The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1909-12-07
SUCCESSFUL ADVERTISING.

In an informing address before the
Buffalo IN. W Ad Club in that city
one day last week Mr.. Il. r. Thomas
related his experiences as an adver-
tiser and gave number of valuable
pointers to his hosts As his remarks
are reported in the News, he modest
" disclaimed any intention Of educat.
ing the publicity purveyors in their
craft. He just told them in an on
hand way how he had hammered out
a little adstuff in his own little forge
without applying for any license In
| the college of adsmithery. and how
that had brought in the dough.
First of all, he said his success has
been founded upon the belief that the
majority OF men-the very large ma
jority of men-are strictly honest,
therefore he arranged his ADVERTISING
for honest men TO believe after they
had read In this connection he said:
Honesty in advertising is the car
dinal principle 1t is the only plan up
on which satisfactory returns can be
realized Some seem to think that in
order to get rich all they have TO do
is to advertiseregardle of the mer-
it OF the article they are Offering.
Trying to get something for nothing
must always fail They mast have
the goods. be entirely conscious OF
their value and tell about them truth
fully in order 10 make the story con-
yincing.'
Going back some twenty years Mr..
Thomas said that when he started. in
the real estate business in Memphis
a fve-line want ad was the biggest
thing he ever did in that Fine. After
laying his plans and studying the sit
uation. he concluded to try fun page
That was the first Thomas flyer, and
! it woke up Memphis people so that
people came around TO inquire il he
was going TO sell the town. He said
he wasn't. but that il wou' dnt be a
bad plan to sell of some OF the BUSH
ness men and lay in fresh stock. Pret-
IL soon the other real estate men be-
gan to wake up and come out With
page ads They had 10 in order to
save their skins. And then the infec-
ton spread to other classes OF bust
ness and the newspaper proprietors
began to wear diamonds.
The second stage of his experience
was In the cycle business al Toronto
There he found conditions pretty
much the same as in Memphis. The
example of one business man setting
lively pace in exploiting his ware:
through the newspapers set othel
business men TO thinking tha'
set them to doing business. Bushes:
generally woke up as it had done II
the southern city.
The third stage was his establish
ing the automobile business in But
falo, where the same methods hav'
been pursued and extended nationaI.
and beyond The experiment Of tai
s ing page space in the papers of lead
ing cities throughout the countr
some years ago scored big success:
T Naturally ii had been followed, 4
q WAYS keeping In mind that advertiser
J / not scheme to fool people an
! wheedie them out of their money, gu
5 straightforward presentation
i reasons. convineingiy put why the
4 should hay something that they van
i with bargain at each end OF n
u trarsaefion-to say nothing OF II
IS news paper in the middle
it Mr.. Thomas said he had tried
5. kinds G. Advertising. and has nothir
a. to say against any legitimate med5ur
e. hut By far the largest returns on q
Id money invested in his case have hef
IS secured through the medium OF lue
e ciously selected newspapers This ties
81 mony is especially valuable because
C. t.,e source from which it comes. y
al Thomas is one of the largest and mo
* successful advertisers in the world