Moss Kendrix: What the Public Thinks, Counts

Moss H. Kendrix, one of the most outstanding young men in the field of public relations, continues to create new ideas in the Negro market. America's 15 million Negroes represent a rich and growing market for the things people eat, drink, wear, and use.

Their purchasing power equals that of Canada, exceeds the value of all goods the U.S. exports. In population this market is twice as big as Belgium, Greece or Australia, is 3 three times as large as Sweden. All these statistics add up to a market that can mean soaring sales for companies successfully developing the proper advertising and merchandising approaches to it.

"The vast potentialities of the Negro market" has been a theme business publications have been hammering on with consistency for the past few years. Only recently The Wall Street Journal pointed out that "sales messages must be slanted" toward the Negro people.

In the light of these facts Mr. Kendrix has exerted much of his remarkable energy and skill in an effort to get American industry keyed to the development of this relatively untapped market. He has been received in the conference rooms of several of the nation's outstanding industries, counseling businessmen on the profits they have been overlooking, while seeking new clients for his own services.

Hailed by friends and associates as "The Dreamer who works to make his dreams come true," Moss Kendrix would hasten to qualify any claims of outstanding success. Nonetheless, it cannot be gainsaid that much of the advertising, merchandising and goodwill which is exchanged between the Negro market and industry today stems from the activity and influence of Moss Kendrix in the field.

As industry slowly began to employ Negroes in sales positions, Mr. Kendrix discerned a need for a program of orientation and exchange of ideas among the members of this new sales force. He organized and has been a diligent cultivator of the National Association of Market Developers.

The purpose of this organization is to promote the professional growth and advancement of its members and thereby to increase the effectiveness of the marketing and public relations programs in which they are engaged. It seeks to "encourage and assist qualified young men and women to enter the fields of endeavor served by the members of the Association."