Short answers, pulled from the story.
Adam Smith published The Wealth of Nations in 1776, which described how the invisible hand of the market guides supply and demand. Although Smith never used the word marketing, his work eventually birthed the modern concept of marketing nearly two centuries later.
Josiah Wedgwood invented modern marketing in the 18th century by devising sales methods decades ahead of his peers. He offered free delivery, allowed customers to pay in installments, created a catalog mailed directly to potential buyers, and used testimonials and word-of-mouth marketing to reach customers hundreds of miles away.
E. Jerome McCarthy introduced the 4Ps framework in 1960 while he was a professor at Michigan State University. The model includes product, price, place, and promotion to structure marketing decisions and shift focus from the product to the customer.
Robert F. Lauterborn proposed the 4Cs model in the 1990s to flip the perspective from the seller to the buyer. The framework emphasizes consumer, cost, convenience, and communication to reflect that customers are active participants in the market.
The American Marketing Association updated its definition of marketing in 2008 to describe it as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
The rise of the internet and social media transformed marketing from one-way communication into a dynamic two-way conversation where consumers share opinions and create content. This shift led to the emergence of consumer-to-business and customer-to-customer marketing models that challenge traditional notions of marketing.