The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1920-07-27
IS
BASIS Of FAITH
|NMERCHAND|SE
Buyer Today Is Protect
ed by Trade Name of
Articles Backed by
Word of Manufacturer.
Copyright, 1917, Western Newspaper
Union.)

Time was when advertising did not
occupy the place in the world of trade
that it does today. 1t has not been
so very many years ago that the peo-
pie were suspicious of advertising.
They were inclined to believe that the
merchant was trying to "foop 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
ow realizes that it is the greatest
beneficiary of advertising.
Advertising has done more in a de-
cade to establish certain standards in
merchandise than could have been &C
complished in 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 for
merly just made hats now makes
Blanks hats. And so it is with every
thing that one buys today. The man
ufacturer. 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 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 store today, does not buy mer-
chandise blindly, with the HOPE that
it will prove to be worth the money.
He buys a standard goods that bear
the trade mark of the manufactured
and that are backed by the reputation
not only of the merchant who sells
them but the manufacturer who makes
vertisingthem. This has been brought
about by advertising.
No Reputation to Protect
All this applies to the retail mer-
chants as class but it does not ap-
ply to the mail order business. The
man or woman who buys goods from
a catalogue house it not protected by
the manufacturer of the goods for the
reason that most manufacturers who
sells goods to the mail order houses
do not place their names upon the
goods and therefore have no reputa-
ton 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. 1t can readily be
understood that any manufacturing
concern which turns out goods that
do not bear its name or trademark is
likely to be very unreliable institu-
ton. 1t is not building up any repu-
tation on the quality of its goods for
its 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 its goods the only
concern of a manufacturing institu-
ton of this kind is to make stuff as
cheaply as possible in order to obtain
the largest possible profit on its pro-
ducts.
These facts are chiefly responsible
for the general prevailing idea that
the home merchants do not sell goods
as cheaply as the mail order house.
They do sell the same quality OF good
that the mail order house sells as
cheaply as the mail order house sells
lit but they cannot sell the standard
Guaranteed products of responsible
manufacturers at the same price al
which the mail order house sells its
nameless, unbranded merchandise