The La Jara chronicle., 1910-06-24
OVER TWENTY-FIVE PER CENT

Mr.. Merchant-If you could talk
personally to over ninety-five per
cent of the buying public of your
locality each and every week. there
is but little doubt that yc.I would
have a large per cent, if not all, of
these as your regular customers.
The great mail order concerns with
their own advertisement organiza
tons have never been able to reach
over twenty per cent of the people
in their territory directly. In the
rush to grasp business in this day
and age the merchants of this ter
ritory have great advantage over
are alive to their interests and take
advantage of the opportunity. This
paper circulates in more than ninety
five per cent of the homes in this
territory. and without the expense
fof maintaining an advertising de-
partment. the keeping up of a mail
Iing list, the great expense of post
age, the merchants have an oppor-
ftunity of talking directly to each
lof these homes once every week,
yam opportunity that is barred to
mail order concerns.
There are merchants who adver-
ftise two or three weeks each year,
and these weeks are during the
choliday season. when people are
bound to buy. The business that is
advertised only in the busy season
il the kind that does business only
-in the busy season. Haphazard ad-
vertising is perhaps better than
none, but it is very little. The
man who expects to do business
every day in the year should ad
member that he is dealing with a
Ffickle public; that its memory IS
short; that the man who greets
them every week with an al11mce-
ment of his wares, a discussion, or
a description of them. has the ad
vantage of the man who meets them
,once or twice a year.
Many a merchant has said time and
time again that he does not know
what to advertise. and some have
Ieven said they had nothing to ad-
,vertise. Don't you think that If
you were to tell your customers
that your wares were not worth
advertising. that they would prob
!ably go elsewhere to make their
h rohase? What do you suppose
iyour customers think when they
,miSs your advertisement in the To-
zeal paper?'
! Many merchants are afraid of
their competitors. Your competi
,t;r cannot harm you-unless you
ilot him. AS much energy as you
spend in watching his business
just as ntlch the less will you have
for pushing your own. If you spend
mere time advertising your own
business you will have loss to
criticise the advertisement of your
competitor and remember that
every time you criticise your competi-
tors advertisements or his affairs
you are attracting the public's at
tention more to his wares and less
to yours.
Freak advertising may attract at
tention for a few days. but unless
II possesses some merit other than
mere oddity or outlandish improb-
ability it will not make lasting
impression upon the public mind.
\ laugh to-day may help develop in
: to a frown of disgust tomorrow.
Money spent on freak advertising
seldom brings satisfactory returns.
AS general proposition. local
newspapers are the best and most
effective means of reaching the peo
pie. Especially is this tine in the
small enterprising town with live
weekly paper that is sent into
nearly every home and where it is
read by every member of the family.
Merchants who have tried other
means generally go back to the
newspaper as the safest and best
under all conditions. Although
circulars may be extremely effective.
quite contrary to the general be-
lief they are usually more expensive
and unless they are well gotten up
are apt to be less satisfactory.