CONSUMER DEMAND

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 85, 4 January 1935, Page 6

CONSUMER DEMAND

— Important Intangible Factor No economist lias ever bqen able to set down on his charts any biit theoretical values or representations of rheforce known as demand. Nevertheless, lie clings to his belief in its effectiveness in producing economic results and gives it a place in many a hypothetical equation. Actually consumer demand, as the. economists view if, is largely a myth whic'h fades into nothingness whenever analysis is attempted. It has been pictured as a great inner drive constantly operating to bring about adjustments in the supply of commodities by means of price increases or decreases. Actually the concept has little-significance in an era when the greater part of human effort is employed in the production of ' manufactured articles. Certainly it was not consumer demand whic'h brought into existence the automobile, the radio, or the electric refrigerator. Looked at in the. large, bonstimers do not demand a constantly improved standard of living —they can demand only that which they are conscious of as a possibility. For a given consumer, his entire demand may he considered as a desire to enjoy the best standard of living that he ha.s heretofore experienced ami perhaps to achieve it with somewhat less pain and trouble than formerly. On the other hand, the typical consumer appeal's -to have almost unlimited capacity for response to well planned efforts at demand creation.. On every new commodity it lias been just as necessary to build demand as to build the product itself. Advertising and mass production have combined to bring about every forward step in our advancing living standards. If all forms of advertising were abandoned or prohibited, consumer demand as a inner force would be of no avail in providing a market for new inventions or advanced designs, 'rhe consumer cannot express his needs in tlie form of specifications for commodities to fill those needs. The consumer. as such, is utterly lacking in constructive imagination and finds expression only through the medium of choice after a variety of products designed to fill the same ‘ purpose have been presented.

It has been- found that advertising is by far the most economical means of presenting new commodities to the consumer. It is also necessary that this advertising be competitive in order that the consumer, by making selections, may exercise influence on the course that design improvement is to. take. It follows that without advertising our standard of living could not be of a progressive nature.—Allyn B. Mclntire, in the “Editor and Publisher.”