Am.  Jour.  Pharm.) 
February,  1920.) 
Business  Possibilities. 
• 
99 
more  complex.  It  is  my  purpose  to  bring  before  you  a  few  of  the 
factors  that  are  only  too  often  ignored. 
Suppose  that  A  and  B,  competitors,  have  each  an  ''own  name 
preparation' '  of  the  same  type  prepared  for  them  by  the  same  manu- 
facturing house.  Of  course,  that  house  offers  a  selection  of  designs 
for  the  packages,  so  that  each  preparation  may  appear  somewhat 
different  externally.  A  customer,  who  happens  to  purchase  pack- 
ages of  the  article  from  each,  realizes  that  the  contents  are  the  same. 
The  name  of  neither  competitor  on  that  article  has  given  him  any 
advantage.  But,  let  us  further  suppose  that  B  has  manufactured 
the  article  himself  and  has  worked  certain  ideas  of  his  own  into  the 
preparation  proper,  giving  it  a  distinctive  character.  The  chances 
are  that  the  customer  who  divides  his  purchases  between  A  and  B 
finds  that  distinctive  characteristics  of  B's  product  pleasing  or  help- 
ful to  him.  B  has  won  the  first  point  in  the  game  of  competition. 
He  has  established  individuality,  and  individuality  means  "good 
will,"  and  "good  will"  means  possibly  a  hundred  thousand  dollar 
business  for  B  against  a  ten  thousand  dollar  business  for  A,  though 
both  may  have  been  of  equal  professional  ability  at  the  start. 
Now,  I  know  some  one  is  waiting  to  say,  "I'll  wager  B's  product 
cost  him  more  to  manufacture,  on  his  small  scale,  than  A's  cost 
him  to  buy."  Let  us  grant,  for  the  sake  of  argument,  that  this  is 
true.  Say  A  paid  fifteen  cents  for  his  article  and  sold  it  for  twenty 
cents.  Say  B  produced  his  preparation  at  a  cost  of  seventeen 
cents  and  sold  it  for  twenty-five  cents.  A's  gross  profit  was,  in 
round  figures,  33%,  B's  47%.  But,  if  B  fully  appreciated  the 
value  of  his  improvement  of  the  product,  and  had  the  proper  busi- 
ness acumen,  he  probably  asked  thirty  or  thirty-five  cents  for  his 
article  and  got  away  with  it.  You  see,  there  is  some  reason  back  of 
that  hundred  thousand  dollar  business.  The  "cashing  in"  on  that 
"good  will,"  anyhow. 
The  average  man  looks  upon  the  immense  plant  of  the  manu- 
facturer with  its  vast  accumulation  of  special  machinery,  its  ex- 
pensive research  workers  and  its  brilliant  sales  force  and  imme- 
diately develops  a  case  of  "cold  feet,"  in  so  far  as  manufacturing 
for  himself  is  concerned.  He  forgets  that  the  brilliant  sales  force 
does  not  have  to  figure  in  the  overhead  he  carries  upon  his  small 
'  operation.  He  forgets  that  the  expensive  research  workers,  with  all 
respect  for  their  contributions  to  the  advancement  of  science,  are 
as  much  a  part  of  the  advertising  department  as  an  aid  to  the  manu- 
