ABSTRACT
An analysis of general conditions in this household product market pointed to four features that were particularly relevant to this chapter. These are: household products as symbols of social and economic well-being, the growth of the working-class market, the high degree of similarity between the products of the various manufacturers, and the pattern of distribution of the industry's products. For most household products, there is comparatively little product differential between different makes and different manufacturers. Some companies developed and marketed household products designed to ease the housewives' chores. The most significant single development in the market for consumer goods of all kinds over the last twenty years has been the growth of working-class prosperity during and after the second world war. However, in the various product groups there are one, two, or three companies which supply more than half of the market, while the rest of the manufacturers, averaging about 21 in number, splinter the balance of the market among themselves.
