12. Arguments against national advertising.— There is no unanimity of opinion with regard to the advantages of nationally advertised goods. Many manufacturers prefer to sell their goods unbranded, or, if they brand them, to let them stand their chance in the market without advertising behind them. Many dealers prefer not to handle advertised goods. Some of the reasons for this attitude of certain deal ers have been shown. Among others are the follow ing: 13. Higher cost and less profit.—Some merchants contend that nationally advertised goods cost the dealer more than similar unadvertised goods, and give him a smaller profit. It is maintained that often advertising does not pay for itself and that the manu facturer makes the dealers pay for it; or, if the ad vertising does pay for itself, the manufacturer cre ates a strong demand film his advertising, and then, in order to make a greater profit for himself, uses the demand as a club, and forces the dealer to handle his goods at a very narrow margin of profit.
It is true that some nationally advertised goods give the dealer little profit on each sale. This has never been proved to be generally the case, but, even if it were, the volume of business resulting from steady and large demand should result in greater total profits than could be obtained from a smaller total business on unadvertised goods which might give a larger profit on each sale. The New England Gro cer and Tradesnian says : Taking the trade as a whole, the profits are better on na- , tionally advertised goods, and when the grocer considers the volume of these goods which he can sell and the ease with which the sales are made, he must admit that they are money makers of the best description.
The objection that manufacturers use "big-stick" methods suggests some inconsistency in the argu ments of the opponents of advertised goods. If advertising by manufacturers does not create a de mand sufficient to bring a considerable amount of trade to the store, how can any dealer be forced by this non-existent demand to carry the advertised goods? It is useless to argue that advertising- does not create demand. It does. Unfortunately a few manufacturers do use advertising as a club to beat the dealers into line. The number of such manu facturers, however, is small and they will disappear entirely as dealers and manufacturers come the bet ter to understand one another and to appreciate the true function of national advertising in its relation to distribution.
14. Dealer should work for himself.—It is some times contended that the handling of advertised lines prevents the dealer from building up his own busi ness, independent in every way of the favor or fear of some distant manufacturer. If his goods are un branded, or if they carry only his own private brand, when he advertises he advertises. only his goods and
his store. When his selling policy and his sales serv ice create good-will, it is good-will solely for his es tablishment. By fair dealing he can develop public confidence in his opinions and in his offerings; his customers will learn to rely on him instead of on the name and reputation of some manufacturer who tries to use him as a go-between. Some merchants believe, or say, that advertised goods are really sold by the manufacturer, and that the dealer acts merely as a slot-machine; therefore, to the extent that the dealer refuses to handle such goods he becomes a real mer chant, an independent business man, and not a mere machine, a mechanical distributor of goods which he stocks and sells only because the manufacturer creates a consumer demand for them.
This contention contains a germ of truth. The dealer should in every way possible try to build up an individuality and a personality for his business. He will be wise, however, to balance against the slow, un certain process of building up prestige unaided by manufacturers' advertising and good-will, the rapid, easy development of a profitable business and of a reputation as a high-grade merchant dealing in repu table merchandise, which will follow the pushing of the right kind of advertised brands.
The argument that the dealer in advertised goods is a mere machine, however, is untenable. In a cer tain sense every retail dealer and every other kind of middleman is a machine; at least he is part of the machinery of marketing. Yet no retailing can be machine-like. Irrespective of the kind of goods car ried, every successful storekeeper is a real merthant. Those who fear that they may lose their individual ity and independence by handling trade-marked goods may be reassured by the evidence of countless successful, bustling, intensely individual retail shops where there has been full realization of the advan tages of handling goods backed in public by the man ufacturer.
15. Basis of retailer's conclusion.—In view of the arguments for and against advertised goods, should dealers handle them and should manufacturers push them? From the dealer's point of view the arguments seem to favor such goods. Advertised lines have cer tainly stimulated retail trade. They have taught people to want more things and better things. If manufacturers' advertising vyere to be discontinued, it is reasonable to expect that nearly every retail line would show a great falling off in tra211e. Statistics gathered from various sources indicatthat the ma jority of retailers favor nationally advertised goods. Salesmen who have tried to sell both advertised and non-advertised articles to dealers report generally in favor of the former because of the greater ease with which dealers are interested.