230 .MARKETING METHODS get it exactly right. Literally, hundreds of times the company thought that the product was ready for the market, only to find that after exhaustive tests had been made some changes were still necessary. It is conunon knowledge that the inventions of Mr. Edi son have all been subjected to the most painstaking experiments to prove their practicability before they were put on the market. On the other hand, there are many instances of business disasters that have re sulted from failure to know in advance whether the product would do what was claimed for it. The manufacturer's enthusiasm often outruns his business sense.
Technical tests of the product are not alone suffi cient. There should be practical tests to prove that the product will operate in the hands of the average user as well as it operates in the laboratory-. Of such a character are the tests of Colgate's perfumery to which much publicity has been given. Numbers of women have expressed their preference for these per fumes after examining unlabeled samples of foreign and domestic makes.
If the product is already on the market, it is well to find ouLdefinitely whether it can be improved or rendered more attractive in use or appearance and therefore more salable. The manufacturer of a, small but useful attachment for talking machines had been trying vainly to find a market for it. The price was three dollars. People did not buy it because, despite its usefulness, the article did not show its value.
After the reason for the slow sales was ascertained, the attachment was given a wash of gold plate and part of its structure was cut away so as to show the interior mechanism. It sold readily thereafter at an increase over the original price.
8. Problem, of the raw inaterial.—After the fit ness of the product has been looked into, it is advis able to chart the conditions under which it is manu factured. This consideration begins with the raw material from which the product is made. If you are the manufacturer, do you contrOl the supply of raw material, or must you depend on others for it? The steel corporation that controls iron mines can adopt certain policies with respect to selling prices, com petitive activities, credit granting, etc., that are not
possible to the manufacturer who must look to others for his raw material. Is the supply steady, or does it fluctuate? If you are making an article from a certain kind of hard wood, you want to know very definitely whether the supply is so sure that you can undertake safely an extensive marketing campaign. Are the prices for the raw material steady and de pendable? This, of course, vitally affects the price that must be charged for the finished product. Food stuffs are subject to considerable price variation, and yet package foods are generally sold at a steady price regardless of the shifting raw material market. When this is the case, the package price must usually be sufficiently high to give a profit even when raw ma terials cost more than they normally do.
9. Capacity of the plant.—The capacity of the plant is an important consideration. With a new .business, all the questions of demand, competition and marketing methods will be studied before the size of the plant is determined. But with an established business, before a campaign to boost sales is started, it is necessary to determine whether the plant can take care of the increased business that is expected, or whether additional plant capacity can be provided if necessary.
An advertising solicitor induced a manufacturer to take large space in a, publication for a year. The solicitor bad made no investigation of the business, and the manufacturer went into the campaign in a half-hearted way and gave the advertising little at tention. Contrary to his expectations, it produced an immense amount of business—more than his factory could possibly acconunodate ; as a result, many orders had to be refused and a large part of the purchased publicity was wasted.