Push Pull Marketing History
Marketing January 1st, 2010Over Christmas and New Year I have been thinking about the history of marketing and in particular the growth of what is known as push/pull marketing . When Googling both subjects Wikipedia provided some interesting information here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_marketing
and here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Push–pull_strategy
and in particular it provided the following ” Timeline of Innovation ” which was interesting because I was trying to build up a picture of how we have marketed historically, what technologies we have used and which are ” Push ” and which are ” Pull “.
Timeline of innovation
- 1450: Gutenberg’s metal movable type, leading eventually to mass-production of flyers and brochures
- 1730s: emergence of magazines (a future vector of niche marketing)
- 1836: first paid advertising in a newspaper (in France)
- 1839: posters on private property banned in London
- 1864: earliest recorded use of the telegraph for mass unsolicited spam
- 1867: earliest recorded billboard rentals
- 1880s: early examples of trademarks as branding
- 1905: the University of Pennsylvania offered a course in “The Marketing of Products”[4]
- 1908: Harvard Business School opens
- 1922: radio advertising commences
- 1940s: electronic computers developed
- 1941: first recorded use of television advertising
- 1950s: systematization of telemarketing
- 1970s: E-commerce invented
- 1980s: development of database marketing as precursor to CRM[5]
- 1980s: emergence of relationship marketing
- 1980s: emergence of computer-oriented spam
- 1984: introduction of guerrilla marketing
- 1985: desktop publishing democratizes the production of print-advertising
- 1991: Integrated marketing communications gains academic status [6]
- 1990s CRM and IMC (in various guises and names) gain dominance in promotions and marketing planning[7],[8]
- 1995-2001: the Dot-com bubble temporarily re-defines[citation needed] the future of marketing
- 1996: identification of viral marketing
- 2000s: Integrated marketing gains acceptance and in 2002 its first dedicated academic research centre[9],[10
Although Wikipedia talks about marketing emerging as a discipline in the 1900’s it was clear to me that marketing was going on long before the 1900’s and this is also clear from the above timeline.
As this article says
http://technorati.com/business/article/the-new-push-pull-marketing/
Push/Pull Marketing itself has been somewhat redefined or understood by marketers over time into something that is pretty simple – some types of marketing are about pushing information to the potential customer and some are about the information being pulled by the potential customer. This is my definition aswell.
What I was curious about was what historically we had done ?? Pulled information or had information pushed ??
I was thinking back to the days when ” business ” was a shop, place of manufacture or an office. It seemed to me that in those times the place itself ” Pulled ” customers – you could argue that thier very presence was ” Pushing ” but I don’t think so. Whilst some businesses may have monopolised the supply of goods or services in a particular area the potential customer essentially visited these premises of thier own free will – much like they now visit websites on the Internet.
It also occurred to me that Word of Mouth ( WoM ) was very important to the business owner and I will assume that these owners adopted mainly a pull approach as they met with various potential customers at Church, the alehouse or other local meetings. They could well have been rather pushy people but I like to think not !
I could also imagine them sending business and personal letters ( although I could not quite imagine a mailshot by stagecoach !! ), keeping records of clients names and addresses ( a database ) and perhaps even giving people ” flyers ” or putting up ” posters ” .
” Flyers ” and ” posters ” sounds like ” Push ” marketing to me and it was interesting to tie this in with the first item in the timeline – mass ( machine ) produced flyers and brochures. Then we have the emergence of magazines in the 1700’s and newspaper advertising in the 1800’s.
Clearly there were posters everywhere for them to be banned on private property in 1839 and ” Flyposting ” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyposting ) has been a problem from then until now.
In the 1860’s we have the emergence of the postcard ( http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/DSphotosea6G1.htm ). Advertising on postcards was allowed from 1872.
So, in the late 1800’s we have push marketing using leaflets and posters and advertising on postcards and in magazines and newspapers. This continues to this day !!
