Skip to main content
  • 17 Accesses

Abstract

Today, firms have two generic strategic choices when pursuing profit maximisation: sell at low price to secure high volume, or produce distinctive goods in smaller volumes but with a large margin. In addition to these broad strategic options, branding is becoming more significant, opportunities to pursue niche strategies are more widely available, and greater attention is being devoted to quality of service and loyalty schemes. None of these developments is new. They have been evident to varying degrees and in different forms since a recognisably modern form of consumer society arose in the USA, Britain and Australia early in this century (consumerism appeared in Japan after 1950).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Further Reading

  • Dicke, T.S. (1992) Franchising in America (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jefferys, J.B. (1954) Retail Trading in Britain, 1850–1950 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Marchand, R. (1985) Advertising the American Dream (Berkeley: University of California Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Partner, S. (2000) ‘Brightening Country Lives: Selling Electrical Goods in the Japanese Countryside, 1950–1970’, Enterprise and Society, 1 (4).

    Google Scholar 

  • Shammas, C. (1990) The Pre-industrial Consumer in England and America (Oxford: Clarendon Press).

    Google Scholar 

  • Strasser, S (1989) Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the Mass Market (New York: Pantheon Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • Tedlow, R.S. (1990) New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (New York: Basic Books).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkins, M. (1992) ‘The Neglected Intangible Asset: The Influence of the Trade Mark on the Rise of the Modern Corporation’, Business History, 34 (1).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors

Copyright information

© 2002 Gordon Boyce and Simon Ville

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Boyce, G., Ville, S. (2002). Marketing. In: The Development of Modern Business. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-12008-3_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics