Marketing fun and games.

• Author: Marcus, Morton J.
• Position: Commentary

The key to success, I have been told, is positioning your efforts in a context acceptable to the buyer. This is known in advanced circles as the "Give-them-what-they want" theory of marketing. Economic activity is thus blended with cultural anthropology.

Let me explain.

Once upon a time, a committee sat in a hut or a cave. After hours of debate--during which scholarly testimony was heard and practical voices were raised--food, clothing and shelter were proclained as basic human needs. It was further declared that, if not provided within the household, these needs would be satisfied by the marketplace.

Today, many basic needs are satisfied rather easily in America. Only 14.4 percent of consumer expenditures feeds the average household. Another 30.6 percent provides shelter, including the heating, lighting and furnishings of the modern hut. The garments that protect us from nature--and that display as much of our nature as decreasing modesty allows--account for another 5.9 percent.

In addition, we spend 17.4 percent of our funds on transportation now that our feet are no longer sufficient to get us about. Some 8.2 percent we set aside as pensions or direct into Social Security (which we fantasize as a provision for furture spending). Finally, we allocate 5.2 percent to health (excluding what our employers and the government spend for us).

We now have accounted for 81.7 percent of expenditures. That leaves nearly one-fifth of our spending ... for what? I contend that entertainment, in one form or another, accounts for the remaining 18.3 percent of consumer spending. This includes alcohol and tobacco, reading, education, personal-care products, traditional recreation and cash conditions to worthy causes.

Squeamish readers may object to lumping worthy causes, education and tobacco in the single category of entertainment. But if we go back to that ancient hut or cave, we would find them closely linked. Tobacco and alcohol were ritual pathways to knowledge from early days that have continued as such right through the latest fraternity party.

As we become wealthier, we are able to be more secure. We can...