The more attractive the design of the product or its container, the greater is its competitive strength. Some years before the outbreak of the European war, the British government took official notice of the fact that articles of German manufacture were mak ing great headway in England. A commission was appointed to investigate German merchandise, its manufacture and distribution, and to determine, if possible, why German goods were being largely sold in Great Britain. After an exhaustive investigation, the committee reported that neither the materials nor the workmanship of the Germans was superior to the British, nor were the Germans able to sell at so low prices as their English competitors; the important fact was brought out, however, that the designs of German merchandise and the packages in which it was sold were so superior that the articles themselves were more attractive to the British and seemed to be worth more than those of English manufacture.
5. Comparison of next step in the analysis of competition is the amount of advertising which each competitor has done and the amount of good-will which each has obtained thru his advertising and thru the satisfaction which his products have A manufacturer whose plant is estimated to be worth about two million dollars recently remarked : "If I were forced to choose between sacrificing my plant and the good-will which this company has es tablished thru continuous advertising for the last twenty years, I should willing say, 'Burn down the plant. I can obtain capital to rebuild it tomorrow, because our advertising has created a demand which has a bankable value and will bring new capital.' This is our strongest bulwark against competition. A new plant can be built in ninety days. But our advertising has taken years, and no amount of capi tal could substitute for the impression it has made." It is important, therefore, that the advertiser de termine how long each competitor has been estab lished and how long each has been advertising con tinuously.
Merely a list of the advertising schedules of one's competitors, however, will not necessarily provide basis for an estimate of the good-will each enjoys. One should learn of the friendships which competitors have established with the trade and with consumers, together with the methods employed to obtain these friendships. Only in this way can the new advertiser intelligently lay plans for the building up of good-will for his own name and for his own products.
6. Comparison of is well to have a scrap-book and to keep in it copies of the advertise ments of competitors. There is no particular advan
tage in referring to it daily, but, at the end of the year, by comparing it with the records of your own sales and those of your competitors you will have a basis for judging the value of competing advertising which is far better than mere opinion or hearsay.
In planning a campaign it is always advisable to list the publications in which each competitor has ad vertised and to find out how much each publication has been used. In active competition a manufacturer always tries to reach the same buyers that his competi tors are reaching. Do not jump at the conclusion, however, that just because a competitor is using cer tain publications his investment is proving profitable. An advertising agency recently planned a national campaign for a manufacturer who at first insisted on using every medium his principal competitor was using. The agent found that in many publications the competitor had contracts for but one insertion, and, from the nature of the product and the medium, the agent was certain the competitor lost money. On more thoro investigation, the agent found that the competitor was simply a plunger and that he had no plans or records to guide him in his advertising. He found, however, that another, a much younger and smaller competitor, kept very careful records of re turns. The advertising schedule of the small com petitor proved to be a much better guide for the new advertiser than the list of mediums used by the larger and more important manufacturer.
A large western paint house recently decided to advertise in farm journals. It wanted to dominate the field. Fourteen competitors had been using farm journals for many years. The paint manufacturer asked his advertising agent to obtain for him sched ules of the advertising of all his competitors for the five years previous. These schedules showed that all the competitors began to advertise in the first weeks of February. The manufacturer for whom the investigation was made decided to commence his ad vertising one week earlier, so that be would be the first whose advertising would be noticed in the farm publi cations. He also made his advertisements a little larger in size than those of any of his competitors. By making a careful investigation and by doing the things to which a study of competing advertising logi cally pointed, he was able to dominate his field from the beginning.