The consumer viewpoint : $b covering vital phases of manufacturing and selling household devicesBentley, Mildred Maddocks
General
The consumer viewpoint : $b covering vital phases of manufacturing and selling household devices
Bentley, Mildred Maddocks
Home economics -- Equipment and supplies
Instead, then, of attempting merely to learn the dealer's demand for
selling points, put part of your effort into learning the demands of
the user of the machine. Consumer suggestion or demands are apt to come
only after a period of use. Obvious ones are sometimes reported by the
dealer, but very often they never come to the manufacturer through the
reports of the trade in time to be of service. It took a period of
years for the dealer to realize the importance of enclosed moving
parts. It finally came to him through the reaction developed by women
using the machines. In the same way the manufacture and marketing of
both gas and electric ranges, which has been uniformly efficient, has
overlooked one very important detail. The broiler grids are often so
placed that the steak is an inch and a half away from the flame instead
of one-half inch. With such a broiler, perfect broiling is impossible.
Again a kitchen cabinet may be made of high grade materials but the
hardware proves too light to stand the constant closing and opening.
Such a kitchen cabinet is handicapped in any neighborhood because
constant use makes the minor annoyance a cumulative one, which reacts
directly upon the manufacturer's product.
The vacuum cleaner that is easily sold on the dealer's floor because it
looks big and imposing oftentimes discloses its poor efficiency only
after from four to six months of use. This is due to the fact that from
time immemorial women have ordained a period devoted to housecleaning
twice a year. And it is at this crucial time that they discover if the
routine care of rugs and carpets by their vacuum cleaner has
accomplished a work satisfactory to them. This conclusion is well borne
out by a conversation we had with a large dealer in vacuum cleaners
from the west coast. He freely told us of handling two vacuum cleaners,
one a comparatively inexpensive and absolutely inefficient machine (as
we had proved by test), the other a more expensive and a thoroughly
efficient machine. He claimed that the first proved only a feeder for
the second, since when the woman, after a longer or shorter period of
use, realized that the first machine would not do the work, she
returned to buy the more expensive and better machine. And the average
time was six months! Now this dealer could have selected a machine no
higher in price than his less expensive model which would have done
good work and thoroughly satisfied the user. We leave you to draw your
own conclusions as to the fate of the manufacturer's product in the
first place, and the dealer's selling methods in the second place.
In selecting a Washing Machine, the woman looks for:
1. Compact, trim appearance with all machine parts covered.
2. Plain outlines.
3. Swinging wringer with safety release.
4. Pump attached to machine to rapidly drain off water when drain
connection is not practical.
5. Metal tub exterior painted (easy to keep clean).
6. A waterproof finish on a wood tub.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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