Ski'TE.mber. 1921 



G 7, K A X I X G S IX BEE CV I> T U R E 



555 



BASIC MARKETING PRINCIPLES 



IVho is Responsible for Supply and 



Demand? 'Various Channels from 



'Producer to Consumer 



By H. F. Wilson 



HONEY is 

 the most 

 wholesome 

 sweet known to 

 man. It is said 

 to contain vita- 

 mines of the 

 highest value 

 and also small 

 ;! mounts of all 

 the minerals used in the building of animal 

 tissues. It is, therefore, unnecessary for us 

 to defend the use of honey, but rather we 

 should publish these facts to the world and 

 endeavor to search out the real reason why 

 our Creator established this food on earth. 

 The trouble is not with honey, but rather 

 with the present condition of the honey in- 

 dustry; nor do we need to worry about 

 honey production; a plentiful supply will 

 be brought forward when it is needed. 

 Every person engaged in any phase of the 

 industiy must concentrate on but single 

 ideas. 



Effect of Supply and Demand. 

 Much has been said about marketing and 

 distribution of honey, but there are certain 

 fundamental factors which control the 

 honey market. 



Supply and demand are supposed to con- 

 trol the price of every article of commerce. 

 To a more or less degree this is true, but 

 in the last analysis the producer and the 

 dealer are responsible, to the greatest ex- 

 tent, for the supply and demand. The gen- 

 eral public are but the medium thru which 

 the producer and the dealer work. The 

 average producer of farm products has not 

 the slightest idea as to the value of his 

 product. He produces according to his con- 

 ditions and turns his crop over to the deal- 

 er. The dealer is not concerned in the value 

 of the crop, but rather in the per cent he 

 may secure in handling it. 



The consumer 's part in the deal is more 

 or less passive. He buys not because of 

 necessity, for there are always satisfactory 

 substitutes, but because tliei'e is created in 

 liis own mind a demand for a certain thing. 

 Tliis demand may be curtailed by inability 

 to pay, but the number who ax-e able to pay 

 is always sufficiently great to carry the sup- 

 ply if the medium used in creating the de- 

 mand is sufficiently forceful. Think of the 

 many impractical devices each and every 

 one of us has bought from time to time 

 because of the forceful persunsiou of some 

 street vender. 



How Much WiU Consumers Pay? 

 Every family in the United States todiiy is 

 eating from one to many of our common veg- 

 etables or cereals in a new form, but changed 

 by some manufacturing process. They pay 

 many times the price at w"hich they might 

 buy the food in its best form, and frequent- 

 ly the more nutritive part is lost or de- 

 stroyed in manufacturing. How much is 

 honey worth as food? How much can peo- 

 ple afford to pay for honey? I do not be- 



lieve tliat any 

 single ji e r s o u 

 can today an- 

 swer those cjues- 

 tion satisfactor- 

 ily. How much 

 will the consum- 

 er pay for hon- 

 ey? If we say 

 that honey and 

 sug;\r are parallel products, the consumer 

 wnnts to buy honey for the same price as 

 sugar- If we compare honey with glucose 

 syrups, he makes the same comparison. But 

 does honej^ not rank higher as a food than 

 sugar or glucose? Honey should be classed 

 with first-grade preserves, jams, and jellies, 

 and should be sold on an equal price basis. 

 Furthermore, honey should be sold on stand- 

 ards of quality and classified in such n wnv 

 that the consumer can always buy a staml- 

 ard product. The great majority of people 

 have absolutely no idea concerning the dif- 

 ferent flavors of honey, and the great con- 

 glomeration of flavors which are fed to them 

 does not create, but rather destroys the de- 

 sire for honey. 



High-grade honey will sell in wholesale 

 lots from 6 to IS cents per pounii in 1921- 

 1922 and from 10 to 30 cents jier pound 

 retail. All grades of honey from the ]ioor- 

 est to the best will be put on the market 

 as honey. Those who get the poorest per- 

 haps may never buy honey again. Those 

 who get the best will continue to buy until 

 they get a sample of the poorest, and they 

 too will likely quit. There is some honey 

 still in the hands of the beekeepers which 

 was produced in 192(t, but the crop for 1921 

 will be short, so that if the honey now on 

 hand can be evenly distributed there is 

 no need for below-cost selling. Honey is 

 a pure sweet, and as a food is worth as 

 much as high-class jams and jellies. The 

 best grades of honey ought not to retail 

 for less than 25 cents a pound in pails and 

 not less than 35 to 4d cents in pound jars. 

 If we figure that the average cost of jiro- 

 <luetion is ten cents per pound, then the 

 retail price must be maintained near the 

 above figures or else the large distributors 

 will be unable to carry the business. 

 Function of the Middlemen. 

 There is always a great rleal of talk about 

 doing away with the nnddlemen and car- 

 rying the product from producer to con- 

 sumer; but there is. only one way in which 

 the dealer can lie eliminated, and that is 

 for the beeket>per to peddle his own crop. 

 Many beekeepeis live in territory where 

 this is inijiossible, and so it becomes neces- 

 sary for them to sell their honey thru a 

 dealer. Brokers, jobbers, wholesale mer 

 chants, and retailers must be paid for their 

 efforts, and they must have a small profit 

 in order to do business. These agencies are 

 absolutely necessary to get distribution, and 

 cannot be eliminated under our present mar- 

 keting system. A study of the marketing 



