let's bring our editorial microscope into focus on a very significant phenomenon the middle income consumers you may have met this character in fortune the now famous series on the changing american market which portrayed his dramatic rise into the dominant economic personality of our time this nineteen fifty three study showed that the zoom in the american market after the war the unprecedented volume of goods of all kinds gobbled up buyers was largely the work of this middle income man let's update his story it's basic facts and figures to the present day the biggest single fact  the story is this despite higher taxes despite post war inflation the middle income consumer has roughly fifty percent more spending power today than he had a generation ago in real income two hundred forty billion dollars he has fed new demands into the production apparatus of industry accounting for the housing boom appliance sales the rush for prepared food even the once exclusive preserve of the exclusive rich luxury market has been invaded for the right to recapture the middle income by and this is only the seagoing phase of a campaign that has existed in changing the entire shape of the luxury market how did it happen through a revolutionary change in the way u s income is distributed in one thousand nine hundred eighty seven twenty seven percent of the population was in the middle income range earning between four thousand and seventy five hundred dollars a year in all there were almost thirteen million families in this bracket by nine hundred fifty three as fortune told us five million more families moved into this income category today more than a million more families have promoted themselves to middle incomes in terms of dollars the families in this bracket now receive more than forty two percent of all income real income and their spending is just as real food is now at sixty four and a half million dollar market up eight percent since one thousand nine hundred eighty three clothing sales are up six percent from one hundred fifty three housing for the seventh straight year the industry has topped one million starts home goods furniture t v electrical appliances and such up fifteen percent since fifty three the family car seven and a half million i was brought in fifty five so far demand has matched the incredible pace of american product let's look at the production story a moment over the past century production per man hour showed an average increase of two percent per year these two percentage points compounded annually doubled production over the last generation quadrupled over the last two generations they made america but what has happened since the one nine hundred forty seven the yearly rate of increase has risen fifty percent and the implications of that rise are truly staggering if sustained as it seems likely to be it will remake america production per man hour is slated to redouble by nineteen eighty but this productive potential if it is to translate itself into standard of living has got to be sold and in large measure sold to him thus marketing becomes the pivot on which our continued prosperity turns marketing must make the growing production mesh with the expanding market this is where the challenge now lies to meet that challenge american businesses taking a new look at its own attitude to marketing and advertising over the past thirty years the ups and downs of advertising activity kept pace with the ups and downs of consumer spending when sales rose promotional activities rose when sales dropped advertising dropped but in  nine and again in one nine hundred fifty three and fifty four there was a change as the volume of sales slid down advertisers countered by moving the volume of advertising steadily up for the first time advertising and selling were allowed to create sales instead of sales creating advertising and selling how come that's the question we put to a group of manufacturers recently here on the answer the vice president of the leading camera company said in one nine hundred fifty four our advertising appropriation increased approximately twenty percent over one hundred fifty three where as sales showed no change as a result we were able not only to hold our own in the marketplace but to stabilize our employment levels the president of a top oil company told us our ann's call for a continuation of our present aggressive advertising and promotional efforts we fully expect our competitors to do likewise the president of the number one beverage company said businessman that they regard advertising as an investment rather than just a business expense and the president of the leading tire rubber company put it this way advertising and other sales activity should not move up and down with minor changes in the total volume of business they should maintain a steady pace year to the overall growth trend these statements represent a very real and important change in business thinking the feeling is abroad that aggressive advertising and marketing while they may not prevent a short cyclical downturns in the economy nevertheless will have a strong stabilizing effect over the long haul this is exactly what happened when one nine hundred fifty five moved far ahead of the one nine hundred fifty three fifty four debt the basic reasons for the new outlook are first a new confidence in the ability of government to help maintain economic stability businessman recognise that government is better equipped and better able to help second inflationary or deflationary cycle the government is constantly on the line for any sudden rise or fall in the business barometer second and far more important is the growing awareness of business leaders that the number one job of in the street today is distribution moving the goods into the hands of consumers matching desires with income prices with costs consumption with production this is the function of marketing and marketing as management now realizes consists of all company operations except only physical production all the services that help move the product to the buyer marketing research product designing product testing