March, 1940
89
AUTOMATIC AGE
Today’s Products Are Obsolete!
R adically New Products Needed to Stim ulate
Production, Sales and Em ploym ent
Cleveland, Ohio— To help manufac
turers speed recovery, absorb the un
employed, and prepare now for the
post - war competition of foreign
manufacturers, by the introduction
of improved and radically new prod
ucts that present advanced thought
in function, convenience and ap
pearance, is claimed for a three-
production service termed a Master
Products Service, inaugurated by
Designers for Industry, Inc., an in
dustrial design and engineering or
ganization of this city, according to
announcement by Chas. H. Oppen-
heimer, its president.
In making the announcement Mr.
Oppenheimer states that the master
Products service involves the applica
tion of the scientific principles of
modern product research, engineer-
'Ug development and product styling
for the development of radical im
provements that will create a definite
obsolescence factor in existing
Products.
“As a matter of fact,” he declared,
in view of potent'alities it is obvious
that a large percentage of today’s
Products are already obsolete. There
1S little difference in the service pei'-
formance or appearance of many com
petitive products. Buyers are not,
ln most lines, being furnished with
sufficient inducement to make new or
^placem ent sales. Unlimited oppor
tunities await those manufacturers
wbo anticipate consumer require
ments and furnish the radically im
proved products necessary to meet
them.
of their products, nor upon product
styling or industrial design as a con
structive stimulant in marketing.
“ Manufacturers as a rule have
ignored the factor of obsolescence
as a powerful trade stim ulant and
business-builder,” he continued, “as
so forcefully demonstrated by the
new life and activity in the auto
motive, office and store equipment,
and some divisions of the domestic
appliance fields, and especially in
the machine tool field, — in all of
which radically improved products
have increased sales and employment
to a marked degree. Immediate pub
lic acceptance of today’s smart auto
mobiles, flourescent lighting, pianos,
electric razors, nylon fabric hosiery,
streamlined typewriters and products
of synthetic plastics, and the adop
tion by industry of new alloys,
finishes and processes, furnish ample
proof that radically improved or prac
tical new products will find immediate
consumer response.
“ However,” he points out, “few
of the more than 100,000 active plants
that constitute American industry,
have the facilities, personnel or means
that have enabled the automotive,
steel, and chemical industries and a
few outstanding manufacturers to
create the radically new materials or
products that experience has shown
are assured of immediate public ac
ceptance.
“ Furthermore, but few manufac
turers have the facilities for keep
ing abreast of the constant new de
velopments in all materials, processes,
products and finishes, noteworthy ex
amples of which are found in the
beryllium alloys, silicon bronzes, tel
lurium-copper alloys, silver and lead
alloy steels, one-coat one-fire porce
lain enameling, flame gouging, in fra
red ray drying, m a g n e s i u m alloys, im
proved grey iron castings, glass and
synthetic fabrics, and the scores of
other material and product develop
ments that pave the way for the
radically new products that will sti
mulate production and sales.
.
“ The iMaster Products Service was
created to overcome the handicaps
that confront all but the very largest
of organizations, to give them the
benefits accruing from scientific m ar
ket research, the latest engineering
technique, and the selling force in
herent in artistic and correct func
tional design.
“ To these manufacturers, Ameri
ca’s employed 35,000,000 wage earn
ers offer a healthy, profitable m ar
ket. And it is noteworthy that in
spite of economic conditions, the pre
sent income earners will spend genei*-
ously for new things, provided the
new things have a distinctive new
appeal — refinement, beauty, greater
utility, convenience, simplified opera
tion,— individually or in combination
that will automatically put the “ out
of date” stamp on existing products.
There will be no unemployment prob
lems when industry as a whole grasps
the significance of not only keeping
its products up-to-date, but, let us
say, a little ahead of expressed de
mands.”
M o d e rn ’s M o d e rn Offices
"^be situation is aggravated by
e fact that fully fifty per cent
° the products in use today are in-
®0rrectly designed. This is largely
Ue to the fact that many manufac-
Urers have failed to utilize impar-
product research to determine
Sei requirements, character and
° f competing products, pos-
low ^ GS
better products and
ei production costs made possible
y substitute materials, and market
ized n^ a^ t ies; ^bey have not capital-
^.e upon modern engineering tech-
thqUe and new materials to improve
e mechanical and service features
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