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Article contents
Material Incentives, Market Relations, and Historical Change: Selling Television Sets in West Germany and the United States
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 June 2016
Abstract
Why did premiums like turkeys, bottles of whiskey, or travel vouchers play an important role in the United States but not in West Germany? Looking for an answer, this article takes a detailed look at how television sets were traded along the distribution chain in both countries. The use of material incentives was an important competitive strategy of U.S. manufacturers and distributors during the 1950s. At the same time, it held price competitive behavior in check. Premiums were at the center of a “turkey economy” that paid tribute to the demands of traditional radio and television stores. In West Germany, the same objective was achieved by a “television cartel.” The article reconstructs the reasons for emergence and decline of the two systems and provides a detailed account of historical change highlighting the importance of retailing structures, the life cycle of products, and the time-specific culture of markets.
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- Copyright © The Author 2016. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference. All rights reserved.
References
Bibliography of Works Cited
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Katzmann, Robert A. Regulatory Bureaucracy: The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.Google Scholar
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Oxenfeldt, Alfred R. Marketing Practices in the TV Set Industry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
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Business History Review
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Business History Review
83, no. 2 (2009): 267–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Victor P. “Resale Price Maintenance and the FTC: The Magnavox Investigation.”
William & Mary Law Review
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Hall, Peter A., and Soskice, David W.. “An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism.” In Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, edited by Hall, Peter A. and Soskice, David W., pp. 1–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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Howard, Vicki. “‘The Biggest Small-Town Store in America’: Independent Retailers and the Rise of Consumer Culture.”
Enterprise and Society
9, no. 03 (2008): 457–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Shelby D., and Nevin, John R.. “Power in a Channel of Distribution: Sources and Consequences.”
Journal of Marketing Research
11, no. 2 (1974): 186–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Raff, Daniel M. G., and Temin, Peter. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History.” In Alfred D. Chandler: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management, vol. 2, edited by Wood, John C. and Wood, Michael C., pp. 1–34. London: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Logemann, Jan L. “Beyond Self-Service: The Limits of ‘Americanization’ in Post-War West German Retailing in Comparative Perspective.” In Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945, edited by Jessen, Ralph and Langer, Lydia, pp. 87–100. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2012.Google Scholar
Low, George S., and Fullerton, Ronald A.. “Brands, Brand Management, and the Brand Manager System: A Critical-Historical Evaluation.”
Journal of Marketing Research
31, no. 2 (May 1, 1994): 173–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCraw, Thomas K. “Competition and ‘Fair Trade’: History and Theory.”
Research in Economic History, 16 (1996): 185–239.Google Scholar
Mishra, Arul, and Mishra, Himanshu. “The Influence of Price Discount Versus Bonus Pack on the Preference for Virtue and Vice Foods.”
Journal of Marketing Research
48, no. 1 (February 2011): 196–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxenfeldt, Alfred R. “Franchising in Perspective.”
Journal of Retailing
44, no. 4 (1968): 3–20.Google Scholar
Oxenfeldt, Alfred R, and Mueller, Eva. “A Dynamic Element in Consumption: The TV Industry.” In Consumer Behavior: Research on Consumer Reactions, edited by Clark, Lincoln H., Carney, Joan B., and Morgan, James, pp. 420–442. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.Google Scholar
Preston, Lee. “Territorial Restraints: GTE Sylvania.” In The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition, and Policy, edited by Kwoka, John E., 3rd ed., pp. 311–327. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Reckendrees, Alfred. “Konsummuster Im Wandel: Haushaltsbudgets und Privater Verbrauch in der Bundesrepublik 1952–98.”
Jahrbuch Für Wirtschaftsgeschichte no. 2 (2007): 29–61.Google Scholar
Robinson, Daniel. “Marketing Gum, Making Meanings: Wrigley in North America, 1890–1930.”
Enterprise and Society
5, no. 01 (2004): 4–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildt, Axel. “Der Beginn des Fernsehzeitalters: Ein Neues Massenmedium setzt sich durch.” In Modernisierung Im Wiederaufbau: Die Westdeutsche Gesellschaft Der 50er Jahre, edited by Sywottek, Arnold and Schildt, Axel, pp. 477–92. Bonn: Dietz, 1998.Google Scholar
Schröter, Harm G. “The Americanisation of Distribution and Its Limits: The Case of the German Retail System, 1950–1975.”
European Review of History
15, no. 4 (2008): 445–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Peter, and Walker, James T.. “Bringing Entertainment into America’s Homes: Marketing Radios in an Era of Rapid Technological Change.” Business History Review (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Stanger, Howard R. “The Larkin Clubs of Ten: Consumer Buying Clubs and Mail-Order Commerce, 1890–1940.”
