Marketing has come a long way in recent decades. With the rise of new technologies, marketers have become more and more creative with making their sales pitches. And one way markets have really upped the ante is through collecting marketing data.
Let’s consider the evolution of marketing and the impact increased data collection has had on it. Consider that in 1960 most companies were simply sending mass mail and crossing their fingers that they hit the right customers.
In 1963, zip codes were introduced to ease the mailing process and marketers coined the term direct marketing in 1967. Still, by-and-large marketing remain unchanged through this period.
In 1977, however, the International Assoc. for Statistical Computing was founded with the aim of converting raw data into information that marketers could use. In 1979 Oracle created the first database. While we might take databases for granted these days, their impact on marketing is hard to overestimate.
By the early 1980’s, computers were being regularly used to target segments of society through calls and direct mail. By the 1990’s the widespread adoption of the computer and the spread of the internet lead to the development of Customer Relationship Management. Companies also began to develop dedicated software to help with these endeavors.
In 1995 the deregulated internet was born and the web exploded. Soon, data traffic started growing at 100 percent per year, and email was quickly adopted. By 2003 digital data storage had become cheaper than paper, and by now many people were heading online.
In 2007 the internet made its way into our pockets with the launch of the iPhone. And all of this technology succeeded in converting people into digital data consuming machines. People now consume 12 hours worth of data per day.
Social media has also become immensely popular. Twitter now has more than 500 million users and Facebook has topped 1 billion. Thanks to Info Group Targeting for this informative Infographic!
