The widely accepted belief in a Production Era implies that serious and sophisticated marketing is a recent phenomenon. Analyzing conditions in Britain, Germany, and the United States, the author shows that the Production Era concept obscures the extent and level of development of earlier marketing practice, as do the Sales Era and Marketing Era concepts. A new model of marketing's evolution is used to propose a more accurate periodization of modern marketing's development.
The authors examine the history of brand management by tracing its development in the context of the marketing environment from 1870 to the present. They develop six theses regarding the evolution of brand management and its implications and substantiate them utilizing a historical approach. They demonstrate that the brand manager system originated well after the leadership of branded products was established, it was adopted following a conventional adoption curve pattern, and it has proven quite adaptable to differing firm and marketing environments over the past several decades. They then evaluate its likely fate in today's rapidly changing environment.
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