How fascinating to see that at the same time we have the use of the Telegraph ( http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventions/a/telegraph.htm and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraph ) for the first case of unsolicited spam !!! So we ( mostly Americans ) have been suffering from Spam since 1864 !!!! and there we were thinking that it was a 21st Century plague !!
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s we have the concept of ” wired ” and ” wireless ” communications emerging with morse code over wireless signals giving way to voice radio and the first case of radio advertising in 1922 and morse over wired communications ( 1864 ) giving way successively to telex, the telephone and computers up to the 1940’s.
At the same time television advertising first starts in 1941.
We now see the various strands of Technology,Media and Telecommunications ( T.M.T.) being formed with Television,Radio and Newspapers/magazines normally described as ” media “. Media is defined as various means of communications such as Televison,Radio and Newspapers.
Also forming are the strands of Voice, Video and Data where Voice emerges from the ” wired ” strand that begins with the cables laid for Morse transmission and Data develops from computers and Local Area Networks ( LANs ) to Wide Area Networks ( WANs ) that utilise the ” Voice ” infrastructure initially ( until Internet Protocol – IP lines become available ). Video used seperate networks and protocols for a long time.
Mobile phone networks are an offshoot of wireless radio networks developing from about the 1950’s to First Generation phones in the 1970’s and Second Generation in the 1990’s.
Another development from ” wired ” communications was video conferencing that worked initially over the ” voice ” networks and then later over the IP networks.
The Internet and the Internet Protocol has become the great converger. All forms of communication, voice,video,data,wireless and mobile utilise the Internet now, wholly or partially.
It is quite clear that we have an almost insatiable desire to connect to one another, to communicate and to obtain or access information. No surprise then that Googles Mission statement is ” to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
It is also clear that what initially starts as a means of people communicating or of providing information or entertainment becomes a means of marketing pretty quickly. e.g. printing presses lead to posters and leaflets being produced; wired telegraph quickly led to spam being sent; wireless radio quickly had advertising as did TV; telephones were quickly used for telemarketing; computers and email again produced spam; Internet websites ( and Internet search engines ) carried advertising and mobile phones began to be used for SMS adverts and more spam.
It is quite amusing that in the first instance some people resist or just don’t believe the technologies mentioned will become important or main stream ( e.g. telephones,computers,mobile phones ) and then we resist or don’t believe that they will be used for marketing. It is quite clear that any and every form of communication provides the potential for marketing use and more than likely will be.
Looking at some of the current technology options we can determine if or to what extent they are used for push or pull marketing:
Telephone – originally a communications device , tele( push ) marketing has been going on since 1950’s, can be “pull” when used to take calls ??
Fax – originally a comms device, fax-spamming ( push ) widespread, not interactive though.
Video conferencing – communications and “pull” eg webinars ??
Computer based email – comms. and computer based spam ( push )
Video ( TV ) – informational, entertainment, adverts are push but you can ignore them and some are so good they are watchworthy ! & we have such channel choice and programme control now..
Video ( eg YouTube ) – entertainment, pull marketing
Radio ( Terrestrial ) – informational, entertainment, adverts are push – can be annoying. Programme control.
Radio ( Internet ) – better ?
Mobile phone – originally comms. SMS spamming but not excessive ( networks control ? ), Internet access widens scope.
Newspapers/Mags ( Offline ) – dying ?? adverts are push but non-invasive ??
Websites – in general pull ??? e.g. forums, directories, social networks, instant messaging, click to chat, click to call etc
Printed media ( Posters,flyers,postcards,snailmailshots ) – definately a lot of push in here !! ( but posters and postcards are pretty passive ?)
Word of Mouth – pull.
So, what, historically was the situation with regard to push/pull marketing and what is it now ??
It seems to me that despite there being many push marketing applications today there are lots of pull marketing ones. Historically we might say that we used to meet or find people or businesses and then we would communicate with them and then perhaps do business with them. So it was historically a pull dominated situation.
It seems to me that we are increasingly returning to our origins in that ( particularly with the advent of the Internet ) we find people and suppliers, we communicate with them and then ( maybe ? ) we buy from them.
