Practically the only effective method of fighting the substitution evil has been to attract the attention of the public to the difficulty by means of the newspaper campaign. It may not occur to the general reader of advertisements that announcements which devote half their space to emphasising the name, very often spelling it or reproducing its commonest design from the package, and asking the reader to be sure he sees that name on the preparation, are there with a definite purpose. At first sight accentuation of the name would seem to the student of publicity to be waste of space, but it will usually indicate the firm which is having great trouble through substitution in the shops. It is necessary to go over this elementary point of the title of the goods and make it as clear as possible, so that the public may be induced to set some store by the name when they go into the shop. The only effective method of stemming the tide of substitution is to emphasise the point in the advertising in such a way that the public will not be satisfied with one of the "just as good" articles which are offered in place of the one for which they ask.
This method of combating substitution is a very expensive one, as it places on the shoulders of the manufacturer not only the necessity of advertising the quality of his goods, but also of educating the public to ask for the speciality by name and to take care in establishing its identity. It might seem obvious that a remedy which has a long reputation for merit would not easily be undersold by colourable imitation, but the curious factor in the situation is that the public are noc particularly observant «lien they see the goods handed across the counter, nor do they listen carefully to the studied phrases in which the substitution transaction is effected. Again, to combat the reasonable suggestion that "something is just as good and answers the same purpose" is more than a great proportion of buyers will attempt. By acquiescing in the suggestion they meet the substitution trader half-way. Again, the difficulty is further accentuated by the fact that a speciality sold on the substitution plan usually aims at imitating a well known competitor, and everything about the preparation goes as near to indicating that it is tho same as the original it imitates. Unless the package is closely inspected, the difference cannot,be detected. Substitution parcels are made up with care to suggest a title similar to the speciality imitated ; the wrappers in which the package is made up are printed as nearly as possible like the original ; and the aim is to give in every detail a strong suggestion that it is the speciality, subgtituted.. Even when the advertiser of a well-known article is particular to caution his public, to reproduce his label or package, to emphasise the fact that another article is not the same in quality, he does not convince the whole public. He may do much to
weaken the evil of substitution, but in the end, if the substitution is a colourable imitation, he will find a considerable leakage.
Of late years the advertising interest has had more consideration from the newspaper and an attempt has been made by the newspaper to help the advertiser against this substitution evil. Several papers nowadays publish articles on the matter, pointing out the damage the buyer suffers in not getting just what he is buying, and trying to persuade the purchaser to closely examine every proprietary article. Sonic journals run educational articles of this class almost daily, while others find it necessary to do so weekly ; and when such campaigns are necessay, it is obvious that there is some strong influence at work against the proprietary speciality. It is, of course, to the interests of the newspapers, commercially and morally, that they should aid the advertiser in getting the full value of his publicity, and to thwart, if possible, the tendency to sell other things in the place of his speciality in any given district. Attempts have been made by several organi sations to reduce the evil of substitution, and it is possible that nowadays the task of the man who wishes to trade along these lines is much more di:limit. The action of difirent newspapers has educated many people to that they get the original article and the original article only, and nothing will content such people but that one speciality. On the other hand there is evidence that substitution still thrives and that proprietary managers more and more find it difficult to prevent the individual shop keeper cutting into the ground with a speciality of his own.
Great enemies to substitution are strong advertising, emphasising the merits of the goods; and secondly, the package should be so characteristically made up that the substitution can never look genuine against it. As time goes on, the influence of advertisers who wish to prevent substitution, and the newspapers who desire to assist them in this particular task, will finally mean that the public will be better educated on the matter and will more and more insist that they are given that for which they actually visit the shop. In the meantime, the best safeguards are undoubtedly a wider exten sion of knowledge of the goods and an educative policy which will familiarise the public with a catchy title. A title, both in words and name, which can be protected legally, is, perhaps, the best step in fighting an evil which every great distributor knows.