Neolithic Marketing 101

Surprising to many, marketing has been conducted since at least the Neolithic Period (~12,000 years ago, at the tail end of the Stone Age), when hunter-gatherers began to settle in small communities and made an evolutionary adjustment towards peasant farming. Fanning (2019) goes on to explain that settling and farming led to humans developing fermentation, preservation and storage techniques; allowing for surplus products to be traded for other items of use or for skills / labour.

You may be thinking I’ve applied incorrect terminology around marketing and what it means, or mildly confused my intended message. Neolithic Period marketing? What has settling and preserving to do with marketing? Isn’t marketing about glitzy advertising, snappy graphics, expensive branding, trademark exclusivity, shiny brochures, and specialist departments? As it turns out it may do, but true marketing encompasses a lot more than I realised; Fanning (2019) recommends that modern marketing also covers the processes of two-way communications around customer relationships, the market place operating in, the products and services and the organisations involved, also known as COMP factors.

To begin demonstrating how Neolithic humans were actively involved in marketing we need to reference Kotler’s (1980) classic definition of marketing:

“Marketing is the human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through the exchange process”.

Breaking down Kotler’s definition of marketing further aides in understanding the breadth it should be applied, to be effective for all parties.

1)   It involves humans. This means it’s an everyday activity that involves interpersonal communication.

2)   Satisfaction is required. Smith (1776) highlights that customer satisfaction is required for repeat business. Cadozza (1965) adds that pre-purchase expectations shape the post-purchase evaluation of satisfaction and that it was not all about the product, but the experience too. It needs to be win- win – both parties must walk away satisfied with promises upheld by both sides.

3)   Needs and wants. The product must satisfy a perceived terminal need, but there may not always be a want. Is a new car needed or wanted? Furthermore, looking at Maslow’s work from a service perspective, Lovelock (2007) states that customers seek value, non-discrimination, respect, security and improved esteem from their transactions.

4)   Exchange. Fanning includes two components to this: a.   Communication exchange. Value communicated. Two-way dialogue. b.   Actual transaction. Mutual profit.

Returning to our Neolithic ancestors and how we can link Kotler’s definition to the time, I’ll use an example of a peasant farmer who knows the upcoming winter would be unpleasant without an animal skin or two for warmth. This peasant farmer doesn’t have any spare livestock to fulfill this requirement but knows in the village nearby there’s a hunter who has traded a fine skin with a friend of his in the past. The farmer has some high quality surplus grain in storage that can be traded if the hunter has a need for it.

From this example it’s easy to picture the farmer taking grain along to the hunter, establishing a personal connection (selling skin to a friend in the past) and trust, two-way discussion of needs (or wants), striking a deal and both parties honoring the agreements made. Finally, both the farmer and the hunter must be pleased with the outcome. Was the traded grain free of vermin and was the animal skin properly preserved? If all of Kotler’s requirements were met, we can consider that our Neolithic people were successfully engaged in marketing activity.

Had either party exchanged poor quality product (intentionally or not), delivered a quantity differing than agreed, insufficiently communicated on transaction terms or generally betrayed the other, we can easily see that repeat dealings would either difficult to re-establish due to mistrust, or may not re-engage with each other again at all.

During this period, it’s obvious that marketing didn’t include any of the modern embellishments that many would consider to be marketing; the brochures, advertisements, trademarks or slick salesmen – exactly why most of us wouldn’t connect marketing to times so long past. Fanning (2019) explains, modern marketing principles and practices many of us would be familiar with began to emerge with the Industrial Revolution; part of the evolution of marketing over time.

Overall effective marketing requires for both parties to be equally engaged in attaining mutual satisfaction, this means you’re operating under “The Marketing Concept”, not just selling or production philosophies. There are many more definitions of marketing aside from Kotler’s classic definition, however it forms an excellent basis for understanding ancient and modern marketing requirements.