Marketing
Abstracts
The Awakening Freeze-Drying Industry. Kermit M.
Bird, Speech presented to the American Society
of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning
Engineers, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, January 27, 1965.
[A.F.W.]
This speech answers the questions: "Is food that has
been freeze-dried developing markets at a normal rate
when we compare its growth with other new foods
in their initial stages? What keeps the freeze-drying
industry from moving forward at a faster pace?"
A background of freeze-drying is followed by discussion of the position of the industry at present.
Growth of soluble coffee, processed potato products, and
several frozen foods are compared with anticipated
growth patterns of freeze-drying. Four freeze-drying
growth curves are projected from 1965 to 1970. Volume expectations in 1970 range from a low of 125
million pounds to a high of 415 million pounds.
There are pointed out sCme needed changes which
include need for more basic research, less secrecy, and
changes of attitudes.
The appendix contains the latest USDA directory
of the food freeze-drying industry. A copy may be
requested from Mr. Bird, Economic Research Service,
USDA, Washington, D.C. 20250.
3. Channels of Distribution
Franchising Finds It's an Industry. Business Week,
June 19, 1965, pp. 72-75. [L.R.M.]
Boston College held a franchising conference with
over 200 people attending. This article discusses that
conference. The fact that franchising is a $65 billion
industry means it is big and the industry does have
common problems. The article goes on to discuss
status, motivation, interest on investment, and some
legal hurdles.
Mergers and Reciprocity. Betty Bock, Conference Board
Record, August, 1965, pp. 27-36. [H.W.F.]
In April, 1965, the U.S. Supreme Court held that
competition would be lessened if reciprocal buying
created a protected market for a newly-acquired affiliate. Reciprocal dealing such as generated by the acquisition of Gentry by Consolidated Foods Corp. violates the merger act if the probable consequences are
new leverage in one field or another.
The author explains that a merger is vulnerable if
the buyer-partner has strong potential market power
coupled with a history of trying to exercise it. After
discussing various other criteria, she holds that it is
certain that distribution as well as research & development considerations must increasingly be taken into
direct account in the assessment of the competitive
effects of mergers.
A Study of Dealers' Suits Under the Automobile Dealers' Franchise Act. Michael J. Freed, University of
Detroit Law Journal, February, 1964, pp. 245-261.
[J.H.W.]
The preamble to the Automobile Dealers' Franchise
Act of 1958 (84th Congress) says its purpose is "to
balance the power now heavily weighted in favor of
automobile manufacturers . . . by reason of the failure
. . . to act in good faith in complying with the terms
of franchises or in terminating or not renewing franchises with their dealers." The record shows since 1958
that automobile dealers have had no more success than
before in lawsuits of the described nature.
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Three reasons are assigned for this. The "abuses"
alleged of the manufacturers are milder than before
the act. The courts have not found assignment of
market potentials as standards of conduct, or manufacturer's dissatisfaction with dealer's sales facilities,
to be coercive or bad faith conduct.
What We Think About Shopping. John Martin; What
the Shops Think About IJs. John Barr, New Society,
August 5, 1965, pp. 13-15. [u.M.s.]
The first of these two short features provides some
tabulations from a 1964 Gallup survey in Britain on
aspects of shopping. Topics include doorstep salesmen, seals of approval, when shopping was done, complaints, labeling and guarantees. The second feature
brings together some snippets from various published
surveys on shopkeepers' views of the shopper.
4. Communication and
Public Relations
Why the Copyright Law Needs Revision. William Steif,
Saturday Review, September 18, 1965, pp. 126-128.
[W.J.R.]
Ultimate revision of the antiquated U.S. copyright
law will most seriously affect the nearly $1 billion
(1964) educational publishers, but will also affect
television and radio, the music business, movies, the
dance, and all facets of writing and publishing.
The first copyright law was enacted in 1790 and has
been revised only three times since, the last being in
1909 before the complications of radio, television, Telstar, tape recorders, long-playing high fidelity phonograph records, video tape recordings, electronic computers. Xerographic copying machines, or Cinerama
motion pictures in full color. Lobbies for each interest
(discussed herein) complicate the legislative task. The
House subcommittee hopes to put out a measure that
will pass in 1966. The public interest is not clear, and
". . . the trick of revision is to do a balancing act on
knives—and somehow avoid getting cut."
Public Relations: Not by Divine Right. L. L. L. Golden,
Saturday Review, September 18, 1965, p. 129.
[W.J.R.]
As war is too serious to be left to the military,
public relations is too important to be left to public
relations people. To some managers, the public relations department is either a bulwark or a facade or
both. To others public relations claptrap is a synonym
for garbage, ". . . the new word for anything that
one doesn't understand or that takes one's time away
from running his business."
But what's behind the unrest in the colleges, marching nuns, the ecumenical movement, civil rights, reapportionment, and other challenging issues? Appreciating these changing patterns is as important as
understanding the ousting of labor leaders Carey and
McDonald. M. J. Rathbone, retired Board Chairman
of Standard Oil Company (N.J.), is quoted as saying:
" . . . a wise firm makes public relations a function
not simply of a staff department but of top management, so that every major business decision is considered from the standpoint of its public impact."
Economics of Language. Jacob Marschak, Behavioral
Science, April, 1965, pp. 35-40. [W.J.R.]
The United States has no language legislation in-