We had a series of pioneers in the marketing field like Coca-Cola or Heinz Ketchup or even the British Army. Most of the marketing strategies have not changed for tens, or maybe, hundreds of years. If you had a product or service you were trying to find people interested in it, in a nutshell this is marketing.

The process of lead qualification, and conversion, which is the simplest marketing definition, was introduced by the ancient Turkey in Izmir (or at least this is the oldest one that we have knowledge about). It represented a foot, a heart and a female head, this was meant to attract clients into a borthel.



The depending on were the foot was positioned, this first commercial ever directed the client to the right location. For example if the foot was below the head and to its left in meant that the location was on the opposite side of the street and behind the person looking at the sign. The heart was representative of the fact that the women inside were ready for love and marriage. Thanks to Erin Erkun for the amazing picture.

As I said in the last decade marketing has not changed much. The marketers were trying to attract people, and put the message where they think someone will be interested in it (like Google does).

What the Internet of Things will change is the marketing industry.  Being connected to a device with Internet all the time, the manufacturers and software developers will have access to data that nobody except the persons next to us had until now. I am not trying to get into a debate about privacy or anything else like this, but nobody can deny the fact that us marketers have access to more and more personal data about everyone. Our clients databases grow exponentially, with the last six months of data they have gathered more information than the previous 6 years.

The Marketing of Things will come into place just like the Internet of Things when all things will be interconnected. We will than know, for a person wearing an intelligent bracelet, if he perspires more and we can act accordingly selling them more deodorant. This is just an example of the Marketing of Things, but it can be taken even a step forward, by introducing a "smell" monitor into the bracelet, that will tell the user if he has B.O. and will direct him to the nearest store with Old Spice (my favorite brand :) ).

There is the other side of the coin as well, imagine your fridge hustling with milk producers about the quality, quantity and price according to your families needs. The fridge, in my house named Frosty, will be able to order your milk, vegetables and ingredients needed for your chicken soup. We all consider marketing as coming from the supplier to the consumer, but soon this will change, as the consumer is more and more empowered.

PS: Thanks to Erin Erkun for the amazing picture.