The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-05-18
The Value of Advertising.
Trusts, as Well as individuals, Must
Seek Publicity to Succeed.

Seek Publicity to Succeed.
The fundamental idea underlying
the modern trust" is that it effects
economies in the cost of production
and distribution. Included in the cost
OF distribution is charge for pub
hclty"-in other words. advertising.
That charge, many people contend,
who have but specifically studied the
subject, can be crossed off, as it were;
for, argue they, it is only competing
establishments which must advertise
to induce people to buy of them
rather than of their rivals Trusts
have no rivals-hence they need not
advertise. The money thus saved is
clear gain
The history of the American Bicy-
Gle Company furnishes a striking IL
lustration of the fallacy of such rea-
soning. Col. Albert A Pope, who has
recently purchased what remains of
the assets of this trust, said recently
that it started with capital Of $40,-
100000, forty-two of the best plants
In the country, the ownership of all
the best patents, the control of more
than 20 per cent of the business, and
magnificent prospects" Yet today
that trust is nothing but a memory
it never paid dividend. and its Sc
cur1ties, stocks, and bonds alike re-
main ''undigested and undigestible"
The whole property has passed into
private hands.
The disastrous experience of the
Bicycle Trust will at once be ascribed
by unthinking people to change in
public taste. They will assert that
there was no demand for the wheel
after its novelty had worn off E; that,
at most, bicycling was fad, and that
it was destined, ike other sports,
sooner or later, to run its course. Such
an argument might prove convincing
were it shown that the wheel, at the
time of the trusts formation, was
really a novelty-which everybody
knows is not the fact; or that it has
ceased, since the collapse of the trust,
to be either useful or necessary
which everybody knows equally well
is not the fact, either. The reason
why the trust failed to be successful
must be sought elsewhere.
We think we can point to the true
source of the trusts misfortunes. 1t
was that it realized too late that the
main object Of advertising is not to
induce people to buy from one estab-
lishment rather than from another,
but to induce them to buy at all. The
public is apt to forget, III the absence
Of persistent, attractive, and convinc-
ing reminders, that certain things can
be had for the buying. In majority
of cases it is not that you want a
iulIS- Dut lIldt SOllc OlueI 1S1ION
makes you think you want it, which
constitutes business" And the clever
advertisers, of whom there are hun
dreds, we might almost say thousands,
to be found in the columns of The
Times know this
Even a trust cannot do business
under a counter 1t must shout IN the
market place, cry from the house
tops, seek to enlighten still further an
already enlightened public. 1t can
not sit idly musing until business
comes its way, or customers knock at
the door, hat IN hand. 1t must be up
and doing. 1t must hustle.
That's what Washington business
men are doing. And, speaking from
experience, they are judicious adver-
tisers. They advertise in The Times.
They know a good thing when they
see it.