Newport daily independent., 1918-11-22
BUYER PROTECTED
 BY ADVERTISING
Manufacturer Must / Maintain Quality Of Goods Bearing
 His Name.
HIS REPUTATIOtl AT STAKE
Man Who Buys Standard Brands From Local Merchants Knows That He Is Getting Full
 Value for His Money.


 Copyright. 1917. Western Newspaper Union)
 Time Sls 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 peo- pie were suspicious of advertising. merchant was trying to 'fool' them with his advertising that he 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 estab- lished methods of merchandising.
 Those days are gone. The public now realizes that it is the greatest l beneficiary of advertising,
 Advertising has done more in de- cade to establish certain standards in merchandise than could have been ac- compilShed in a hundred years by any other agency. The manufacturer who a few years ago merely made and sold 1 clothes now makes and sells the Blank brand of clothes. The man who for merly just made hats now makes ] Blanks hats. And so it is with every thing that one buys today The manu- facturer, by his advertising, has built up his business around a trade name and if he is to continue in business l he must protect that trade name by maintaining such high standard of 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 mer- chandise blindly, with the HOPE that l it will prove to be worth the money. He buys standard goods that bear the | trademark of the manufacturer and l that are backedsby the reputation not only of the merchant who sells them but the manufacturer who makes them. This has been brought about by ad- vertising.
 No Reputation to Protect.
 All this applies to the retail mer- chants as a class but it does not ap- ply to the mail order busil. ss. The man or woman who buys c.Is from q catalogue house is not protected by the manufacturer of the goods for the reason that most manufacturers who sell goods to the mail order houses do not place their names upon the goods and therefore have no reputa- tion to protect.
 The great majority of articles listed !, and illustrated in the mail order cata- logues are included in what is known among manufacturers as stencil" stuff. These articles bear the name of the mail 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 trademark is likely to be a very unreliable institu tion. It is not building up any repu- tation on the quality of it's goods for it's products have nothing to distin- guish them from the products of any other concern. With no reputation to sustain and no chance of creating a general demand for it's goods the only concern of manufacturing iDstitu- ton of this kind is to make stuff as cheaply as possible in order to obtain the largest possible profit on it's 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 mail order house. They do sell the same quality of goods that the mail order house sells as cheaply as the mail order house sells it but they cannot sell the standard, guaranteed products of responsible manufacturers at the same price at which the mail order house sells it's nameless, unbranded merchandise. Standard goods bearing a registered trademark sell for the same price the world over and the manufacturer 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 larg- est cities.
 This is what the national advertiS- ing of the manufacturers has done for the consumers of the country. It has enabled them to go into their holae stores and buy merchandise which they
 
 know from past experience or from the reputation and guarantee of the manufacturer will give them satisfac- ton. 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 moneys 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 guar antee of the manufacturer. When they ! buy the unknown brands of goods i that are offered by the mail order houses they are getting neither kind of protection.