Journal of Marketing

The ideas contained in this article were first presented in a summarized form at the International Marketing Session of the American Marketing Association Conference in December, 1959, and subsequently delivered in an expanded version at the Eighth Annual Conference of the Great Lakes States Industrial Development Council at Purdue University in January, 1960. Because of current wide discussion of the subject and its importance to marketers especially, Professor Dowd's analysis is reproduced here in its entirety.

Professor Dowd offers proof that, although prices of products may be high because of increased costs of raw materials, taxes, labor, and declining efficiency of productive organization, U.S. exports are not being priced out of world markets. The popular belief is based upon an erroneous statistical comparison of two “abnormal” years, 1957 and 1958.

Nevertheless, American producers may not be maintaining their share of world exports since they are not applying the principles of modern marketing management, essential to successful domestic selling, to increasingly important foreign markets.

The Advertising Research Foundation in 1955 conducted an experimental study of advertising research methods which is probably the finest example published in this field. A Committee, known as the Printed Advertising Rating Methods Committee (PARM), expended over $100,000 duplicating the field methods of the two leading commercial research companies working on printed advertising, namely, Daniel Starch and Staff and Gallup & Robinson, Inc.

PARM designed and supervised the study, then tabulated and presented the numerical findings. The Committee did not attempt to present an official interpretation of the findings or to make specific recommendations. Instead, ARF invited all interested advertising research people to make their own analyses and interpretations.

After five years, this is the first attempt at a comprehensive published response to the Committee's invitation.

Business gaming has profitable applications in education, research, and problem solving.

The author dispels several misconceptions about business gaming and shows how it can provide marketing management with an important decision assisting tool.

The primary job of sales management is to get the salesman to the right place, at the right time, and with the right information to make a sale. In marketing industrial goods, what is the “right place?”

This article describes an organized research approach to determine new prospects for an industrial firm. It is based on use of the Standard Industrial Classification System to predetermine those industrial firms that afford the greatest potential of becoming future customers.

Four different methods of determining new industrial prospects are described; industrial directories, surveys, trade-show attendance lists, and promotional inquiries.

An earlier article by the same author in the JOURNAL OF MARKETING studied fulfillment of intentions to buy, or not to buy, as a function of income, liquid assets, personal debt, attitudes about one's own financial situation, optimism about market conditions, residence in cities, towns, or open country, and by size of family. It was found, for example, that the greatest number of buyers of household durables comes from consumers who at first do not plan to buy, but later change their minds and do buy.

The present article studies fulfillment of intention to buy as a function of expectation of price changes, age, geographic region, and a combination of occupation, education, and income.

New types of retailing frequently start off with crude facilities, little prestige, and a reputation for cutting prices and margins. As they mature, they often acquire more expensive buildings, provide more elaborate services, impose higher margins, and become vulnerable to new competition.

The author examines the history of numerous retail institutions to determine if this process really constitutes a “natural law of retailing.”

How many stores does it take to supply consumers with convenience in shopping? What does the size of store have to do with an optimum retail structure?

This article argues that there is a direct relationship between shopping convenience and economies of scale in retail store operation.

The Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan collects data of consumer attitudes to assist marketing prediction. These data include an over-all attitudinal index and statistics concerning attitudes toward specific consumer durable goods.

How accurate have these data been as a basis for predicting consumer demand in total, and for specific durable goods? The answers are given in this article.

Why do some new products require heavy resources to establish, whereas others gain immediate acceptance? Why do some innovators fail, only to see others pick up the same product to achieve spectacular success?

The following article suggests that the answer lies partly in what is “new” in the new product—in the sponsor's adaptation of his marketing strategy to the right element of novelty.

The American Marketing Association is growing at a healthy rate. Most of its members are businessmen, engaged in the marketing of industrial and consumer goods; and the most common occupational function is marketing research, although this function accounts for less than half the membership.

What are the limits of the good-faith defense? This article outlines the many problems which still surround the interpretation and application of Section 2(b) of the Robinson-Patman Act.

This is an exploratory study of decision making in food buying which is concerned with the following questions:

How do wives differ in their approach to food buying?

Is the approach to food buying related to their perceived roles and their perceptions of self?

Is there a relationship between the personality traits of the wives and their approach to food buying?