OCR Text |
Show BUYER PROTECTED BY ADVERTISING Manufacturer Must. Maintain Quality of Goods Bearing His Name. Man Who Buys Standard Brands " From Local Merchants Knows That He - Is Getting Full Value for His Money. (Copyright. 1917. Western Newapaper Union.) Time was when advertising did not occupy the place In the world of trade that It does today. It has not been so very many years ago that the people peo-ple were suspicious of advertising. They were inclined to believe that the merchant was trying to "fool" them! with his advertising, that he exaggerated exag-gerated the value of the merchandise he advertised and took that method of trying to get them to buy goods that he could not sell by the old established estab-lished methods of merchandising. Those days are gone. The public now realizes that It Is the greatest beneficiary of advertising. Advertising has done more in a decade de-cade to establish certain standards In merchandise than could have been accomplished ac-complished In a hundred years by any other agency. The manufacturer who a few years ago merely made and sold clothes now makes and sells the Blank brand of clothes. The man who formerly for-merly just made hats now makes Blank's hats. And so it Is with everything every-thing that one buys today. The manufacturer, manu-facturer, by his advertising, has built up his business around a trade name and If he is to continue In business he must protect that trade name b j maintaining such a high standard oi quality that people, when they buy his products will know Just what they are getting. The consumer, when he goes Into a store today, does not buy merchandise mer-chandise blindly, with the HOPE that it will prove to be worth the money. He buys standard goods that bear the trade-mark of the manufacturer and that are backed by the reputation not only of the merchant who sells them but the manufacturer who makes them. This has been brought about by ad vertlslng. No Reputation to Protect All this applies to the retail merchants mer-chants as a class but it does not apply ap-ply to the mall order business. The man or woman who buys goods from a catalogue house is not protected bj the manufacturer of 'the goods for the reason that most manufacturers who sell goods to the mall order houses do not place their names upon the goods and therefore have no reputation reputa-tion to protect. The great majority of articles listed and Illustrated In the mall order catalogues cata-logues are included In what is known among manufacturers as "stencil" stuff. These articles bear the name ol the mall order house which sells them Instead of that of the manufacturer who makes them. It can readily be understood that any manufacturing concern which turns out goods that do not bear its name or trade-mark is likely to be a very unreliable institution. institu-tion. It Is not building up any reputation repu-tation on the quality of Its goods for its products have nothing to distinguish distin-guish them from the products of any other concern. With no reputation to sustain and no chance tof creating a general demand for Its goods the only concern of a .manufacturing Institution Institu-tion of this kind Is to make stuff as cheaply as possible in order to obtain the largest possible profit on its products. prod-ucts. - Same Price World Over. These facts are chiefly responsible for the generally prevailing idea that the home merchants do not sell goods as cheaply as the mall order house. They do sell the same quality of goods that the mall order house sells as cheaply as the mall order, house sells It but they cannot sell the standard, guaranteed 1 products of responsible manufacturers at . the same ' price at which the mall order house sella Its nameless, :unbranded merchandise. Standard goods bearing a registered trade-mark sell for the same price the world over and the manufacturer's guarantee stands back of them when they are sold in the smallest village In the country just the same as when they are sold In the stores of the largest larg-est cities. This is what the national advertising advertis-ing of the manufacturers has done for the consumers of the country. It has enabled them to go Into their home stores and buy merchandise which they know from past experience or from the reputation and guarantee of the manufacturer will give them satisfaction. satisfac-tion. They are not buying blindly and hopefully when they buy from the merchants in their home towns. They are buying with the knowledge that they are getting their money's worth. When they buy advertised brands they are getting double protection, that which Is afforded by the responsibility of the retail merchant and that which Is given by the reputation and guarantee guar-antee of the manufacturer. When they buy the unknown brands of goods that are offered by the mail order houses they are getting neither kind of protection. |