DIARY OF MARKETING EVENTS: February 1968 to April 1968

Abstract

The marketing scene, during the period under review, was notable for uncertainty among consumers and consequent confusion among suppliers. There were many reasons for this uncertainty, most connected with the apparent instability of the economy: the uncoiling spring effect of devaluation, the ‘gold panic’ with its 1929 overtones, the publicised announcements of inevitable price increases, countered by patriotic announcements of price reductions, and above all, the feverish spending created by the advance announcements of a severe Budget. After the Budget the state of confusion continued, apparently due to a lack of confidence in the practical effect of the strict measures which had been imposed. This attitude of distrust, which swung the pendulum of marketing between hopeful confidence and anguished despair, gave rise to an erratic and unpredictable marketing environment, in which intuition could be as valuable as sophisticated mathematical models, for predicting future buying trends.

Citation

Forbes, A.M. (1968), "DIARY OF MARKETING EVENTS: February 1968 to April 1968", European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 2 No. 2, pp. 170-175. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb060106