For many products there is a choice of markets; the goods may be used either by city or country dwellers. In such cases, the problem becomes one of selecting the line of least resistance.
Buying habits must be considered. A manufac turer of a new line of hosiery analyzed the situation and decided that city people have been more accus tomed to buying hosiery by brand names than people who live in the country. Accordingly he decided that he would have less competition and would be able to build up a firmer business by directing all his appeal to the country trade than by seeking to enter the strongly competitive city markets. Many manufac turers are finding with surprise that they have over looked important markets by confining their activities either to the city or the country field. Perhaps the growing realization of the importance of the farm market is the most notable feature of present-day sell ing.
4. Where is the market?—ls the market inter ,national, national, sectional or local? Is the product suited to only one locality or is its use wide-spread? Yellow laundry soaps are generally used thruout the United States, but in the states of the Northwest the demand is chiefly for white laundry soap. The man ufacturer of such a product would find his market de fined by relatively sharp geographical lines. Trans portation problems naturally limit the size of a mar ket. A brick manufacturer cannot ship his product great distances. The possible market is often of national or international scope, and the selection of only a limited part of it for the sales activities of a manufacturer is a matter of conscious policy based on competition problems, limited manufacturing and marketing resources, or other reasons that dictate a partial development of the available market.
Manufacturers sometimes fail to reach out as widely as they might because of ignorance of the ex tent of the market or because of ignorance of the methods of getting trade outside of a narrow field. American manufacturers have ignored the foreign market partly for these reasons, and partly because the complete absorption of their product at home did not necessitate a search for a wider field abroad. This condition is changing. Political as well as eco nomic reasons are urging manufacturers to develop their export trade; and with the increase of the agita tion for foreign trade relations, we can expect to see radical changes in the sales policies and sales methods of American manufacturers.
Climatic conditions are often important in guiding a manufacturer to his natural market. Umbrellas are not a lively commodity in New 3Iexico; fur coats do not find a market in Louisiana; nor are cot ton-gins sold in -Minnesota. This is a matter of com mon sense, as are most of the other considerations in market analysis; yet the story of the manufacturer who tried to sell woolen caps in Brazil is not unique in its evidence of the failure to apply common sense to marketing problems.
5. When ean the iffoduct be meth ods will also depend on buying seasons. In certain lines the seasons are seemingly fixed beyond the possi bility of change. Alen's clothing is bought by the consumer in the spring and fall, gardening tools are chiefly purchased late in spring or early in summer, and the jewelry business is at its height at Christmas. In lines in which buying is seasonal, the manufacturer must ascertain the buying seasons both for consum ers and for dealers, because tbe dealers' season natu rally precedes tbe consumers'. He makes his plans carefully so that tbe activities of his salesmen will be focused on the trade at the proper time, and so that his consumer appeals will have their greatest cumu lative effect at just the right time to influence the sea sonal purchases.
In connection with the sale of so-called seasonal goods there are two interesting developments. One is the growing custom of continuing consumer adver tising thruout the year in order thereby to fix more firmly the advertiser's brand in the minds of the buy ing public. This practice is exemplified by the year round advertising of the manufacturer of a brand of summer-weight underwear. Another development is the attempt to put goods that were formerly seasonal sellers into the all-year-round class. It is said that before the extensive advertising of Sapolio began many years ago, scrubbing soaps and cleaning com pounds sold chiefly during the customary semi-an nual housecleaning periods. Now the sales do not vary greatly from month to month. Retail dealers who formerly thought it was necessary to abandon their advertising, to lay off' most of their clerks, and to spend most of their time keeping cool during the summer, have found that in most cities there are plenty of people in town during the heated term, and that increased selling efforts during that time will bring corresponding results.