Most companies are agreed that the lack of trained marketing people is the greatest deterrent of all to the expansion of scientific marketing. Many more such people are needed. Where to find them and how to train them are taxing management skills to the utmost.
This is evidence of the fact that marketing men have never had a better opportunity. This is not to say that it will be easy for such men. The greatly increased demands of tomorrow call for men who are outstanding in their specialty, who demonstrate creative ability, who know how to apply this ability to the solution of practical problems, who are willing to learn other aspects of the company's business, and who learn how to manage other people. Leadership means the ability to select and motivate people. The major obstacle to scientific marketing is finding and training a sufficient number of qualified marketing performers.
Other problems, however, are also important. One recurring problem is that of more and better marketing research. We need more reliable information. We need better fact-finding techniques. The identification and appraisal of the markets of tomorrow pose a giant prob¬em to business. The population is growing. The purchasing power of people is growing. The composition of population is changing. New and potentially large mar¬kets are opening up overseas.
In 1945, there were only 51 nations in the United Nations. The number has now doubled. Most of the new nations had previously been colonies whose trade was controlled by European nations. Almost unlimited opportunities exist for development in these new markets. But first we must get the facts on these nations. At home, the problem of adequate market information is almost as critical. The changing markets in the United States and Canada will dictate many changes in our marketing habits. We need much more information on the factors that create demand, the types and amounts of advertising that stimulate consumption.
Marketing research is due for a tremendous growth. This will include not only the process of fact-finding as such, but also of interpretation and of application of these findings. Drawing sound conclusions from the findings of research will occupy our best brains in future years. And this will, as always, depend upon judgment and experience of executives.
One of the areas in which marketing research will be applied more extensively and more effectively will be in the area of product planning. The competition of new products, as we have seen, is not simply that of a product versus another product of similar nature, but cross-product competition (for example, a mink coat against a second car or a boat against a summer home). New products are also competing on the basis of new style, color, packaging, and convenience. Increasing attention will be given to products that give greater convenience and which enhance status. For this, we shall need more and better research in consumer behavior and consumer motivation.
We know that people change their ideas and their sense of values. Products will have to change accordingly to satisfy those changed needs and wants. Our methods of presenting those products to the public will also have to change.
There will be significant changes in personal selling, advertising, and promotion. Gearing promotional tactics and techniques to the new markets poses an ever growing problem to business and to scientific marketing. More and more, we have to think in terms of creating a company image as well as a product image. There is need for a greater welding of publicity and advertising, a greater coordination of the total promotional effort.
Further, the educational aspects of advertising and promotion, which already have had a profound impact on our mode of living and our social and economic behavior, are due for great changes in the immediate years ahead. Advertising and promotion have affected the foods we eat, the homes we live in, the clothing we wear, the way we travel, the care we take of our persons, and the standard of living we demand. Advertising has increased people's desires and wants, and has stimulated industry. But a great problem still remains: why people buy, what motivates people, why they choose one product over another. How to gear advertising and promotional effort towards these basic human motivations is one of the baffling problems marketing faces.
And finally, business faces the major problem of the changing distribution channels. Many manufacturers anticipate that they will have to reappraise their entire distribution system in terms of new markets, rising costs and new methods of physical handling of merchandise in factories, warehouses, and in retail outlets. Some mechanized innovations, already being tested, might well result in push-button buying in retail stores, with automated and mechanized machinery filling orders, and mechanized traveling belts delivering these orders to the shopper in the parking lot.
A greatly increased use of electronic data processing machinery would make possible the complete calculation of charges and billing of the customer at the point of receiving the goods, thus avoiding needless time spent at the check-out counter. The problem of slow, wasteful and inconvenient shopping is one that concerns business greatly.
No comments:
Post a Comment