Marketing Innovations

Report Introduction: In the briefness of a generation, the face of much of our world has changed. We span the States more swiftly than the sun. Sitting in our living rooms, we watch actual events take place on other continents. The dark side of the moon is ours to observe. We live, play, work, and even worry amid conditions undreamed of 50 years ago. We shop to music. Food and clothing in plentiful supply beckon us to attractive marts. We fill shopping carts from mountainous piles of merchandise. The existence and availability of these miracles of farm and market, we take for granted. But their impact has been vast. Fast-moving and far-reaching changes occur in the economic system as innovation after innovation enters the stream of man's activities to satisfy his needs and fulfill his dreams. Fruits of change grow wherever seeds of progress are planted. As we look about us, we see evidence of this truth. A renowned economist, Joseph Schumpeter, has written, "innovation is the outstanding fact in the economic history of capitalistic society. It is largely responsible for growth which we sometimes attribute to other factors. Further innovations result from previous innovations, or are directly produced or made possible by them." This chapter cites many examples to reinforce Schumpeter's opinion. Changes in farm marketing are evaluated. Those factors which are at work in shaping the course and formulating the structure of the farm marketing industry also motivate its decision-makers.