Self Control
A man's shirt, packed one to the box, in the right sort of a box, with a
piece of ribbon and a sheet of, tissue paper added for embellishment,
can be made to bring a dollar or a dollar and a half more than the
same shirt would bring without the more artistic packing. I know this
is true, and I have proved it more times than I can recall, to convince
some skeptical merchant who had not studied the effect of "proper
displays."
Conversely stated, I have proved, many times, that, the finest shirt made cannot be sold for half its value if it is removed from its box and placed on a bargain counter, with inferior looking shirts, both of which examples prove that people do not know what they are buying - that they go more by appearances than they do by actual analysis of the merchandise they purchase.
This is noticeably true in the purchase of automobiles. The American
people want, and DEMAND, style in the appearance of automobiles.
What is under the hood or in the rear axle they do not know and really
do not care, as long as the car looks the part.
Henry Ford required nearly twenty years of experience to learn the
truth of the statement just made, and even then, despite all of his
analytical ability, he only acknowledged the truth when forced to do
so by his competitors.
If it were not true that people buy "appearances" more than they buy "reality" Ford never would have created his new automobile. That car is the finest sort of example of a psychologist who appeals to the tendency which people have to purchase "appearance," although, of course, it must be admitted that in this particular example the real value of the car actually exists.
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GREAT ACHIEVEMENT IS USUALLY BORN OF GREAT SACRIFICE, AND IS NEVER THE RESULT OF SELFISHNESS. |