Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-03-10
ADVERTISING is AN
INDISPENSABLE TOOL

The question Essays one of them
does it pay the retail automobile dealer
to advertiser. Our company advertiseS
and advertises heavily. What we could
do would be only a drop in the bucket
alongside, and might make no differ
ence at all, while the money expended
could be used to good advantage in
improving our establishment. In short,
shall we advertise heavily or not at all
or to a moderate degree? If the latter,
what proportion of our receipts shall
we devote to this purpose?
In the first place, advertising today
is an indispensable tool in carrying out
a larger business, and it's as indispens-
able to the dealer as to the company.
Our company advertises heavily, to be
sure, but 1t is not possible for us, even
through our district managers, to OBJ
tain that personal tone in advertising
possible to the dealer. We can feel the
pulse of the nation and of the nine dis
tricts, but we cannot size up the stu
alton in the territory of the individual.
1t is UP to him to do that. He knows
whether the mass of prospects are
wealthy or but well-to-do, whether or
not there are doctors or statesmen or
farmers or contractors in the majority.
whether touring cars or runabouts will
be more in demand, how strong compe-
tition is and in respect to which models
it lies. And he has got to use his Judg-
ment and temper his advertising so
that it will produce the greatest re-
suits.
Like the Irishman that said "All
whisky is good-but some is better" all
advertising is productive but some is
more productive. We have got to
advertise to attract the attention of
the public to ourselves and our car
and we have got to advertise the right
car for the right person. If we fall IN
the first, trade will go elsewhere. If we
fail in the second, we will elicit only
passing interest.
The advertising of touring cars for
doctors will prove of little service.
The advertising of runabouts for men
who desire cars for family service will
prove equally futile. The failure to
advertise the delivery wagon in town
were retail shops abound would be
another case of misjudgment. Messrs.
Smith e. Mccoy, our dleaers at Sandy
Hill, N. Y, got out posters recently de-
scribing our smallest runabout. Later
they provided good cigars and distrib-
uted them wrapped in circulars. They
had felt the pulse of their territory
and advertised the runabout. Messrs.
Ford & Lyon, up Massachusetts, way,
broke out into advertising by announc-
ing their "pubic opening on large
cards, thus attracting the attention or
their varied prospects to the complete
Maxwell line. It's all in feeling the
pulse.
Questions of Judgment
The matter of how much money to
put in advertising u.s. of course. a mat
ter for individual judgment. 1t must
be influenced by the presence and in
tensity of competition, by the condition
of the market, by the extent of i'm
provements needed in the establish
ment
Another thing about advertising: we
cannot allow ourselves to be discour-
aged by the absence of immediate re-
suits. But anything which brings the
word Maxwell before the eye of the
neople is worth while and worth the
expense involved. Advertise we must.
Ali we must remember is the words of
the Irishman, then use our Judgment,
and feel the pulse of our territory.