Marketing is a human activity. The origin of merchandising is as old as humanity. During the primitive and ancientness age, individuals or families changed the farm produce they had for those items they didn't have. As the society developed, elect objects such as cowries, beads, feathers, etc. were use in exchange for goods and services. Marketing as a subject of study and discipline has gone through some levels of biological process changes in its meaning, understanding and scope. These changes are a product of the shift from a primitive and subsistence economy to a market-driven economy.
Marketing is defined otherwise by various writers. One of the earliest definitions was given by the American Marketing Association (AMA) in 1960. The association defined merchandising as "the performance of business activity that directs the flow of goods and services to the client or ultimate user". This definition has become obsolete. This is because it is no more consistent with the contemporary dynamics of merchandising. Marketing is more than the distributions of goods and services.
Some definitions that captured the meaning of merchandising were after unsuccessful and new perspectives are emerging. Let us look at few of them:
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1. The British Chartered Institute of Marketing defined merchandising as " the direction process responsible identifying, anticipating and satisfying client requirement fruitfully and efficiently"
2. The British institute of merchandising defined merchandising as "the creative direction function, which promotes trade and employment by assessing consumer inevitably and initiating research and development to meet them"
3. Kotler (1997:9) defined merchandising as "a social and social control process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need or want through creating, offering and exever-changing products of value with others"
4. Nickels et al (1999:379) delineate merchandising as " the process of deciding client inevitably and wants then providing clients with goods and services that meet or exceed their expectations"
Content analysis of the last four definitions shows that there are core concepts, which are common among them. The concepts are inevitably, wants, demands, products, value, satisfaction, exchange, market and marketers.
Modern merchandising requires marketers to analyze client's inevitably and requirements. The goods, services and ideas so produced are directed at satisfying the firm's clients and creating value. The definitions also show that merchandising comes into play long before goods and services begin to be due manufacturer to clients. This is because it is merchandising that conceives or anticipates the inevitably or wants, which are the antecedents of production. Marketing now is not the domain of business activities only; nonprofit organizations are beginning to appreciate the grandness of merchandising in the fast ever-changing business environments. Marketing is therefore apportionable and used by schools, churches and mosque, public services, industries, military, etc. to elicit desired responses from target audience.
Fifield (1993:1) delineate merchandising from a entirely different perspective. He formed merchandising as possessing four distinct but weblike aspects. The four aspects are:
(1) an attitude of mind,
(2) a way of organizing the business,
(3) a range of activities and
(4) the manufacturer of profit.
An attitude of mind - As a path merchandising concept
Way of organizing the business - Structuring and adapting the organization to meet clients' inevitably and wants
Marketing, simply put, is a social and social control function that aims at satisfying human inevitably and wants through exchange of goods and services by individuals and /or institutions at a profit.
Exchange process and gaps.
For exchange dealings to be completed, the two parties must exchange something of value. A satisfactory exchange process may be hindered by the presence of gaps or separations between the parties or manufacturers and consumers of good, services and ideas.
Cox et al (1964:56) gave five important gaps. These are:
1. Spatial separation: Producers and buyers are commonly geographically separated. That is, goods are produce in one geographic region but spread to different geographic regions. These goods spell they remain with the manufacturers are separated from the consumers by geographical distance.
2. Temporal separation: parties to a potential exchange commonly cannot complete and exchange at the time products are produced. The product has to be made available to the consumers.
3. Perceptual separation: the two parties to the exchange may not be aware or not interested in each other's offering.
4. Separation of possession: in the beginning possession is incidental on the manufacturer. The merchandising system facilitates the transfer of possession from manufacturer to consumer.
5. Separation of values: Producer and consumers place different values on a product.
