It is common sense to select a name that is easy for everyone to pronounce. It would be interesting to know just bow much business has been lost to Sanatogen and Bon Ami soap and Clicquot Club gin ger ale because of the hesitancy of many people to ask for a thing by name when they are not sure of its pronunciation. A name, too, should be as short as possible. Velveola Souveraine may add distinc tion to a face powder, but the name is not so good as the shorter Primrose. Finally, does the name in some way suggest the use or quality of the product? Descriptive names cannot be registered, but it is some times possible to avoid actual description and yet to give the name valuable suggestive qualities. For in stance, a better name than Ivory for a white soap could scarcely be found.
14. Trade-marks.—Trade names and trade-marks are closely connected. The trade name is usually the basis of the trade-mark, and the two are considered and registered together. The trade-mark should be constructed in order to obtain the maximum adver tising value. After the design is laid out, a search must be made among other trade-marks to be sure that the one selected is original. Protective records should be provided from the very beginning, because after many years a competitor may lay claim to the mark. Unquestionable proof must then be advanced that it has actually been in use for a number of years in order to protect it. Finally the trade-mark must be coordinated with' all the other forms of publicity.
15. Problem of the package.—Quite as important as the trade name and the trade-mark is the consid eration of the cost, size, shape, weight, distinctive qualities and advertising value of the package, if the goods are to be sold in packages. One manufacturer of corn flakes bases his whole advertising appeal on the fact that his package is somewhat larger than those of rival manufacturers. Two of the best-known brands of shaving soap are so similar in quality that the marketing appeal for a time was limited to rival claims for the different kinds of boxes in which the shaving sticks were sold. There is a growing custom to fix upon one uniform style of package and to re tain it for every member of a family of products. This plan has great advertising value.
16. Charting the selling points.—Careful inquiry into the product before the marketing campaign, is designed to bring out facts that will be helpful in the selection of the best way of reaching the market. After the general plan has been made, the product must again be the subject of careful inquiry for the purpose of finding the selling points that will be most effective in making sales. The salesman and the ad vertising man must pick the product to pieces so that its every aspect, its every use, may be known and util ized in the marketing appeal. One sales manager has
an interesting series of charts that be has constructed to aid him in finding the facts regarding his product, and then in keeping those facts constantly before him.
The first chart has five columns, one for each of the senses, and in each column are the physical facts about the product that appeal to some one of them. The second chart is one of functions ; it shows what the product does. The third tells where and by whom it is made. The fourth goes into detail in showing what the goods are made of and how. The fifth lists the most important sales arguments to consumers, and the sixth does the same thing for dealers. This is suggestive of what might be advisable for every one who has something to sell. The selecting of sales arguments, of course, lies within the field of the psy chology of salesmanship and of advertising, because the selling point which the manufacturer may believe to be the strongest may prove entirely incapable of selling the goods. It is said that the manufacturers of Valspar varnish based their selling appeal at first on the quick-drying feature of their product. This interested dealers, but consumers were indifferent to it. The consumer campaign was not a success until the emphasis was placed on the claim that the varnish would not be discolored by water.
17. Demand for the the study of the product and the study of the market lies a field that reaches out and overlaps on each side. This is the study of the product in its relation to demand. Simultaneously with the first plan for the product in the manufacturer's mind comes the thought, "Will people want it? Is it worth while to make it? Will there be a sufficient demand for it to warrant putting money and time into it?" If the answer is in the affirmative, at some stage in the plan there must be careful consideration of the following points: 18. Nature of the demand expressed or unexpressed? Do people now realize that they' want the article, or must they be educated to their need of it? If the product is one of a number of shn ilar products, the manufacturer will find that he is helped by all the selling effort of others, and lie will ordinarily have precedents to guide him in selecting the most effective selling route; but if he is a pioneer, his problem is immensely more difficult. The manu facturer of' a new brand of oat-meal in packages would find a more or less satisfactory route to the market already laid out for him. The first manufac turer of a vacuum cleaner, on the other hand, had a tremendous marketing problem to solve before he got returns on his investment.