Enterprise and Society
9, no. 01 (2008): 125–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teupe, Sebastian. “Kontrolldenken: Vertikale Preisbindung, Hersteller-Händler-Beziehungen und die Transformation des Wettbewerbs im Markt für Fernsehgeräte zwischen den 1950er und 80er Jahren.”
Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte
59, no. 1 (2014): 47–72.Google Scholar
Tjong Tjin Tai, Sue-Yen, Veraart, Frank, and Davids, Mila
. “How the Netherlands Became a Bicycle Nation: Users, Firms and Intermediaries, 1860–1940.”
Business History
57, no. 2 (2015): 257–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wildt, Michael. “Continuities and Discontinuities of Consumer Mentality in West Germany in the 1950s.” In Life after Death: Approaches to a Cultural and Social History of Europe during the 1940s and 1950s, edited by Bessel, Richard and Schumann, Dirk, pp. 211–229. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census of Business: Retail Trade. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, various years.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part 2. Washington, DC, 1975.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC, various years.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Fachserie M - Preise, Löhne, Wirtschaftsrechnungen. Reihe 6-Preise und Preisindizes der Lebenshaltung, various years.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, various years.Google Scholar
LaFrance, Vincent A. “The United States Television Receiver Industry: United States versus Japan, 1960–1980.” PhD diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1985.Google Scholar
Teupe, Sebastian. “Die Gesetze des Marktes: Preispolitik, Wettbewerb und der Handel mit Fernsehgeräten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, 1945–1985.” Unpublished PhD diss., Bielefeld, 2014.Google Scholar
Wolkonowicz, John. “The Philco Corporation. Historical Review & Strategic Analysis, 1892–1961.” Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981.Google Scholar
Die Welt
Google Scholar
Electrical Merchandising
Google Scholar
Electrical Merchandising Week
Google Scholar
Funk-Fachhändler
Google Scholar
Merchandising Week
Google Scholar
Fortune
Google Scholar
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Google Scholar
Handelsblatt
Google Scholar
Markenartikel
Google Scholar
Radio-Fernseh-Händler
Google Scholar
Rundfunk-Fernseh-Großhandel
Google Scholar
Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin: Corporate Archive Collection of AEG-Telefunken (DTMB/AEG), Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
U.S. National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) College Park, MD.Google Scholar
Bean, Jonathan J. Beyond the Broker State: Federal Policies toward Small Business, 1936–1961. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Belasco, Warren James, and Horowitz, Roger, eds. Food Chains: From Farmyard to Shopping Cart. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bilby, Kenneth. The General: David Sarnoff and the Rise of the Communications Industry. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred D. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1990.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coase, Ronald H. The Firm, the Market, and the Law. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.Google Scholar
De Grazia, Victoria. Irresistible Empire: America’s Advance through Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dicke, Thomas S. Franchising in America: The Development of a Business Method, 1840–1980. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992.Google Scholar
Eisner, Marc Allen. Antitrust and the Triumph of Economics: Institutions, Expertise, and Policy Change. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Eurich, Claus, and Würzberg, Gerd. 30 Jahre Fernsehalltag: Wie das Fernsehen unser Leben verändert hat. Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1983.Google Scholar
Friedman, Walter A. Birth of a Salesman: The Transformation of Selling in America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gereffi, Gary, and Korzeniewicz, Miguel, eds. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Hilger, Susanne. “Amerikanisierung” Deutscher Unternehmen: Wettbewerbsstrategien und Unternehmenspolitik bei Henkel, Siemens und Daimler-Benz (1945/49–1975). Stuttgart: Steiner, 2004.Google Scholar
Howard, Vicki. From Main Street to Mall: The Rise and Fall of the American Department Store. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katzmann, Robert A. Regulatory Bureaucracy: The Federal Trade Commission and Antitrust Policy. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1981.Google Scholar
Laird, Pamela Walker. Advertising Progress: American Business and the Rise of Consumer Marketing. Studies in Industry and Society. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Logemann, Jan L. Trams or Tailfins? Public and Private Prosperity in Postwar West Germany and the United States. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013.Google Scholar
Oxenfeldt, Alfred R. Marketing Practices in the TV Set Industry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard A. Regulation of Advertising by the FTC. Washington, DC: American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 1973.Google Scholar
Rowe, Frederick M. Price Discrimination under the Robinson–Patman Act. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1962.Google Scholar
Sawyer, Laura Phillips. American Fair Trade: Proprietary Capitalism, Networks, and the New Competition, 1890–1940. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.Google Scholar
Sobel, Robert. When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them. Paramus, NJ: Prentice Hall Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Spigel, Lynn. Make Room for TV: Television and the Family Ideal in Postwar America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steiner, Kilian J. L. Ortsempfänger, Volksfernseher und Optaphon: Die Entwicklung Der Deutschen Radio- Und Fernsehindustrie und das Unternehmen Loewe 1923–1962. Essen, Germany: Klartext-Verl., 2005.Google Scholar
Strasser, Susan. Satisfaction Guaranteed: The Making of the American Mass Market. New York: Pantheon Books, 1989.Google Scholar
Tietz, Bruno. Der Markt für Haushaltselektrik und- Elektronik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von 1960 bis 1990: Eine Branchenanalyse. Hamburg: Gruner + Jahr, 1979.Google Scholar
Weiss, Edward B. Marketing’s Coming Readjustment to Low-Margin Retailing. New York: Doyle, Dane, Barnach, 1957.Google Scholar
Bowden, Sue M., and Offer, Avner. “Household Appliances and the Use of Time: The United States and Britain since the 1920s.”
