When Cyrus McCormick invented and began manufacturing his reaper in a factory in Chicago in 1847, still had to solve the problem of marketing —of selling the machine to farmers in the countryside. The reaper cost over $100, a substantial sum for his potential customers; it was a complex piece of machinery; arid farmers were initially unfamiliar with the device. For these reasons McCormick could not rely on the wholesale-retail network to sell his product; he needed to develop a more aggressive marketing mechanism. Pronouncing "to sell, I must advertise," he promoted the reaper in ads in agricultural periodicals, and publicized it at county and state fairs by staging demonstrations and field trials with competing products. He also assembled a team of commissioned agents, assigning each to a specific region, to display new models, make sales, and handle service and repair. Eventually agents set up...