Judge — August 1936 — page 28: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Bigness in Business A HUNDRED years ago, before advertis- ing was used extensively, there were very few really big businesses many. Obviously, it has become casier for a little business to grow big. Today there are For the public, there is great economic ad- vantage in having many large business units. Factories can make and sell goods cheaper when they manufacture in large volume. This means lower prices. Also, scientific research is best conducted by big companics, because they can spread the cost over many individual This means more inventions and bet- ter products sales Miracles are being wrought in the magic realm of research, sponsored by electrical equipment companies, large food manufac turers, automobile makers, and many other great industrial organizations. With infinite skill and patience, and at great cost, the crea- tive brains of industry are constantly at work in company laboratories, forging new mar- vels of civilization. Consumers get the bene- fit of this scientific work when the newly de- veloped products are put on the market. Such a program of research could not possibly be carried out by small companies, because too large a share of the cost would have to be charged against each article they sell. Mechanical power has been an important factor in the creation of so many large busi- ness units, for power encourages mass pro- duction, But there can be no mass produc- tion until the sales volume is large enor support it. Hence advertising is just as fundamental as mechanical power in building a large business, for it is indispensable in large scale selling Today every small enterprise is a potential big business. Many of the substantial large business concerns of this country grew from their infancy in a comparatively short time. Such fast growth was impossible three gen- crations ago, as the means for rapid expan- sion were not available then. The greatest lack was the power of modern advertisin, In olden times, the growth of a business had to be slow in order to be respectable. Before it could join the ranks of big business, every aspiring young firm had to go through the painfully slow process of making its prod- uct known through word of mouth. Against the competition of established houses, this was a tedious and often hopeless task. Nowadays a good product can be introduced rapidly through well-planned advertising. :ven the smallest company can make its own place in the sun, and by winning public ap- >roval, can compete successful the largest concerns. In other words, the big with fellow cannot have a monopoly so long as the little fellow is free to advertise his wares. Thus advertising works both ways. In 1elping many small businesses to grow large, it prevents the big ones from establishing monopolics. While thus protecting the con- sumer’s interest, advertising is a lever for lowering production costs and securing the benefits of scientific research. Advertising is the medium through which many a great company was enabled to build itsclf up from an insignificant beginning, and to perform a vital public service. It pre- serves competition and promotes industrial progress. Copyright 1936, Advertising Federation of America comicbooks.com