Industry Must Produce What Customer Wants

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29224, 7 June 1960, Page 12

Industry Must Produce What Customer Wants

Any programme of industrial development in a free economy must be based on an accurate know ledge of what the customer wants, according to Mr J. N. Laurenson, general manager of Wooiworths (New Zealand), Ltd., in a paper to be presented to the 1960 industrial development conference in Wellington. "A programme which merely expects the consumer to buy what industry produces will fail, just as any business must ultimately fail which neglects to give first consideration to customers. “Planners, industrialists, distributors, and the public need to comprehend this as a prerequisite to realistic thinking on industrial development,” he said. The process of distribution does not consist simply of somebody selling something which somebody else has produced, he said. The process was initiated by demand, by somebody expressing a want which was then satisfied by the producer through the dis- • tributor, with the latter as the gobetween throughout the process. “It has been well said that the source of America’s industrial power is not that she has a genius for production, but rather a genius for consumption. “Stimulate consumption and production is subjected to pressures which ensure that its development is realistic and effective. To start at the other end is almost to guarantee waste and frustration,” he said. Mr Laurenson said it followed that the distributive trades, including manufacturers distributing I their °wn goods, must play a leading part in a successful pro-

gramme of industrial development.

“It is the distributor who must interpret to the producer the needs of the customer, acting as the main stimulant to effective production.

“The distributor should be essentially a salesman and New Zealand’s progress will depend more on vigorous selling than on any other quality.” he said. Distribution must play a leading part on the programme of industrial development geared to the growth of New Zealand as a nation.

The requirements of the distribution system were the widest possible variety of overseas goods to supplement what New Zealand could economically make itself, efficient movement of goods by drive and co-ordination in the transport field with the objectives of regularity, economy and speed, improved shopping facilities, and vigorous selling by retailers and manufacturers working together for maximum volume at minimum mark-up he added.