How could this unbelievable lag behind consumer
wants have been perpetuated so long? Why
did not research reveal consumer preferences before
consumers' buying decisions themselves revealed
the facts? Is that not what consumer research
is for — to find out before the fact what is going
to happen? The answer is that Detroit never really
researched the customer's wants. It only researched
his preferences between the kinds of things which
it had already decided to offer him. For Detroit
is mainly product-oriented, not customer-oriented.
To the extent that the customer is recognized as
having needs that the manufacturer should try to
satisfy, Detroit usually acts as if the job can be done
entirely by product changes. Occasionally attention
gets paid to financing, too, hut that is done more
in order to sell than to enable the customer to buy.