The Marketing Revolution

• ROBERT J . KEITH
Business today, the author maintains, is in the throes of a marlceting
revolution. This revolution is based on a change of philosophy, and one
of Its effects will be the emergence of marketing as the dominant func-
tion in American business.

HE consumer, not the company, is in TTie Pole's idea raised a storm of con-
T the middle.
In today's economy the consumer, the
troversy. The earth, everyone knew, was
at the center of the universe. But another
man or woman who buys the product, is scientist named Galileo put the theory to
at the absolute dead center of tlie business test—and it worked. The result was a
universe. Companies revolve around the complete upheaval in scientific and philo^
customer, not the other way around. sophic thought. The effects of Copernicus'
Growing^ acceptance of this consumer revolutionary idea are still being felt
concept has had, and will have, far-reach- today.
ing implications for business, achieving a
virtual revolution in economic thinking. A REVOLUTION IN MARKETING
As the concept gains ever greater accept- In niuch the same way American busi-
ance, marketing is emerging as the most ness in general—and Pillsbury in particu^
important single function in business. lar—is undergoing a revolution of its own
today: a marketing revolution.
A REVOLUTION IN SCIENCE
This revolution stems from the same
A very apt analogy can be drawn with idea stated in the opening sentence of this
another revolution, one that goes back to article. No longer is the company at the
the sixKeenth century. At that time as- center of the business universe. Today
tronomers had great difficulty predicting the customer is at the center.
the movements of the heavenly bodies.
Their charts and computations and celes- Our attention has shifted from prob^
tial calendars enabled them to estimate lems of production to problems of mar*
the approximate positions of the planets keting, from the product we can make to
on any given date. But their calculations the product the consumer wants us to
were never exact—there was always a vari- make, from the company itself to the
ance. market place.
The marketing revolution has only be-
Then a Polish scientist named Nicolaus gun. It iis reasoriable to expect that its
Copernicus proposed a very simple an- implications will grow in the years to
swer to the problem. If, he proposed, we come, and that lingering effects will be
assume that the sun, and not the earth, is felt a century, or more than one century,
at the center of our system, and that the from today. ,•.
earth moves around the sun instead of the
sun moving around the earth, all our cal- So far the theory has only been ad-
culations will prove correct. vanced, tested, and generally proved cor-
rect. As more and more businessmen
• About tfie Autfion Robert J . Keith is Executive grasp the concept, and put it to work, our
Vice President, consurner products area, and a Di- economy will become more truly market-
rector oi The Plllsbury Company. He joined Pillsbury ing oriented.
in t935.
He is responsible for the grocery-products divi- PILLSBURY'S PATTERN: FOUR ERAS
sion and the refrigerated-products division. His in-
fluence has been invaluable in achieving the com- Here is the way the marketing revolur
pany's present consumer orientation. tiori came about at Pillsbury. The experi;-
35
 u JOURNAL OF' MARKETING January 1960
ence of this company has followed a (and almost incldentaily) we must hire
typical pattern. There has been nothing salesmen to seli. k, just as i,ve hire account-
unique, and each step in the evolution of ants to keep our books."'
fhe marketing concept I'.as been taken in The young company's first new product
a way that is more meaningful because reveals an interesting example of the
the steps are, in fact, typical. thinking of this era. The product was
Today in our company the marketing middlings, the bran left over after milling.
concept finds expression in the simple Miilfeed, as the product came to be
statement, "Nothing happens at Pillsbury known, proved a valuable product be-
until a sale is made." This statement rep- cause it was an excellent nutrient for
resents basic reorJcntation on the part of cattle. But the impetus to launch the new
our management. For., not too many years product came not from a consideration of
ago, the ordering of functions in our busi- the nutritional needs of cattle or a mar-
ness placed finance first, production sec- keting analysis. It came primarily from
ond, and sales last., the desire to dispose of a by-product! The
How did we arrive at our present point new product decision was production ori-
of view? Pilisbury's progress in the mar- ented, not marketing oriented.
