the way of the carrier pigeon. Some of our museums have 

 attempted to duplicate the physical facilities, but the aromas, 

 the vigorous discussions, and the chance to eavesdrop at the 

 elbows of the villages' leading citizens have been lost forever. 



Although many of us now look back with fond memories of 

 the "good old days," we frequently forget the severe limitations 

 in the variety of our food supply. I need go back only 30 

 vears to recall that oranges were expected only once during the 

 year — in the Christmas stocking. Chicken was a Sunday 

 luxury and often none too tender. Bananas were found only 

 at the annual family reunion picnic after haying was finished. 

 Prepared foods were almost nonexistent. Fresh fruits and 

 vegetables were limited by the season and frozen foods were 

 still being perfected by Clarence Birdseye. The only fish I can 

 remember was Gorton's Dried Codfish and canned salmon. 

 The food supply for our major cities was still largely dependent 

 on the production of the area surrounding them. 



Some "blue sky" forecasters have drawn the supermarket of 

 the future as a push-button automat with moving belts carrying 

 the shoppers by glass-enclosed display cases and robots for de- 

 livering the groceries to the customers' jet crafts. Anything is 

 possible in this age of outer space exploration, but we're not 

 likely to see a space age supermarket within the next 5 years. 

 Maybe because I'm a conservative Vermonter by birth, I think 

 the next few years will bring few drastic changes that will com- 

 pletely rebuild the supermarket as we know it today. In other 

 words, no robots, no push-button selection, or other magic. 

 There will be changes, but many of them will not be seen by 

 the customer. 



For example, one of the changes that will modify the con- 

 sumption pattern is now under way in frozen foods. We now 

 have a food supply without season or limited by geography, 

 aided in part by the miracle of freezing. Although we an- 

 nually consume 48 pounds of frozen food per capita, only one 

 in three families in the U.S. uses frozen foods regularly. 

 Twenty-five percent have never purchased an item of frozen 

 food according to Sam Martin, editor of Quick Frozen Foods. 

 Food retailers have long recognized the inadequacies of their 

 display equipment, much of which was adapted from early ice- 

 cream holding cabinets. Equipment manufacturers have de- 

 veloped and retailers are now installing double-deck and tri-level 

 vertical cases with air stream curtains instead of doors. The 

 colorful packages now at eye level dramatically present the full 

 range of items from cakes to Chinese dinners. The upright 

 cases, in addition to improving the presentation of frozen foods, 

 will do away with the need for being an agile, adventurous 

 acrobat, and possibly losing one's balance when retrieving items 

 from the bottom of deep cases. 



Let's turn to an area vital to marketing at a profit — the 

 consumer who will be shopping the food store of the future. 

 Do you know as much about your potential customers and how 

 they respond as you should, to capitalize on the expanding 

 markets of the future? Mr. William Capitman of the Center 

 for Research in Marketing had some strong words for marketing 

 firms at a recent Chicago meeting. 



"Marketers are still presenting their products and designing 

 their packages as if the population were one homogeneous mass 



rather than attempting to define the segments of the population 

 who are the real potential customers. We are at least a decade 

 behind the changes that have taken place in American society 

 and purchasing behavior. Criteria for packaging design are 

 still based on such static and mechanical conceptions as legibility 

 and visual impact, rather than being involved with the people 

 who are perceiving, responding and purchasing. 



"The fact that 20% of the population of our major cities are 

 Negroes, that nearly another 20% are aged, that the median 

 age of our population is rapidly declining, and that the total 

 population is increasing in size, in influence, in education, in 

 sophistication, in leisure time, all mean that packaging, and 

 marketing, must take totally new sorts of approaches. Each 

 of these segments is becoming a separate market, as the cen- 

 trifugal forces at work in our society operate. Yet marketing 

 men persist in approaching the population as though it were 

 one big market, made up of white, Protestant, middle class, 

 young, suburban corporation executives and their wives." 



I also asked Bill Nigut of William Nigut Associates, Chicago, 

 if he could "shed any light" on the question of what women 

 think about fish and seafood. Bill has developed an outstand- 

 ing reputation for using consumer panels to discuss marketing 

 problems faced by food manufacturers, processors, and super- 

 market operators. From his experience with both panels and 

 1 ,500 home interviews, the following facts stood out : 



1 ) 13.5 percent of the housewives do not serve fish or sea- 

 food, either fresh or frozen. 



2 ) 16.5 percent serve it less than once a month. 



3 ) Of those who didn't serve fish or seafood, the most com- 

 mon reason given was that their families didn't like fish. 



4) Most women had no opinion either good or bad about 

 the fish or seafood department in the stores in which they 

 shopped. They simply did not recognize that such a depart- 

 ment existed. 



In the minds of too many consumers, fish is associated with 

 Friday and Lent. Phrased another way, it's something you 

 might eat when red meat is not available. I know some of you 

 are saying that this is too harsh an indictment of the industry, 

 but stop and recall how much of your total yearly sales are made 

 during the six weeks prior to Easter. The poultry industry 

 20 years ago faced a similar situation, although for different 

 reasons. Turkeys were for many years thought of as a holiday 

 purchase by most families. The development of a frozen bird 

 and a vigorous promotional program for turkey parts and 

 specialty packs, including rolled turkey breast, has changed 

 consumer buying patterns. Prepared turkey dishes are now 

 available along with basic turkey parts throughout the year. 



What will it take to change the association and the purchas- 

 ing patterns of consumers for fish and seafood? The inevitable 

 answer is more outstanding products and a concerted and skill- 

 fully executed advertising and promotional program to broaden 

 the consumption base of the industry. 



As I reflected on how I might develop the central theme of 

 my remarks, "selling up to higher profits," I recalled a talk 

 given by my Cornell colleague, Dr. Max Brunk, to an industry 

 that you consider one of your major competitors, which will go 

 unnamed. I thought you might be interested in what he told 



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