The Yale expositor., 1911-09-28
T'alks
WHO PAYS FOR ADVERTISING?
Manufacturer Who Believes in Pub
lcity Able to Turn Out Better
and Cheaper Article.

and Cheaper Article.
The following exchange of ideas, OF
the sense of them, occurred on a car
running out from a Connecticut city
not long ago:
Say" remarked passenger to his
companion, reverting to a topic they
had dropped for an interval, 81 don't
believe I'll buy that E piano, after
ALL"
why not?"
well, the makers are big advertis-
ers, aren't they? They advertise in
pretty nearly all the magazines, don't
they?"
Sure they do. But what of it?"
well, when I pay $500 for that pi-
ano, / figure about $50 is going into
their advertising expenses. And !
don't see why l can't get as good a
piano of a make not advertised so
much, and save the difference"
On the first hearing, the argument
sounded reasonable. But was it?
The two friends had spent several
hours in the city, going the round OF
The piano dealers, looking for an or
dinarily good instrument, to be bought
by the first speaker. He himself,
while a smart man of business in his
own line, was without technical knowl-
edge of piano values, and had there
fore taken along his friend, a pianist
and musical man, to help him make a
selection. Together they had seen
and heard many instruments Of vari-
Gus makes, and after comparing price,
appearance and tone, the final choice
was favorable to the much-advertised
E, although the circumstance OF
its being so widely advertised had not
occurred to them, nor influenced their
choice.
well, now" went on the musical
adviser, (which one of the other
makes came nearest your idea of a
fair price, knocking off what you sup
pose the people have to put on for adj
vertising?"
why, there was that B make,
at $3.50. 1t seemed pretty good to me.
Didn't it to your"
Yes. it did; just as good as the
E; but it has the name of not
standing up so we'll with use. AS a
matter of fact, most pianos of the
grade we have been looking at sound
much the same when new. The test
comes with use; and that $50 you
think you would be paying the E
people for advertising more likely
represents that much more value in
ultimate wearing qualities"
"Oh, | don't know about that Some
body's got to pay for all that adver-
Using, and it seems to me it's the
buyer. Before we decide We'll go
into S and see what we can do
there"
s. is another city in the neigh
borhood, and thither, few days later,
the two friends journeyed, to spend
more time in piano hunting. The re-
suit was practically the same as be-
fore. But for slight variations of deal
ers' discount, within the price limit
set by the prospective purchaser the
q piano still held first favorite,
and was ultimately bought.
Had the buyer, then, as he imag-
ined, really paid out $50 as sort OF
advertising tax, for which he received
no actual value? Not at all.
Manufacturers of any largely adver-
tised article, whether piano, crackers,
or chewing gum, making and selling
hundreds as against units of non-ad-
vertised brands, so distribute and alb
sorb their advertising expenses as to
make the quota of the individual buy
er very small. And such trifiing
tribute as he does pay is more than
returned to him; for the manufacture
err by reason of immense sales and
continual revenues, is all the better
able to put into his product the very
best of material and skill, thus as
surfing the purchaser not dearer, but
in the end money-saving article.
1t is rather the maker of the non
advertised, or only spasmodically adj
vertised article, who must put on
big profit over and above its intr1n-
sic value, in order to bring paying re-
turns on his limited sales.
So, then, instead of paying for" big
advertising, the man who thinks he is
ION to the game" and will not patron
ize those who play it, is really paying
foY not advertising. In the one case
(would he buy from the advertiser) he
would become purchasing partner
and profit sharer in a concern having
turnover of millions. BY the say
ing" method, whereby he thinks it foxy
to dodge the advertising tax, he Is
cheerfully contributing to the profits
of the non-advertiser.
To those on the inside. the fore
going may seem to be the veriest COM
monplaces of advertising economics;
but to the sort of man represented by
the piano purchaser, it simply has not
occurred to analyze the effect OF pup
licity campaign of which he himseii
could not help but take note.
Nil