Frostburg mining journal. [volume] (Frostburg, Md.) 1871-1913, 1899-04-22
STREET FAIR SCHEME
ITS VALUE AS AN ADVERTISING IN
VESTMENT.

Efficacy Town and Business Adj
vcrtiscr - Risi,w of Loss by Bad
weather Features and Manage
ment-SubStitute Suggested.
In a communication to NewspaperdOm
E. p. Harris, who mas had large expert
ence in town Advertising plans, Offers =
suggestion for method of cooperative
advertising of merchants of Il communi-
ty to take the place Of the street fair
scheme. On its face it possesses consid-
cradle merit, and while not entirely
new is comparatively free from risk Of
failure. He says:
The street fair, which is becoming so
common, Is, of course, taken up by the
merchants Of a town purely as trade
bringing measure. AS the newspaper
man is very apt to be the head and
front of such a movement Il few words
about the street fair as an enterprise
may not be out Of place.
| had TO do with street fairs as Il local
publisher during a number OF years,
and last year at Dunkirk, N. Y, was
president of the Street Fair association.
So have had fairly good chances to OBJ
serve and study the scheme i'll operation
street fair is essentially free entry
competitive exhibition of rural and
household products, with accompanying
sports and attractions. The premiums
are subscribed by the merchants, who
also build in front of their respective
stores booths in which to display the
products on which they offer premiums.
The aim is to bring the people to town
and keep them on the streets in front of
the stores and III the stores
1t is not my purpose here to detail
the running Of the fair, but to size it
up as an advertising investment. About
SO, 600 was involved in running the
fair in Dunkirk last fall and the result
was one fairly good day of trade and
one day when the merchants had all
the trade they could attend to. Every
merchant got his money back but no
one made a large net profit. They had
done Il courteous thing for their COun-
try customers. They had worked to-
gether tremendously, and so learned
that such thing is possible They had
advertised the city i'll favorable way
and undoubtedly attracted customers
who would come again and again
through the year. The people who came
probably remember the balloon, the
bands, the creased pig, the foot races,
dumping eating contests, etc, and they
oftener think of Dunkirk
But what if the day had been rainy?
The expenditure would have been a
dead loss. The So, 600 was nearly as
much as these same merchants spend III
the five local papers i'll the city in three
months. Or to illustrate in another way:
l got up i'll 1897 a "red letter day. sale
i'll the same town-got all the mer-
chants to advertise special prices for IA
certain day. The advertising was praC-
tically all done in my paper, which cir
culated wholly in the country. AS the
result of a combined expenditure Of less
than 500 i'll a single issue the mer
chants had the biggest days sales for
years, with the exception of fair day, "
and as nearly as l could judge they sold
twO.thirds as much as on the day of the
fair.
My conclusion is that a street fair, if
we'll managed and heartily supported,
will yield a margin Of profit provided
the day is fine, but that the margin Of
profit is nothing like so great as is like
ly to result from an expenditure III
newspaper advertising under like con-
ditions of unity of action and enthusi-
asm.
The newspaper man can wisely advo-
cate almost any kind of united action
among merchants, like the establishing
of street markets, building of free horse
sheds suppression of fake fire sales, I'M
authorized street vending, etc. In fact,
! cooperate, cooperate, cooperate should
be the song of the local paper, but when
all is said and done the great engine of
trade is the ad. i'll the local paper tell
ing the truth about good things offered
at low prices.