"ADOPT, ADAPT, IMPROVE" [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] Sin,—Your
well-meaning contributor, Mr. T. Ernest Jackson; in the third article of his series discloses a lamentable ignorance
of the methods of modern marketing. If he had taken the
trouble to verify his facts instead of relying upon the vague ideas that centre in his own mind, he might-have found that advertising is not quite the scapegoat that he would have us believe. There is no need for me to gei over the ground again,
for he seems already to know that " advertising 'men argue
that such methods reduce the price of the produet to the consumer." The ease has been fully 'dealt with by no leaa an
authority than Mr. Thomas Russell, President of the Incor-
porated Society of Advertisement Consultants, in his book; Cone mercial Advertising. Mr: Russell has not found it necessary to degcend to gcneralitiea, but has supported his arguments with facts compiled from official Mile Book figures. Any process that increases the sale Of goods. inevitably lowers the cost of production, for while " overhead Costa.," ient, rates; lighting and so on; up to a point, remain stationary, sales increase, by' the powerful aid of advertising. -• To say that advertising increases the cost of selling is something like saying that new and more -efficient machinery increases the cost of production.
But the almost comic inaccuracy of ' your contributor's article is where he suggests that the " consumer -Must be educated to demand what he wants by a standard-of quality; and not by a proprietary 'name." How can you.edueate the consumer if it is not permissible to tell him--by advertising or some other Means ?- And how can the consumer demand a " standard of quality '? if the nanufaturer mustn't give thO article a name ?--I am, Sir, &c., WILLIAM T. Moss, Hon, SeCtetary, InecirpOrated. Society of Advertisement Consultants. -
Clan House, Surrey Street, Strand, W.C. 2.
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