Word: product
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Kentucky, land of high spirits, never seems to tire of one particular product. It is called Old Happy. Known also as A. (for Albert) B. (for Benjamin) Chandler, Old Happy has a guaranteed age of 64, has given Kentuckians a kick for three decades-and seems good for many more...
...real name; yet it sounds more like an anagram or a code phrase devised by aliens, vaguely but discernibly inventive. Her hair is naturally blonde, yet it is so impossibly pale, so much closer to moonlight than to anything found on any ordinary human head, that it seems the product of a prop department. Her complexion, clear as ice and the untroubled color of early dawn, hints of a makeup artist. Her eyes, too, momentarily blue, then grey, then aquamarine, then green, look to be explicable only if they are not eyes at all but varying sets of colored contact...
Rivals are so quick to follow in the wake of any successful product that smaller, weaker originators are frequently swamped. In industry, this is now known as the Lestoil syndrome because of the experience of Lestoil Products of Holyoke, Mass. Lestoil scored a hit with its liquid household cleanser and gleefully watched sales climb to $25 million. Then Lever Brothers followed with Handy Andy, Procter & Gamble with Mr. Clean; recently Colgate weighed in with liquid Ajax. Lestoil's sales have fallen to $16 million, and the company has had to stop paying dividends...
Patent protection often means little; copycat firms know that a copied product may have spent its life cycle by the time lengthy litigation is finished. Westinghouse recently found a company copying its new hair dryer so exactly that even the instruction book was the same. In desperation, many inventive companies now license their competitors before they can copy, hoping at least to collect some royalties...
Companies that once simply devised a new product and then offered it to the public now go to the consumer beforehand to find out what products he wants designed, or old ones changed. Even such basic industries as steel, which once sold products only to fabricators, now try to recognize the uses new alloys or materials can be put to, and aim their research at end products for the consumer. Says Edward Green, vice president of Westinghouse Air Brake: "Companies must become more oriented not only to what the customer wants today but also to what he'll want...