Economic History Review
47, no. 4 (1994): 725–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carnevali, Francesca, and Newton, Lucy. “Pianos for the People: From Producer to Consumer in Britain, 1851–1914.”
Enterprise and Society
14, no. 1 (2013): 37–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casson, Mark, and Lee, John S.. “The Origin and Development of Markets: A Business History Perspective.”
Business History Review
85, no. 1 (2011): 9–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fligstein, Neil. “Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions.”
American Sociological Review
61, no. 4 (1996), 656–673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gereffi, Gary. “The Organization of Buyer-Driven Global Commodity Chains: How U.S. Retailers Shape Overseas Production Networks.” In Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism, edited by Gereffi, Gary and Korzeniewicz, Miguel, pp. 95–122. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Godley, Andrew, and Williams, Bridget. “Democratizing Luxury and the Contentious ‘Invention of the Technological Chicken’ in Britain.”
Business History Review
83, no. 2 (2009): 267–290.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Victor P. “Resale Price Maintenance and the FTC: The Magnavox Investigation.”
William & Mary Law Review
23 (1981): 439–500.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Soskice, David W.. “An Introduction to Varieties of Capitalism.” In Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage, edited by Hall, Peter A. and Soskice, David W., pp. 1–68. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hickethier, Knut. “Der Fernseher.” In Fahrrad, Auto, Fernsehschrank: Zur Kulturgeschichte der Alltagsdinge, edited by Ruppert, Wolfgang, pp. 162–187. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl., 1993.Google Scholar
Hilger, Susanne. “Coping with ‘Cooperative Capitalism’: Procter & Gamble’s Market Entry in Germany in the 1960s.” In American Firms in Europe: Strategy, Identity, Perception and Performance: 1880–1980, edited by Bonin, Hubert, pp. 339–362. Geneva: Droz, 2009.Google Scholar
Hollander, Stanley C. “United States of America.” In Resale Price Maintenance, edited by Selig Yamey, Basil, pp. 65–100. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966.Google Scholar
Howard, Vicki. “‘The Biggest Small-Town Store in America’: Independent Retailers and the Rise of Consumer Culture.”
Enterprise and Society
9, no. 03 (2008): 457–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Shelby D., and Nevin, John R.. “Power in a Channel of Distribution: Sources and Consequences.”
Journal of Marketing Research
11, no. 2 (1974): 186–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R., Raff, Daniel M. G., and Temin, Peter. “Beyond Markets and Hierarchies: Toward a New Synthesis of American Business History.” In Alfred D. Chandler: Critical Evaluations in Business and Management, vol. 2, edited by Wood, John C. and Wood, Michael C., pp. 1–34. London: Routledge, 2008.Google Scholar
Logemann, Jan L. “Beyond Self-Service: The Limits of ‘Americanization’ in Post-War West German Retailing in Comparative Perspective.” In Transformations of Retailing in Europe after 1945, edited by Jessen, Ralph and Langer, Lydia, pp. 87–100. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2012.Google Scholar
Low, George S., and Fullerton, Ronald A.. “Brands, Brand Management, and the Brand Manager System: A Critical-Historical Evaluation.”
Journal of Marketing Research
31, no. 2 (May 1, 1994): 173–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCraw, Thomas K. “Competition and ‘Fair Trade’: History and Theory.”
Research in Economic History, 16 (1996): 185–239.Google Scholar
Mishra, Arul, and Mishra, Himanshu. “The Influence of Price Discount Versus Bonus Pack on the Preference for Virtue and Vice Foods.”
