The changing buying habits of consumers

One more phase of the consumer market bears closer scrutiny. This has to do with the rising standard of living of the people, bringing about a great change in living and buying habits.
The American people, as we have seen, earn more and can buy more than ever before. Many things which once were beyond the reach of most people have become everyday items in our personal lives. The automobile is now a daily necessity in 75 per cent of the homes of the land. In fact, there are more automobiles registered than there are homes. The suburbs have made the two-car family "standard."
Almost 65 per cent of the people of the land own their own homes. Literally, millions of families have gone from the slums to suburbia.
In many other fields, buying habits have changed. The food consumed today is a far cry from the daily victuals of meat and potatoes consumed by our grandparents at the turn of the century. Clothes, which used to set off the wealthy from the rest of the people, today offer the same styles and choice to virtually all the people. Everyone is familiar with the near-saturation in such things as electric stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, radios, and television sets.
Changes in population, in income, and in buying habits are creating enormous markets for consumer goods. The relative shares for food, housing, clothing, personal and medical care, recreation, education and travel are also changing. Marketers who sell consumer goods or services are studying each change, each shift, and each new need or demand to see how best to meet them.
Marketing today has become the art of meeting consumer demand. Where we used to speak of "making goods for the market," today we speak of "making profitable customers." The marketing problem now is to find out what people need and want, and then to satisfy the needs and wants.
In subsequent chapters, we shall see what these tre¬mendous changes mean in terms of marketing research, channels of distribution, product planning, personal selling and advertising. This has all been brought about by the changes in the number of customers, consumer tastes, buying habits, and buying power. In a very real sense, we shall see that, in the competitive, private- enterprise economy of North America, the consumer is literally "king."