keting revolution divides neatly into four
separate eras—eras which parallel rather 2nd ERA—SALES ORIENTED
closely the classic pattern of development In the 1930s Pillsbury moved into its
in the marketing revolution. second era of development as a marketing
company. This was the era of sales. For
Tst ERA—PRODUCTION ORIENTED the first time we began to be highly con-
First came the era of manufacturing. It scious of the consumer, her wants, and her
began with the formation of the company prejudices, as a key factor in the business
in 1869 and continued into the 1930s, i t equation. We established a commercial
is significant that the idea for the forma- research department to provide us with
tion of our company came from the avail- facts about the market.
ability of high-quality wheat and the We also became more aware of the im-
proximity of water power—and not from portance of our dealers, the wholesale and
the availability and proximity of growing retail grocers who provided a vital link
major market areas, or the demand for in our chain of distribution from the mill
better, less expensive, more convenient to the home. Knowing that consumers and
flour products. dealers as well were vital to the company's
Of course, these elements were poten- success, we could no longer simply mark
tially present. But the two major elements them down as unknowns in our figuring.
which fused in the mind of Charles A. With this realization, we took the first
Pillsbury and prompted him to invest his step along the road to becoming a market-
modest capital in a flour mill were, on the ing company.
one hand, wheat, and, on the other hand, Pilisbury's thinking in this second era
water power. His principal concern was could be summed up like this: "We are a
with production, not marketing. flour-milling company, manufacturing á
His thought and judgment were typical number of products for the consumer mar-
of the business thinking of his day. And ket. We must have a first-rate sales organi-
such thinking was adequate and proper zation which can dispose of all the prod-
for the times. ucts we can make at a favorable price. We
Our company philosophy in this era must back up this sales force with con-
might have been stated this way: "We are sumer advertising and market intelli-
professional flour millers. Blessed with a gence. We want our salesmen and our
supply of the finest North American dealers to have all the tools they need for
wheat, plenty of water power, and excel- moving the output of our plants to the
lent milling machinery, we produce flour consumer."
of the highest quality. Our basic function Still not a marketing philosophy, but
is to mill high-quality floUr, and of course we were getting closer.
THE MARKETING REVOLUTION 37

3rd ERA—MARKETING ORIENTED The Brand-Maaager Concept

It was at the start of the present decade The first move was to transform our
that Pillsbury entered the marketing era. small advertising department into a mar-
T h e amazing growth of our consumer keting department. The move involved
business as the result of introducing bak- far more than changing the name on
ing mixes provided the immediate im- organizational charts. It required the in-
petus. But the groundwork had been laid troduction of a new, and vitally impor-
by key men who developed our sales con- tant, organizational concept—the brand-
cepts in the middle forties. manager concept.
Widi the new cake mixes, products of The brand-manager idea is the very
our research program, ringing up sales on backbone of marketing at Pillsbury. The
the cash register, and with the realization man who bears the title, brand manager,
that research and production could pro- has total accountability for results. He
duce literally hundreds of new and differ- directs the marketing of his product as if
ent products, we faced for the first time it were his own business. Production does
the necessity for selecting the best new its job, and finance keeps the profit fig-
products. We needed a set of criteria for ures. Otherwise, the brand manager has
selecting the kind of products we would total responsibility for marketing his
manufacture. We needed an organization product. This responsibility encompasses
to establish and maintain these criteria, pricing, commercial research, competitive
and for attaining maximum sale of the activity, home service and publicity co-
products we did select. ordination, legal details, budgets, adver-
We needed, in fact, to build into our tising plan5, sales promotion, and execu*
company a new management function tion of plans. The brand manager must
which would direct and control all the think first, last, and always of his sales
other corporate functions from procure- target, the consumer.
ment to production to advertising to Marketing permeates the entire organi-
sales. This function was marketing. Our zation. Marketing plans arid executes the
solution was to establish the present mar- sale—all the way from the inception of the
keting department. product idea, through its development
This department developed the criteria and distribution, to the customer pur-
which we would use in determining which chase. Marketing begins and ends with the
products to market. And these criteria consumer. New product ideas are con-
were, and are, nothing more nor less than ceived after careful study of her wants and
those of the consumer herself. We moved needs, her likes and dislikes. Then mar-
the mountain out to find out what Ma- keting takes the idea and marshals all the
honiet, and Mrs. Mahomet, wanted. The forces of the corporation to translate the
company's purpose was no longer to mill idea into product and the product into
flour, nor to manufacture a wide variety sales.
