426 MARKETING THE PRODUCTS 
The doing away with much of this unnecessary handling will 
reduce the ultimate cost of the product for the consumer, and the 
quality at point of consumption will be better. 
Customers’ Interests.*—To do justice to both, a good sales- 
man must take the viewpoint of the consumer as well as that of 
the producer; and, in order to do this, customers may be arbi- 
trarily divided into five well-defined classes, according to their 
financial standing, as follows: (1) Poor, (2) of moderate means, 
(3) high class, (4) wealthy, (5) hotels and restaurants. 
It is evident at a glance that the quality of products demanded 
by these five classes will vary considerably. The well-to-do con- 
sumer demands and is willing to pay for a high-class product, 
whereas the poorer customers with limited means will purchase 
a lower quality for less money. 
There is a marked variation according to the season, the 
poorer classes demanding products at the season of abundant 
supply when the prices are correspondingly low, while the wealthier 
classes and hotel trade will demand and gladly pay a higher price 
for a product out of its natural season. 
All customers, regardless of their financial standing, have 
the same personal interest at heart, and are governed by the 
same thought when purchasing,—namely, to get the largest 
possible quantity of the best quality of product available for 
the money. These interests may be classified under the follow- 
ing six headings: 
Quality, price, supply, accessibility, systematic delivery, re- 
sponsibility of salesman. 
Quality is the first requisite, and may be estimated by the 
following factors: Freshness, whether in dressed poultry or eggs; 
care in handling, from producer to point of consumption; whole- 
someness, which means absence of any taint; type of egg as to 
size and color; weight, whether of eggs or meat; method of pro- 
duction; price, in so far as it represents quality. 
Price.—Price is a consideration with all classes, but the actual 
purchasing power of money is estimated differently by these 
different groups, according to the amount on hand for their pur- 
pose. To the producer, the price depends upon variations in 
quality; shortage or abundance; competition, both in selling and 
buying; the middle man’s profits, which vary according to the 
*From work performed by Prof. E. W. Benjamin at Cornell. Ameri- 
can Association of Instructors and Investigators in Poultry Husbandry. 
