Moving the Product

By 1930, the genie of mass production is out of the bottle, in a big way. Manufacturers everywhere are boosting production, erecting larger factories filled with more equipment and workers. There's no real limit.

Businesses know that customers are out there. Railroads can deliver their products anywhere, from rural Maine to the Kansas prairie or the Idaho mountains. The problem is how to reach all the potential new customers.

Americans are used to getting by on a limited budget, with little expectation of enjoying even small luxuries. But now, promoters now have new tools to awaken latent desires, and gradually increase customer appetites.

This is the job of advertising and sales promotion. It begins with getting the customer's attention, then presenting visions of a better life, suddenly and magically available. Best of all, much of it can now be bought on credit.
Merchandizing, 1920s

  Attracting Consumers
There are three main outlets for products. First are the small downtown stores, which have barely changed over the years. These offer necessities, like groceries and shoes. Next are the big department stores. Here, you can buy fashionable clothing, tasteful home furnishings, and the latest appliances. Like radios and vacuum cleaners. But another fast-growing source of sales is the mail-order catalog. There are plenty of these, but none comes close to matching the scope of Sears and Roebuck, which advertises itself as the world's largest store.

Advertising, 1930

  Style and Brand
Retail stores have been advertising in local papers since before the Civil War, competing mostly on price. Now, manufacturers are also getting into the game, to widen their markets. They begin to develop something called brand loyalty, using gimmicks that appeal to America's developing sense of style. Ford has enjoyed huge market share offering a solid, functional product at a great price. But General Motors begins making inroads by shifting the emphasis to an emerging sense of fashion. It's a contest Ford won't win. Appliance manufacturers are quick to join this new trend, which transforms the art of product 'promotion.' Instead of a simple display of function and price, new ads offer a whole new lifestyle.


Electric appliances, 1920s

  Appliances and More
Electricity has been around for years, but only used in households for lighting. Now, with the development of better and smaller motors, whole new markets are being opened up for electric appliances. Radios are the most exciting, but housewives are also offered a wide array of new work-saving conveniences. Electric refrigerators stay cold automatically, without the need for continual deliveries of blocks of ice. Electric stoves offer an alternative to gas stoves (available in cities) and coal stoves (used everywhere else). Washing machines, vacuum cleaners and steam cleaners are entirely new. Smaller items, like table-top fans, electric irons and food mixers add to the choices.


Freud and the unconscious, 1920s

  Hidden World Revealed
Sigmund Freud helps usher in the new spirit of consumer appetite in America, though indirectly. Freud is practicing psychology in Vienna, the capital of the old Austro-Hungarian empire, and bastion of strict social norms. His study of troubled young women leads him to propose a surprising new theory. The wild turmoil experienced by these women, he argues, is triggered by suppressed sexual memories, mixed with hidden desires. According to Freud, people don't really act rationally. Instead, they're at the mercy of emotions lying hidden deep beneath the surface, which are sometimes revealed in dreams. Women, it seems, are particularly susceptible, leading to a common mis-diagnosis of female 'hysteria,' which is widely accepted as medical fact.


Power of suggestion in advertising, 1920s

  You Need This Cigarette
Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays (upper right), takes Freud's theories in a new direction. If people act upon vague hidden desires, perhaps these desires can be evoked by subtle manipulation. At the time, it's widely considered taboo for women to smoke cigarettes in public. Bernays concocts a stunt to help his friend, the president of American Tobacco, get more women to smoke.  He persuades a group of rich young debutantes to tuck cigarettes into their stockings, join the New York Easter Parade, and (on a signal) pull out their cigarettes, all at the same time. Bernays suggests calling them 'torches of freedom,' and it sticks.


Brand image, 1920s

  Ad Agency Magic
The success of such techniques leads to the widespread use of suggestive imagery in big, full-color ads. These are prominently displayed in slick new urban magazines, mostly targeting women. The magazines, of course, are funded largely through money flowing in from large corporations in the form of advertising dollars. Corporations are buying an audience for these tantalizing pitches, expertly blended with fantasy. Women, in turn, are given a glimpse into the secret lives of movie stars and social elites, who are surrounded by stylish accessories. With retailers supplying credit, it's easy to get hooked.