Marketing is a term used to describe all the different activities involved in the sale of goods and services from producers to consumers. The modern marketing concept, applied by the most successful small businesses, is intended to focus all of a company's activities on discovering and satisfying customer needs. The functions generally associated with it are advertising, sales and promotion. Marketing also includes product development, packaging, distribution, pricing and other functions. Looking at the history of marketing, the modern concept of marketing evolved during the industrial revolution in the 19th and 20th centuries. At this particular time, the proliferation of goods and services, the increase in worker skills and technological advances in transportation, refrigeration and other factors that have facilitated the transfer of goods over long distances and have led to the demand for mechanisms most advanced market and sales techniques. Marketing is the source of many important new ideas in management thinking and practice, such as flexible production systems, flat organizational structures, and a greater emphasis on service, all designed to make companies more responsive to customer needs and preferences. This suggests that small business owners need to master the basics of marketing to be successful. It was only from the 1930s that companies began to place more emphasis on the promotion and advertising of their products and began to tailor their products to the specific needs of consumers. In the 1950s, larger companies begin to develop and implement marketing strategies that would complement and direct their overall operations. By the 1970s, the primary marketing trend had reached a good level… of paper… At the same time, a company would logically set a price for a product of the caliber that would maximize profits. The price a company chooses for its products, however, will vary based on its long-term marketing strategy. For example, a company may set an extremely low price for a product and its product in hopes of increasing market share and ascertaining its competitive presence, or simply to generate the desired level of flow. Another manufacturer might set an astronomically high price in hopes of conveying to the consumer that it is a quality product. Another reason a firm might offer a product at a very high price is to gradually discount the good in an attempt to maximize the dollars available to consumers willing to pay different prices for the good. In any case, price is used as a tool to achieve comprehensive marketing objectives.