The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1906-01-19
MODERN METHODS
OF ADVERTISERS
How They Reach the PeopI,
With Whom They Wish
to Do Business.
MAILING CIRCULARS AR
There Is No Longer the Old Fashioncq
Hit and Miss Methods Of Send
ing Out Literature Per-
tanning to Business.
From the New York Sun

From the New York Sun.
Few industries have grown so fast
as that of advertising by circulars, let
ters n pamphlets through the mails.
Last year., it has been estimated, more
than $500 0 600 was spent for postage
on such communications. and AN adj
Nertising authority familiar With this
field asserts that every other letter
carried by Uncle Sam is an advertise
ment.
Formerly mail advertising WAS ar
ried on more or less in the dark. The
advertiser simply got Il city directory
or blue book or telephone directory,
copied the names on envelopes, stuck
in his circulars and let them 60, hit
ting old and young, men NJ women.
rich and poor, learned and unlettered
alike. Today that sort of advertising.
would be regarded as criminally waste
full.
The city directory is now an adver-
Users last resort used only when the
whole population of a city is to be
reached with some great proposition.
Even the blue book and telephone d.
rectory. while regarded with more IA
vor, are clumsy in comparison with
ways of getting names and adj
dresses.
An advertising letter nowadays must
hit the recipient on some special in
terest. 1t often echoes that one has
in mind with Il certainty that slntclks
Of soothsaying on the advertisers part.
For, If you live ina small western
town it will not at all be out of the
way for you 10 receive Il circular adj
Nertising stove repairs. mentioning the
make and number of your stove. Or
such d missive may call attention TO the
fact that your piano, of such and such
a make and age. is getting rather out
of lone. and ought to be replaced with
another or helped out with Il piano
player. -
Or perhaps Yon live in IL city and
nave lately taken Il flyer in stocks or
purchased Il few bonds for investment.
Other investment propositions will
come to you by mail, and the advertiser
who sends them mentions your recent
operations.
How are advertising letters made to
strike home so accurately? In ways
altogether simple and logical when you
know them.
TO make his advertisement hit clean
ly, the advertiser begins with your
name and address. That is the key To
his whole system-getting @ on his
mailing list in your proper classical
ton.
The business of securing names and
addresses is now carried on separately
by large concerns. that furnish to adj
vertisers lists of any sort desired, from
II including 100000 farmers west OF
the Mississippi river to another enum-
Grating 1000 persons in a given state
who have automobiles.
Do you wish to advertise baby cur
riages to families with babies? The ad-
jVertiSiilg list concern will sell O the
names and addresses of 10000 families
In a certain city who have children
under two years of age and incomes
owe $4,000.
Are you a maker of artificial limbs:
Every day he will furnish you a lis,
of persons throughout the country who
have lost arms o. legs.
Are you i'll the musical line? You car
have lists Of persons anywhere who
play any sort of instrument, from the
gently blinking mandolin to the stren-
uous bass drum.
Such lists are obtained in various
ways TO get 100000 farmers in a GER
ain territory the address specialists
usually go to county tax lists, where
amt and addresses are accurate anC
complete. AT such a source it is alsc
possible to grade the names accord
ing to income. estimates being made
by the amount OF property on which
each person pays taxes.
Among lists of this character you car
purchase the names and addresses OF
125,000 retail grocers, $4,000 physi.
clans. $4,000 -four mills, or II other
general classification desired.
Names and addresses of families Will
children are secured by a systematic
private census, made by the list spe-
cialist's own enumerators. All nome
in a city are visited and the number
of children, their ages. etc. obtained
either from h~ouseholders or the neigh
bors. Janitors are a good source FOL
Inflammation nf this sort "
A family's probable income is easil.
determined from the neighborhood
One Of the railroads running out o.
New York city for example, wishes Il
advertise its suburban towns. A. lit.
tie monthly magazine is mailed for thi.
boxes OF apartment houses in %neighbor'
hoods where rents denote income:
ranging between $4,000 and $4,000.
Advertisers are regular readers o
certain information in newspapers
such as deaths. births, marriages. &C.
two to the list concern, which forward.
it to Il baby food manufacturer.
Five cents is paid by a manufac.
turer of artificial eyes for every repor
of the loss of an eye Even deaths are
q matter Of traffic, for families be,
reaved are canvassed by the maker o
memorial cards. Some advertisers pu'
names OF this character away for ;
year. until the expenses attendant up.
on a death have been met by the fam.
lily, and then approach the survivor.
with a proposition to erect a monu.
ment.
It is easier to get lists Of persons
who own pianos, stoves, organs. etc.
or who play certain musical instru'
ments. The advertisers employ chill
dren during school vacations, paying
them for filling out blanks with correc
names and addresses of families il
their w towns, giving name of piano
maxi OF stove and number. musical in
clinations number and ages of chill
dren. etc.
Since the telephone became a facto
in farm life the local telephone direc,
tories are in great request with ON
pliers OF advertising names. 1t is rea
soned that the telephone directory o
a given community contains the cream
of It's residents.
Some Of the queer lists for sale ar,
h names of thirty-three dynalnit,
makers, twenty-five sandraper manu-
facturers, nine lead pencil factories
and the like. such lists are often sole
for a dollar a name, being used by ad
vertisers who sell machinery and sup
| plies in large quantities.
One list that Ia a peculiar fascina
ton for advertisers, 1t is said, contain
the names of 800 m~illionaires. 1t /