Journal of Marketing Research
48, no. 1 (February 2011): 196–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oxenfeldt, Alfred R. “Franchising in Perspective.”
Journal of Retailing
44, no. 4 (1968): 3–20.Google Scholar
Oxenfeldt, Alfred R, and Mueller, Eva. “A Dynamic Element in Consumption: The TV Industry.” In Consumer Behavior: Research on Consumer Reactions, edited by Clark, Lincoln H., Carney, Joan B., and Morgan, James, pp. 420–442. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958.Google Scholar
Preston, Lee. “Territorial Restraints: GTE Sylvania.” In The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition, and Policy, edited by Kwoka, John E., 3rd ed., pp. 311–327. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Reckendrees, Alfred. “Konsummuster Im Wandel: Haushaltsbudgets und Privater Verbrauch in der Bundesrepublik 1952–98.”
Jahrbuch Für Wirtschaftsgeschichte no. 2 (2007): 29–61.Google Scholar
Robinson, Daniel. “Marketing Gum, Making Meanings: Wrigley in North America, 1890–1930.”
Enterprise and Society
5, no. 01 (2004): 4–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schildt, Axel. “Der Beginn des Fernsehzeitalters: Ein Neues Massenmedium setzt sich durch.” In Modernisierung Im Wiederaufbau: Die Westdeutsche Gesellschaft Der 50er Jahre, edited by Sywottek, Arnold and Schildt, Axel, pp. 477–92. Bonn: Dietz, 1998.Google Scholar
Schröter, Harm G. “The Americanisation of Distribution and Its Limits: The Case of the German Retail System, 1950–1975.”
European Review of History
15, no. 4 (2008): 445–458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, Peter, and Walker, James T.. “Bringing Entertainment into America’s Homes: Marketing Radios in an Era of Rapid Technological Change.” Business History Review (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Stanger, Howard R. “The Larkin Clubs of Ten: Consumer Buying Clubs and Mail-Order Commerce, 1890–1940.”
Enterprise and Society
9, no. 01 (2008): 125–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teupe, Sebastian. “Kontrolldenken: Vertikale Preisbindung, Hersteller-Händler-Beziehungen und die Transformation des Wettbewerbs im Markt für Fernsehgeräte zwischen den 1950er und 80er Jahren.”
Zeitschrift für Unternehmensgeschichte
59, no. 1 (2014): 47–72.Google Scholar
Tjong Tjin Tai, Sue-Yen, Veraart, Frank, and Davids, Mila
. “How the Netherlands Became a Bicycle Nation: Users, Firms and Intermediaries, 1860–1940.”
Business History
57, no. 2 (2015): 257–289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wildt, Michael. “Continuities and Discontinuities of Consumer Mentality in West Germany in the 1950s.” In Life after Death: Approaches to a Cultural and Social History of Europe during the 1940s and 1950s, edited by Bessel, Richard and Schumann, Dirk, pp. 211–229. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Census of Business: Retail Trade. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, various years.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1970, Part 2. Washington, DC, 1975.Google Scholar
U.S. Bureau of the Census. Statistical Abstract of the United States. Washington, DC, various years.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Fachserie M - Preise, Löhne, Wirtschaftsrechnungen. Reihe 6-Preise und Preisindizes der Lebenshaltung, various years.Google Scholar
Statistisches Bundesamt. Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, various years.Google Scholar
LaFrance, Vincent A. “The United States Television Receiver Industry: United States versus Japan, 1960–1980.” PhD diss., Pennsylvania State University, 1985.Google Scholar
Teupe, Sebastian. “Die Gesetze des Marktes: Preispolitik, Wettbewerb und der Handel mit Fernsehgeräten in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, 1945–1985.” Unpublished PhD diss., Bielefeld, 2014.Google Scholar
Wolkonowicz, John. “The Philco Corporation. Historical Review & Strategic Analysis, 1892–1961.” Master’s thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1981.Google Scholar
Die Welt
Google Scholar
Electrical Merchandising
Google Scholar
Electrical Merchandising Week
Google Scholar
Funk-Fachhändler
Google Scholar
Merchandising Week
Google Scholar
Fortune
Google Scholar
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
Google Scholar
Handelsblatt
Google Scholar
Markenartikel
Google Scholar
Radio-Fernseh-Händler
Google Scholar
Rundfunk-Fernseh-Großhandel
Google Scholar
Deutsches Technikmuseum Berlin: Corporate Archive Collection of AEG-Telefunken (DTMB/AEG), Berlin, Germany.Google Scholar
U.S. National Archives and Record Administration (NARA), Federal Trade Commission (FTC) College Park, MD.Google Scholar