THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ADVERTISING
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] ' Sta,—Miss Dorothy L. Sayers, in her admirably acute analysis of The Psychology of Advertising, I think misses (" oddly enough ") the real point of " the one reproach levelled at adver- tising by the hard-headed." What the common-sense pur- chaser suspects is that the price of the branded article is out of all proportion to the cost of production reckoned apart from the cost of marketing. Advertising today means packeting, tr: vel ling, shop display, as well as Press and poster publicity. It is, in fact, a method of distribution and surely a very elaborate, costly and wasteful way of bringing together producer and consumer. It comes to this—that the manufacturer can (and does) fix- an arbitrary price (e.g., is. 6d. for a tube of tooth- paste), relying on the driving-force of his publicity to persuade the buying public that they are getting value for money. So Miss Sayers' assurance that " Straight ' advertising is not paid for by the consumer in higher prices " hardly carries conviction. But, I wonder, what is " straight "- advertising ?—Yours, &c., F. GARFIELD HowE.
Five Pillars, Shepherd's Hilly, Merstharn, Surrey.
Previous page
