In 1960, Robert J. Keith, then Vice President of Pillsbury, published an article entitled the "Marketing Revolution" in the leading marketing journal, "Journal of Marketing." The article, which was based on Keith's personal recollections, set out the way that the Pillsbury Company had evolved. He pointed out that the company had shifted from a focus on production in the 1860s to sales focus in the 1930s through to a consumer focus in the 1950s. The characteristics of these three distinct eras in Pillsbury's evolution include: the "production oriented era" from 1869 -1930s - characterized by a 'focus on production processes'; the "sales oriented era" from the 1930s to the 1950s - characterized by investment in research to develop new products and advertising to persuade markets of product benefits and the "marketing oriented era" from the beginning of the 1950s - characterized by a focus on the customer's latent and existing needs.