products servicing merchandising packaging pricing physical handling storage and transportation credit and financing accounting and billing sales organization sales force sales outlets retail selling advertising public relations whereas the kitchen saying well if you happen to manufacture kitchen sinks there it is right on top that tangible product has distribution depends on the successful interplay of all the seventeen marketing functions a manufacturer has a complete marketing plan only if he has covered every one of these vital operations a third reason why business men of turned increasing attention to creative marketing is that changing american market expressed in the zooming birth rate with bigger families back in style the amazing mushroom growth of america the upgraded scale of income everywhere and especially the new pattern of income distribution which has led to the bounty for smack in the middle range of income as these groups continue to benefit as our birth and productivity grow they open the door to new markets for additional goods and services to challenge the imagination marketing and advertising can and must rise to new heights as we come to grips with the opportunities that lie ahead first and biggest opportunity is the expanding population markets people with incomes and the man in the past two years alone  population has increased by five million a new american every two minutes according to reasonable estimates we should reject hundred seventy five million by one nine hundred sixty and as the sixty's progress the baby is born in the fort will be creating babies of their own meaning a new surge in the birth rate the promise for one hundred seventy as a population of a hundred and ninety five million obviously these figures are judged with meaning by those who processed foods and manufactured drugs footwear and apparel in fact the increasing demand for goods and services boundary rubbermaid throughout industry opportunity highway construction as a nation our life is slowly being choked by our antiquated highway system the government has a one hundred million dollar highway program which offers a profusion of opportunity for anyone with a stake in america on the lady like her eggs country fresh to the men who make road building machinery who can well look through a two hundred fifty million dollar increase in sales a year new highways mean steel of all kinds and sales of steel going to expect to increase by three hundred forty four million dollars a year cement concrete asphalt tar road oil has an increase of four hundred thirty five million dollars a year and just think of what will happen to the production sales and service of automobiles truck and bus transportation gasoline then oil and tires these functions account for nearly ten million jobs meaning ten million wage earners and their families better able to buy products of all kinds in every locality of the u s opportunity rewiring the home it's a fact that four out of every five american homes cannot accommodate the electrical wonders of today why because most homes are not adequately wired for modern appliances there's a giant sized app an eight billion dollar order for raw materials producers of copper steel insulation electrical appliance manufacturers and distributors and the people who plan to work for them like utilities which must meet the resulting upsurge in the man for gas oil and electric power  opportunity redevelopment think of a business any business desk real or consumer and then imagine the opportunity that would open for that business if our cities would step up their present redevelopment program our cit in large parking facilities more bridges redevelopment of slum add the crying need for new city schools hospitals and recreation centers and urban redevelopment emerges as the biggest single task and opportunity to have less tangible but just as real as the opportunity a new product development the past is only an inkling of the future and look at what jet planes  now incubating in laboratory a recent statement by a giant electrical company referring especially to electronic and atomic energy summed up the near future in these words the fields are so promising that we expect to produce more in the next ten years than in all of the previous seventy five years of our existence opportunity the suburb one fifth of america over thirty two million people now live in the suburbs and a million and border more are moving in each year this shifting tide of population carries with it a clamor for new shopping centers new schools new highways  fulfillments for off hours and leisure time as it builds suburbia becomes a green pasture for every conceivable type of insurance line and suburban living opens new opportunities for beverages of all kinds boarding goods the entire spectrum of consumer goods and services opportunity education the number of high school graduates has doubled since as recently as one thing for this in itself means opportunity to the business community or as a matter of straights protesting at the higher the education the higher the demand for more good better food more leisure more travel more education and people with high standards of education is a people with high standards of living opportunity leisure time the average american today works fifteen percent fewer hours than he did a generation ago yet his productivity is more than half again as high as both trends rising productivity and shorter hours will continue the increase in leisure time now and in the years ahead is a creative economic force bringing new knee and new opportunities for marketing these are only a sampling of the great opportunities in store opportunities that could and should and will be pleased by american businessmen to create more good jobs more income and more opportunities for us all here into the future as a fascinating spectacle the prospect of the coming quarter century as a gazelle or writing it is as if we were privileged not only to see but to participate in centuries of development telescoped into a brief span is not too early to train your sights on this prospect right now