But man is insatiable. As his power over nature grows or as his wealth increases, his wants multiply.1 When poor and half-nourished his idea of heaven is a place where there is an abundance of roast beef and vegetables. A poor and ignorant Yankee farmer was once asked what he was working for. "Salt pork and sundown," was his illuminating reply. He wanted the day to end that he might get something to eat and go to bed. If that farmer should inherit a fortune and go to New York City to live, it needs no prophet to foretell what would happen to his taste for salt pork or that sundown might become a signal for something else than going to bed.
6. The overproduction bogey.—Fortunately for the business man as well as for the man who wishes to sell his services, there is not the slightest possibility that the world will ever be overstocked with the things that men desire. General overproduction is impossible. The word overproduction has no significance in busi ness except when it is applied to a single commodity. The automobile, for example, is making imminent the overproduction of horses, wagons and harnesses. The increasing use of gas and electricity might easily lead to a glut in the lamp market. Some people prefer rice to potatoes, both having substantially the same value as food ; if this taste for rice should spread rap idly thruout the country, then there might be for a time overproduction of potatoes.
Since the business man is striving to make a profit, he must constantly be on his guard, whether be be manufacturer or trader, against overproduction or overstocking in special lines, and seek to anticipate the changes of demand to which the market is sus ceptible.1 He need have no fear that any increase in the production of goods will so satiate the human race that there will be no desire for his services. As production increases, wealth will increase, and the demand for goods will be not only greater but more varied.
7. Intportance of salesntanship and The reader has gathered from the two preceding sec tions not only how necessary it is for the business man to study the wants of his customers, but also how im portant it is that he be able to give them just what they want. To sell a man anything you must first k-now what lie wants and then be able to convince him that vou can at a reasonal__2__p__re—Tice. In tile old days of so-called community production and marketing, when there were no railways nor steani. ships, both production and trading were usually on a small scale and the business man knew most of his customers personally. Now, however, production and
marketing are world affairs. A manufacturer in a -Massachusetts village may sell in all the continents of the globe. Thus it happens that marketing has become one of the most important of business prob lems. No man can succeed in business if he ignores its difficulties and its perils.
Advertising and salesmanship, which are vital parts of the marketing process, have special importance in any business which deals in something • new. The salesman and the advertisement must rouse in people a desire for that new thing. The manufac turer cannot afford to wait for the slow develop ment of his industry that will ensue if he lets the ad vantages of his product be discovered gradually as a result of its use among a small number of customers. Hence he makes it known in every possible way, and for that purpose spends money in a fashion which his grandfather fifty years ago would have regarded as astounding extravagance. Salesmanship and adver tising are in great part responsible for the spectacular development of the automobile industry.
8. Three great classes of our pres ent purpose it seems proper to divide business into the following three classes: First,—The production and sale of goods. This kind of business is commonly known as industry, and embraces all kinds of manufacturing and the so-called extractive industries, mining, agriculture and lumber ing. While any individual farmer may not be classed as a business man because of the small scale upon which he produces, yet agriculture as a whole is prop erly regarded as an industry.
Second,—The purchase and sale of commodities. By commodity is meant anything which has value and is therefore salable. This kind of business embraces those which are usually grouped under trade and mer chandising.
Third,—The purchase and sale of services, whether the services. of human beings or the uses of material things. This class embraces many different kinds of human activity. The banker may be regarded as a dealer in that valuable but immaterial thing called credit, or we may without splitting hairs say that the charge he makes when he discounts a promissory note is for the service the bank renders. A theatrical man ager who hires the services of players is a business man, but the players are not. The railroad, steamship, telegraph and telephone companies sell services. The city landlord sells to his tenant the right to use an apartment ; strictly speaking, he is selling a service.