When did marketing first appear?

Marketing started with the first human beings.  Using the first Bible story as an example (but this was not the beginning of human beings), we see Eve convincing Adam to eat the forbidden apple.  But Eve was not the first marketer. It was the snake that convinced her to market to Adam.

Marketing as a topic appeared in the United States in the first part of the20th century in the teaching of courses having to do with distribution, particularly wholesaling and retailing.  Economists, in their passion for pure theory, had neglected the institutions that help an economy function.  Demand and supply curves only showed where price may settle but do not explain the chain of prices all the way from the manufacturer through the wholesalers through the retailers.  So early marketers filled in the intellectual gaps left by economists. Nevertheless, economics is the mother science of marketing.

Marketing is more of a craft and profession than an art form.  The American Marketing Association and the British Chartered Institute of Marketing are independently working on professional credentials for professional marketing.  They believe that tests can be constructed that can distinguish between qualified marketers and phony marketers.

At the same time, many people will originate brilliant marketing ideas who are not trained marketers.  Ingvar Kamprad was not a marketer and yet his IKEA company is phenomenally successful in bringing good quality, low-cost furniture to the masses.  Creativity is a big part of marketing success and is not limited to marketers.

But science is also important to marketing.  Marketers produce interesting findings through marketing research, market modeling, and predictive analytics.  Marketers are using marketing models to make decisions and guide their investments. They are developing marketing metrics to indicate the impact of their activities on sales and profits. 

I would not say that marketing is more of an art, a craft or a science but rather that it has all these elements operating.