Subsistence Consumer Markets: A Third Revolution for Marketing Pedagogy

Marketing pedagogy is highly responsive to technological breakthroughs such as radio, television, cell phones, the Internet, and Web 2.0 social networking, and it has had to reinvent itself twice on account of population shifts that radically altered the needs of markets and students. The first such episode took place in the 1920s and 1930s in response to one of the largest rural-to-urban migrations in recent history; a migration that revolutionized physical distribution and retailing, mass advertising, and the importance of branding, and led to marketing-focused textbooks and courses being added to university curricula. In the span of two decades, millions of consumers traded family farms for urban and suburban lifestyles, and empowered by automobile ownership and improved roadways, encouraged the creation of supermarkets, mass merchandisers, discounters, and strip malls — all with plenty of parking. Evolving transportation modes and shopping strategies, along with new consumer and merchant priorities, led to changes in packaging, retailing, labeling, advertising, and how marketing was taught in universities. Marketing education became a staple in business schools as a result.