of products, but to satisfy the needs and In the early days of the company, con-
desires, both actual and potential, of our sumer orientation did not seem so impor-
customers. tant. The company made flour, and flour
If We were to restate our philosophy was a staple—no one would question the
during the past decade as simply as possi- availability of a market. Today we must
ble, it would read: "We make and sell determine whether the American house-
products for consumers." wife will buy lemon pudding cake in
The business universe, we realized, did preference to orange angel food. The vari-
not have room at the center for Pillsbury ables in the equation have multiplied,
or any other company or groups of com- just as the number of products on the
panies. It was already occupied by the grocers' shelves have multiplied from a
customers. hundred or so into many thousands.
This is the concept at the core of the When we first began operating under
marketing revolution. How did we put this new marketing concept, we encoun-
it to work for Pillsbury? tered the problems which always accom-
 JOURNAL OF MARKETING
pany any major réorientation. Dur people
were young and frankly immature in some
areas of business; but they were men
possessed oí an idea and they fought for
it. l"he idea, was almost too powerful. The
marketing concept proved its Worth in
sales, hut it upset many of the internal
balances of the lorporation. Marketing-
oriented decisions revSulted in peaks and
valleys in production, schedules, labor,
and inventories. But the system worked. It
worked better and better as maverick mar-
keting men became motivated toward ton-
nage and profit.
4fh ERA—MARKETING CONTROL
Today marketing is coming into its
own. Pillsbury stands on the brink of its
fourth major era in the marketing revolu-
tion.
Basically, the philosophy of this fourth
era can be summarized this way: "We are
Inoving froni a company which has the
marketing concept to a marketing com-
pany."
Marketing today sets company operat-
ing policy short-term. It will come to
influence long-range policy more and
more. Where today consumer research,
technical research, procurement, produc-
tion, advertising, and sales swing into
action under the broad canopy established
by marketing, tomorrow capital and fi-
nancial planning, ten-year volume and
profit goals will also come under the
aegis of marketing. More than any other
function, marketing must be tied to top
management.
Today our marketing people know
more about inventories than anyone in
top management. Tomorrow's marketing
man must know capital financing and the
implications of marketing planning on
long-range profit forecasting.
Today technical research receives al-
most all of its guidance and direction
January 19éO
from marketing. Tomorrow marketing
will assume a more creative function in
the advertising area, both in terms of
ideas and media selection.
C&crnges in the Future
The marketing revolution has only be-
gun. There are still those who resist its
basic idea, just as there are always those
who will resist change in business, govern-
ment, or any other form of human insti-
tution.
As the marketing revolution gains mo-
mentum, there will be more changes. The
concept of the customer at the center will
remain valid; but business must adjust to
the shifting tastes and likes and desires
and needs which have always character-
ized the American consumer.
For many years the geographical center
of the United States lay in a small Kansas
town. Then a new state, Alaska, came
along, and the center shifted to the north
and west. Hawaii was admitted to the
Union and the geographical mid-point
took another jump to the west. In very
much the same way, modern business
must anticipate the restless shifting of
buying attitudes, as customer preferences
move north, south, east, or west from a
liquid center. There is nothing static
about the marketing revolution, and that
is part of its fascination. The old order
has changed, yielding place to the new—
but the new order will have its quota of
changes, too.
At Pillsbury, as our fourth era pro-
gresses, marketing will become the basic
motivating force for the entire corpora-
tion. Soon it will be true that every activ-
ity of the corporation—from finance to
sales to production—is aimed at satisfying
the needs and desires of the consumer.
When that stage of development is
reached, the marketing revolution will be
complete.
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Copyright of Journal of Marketing is the property of American Marketing Association and its content may not
be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written
permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.