Although there are still many types of push marketing utilised ( e.g. telemarketing ) some forms of push marketing have been so modified that they are fairly innocuous ( television advertising ) and even enjoyed whilst most Internet based marketing ( excluding e.g. spam email ) is pull based. It is also true to say that spammers are already at work in, for example, social networks so the tradition established with telegraph networks in 1864 is still prominent.
January 2nd, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Have a look at this blog post about posters and flyers that advertise Google !!!
http://writingontheweb.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/google-on-street-billboards/
January 3rd, 2010 at 2:11 pm
Hi Chris. Thanks so much for your comment on my new blog and the shout out above – much appreciated. I read your blog with enormous interest. You are a fount of marketing knowledge, an area I am keen to learn more about. As a journalist and campaigner, I promote ideas and products in line with my (green, sustainable , eco, fair trade) ethics. I love the way marketing has studied the art of persuasion, and I am interested in how it can be used to usher in a kinder world.
I like what you said about people’s insatiable desire to connect more. I agree. To my mind, this urge to connect seems to be about finding our common humanity.
I also agree about word of mouth on the net being more akin to our traditional ways of doing business i.e. meeting in a market place, getting to know about someone’s background and their business, and naturally building up trust.
Thank you.
January 3rd, 2010 at 6:40 pm
Hi Elisabeth,
Thanks also for your comment and kind words.
I must point out that someone pulled a lot of this information together for Wikipedia so that was a great start.
It did interest me how incomplete ( in some ways ) the Wikipedia marketing history section was but on the other hand what was there was very useful and interesting aswell.
I am a computer and electronics engineer who became a salesperson who became a marketeer and a businessman. I am a rather ” results orientated ” so I am mainly interested in what actually provides leads and conversions/sales but of course to find what works you have to keep experimenting !!
I got into Internet Marketing when I realised that so many people were using the .net to find information about products and services and to actually buy them. ( About 6 years ago ).
As I have said on your blog we should never forget ( and Google obviously have not ) that not everyone is on the .net or uses it that much.
Posters,billboards and flyers have been effective since the 1400’s and clearly remain so.
Also highly effective is list or database marketing, for example.
Yes, marketing ( and sales ) has studied the art of
( gentle ) persuasion a lot and it is certainly as relevant to your areas of interest as any others.
Certainly ” eco-warriors ” should arm themselves with the best sales and marketing tools and methods !!!!
Whilst ” push ” methods of sales and marketing do work there does seem to be a general trend ( back ?? ) toward ” pull ” sales and marketing – a sort of ” serve yourself, self-empowered ” world.
I look forward to communicating more in 2010 !! Regards, Chris.
P.S. Want to surprise someone ??? Write them a hand written letter in ink pen – it will stand out amongst all the spam mail and marketing !!
January 4th, 2010 at 7:51 pm
Another creative way to have your postcard stand out is to use personal urls. An example of a Personal URL would be: yoursite.com/Jim.Smith and when “Jim” visits his personal url, the website will usually be customized to him. It also allows the marketer to track who is responding. Learn more at: http://purlem.com.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:48 pm
It was pointed out to me that China’s printing press – and therefore book,poster,flyer etc production goes back way before Gutenberg !!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing
June 7th, 2010 at 10:34 pm
Good morning, thanks for the post? Is your site a free theme or paid? I am intrigued by your blog. Is it possible to include this article on one of my blogs?, i will of course linkback to this blog. Many Thanks
November 26th, 2010 at 12:37 am
Thank you !! It is free. Yes you can include the article. Apologies for the delay in responding – busy year 😉 Regards, Chris.
March 31st, 2011 at 11:13 am
Was wanting on numerous instructions on this topic and i should confess your method is the one particular that makes more sense to me. thanks for sharing
March 31st, 2011 at 2:03 pm
Great to hear that the blog was of use. Regards, Chris.
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April 15th, 2012 at 7:24 pm
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