{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":185,"pdf_page":193,"physical_index":193,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"b23acffa1dd23dd81372daf59b9b2864e7b6e0853997903c0a144196218e1dfc"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"The cause of branded goods was represented by the National Brand Names Association, which organized campaigns to promote the general idea that nationally branded products denote quality and reliability. In the late 1940s, for example, the organization conducted a publicity campaign on behalf of its members, under the slogan “Buy the known brand.” The idea was to persuade the public that established national name brands would guarantee the quality of the products sold under their name to a degree that private brands, maligned as “no-name” brands, and unbranded goods never could.12 Despite the rapid growth of private brands during the Depression, in the afluent postwar years, the national brands bounced back. Marketing research, conducted in 1947, and reported on in Business Week, showed some evidence that consumers preferred products sold under national brands even where these were significantly more expensive, and with no obvious diference in quality. A marketing experiment was conducted in a department store in which identical beds were sold either as “Simmons,” a well-known national brand, or as “Dreamland,” a private brand associated with the store. Consumers chose the national brand item at a ratio of 15:1. In follow-up research, the price of the Dreamland mattress was reduced so that it was 12 percent cheaper than the Simmons—yet customers still chose the national-branded item over the private-branded one at a ratio of 8:1.13 The writer of the Business Week article covering the research predicted that private brands were doomed to a marginal place in the market, and that “the basic distinction will shortly be between manufacturers’ and distributers’ national brands, rather than between national and private brands” (p. 66). By the 1950s, the retail market had become increasingly segmented, with private brands remaining a significant presence on the low-end side, while national brands dominated the middle and high-end parts of the market. The issue was perceived quality versus price, for, as one analyst commented, “the buyer [of national-branded goods] felt sure that he was getting a standard quality when he bought a nationally advertised, nationally distributed item.”14 The problem for private brands was that the goods sold under their name were not manufactured by the retailers who owned the brand name. This meant that the “quality assurance” they ofered seemed removed from the actual production of the goods, which made it less believable.\n\nStandardizing Utility\n\n185","previous_page":184,"next_page":186}