TAKING STOCK: To be fooled or not to be? Advertising can sometimes make us buy junk initially – though, these days with consumer comments freely available to everyone on the Internet even that may be a tall order. There is, however, no way for a company to thrive by selling garbage. Even if initial advertising did sell some units, adverse word-of-mouth publicity will ensure that the company’s product fails in the marketplace. In any event, there will be no repeat orders for the company. Consider movies. I await the critic’s comments before I go to see one. If the report is poor or average, I will not see it. Furthermore, I get comments from friends and colleagues. If they say, ‘it’s boring,’ I will not see it. I am sure there are many more people like me, that is why many movies, with heavy advertising and despite a line-up of big name stars, flop after the initial draw in the first few days. Of course, it is possible for people to be fooled by advertising; an American company advertised the sale of a solar clothes dryer for $50, what came in post, was a clothesline – a strong twine – to hang clothes out to dry in the sun. The scam quickly became known and the company soon went out of existence. These things may happen, buyers have to be beware. However, the fact remains that for a company to do well, it has to consistently do better than the competitor and satisfy its customers. In countries where markets work freely, even satisfying customers may not be enough, you have to delight them. If this was not the case and advertising was capable of making us buy inferior products or what we didn’t need, then surely we would never have spent money on innovation and new products. Existing companies, with profits available to advertise, would not have let any newcomer come in: we would not have replaced oil lamps with electric bulbs; we would still be traveling by steamers to foreign countries instead of airplanes; horse drawn buggies would never have given way to motorcycles, cars and buses; instead of your reading this article in a newspaper, you would be getting a hand copied manuscript. The reality is that for companies and entrepreneurs to make money, they have to work hard and they have to work smart. Their products have to be good. Only then and then only can companies and businessmen behind these companies become rich. Advertising merely lets us know about the availability of products. The decision to buy is ours alone. Advertising, in fact, renders a great service to humankind. We come to know what’s out there fast, and, at no cost to us if we don’t buy. It lowers the cost of products by giving a mass market to manufacturers. The increasing volumes enable manufacturers to spread their development costs over a large number of customers and hence make products cheaper for everyone. That is why the cost of TVs, VCRs, DVD players, mobile phones and iPods consistently falls as more are sold. The government could do a great service by ending all restrictions against media and advertising companies, and permit investment – domestic and foreign – freely. Service tax on billing by advertising companies too needs to be abolished. (The writer can be contacted at: everest@mos.com.np)