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What is ManageMent? 13
exclusively to consumer demand. The entrepreneurs that catered to this nascent consumer market were mostly craftsmen who quickly responded to economic incentives and pressures. Modern archaeologists have traced different pots to their respective makers and workshops by grouping the designs the potter used.
Strong evidence shows that by the sixth century bce, potters, mostly from Corinth, were producing pots targeted to specific markets stretching from Spain to the Black Sea. Athenian potters, locked out of the niche markets by more responsive Corinthian competitors, appear to have chosen a mass-market approach, producing vessels of a lesser artistic quality destined for foreign markets. Eventually they realized that in markets that offered consumers a variety of choices, a differentiation strategy was needed to separate their product from other competitors. Branding was born.
As early as the seventh century bce the potters of Euboea began to label their work. This practice spread to Athens and Corinth in the following century. Sophilos appears to be the first Athenian potter to identify his own work; around the top of his vases he sometimes etched images of the Gods of Athens. Another craftsman, Euthymides, bragged on one of his creations that his vase was of a higher quality than those of Euphronios, the first example we have found of ‘slagging off’ a competitor! The potter’s signature, suggests both a pride in his product and a desire to attract future orders.
Once branding became prevalent, advertising claims soon followed. A motto on a cup imported to Italy from Rhodes may be the first recorded commercial advertisement. It read, ‘Nestor had a most drink-worthy cup, but whoever drinks of mine will straightaway be smitten with the desire of fair-crowned Aphrodite’. Who can resist the desires of the Goddess of Love? Even in Ancient Greece, sex sells.
Brands have evolved into something much more important and complex. Brands identify the source of a product and allow customers, whether consumers or organizations, to value the product differently than other products in the same class. Customers learn about brands through past experience with the product and from advertising programs. They learn to value some brands