Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1903-06-10
WHEN ADVERTISING PAYS.
Goods Must Not Only Sell, But Be
Worth tho Sale.

Goods Must Not Only Sell, But Be
Worth tho Sale.
A contributor writes to Printers Ink
as follows: There is a question often
asked that you can answer both afflr-
mativeIy and negatively-"Does adver-
tising pay?" The truth Of the matter
is that it does, and it does not. To ad-
vertise with profitable results requires
as much preparation as 1t does to go
to war, or to enter college, or to do
any one Of a score or more Of import
ant things.
1t is no very extraordinary trick to
tell an advertising story that will bring
many answers, but of what avail Is 1t
If you have been careless in keeping up
your stock, or in order to do so have
reduced its quality? In the first In
stance you exasperate or cool off your
would be customer, who will go some
where else to make his purchase, and
in the second, you make sale per-
haps-but 1t Is a sale that does not
satisfy and will therefore dismiss a
patron. These two persons-the one
who was not supplied and the one who
got poor bargain-will be sure to tell
their experience and will tell 1t in such
e way as will nullify the most seduc-
tive advertising that can be produced.
Their talk will go fast and far, and
create in very short order for the ad-
vertiser a damaging reputation. His
advertisement may have been the most
attractive one that appeared the week
on which it was offered, but the trou-
BILE was the advertisers failure to back
it up. All such advertising, 1t hard
ly needs to be said, Is much worse than
not to advertise at all. In some 9TH
erwise good stores and trading places
the social atmosphere and manners
encountered are not Of the inviting
but Of the repellent kind. 1t Is great
mistake, and one hardly to be surpass-
ed. to forget that politeness and
suavity are real business assets. A
merchant may have good goods, and
deliver them promptly, and tell no lie
about them, but If he and his clerks
diffuse an atmosphere Of coldness, and
lack cordiality, they subtract nearly all
the benefits good advertising has to
offer. In other words, they trip them
selves up by not backing the advertis-
ing sent out.
1t is no doubt fact often noticeable
that there are persons in trade who
mean we'll, who are thoroughly hon
est, and who do not deliberately intend
to make a bad impression on the pub
lie, whose temperament and address
are unfortunately not attractive. 1t is
a pity that they should be the direct
intermediate Of trade when they might
do admirably as bookkeepers, and per-
haps fairly we'll as wholesale buyers
or discoverers Of bargains. Perhaps
they might even write advertisements.
that they don't know how to live up
to. 1t is a curious circumstance that
many men can enunciate the profound
est business maxims who cannot prac-
tice them or go one step further than
to theorize. These people have some
place probably in a business plant, but
they should not be selected to back up
the stores advertising. AS all adver-
tising that ultimately pays must be
born Of the truth and bear criticism,
there is some advantage in avoiding
too many. superlatives and relying
mainly upon under statements. For
these can more easily be warranted
and followed. If the customer finds
himself better pleased than he was
told he would be, the effect Of the ad-
vertising will be immeasurably en-
hanced. If he is assured of the impos-
sible, there is something lost to the ad-
vertiser through his boasts that could
not be fulfilled. There Is one Scrip
tural text in particular that business
man should hold to with especial re-
gard-one that advises making friend
ship with the "mammon Of unright-
eousness." Every customer, whether
his pocket book contains one dollar or
one hundred, is the person the dealer
needs to cultivate and consider. He
comes with his money and he is enti-
tied to his whims and even to his alb
surd expectations. The main object
should be not simply to corral his
money but to leave him pleased wheth-
er he purchases or not. If his manners
are rude, and his demands are unrea-
sonable, the dealers should be placat-
ing and unruff1ed. For any customer
thus met will be a customer tomorrow
and will feel that the advertisement
that first brought him had real foun-
dation.