152 MARKETING AND THE MIDDLEMAN 



volume of business, in turn, has made possible improvements in 

 the product, a lowering of price to consumers, and an increase in 

 profits to the manufacturer. 



Ford Motor Company. A person connected with the adver- 

 tising department of the Ford Motor Company was asked to 

 express his opinion on the subject of marketing costs. This he 

 did in the following way: 



"The fifteen per cent allowed to the agent for making the sale carries 

 with it the certainty of considerable gratuitous service, which is rendered the 

 owner of the car, not only at the time of the purchase but during the years that 

 follow. It is as low a point as is safe or consistent with good reliable business 

 judgment. For, out of this the agent must maintain his place of business up 

 to a certain standard in the way of equipment for making replacements and 

 repairs, for looking after the welfare, not only of the one owner, but of all the 

 owners within his territory, and all Ford owners who may drive through with 

 their cars that require attention and service. He must pay his overhead, he 

 must pay on the investment in his business, and he has to be a mighty aggressive 

 and energetic agent if he makes any considerable amount of money. 



"It would seem to us there is a broad field for doing very valuable work 

 in enlightening the farmer as to the necessity of business methods and business 

 expenses. The primitive way will not do. There would be no progress. The 

 reaping machine would never have come into existence the farm tractor, 

 the gang plow, the automobile and all the advantages of modern civilization 

 and progress would never have been born if it were not possible to develop a 

 saving of time and a making of money through their use by farmers. All 

 these advances that have come from the brains of active business men have 

 been for the benefit, for the economy, for the profit of the farmer. And he 

 should be the one to welcome them most eagerly rather than to be picayune 

 and expect any man to do business for his interests or the interests of anyone 

 else without a profit . . . The laborer is worthy of his hire, and nowhere 

 else more worthy than in being that connecting link which brings to the farmer 

 those larger possibilities for making money and clothing himself with comforts 

 and luxuries. One trouble with the farmer is that he does not place any value 

 upon time. He will drive milk two miles to a milk depot, and he will never 

 estimate the cost of driving it from his house to the depot and back again. It 

 might take him two hours with a team of horses whose labors are worth $4.00 

 per day, and his own $2.00, but he counts it no cost." 



The Farmer's Middleman. Farmers favor " direct marketing" 

 as an ideal system. There is one place where the farmer's theory 

 of direct marketing is put to the final test, and that is in the so- 

 called "sales" or "auctions" held by farmers. At these "sales," 

 where the farmer desires to dispose of his goods and chattels in 

 quick time and on good terms, he has the privilege of selling 

 "direct" to the consumer. Yet I have never known a farmer to 

 do so. In practice he employs an expert middleman, known as an 

 auctioneer, to sell his goods. The farmer does this because he 

 saves time and money by it. The consumer, too, saves time by it, 

 and since he buys the goods at his own price, he cannot object to 

 paying for the services of this middleman. 





