Marketing in the new decade will be no picnic -- for the sixties will present possibly the most intense competitive activity that you have experienced in the last 20-25 yrs.

Why?
Companies of all types have made great advances in production capabilities and efficiencies -- in modern equipment and new processes, enlarged R & D facilities, faster new product development.
Many companies have upgraded their sales manpower and tested new selling, distribution, and promotion techniques to gain a bigger competitive edge.

Given this kind of business climate, what competitive marketing problems will your company face in the next 10 yrs.?
Based on our experience with clients,, we see 14 major problems which fall into three broad groups -- the market place itself, marketing methods, and marketing management.

1.

Problems in the market

greater price-consciousness.

There has been an intensification of price-consciousness in recent years;
there is every indication it will continue.
Frequently, wittingly or unwittingly, price-consciousness has been fostered by manufacturers, distributors, and dealers.
Despite generally good levels of income, we see greater price pressures than ever before -- traveling back along the chain from consumer to distributor to manufacturer.

Here are some key areas to examine to make sure your pricing strategy will be on target:

Has the probable price situation in your field been forecast as a basis for future planning?
Have cost studies been made of every phase of your operation to determine what might be done if things get worse?
Have you actually checked out (not just mentally tested) different selling approaches designed to counter the price competition problem?
Increased customer sophistication.

Average consumer is becoming more sophisticated regarding product and advertising claims, partly because of widespread criticism of such assertions.
This problem can force a change in marketing approach in many kinds of businesses.
Have you examined this problem of increasing consumer sophistication from the standpoint of your own company?
Greater demand for services.

Need for service is here to stay -- and the problem is going to be tougher to solve in the sixties.
There are two reasons for this.
First, most products tend to become more complex.
Second, in a competitive market, the customer feels his weight and throws it around.

Providing good customer service requires as thorough a marketing and general management planning job as the original selling of the product.
Too often it is thought of at the last moment of new product introduction.

Good service starts with product design and planning: Many products seem to be designed for a production economy, not for a service one.
Proper follow-through requires training your own sales organization, and your distributor organizations, not only in the techniques but also in good customer relations.

Have you assessed the importance of service and given it proper attention?
Wider discretionary choices for customers.

In spending his money today, the consumer is pulled in many directions.
To the manufacturer of the more convenient-type product -- the purchase of which can be switched, delayed, or put off entirely -- the implications are important.
Your competition is now proportionately greater -- you are competing not only against manufacturers in the same field but also against a vast array of manufacturers of other appealing consumer products.

Many industry trade associations are developing campaigns to protect or enhance the share of the consumer's dollar being spent on their particular products.
Has your company thought through its strategy in this whole "discretionary buying" area?
Geographic shift of customers.

The trends have been in evidence for many years -- population shifts to the Southwest and Far West, and from city to suburbs.
These shifts will continue in the next 10 yrs.
Have you considered the implications of continuing geographic shifts in terms of sales force allocation, strength of distributor organizations, and even plant location?
Market concentration and distribution in fewer accounts.

We have already witnessed great changes through mergers and acquisitions in the food industry -- at both the manufacturing and retail ends.
Instead of relatively small sales to many accounts, there are now larger sales to or through fewer accounts.

The change may require different products, pricing, packaging, warehousing, salesmanship, advertising and executive attention -- practically every link in the marketing network may have to be adjusted.
Have you examined these trends, forecast the effects, and planned your marketing strategy to compete effectively under changing circumstances?

2.

Problems in marketing methods

more private label competition.

In the area of private label competition, it is logical to expect a continuation of trends which have been under way during the first decade.
As mass dealer and distributor organizations grow in size, there is every reason to expect them to try to share in the manufacturer's as well as the distributor's profits -- which is, in effect, what the sale of private brands tends to do.

Average manufacturer frequently has helped build private brand business, delivering largely the same qualities and styles in private brand merchandise as in branded.
Moreover, the larger and more aggressive mass distribution outlets and chain stores have insisted on high quality -- and the customer seems to have caught on.

If you are up against private brand competition, have you formulated a long-term program for researching and strengthening your market position?
If private brand competition hasn't been felt in your product field as yet, have you thought how you will cope with it if and when it does appear?
Less personal salesmanship.

Display merchandising, backed by pre-selling through advertising and promotion, will continue to make strides in the sixties.
It has multiple implications and possible headaches for your marketing program.

How can you cash in on this fast-growing type of outlet and still maintain relationships with older existing outlets which are still important?
If you have a higher-quality product, how can you make it stand out -- justify its premium price -- without the spoken word?
Salesmanship is still necessary, but it's a different brand of salesmanship.

