Evening journal., 1904-10-04
Talk on Advertising, by c. w. Post to
Publishers, at Banquet at
Battle Greek.

The sunshine that makes a business
plant grow is advertising.
Growing a business nowadays is
something like growing an apple tree.
You may select good seed plant 1t in
good soil, water and work with It, but
the tree will not produce fruit until
another and most powerful, energizing
and life giving element is brought to
bear. You must have sunshine, and
lots or II. Can you expect TO ripen ap-
pies in the dark? Can you expect to
grow a profitable business plant nova
days without the sunshine of public
favor produced by advertising?
This Postum plant is a good illustra-
tion Of that law. II seems but a short
time ago when ] put few men at
work in the carriage house Of the barn
you have seen today. where we began
making Postum coffee.
The seed then planted less than 9
years ago. was a new kind of apple
seed and it was not altogether certain
how the people would like the apples.
We did our work thoroughly and plenty
OF it, We knew we had a good apple
tree Of fine quality but how to develop
our work and turn the apple tree into
a productive and profitable tree was
another question.
1t needed sunshine and the kind of
sunshine that is spread by the news
papers and magazines. It is an abso-
lutte certainty that without the public
ity thus given-in other words, the
sunshine-the business never would
have developed.
A stranger told me once on a train
that Post made a start by peddling
Postum from house to house with a
basket That story is like many others
that people like to read and that lack
the elements Of truth. for Post learned
i'm an early day that a salesman by
" ord OF mouth could only convince one
ltomer at a time, whereas a salesman
knew how to talk to a vast audi
could address that audience
trough the columns of the daily news
papers. The same argument logic and
salesman ability viii in this way win
thousands of customers while in the
old way it would only win one at a
time.
Some thoughtful man might say that
IL what you manufacture has merit
once you get a trade established people
will continue to purchase. even If the
advertising is stopped, but to act on
that conclusion would be a fatal mis-
take, for there are always bright men
on the lookout to steal your apples, and
If you give them the chance they will
come in and take the fruit, sure. Right
here let us drive a nail not n shingle
nail but a forty-penny spike. Your
article must have merit, far and away
beyond the ordinary unadvertised
thing, It should be the very best that
human intelligence and ingenuity can
produce. Then you have a foundation
to build upon that will not slip out
from under when the building grows
heavy. There are persons ignorant
enough TO believe that a poor article
can be advertised into success. It
cannot and any one who tries the ex-
pertinent will pay heavily for his ex-
perience. Critically examine any well
known advertised article that has beer
years on the market and It will be
found to possess exceptional merit.
A certain thoughtful and successful
newspaper publisher once sent to me
some advertisements that he had sci
up and which he thought would apply
to our products. These he proposed tc
run in attractive styles and in spec
ial position.