If the retail buyer will not
consider purchasing except in "seasons," a campaign of education needs
to be waged, proving the all-the-year-around value of a car rather than
the limited-season value. And while the educating is being done, the
manufacturer must build, and the dealer must buy, in anticipation of
business.
We were the first to meet the problem in the automobile business. The
selling of Ford cars is a merchandising proposition. In the days when
every car was built to order and 50 cars a month a big output, it was
reasonable to wait for the sale before ordering. The manufacturer waited
for the order before building.
We very shortly found that we could not do business on order. The
factory could not be built large enough--even were it desirable--to make
between March and August all the cars that were ordered during those
months. Therefore, years ago began the campaign of education to
demonstrate that a Ford was not a summer luxury but a year-round
necessity. Coupled with that came the education of the dealer into the
knowledge that even if he could not sell so many cars in winter as in
summer it would pay him to stock in winter for the summer and thus be
able to make instant delivery.
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