Have you carefully examined the selling techniques which best suit your products?
Have you studied the caliber and sales approaches of your sales force in relation to requirements for effective marketing?
Are you experimenting with different selling slants in developing new customers?
Higher costs of distribution generally.

Some distribution costs are kept up by competitive pressure, some by the fact that the customers have come to expect certain niceties and flourishes.
No manufacturer has taken the initiative in pointing out the costs involved.

The use of bulk handling is continuously growing.
Computers are being used to keep branch inventories at more workable levels.
"Selective selling" -- concentrating sales on the larger accounts -- has been used effectively by some manufacturers.

There may be possible economies at any one of a number of links in your marketing and distribution chain.
Do you have a program for scrutinizing all these links regularly and carefully -- and with some imagination?
In your sales force, will a smaller number of higher-priced, high-quality salesmen serve you best, or can you make out better with a larger number of lower-paid salesmen?

Will your trade customers settle for less attention and fewer frills in return for some benefit they can share?
In one company covering the country with a high-quality sales force of 10 men, the president personally phones each major account every 6 mos.
As a result, distribution costs were cut, customer relations improved.

Distribution costs are almost bound to increase in the sixties -- and you will never know what you can do to control them unless you study each element and experiment with alternative ways of doing the job.
Higher costs of advertising and promotion.

From the manufacturer's point of view, the increasing cost of advertising and promotion is a very real problem to be faced in the sixties.
It is accentuated by the need for pre-selling goods, and private label competition.

How much fundamental thinking and research has your company done on its advertising program?
Are you following competition willy-nilly -- trying to match dollar for dollar -- or are you experimenting with new means for reaching and influencing consumers?
Have you evaluated the proper place of advertising and all phases of promotion in your total marketing program -- from the standpoint of effort, money, and effectiveness?
Increasing tempo of new product development.

Practically all forecasts mention new and exciting products on the horizon.
Will you be out in the market place with some of these sales-building new products?

If competition beats you to it, this exciting new product era can have real headaches in store.
On the other hand, the process of obsoleting an old product and introducing the new one is usually mighty expensive.
As markets become larger and marketing more complex, the costs of an error become progressively larger.

Is your R & D or product development program tuned in to the commercial realities of the market?
Are there regular communications from the field, or meetings of sales and marketing personnel with R & D people?
Technical knowledge is a wonderful thing, but it's useless unless it eventually feeds the cash register.

Are there individuals in your organization who can shepherd a new product through to commercialization;
who can develop reliable estimates of sales volume, production, and distribution costs;
and translate the whole into profit and loss and balance sheet figures which management can act on with some assurance?
We have seen good new products shelved because no one had the assignment to develop such facts and plans -- and management couldn't make up its mind.

3.

Problems in marketing management

shortage of skilled salesmen.

There is a shortage of salesmen today.
In the future, quantitative demand will be greater because of the expansion of the economy, and the qualitative need will be greater still.

While many companies have done fine work in developing sales personnel, much of it has been product rather than sales training.
Nor has the training been enough in relation to the need.
Most marketing people agree it is going to take redoubled efforts to satisfy future requirements.

Have you estimated your sales manpower needs for the future (both quantitatively and qualitatively)?
Has your company developed selection and training processes that are geared to providing the caliber of salesmen you will need in the next 10 yrs.?
Shortage of sales management talent.

With the growing complexity of markets and intensity of competition, sales management, whether at the district, region or headquarters level, is a tough job today -- and it will be tougher in the future.
Men qualified for the broader task of marketing manager are even more scarce due to the demanding combination of qualifications called for by this type of management work.
The growth of business has outdistanced the available supply, and the demand will continue to exceed the supply in the sixties.

Does your company have a program for selecting and developing sales and marketing management personnel for the longer term?
Does your management climate and your management compensation plan attract and keep top-notch marketing people?
Complexity of complete marketing planning.

Every single problem touched on thus far is related to good marketing planning.
"Hip-pocket" tactics are going to be harder to apply.
Many food and beverage companies are already on a highly planned basis.
They have to be.
With greater investments in plant facilities, with automation growing, you can't switch around, either in volume or in product design, as much as was formerly possible -- or at least not as economically.

Are planning and strategy development emphasized sufficiently in your company?
We find too many sales and marketing executives so burdened with detail that they are short-changing planning.

Are annual marketing plans reviewed throughout your management group to get the perspective of all individuals and get everyone on the marketing team?
Do you have a long-term (5- or 10-yr.) marketing program?

The key to effective marketing is wrapped up in defining your company's marketing problems realistically.
Solutions frequently suggest themselves when you accurately pinpoint your problems, whether they be in the market, in marketing methods or in marketing management.

If companies will take the time to give objective consideration to their major problems and to the questions they provoke, then a long constructive step will have been taken toward more effective marketing in next decade.