Kingsbury County independent. (DeSmet, Kingsbury County, S.D.) 1894-1929, 1909-08-27
How They Reach the People
With Whom They Wish
to Do Business.
MAILING CIRCULARS ART
There Is No Longer the Old Fashioned
Hit and Miss Methods Of Send
ing Out Literature Per-
tanning to Business.
From the New York Sun.

Few industries have grown so 1ast
as that of advertising by circulars, let
ters and pamphlets through the mails.
Last year, ii has been estimated, more
than $50, 900, 600 was spent for postage
or such communications, and an ad-
vertising authority familiar with this
field asserts that every other letter
carried by Uncle Sam is an advertise
ment.
Formerly mail advertising was car
ried on more or less In the dark. The
advertiser simply got a city directory
or blu book or telephone directory,
copied the anne on envelopes, stuck
In his circulars and let them go, hit
ting old and young, men and 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 di-
rectory. while regarded with more ia
vor, are clumsy in comparison with
newer ways Of getting names and ad-
dresses.
An advertising letter nowadays must
hit the recipient on some special In
ASt CoNs ~ SNlloCo d SllS Ai1I
In mind with a certainty that smacks
Of soothsaying on the advertisers part.
For, IL you live in a small western
town IL will not at all be out OF the
way for you to receive a circular adj
vertising stove repairs, mentioning the
make and number of your stove. Or
such a missive may call attention to the
fact that your piano. of such and such
a make and age. is getting rather out
of n and ought to be replaced with
another or helped out with a piano
player.
Or perhaps you 1--we in a city and
have lately taken a flyer in stocks or
purchased a 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 tG
his whole system-getting you on his
mailing list In your proper classifica-
ton.
The business of securing names and
addresses is now carried on separately
by large concerns, that furnish to ad-
vertisers lists Of any sort desired, from
one including 250, 900 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 car
riages to families with babies? The adj
vertising list concern will sell you the
names and addresses of 10, 1000 families
In a certain city who have children
under two years Of age and incomes
over $4,000.
Are you a maker of artificial limbs?
Every day he will furnish you a list
Of persons throughout the country who
have lost arms or legs.
Are you in the musical line? You can
have lists of persons anywhere who
play any sort of instrument, from the
gently blinking mandolin to the siren
uous bass drum.
Sue lists are obtained in various
ways. To get $50, 900 farmers In q GER
tain territory the address specialists
usually go TO county tax lists, where
names and addresses are accurate and
complete. At such a source tits also
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 can
purchase the names and addresses of
125, 900 retail g%rocers, 121 900 physi-
clans. $4,000 -four mills. or any other
general classification desired.
Names and addresses OF families with
children are secured by a systematic
private census, made by the list spe-
c~ialist's own en~umerators. All homes
in a city are visited and the number
Of children, their ages, ETC., obtained,
either from householders or the neigh
bors. Janitors are a good sourc for
information OF this sort.
A family's probable income is easily
determined from the neighborhood.
One of the railroads running out OF
New York city for example. wishes to
advertise its suburban towns. A lit
tie monthly magazine is mailed for this
purpose 70 names X from the mail
boxes of apartment houses In neighbor-
hoods where rents denote incomes
ranging between $4,000 and $1,000.
Advertisers are regular readers OF
certain information in newspapers,
such as deaths, births. marriages, ac-
cidents. Every birth means a cent or
two to the list concern. which forwards
II to q baby food manufacturer.
Five cents is paid by a manufac-
turer of artificial eyes for every report
OF the loss Of an eye. Even deaths are
"A matter of traffic, for families be-
rfaved are canvassed by the maker OF
memorial cards. Some advertisers put
names of this character ava for n
year, until the expenses attendant up
on q death nave Dcefl met Dy the am
lily, and then approach the survivors
with a proposition TO erect a monu-
ment.
1t 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 correct
names and addresses OF families in
their own towns. giving name OF piano.
make of stove and number. musical in-
cliuations number and ages of chill
drfn. etc.
Since the telephone became a factor
In farm life the local telephone direc-
tories are In great request with COM
pliers OF advertising IL IS rea
soned that the telephone directory OF
a given community contains the cream
OF it's residents.
Some OF the queer lists for ;Iie are
the names OF thirty-three dynamite
makers. twenty-five sandpaper manu-
facSurers, nine lead pencil factories.
and the like. Such lists ere often sold
fer n dollar a name. being used by adj
veytisers who sell machinery and sup
plies In large quantities.
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