAN, Editör, Efe Akademik Yayıncılık, İstanbul, ss.87-106, 2025
Marketing is recognized in today's business world not only as a sales
technique but also as a discipline that shapes the strategic vision of
businesses. Historically, marketing emerged after the industrial revolution to
solve the problem of surplus production; later, with the development of a
consumer-oriented approach, it became an area intertwined with social,
cultural, and technological factors.
Looking at the historical process, people initially started working in
factories and earned income. The use of income to purchase necessities led
to an increase in production volume, and after increased production, the
issue of selling and marketing products came to the fore. In the early days of
factory production, all products could be sold easily because the needs of
society were so great. For example, even though Henry Ford's automobile
factory produced cars only in black for a long time, all the cars were sold.
With competing factories starting production, products began to be
manufactured in different options. As competition intensified, efforts to sell
products gained importance, and marketing came to the fore. Over time,
technology advanced, and production shifted from steam engines to
machines powered by electricity and fossil fuels. Today, with the use of
robot technology, production can be carried out without human intervention.
There has been a shift from mass production to order-based production and
personalized production. Alongside industrial developments, communication
infrastructure has also advanced. The internet infrastructure began to be used
for communication, and as a result of the development of computer and
mobile technologies, communication methods between people and shopping
habits changed, and marketing efforts moved to the internet. Following
changes in consumers' lifestyles, both production and marketing efforts have
been redesigned according to consumers' changing desires and needs.
Initially used only for communication, the internet began to be used as
a sales environment in the 1990s. With the development of secure payment
methods, sales and logistics activities began to be carried out over the
internet. Customers, who used to have to go door to door to buy a product,
can now sit at their computers and learn about the features of products. They
have started to compare prices and features between products. Customers
can now buy products that are not sold in their region from anywhere in the
world. This has brought about fundamental changes in consumer behavior
and led to the development of new habits.
In the 2000s, traditional media lost its popularity and on-line
communication became a hit. The concept of digital marketing has revolutionized marketing theories. Measurability, personalization, and direct
access to the target audience are among the most important features of
digital marketing. It has become possible to track the number of people who
see advertisements and promotional activities through website traffic
counters. Weaknesses such as the inability to determine whether
advertisements in traditional media reach the target audience, the high cost
of advertising and promotion, and the sending of advertising messages to
everyone, regardless of their interest, have been minimized with digital
marketing. Thanks to the internet, businesses have begun to reach the target
customer groups they really want to address. With e-commerce, instead of
producing a product and putting it on the market, it has become possible to
bring products that customers need and have ordered to them. This has saved
businesses from logistics costs. In particular, unnecessary inventory costs
have decreased.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, restrictions on going out made on-line
shopping and communication a necessity. The necessity experienced during
the pandemic turned into dependency after the pandemic, and on-line
shopping became the new normal for consumers. The pandemic period
caused difficulties not only for consumers but also for producers in selling
their products. All companies that did not sell on-line were forced to use this
environment to make sales and moved their marketing efforts to the internet.
The final stage of digitalization has been reached, creating an
environment where customers can design and purchase the products they
want. Thanks to the internet and computer software, it has become possible
to involve the customer in the production process. Social media monitoring
has made it easier to communicate with target customer groups.
With the beginning of the use of social media environments, the
internet environment has undergone a restructuring within itself. Users
becoming content creators has initiated one of the paradigm shifts in
marketing. Social media has paved the way for consumers to become not
only passive buyers, but also active content creators, brand ambassadors, and
critics. This transformation has led to the questioning of classical marketing
theories and accelerated the emergence of new approaches. The issue of how
classical marketing theories can be adapted to the new marketing
environment has gained importance.
This section details the historical development of marketing theories,
the impact of social media on these theories, and new trends in social media
marketing. This reveals how businesses position themselves in today's digital
environment and how they influence consumer behavior.