The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1910-01-23
Knocking" the Other
Fellow Does Not Paw.

Elsewhere In this paper today The
Journal publishes a notable address
recently delivered before the Chicago
Advertising Association by Erman J.
Ridgway, publisher of the Butterick
publications and OF Everybody's Maya
zine. The address deals with the ad-
vertising and publishing business in
particular, but it's wholesome truths
are so applicable to every business in
general that The journal republishes
the address with the hope that every
business man who takes the paper will
read it.
There are two points in Mr.. Ridg-
ways argument that deserve parttcu-
lar attention-first, the fact that
knocking the other fellows business
is unbusinesslike and Improbable;
and, second, the fact that the more
business your competitor is able to
create the more you yourself have an
opportunity to get. That logic applies
to the advertising business and to
every other business as we'll.
Let us cite >case in point Ten
years ago, Pensacola was known as a
newspaper graveyard. The reason as
signed was that the merchants would
not advertise. There was a good deal
of truth in the reason, but it was not
wholly true. The real reason was
that the practice and business of adj
Vertising had never been properly cul-
tivated here. Advertising is like a
field of corn-it requires cultivation to
get a crop The Journal started in to
cultivate" the field. 1t employed
various methods of cultivation and
with a varying success, how little Or
how great the reader himself Is the
best Judge. But on one point The
Journals policy has been explicit and
emphatic-it has never knocked the
business of a competitor and it has
always encouraged the cultivation OF
the advertising field whether by COM
petitor or by it's own industry.
The reason for this policy ought to
be plain If The Journal cannot con-
vince a business man that advertising
will pay him, it wants some one
else to convince him. If a competitor
can convince him that it will pay him
to ADVERTISED a competitor can get
him into the habit of advertising-TheI
Ioe oh IN q
at least of his business. But it never
could get his business until some one
had first convinced him that it pays
to advertise.
The same logic applies to nearly
everything else. One life insurance
man will do more business in a field
with two or three competitors than he
could" possibly do if he had the field
all to himself Why?-simply because
his competitors create business which
he could not, or has not, created. II
insurance man No. l has failed to
write a policy for Mr. X, but insurance
man No. 2 succeeds in writing Mr.. X
for moderate sum, No. then has q
better opportunity to write Mr.. X for
more. And, what is more important, |
Mr.. KS neighbors are then easier pros |
poets because of the effect Of his |
example in having his life insured |
The thing works automatically and its |
results grow in geometrical progress
sion.
And so it is with the automobile |
business and the piano business and !
every other business. The greatest |
of things that people buy
are not necessities of life, and people |
therefore have to be persuaded by |
some one that these things, which are !
not necessities, are desirable because
OF the convenience, comfort, or profit !
which they will bring to the pur-
chaser.
When therefore some enterprising |
business man has already done the |
he has got people |
into the notion of buying-it is easier
for the next fellow to sell to them
than it would have been had No. Isl
work not been done.
Mr.. Ridgway's address is d classic |
and its logic is something that all men |
may follow with profit.
We note that so able newspaper |
n 70 liCNrSCJyCr tI,ol