New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1912-01-24
Our Heart to Heart Talk
Continued.

means OF getting rid of surplus stock.
Immediately thereafter We were 90
de!uged with bargain sale advertising
that We hadn't time to continue our
talk with you. Now, however, our
advertisers are evidently busy figuring
up the balance of their stocks and
getting ready for the spring campaign
and We are having q breathing spell
which We are going to make use Of by
giving you our ideas on how to ad-
verLise. We do not think we know ell
there is to know but there are some
points in advertising on which We do
feel ourselves good judges and We are
going to give you our opinions on
them, to use or reject as seems best to
you.
We will attempt to give you the
consumers idea of what comprises
good ad. What may prove OF vast
interest to merchant in his ad be-
cause of the amount Of money he has
involved may be utterly uninteresting
to the public and for that reason it is
mistake on the Dealers part to say
too much in an ordinary ad. tits much
better to select one or two articles and
make specially of advertising them
for time by presenting them in
different lights. There is nothing
better than an attractive cut to direct
attention TO an ad and that is the
first and most difficult task. The
average reader will not even glance at
an .ad that is the same yesterday,
today, and tomorrow.
The old idea that the important thing
is to keep the Dealers name before
the public has fzzled out and wide
awake merchants realize that what
they have to say makes something OF
difference. Our merchants are not
like the livery man in small town
who inserted an ad in his local paper
saying he would have special rigs to
convey people to and from a certain
big funeral and then kept the ad
running in exactly the same way for
more than year after the funeral was
forgotten history. He thought all he
had to do was to shout his name to
them from the newspaper page and
people would fall all over themselves
to hire his rigs.
We have no such advertisers on our
list but there is tendency on the
part Of many advertisers to say as
much as possible in . given space.
They are like the man on . debating
team who is SO full of his argument
and has 80 much to say that he neg
lects to concentrate and when his brief
time is up his finds he spread over
much surface but his important points
have disappeared In the mass of detail
an' his opponent who wisely choose
limited number of points to
emph asize has succeeded in impressing
them forcibly on the judges and has
won the decision. ~.
The merchant who advertises with
the idea that people will read his ads
in place of ''pure reading matter" is
mistaken unless he is able and willing
to make his ads newsy and inviting.
An ad is like an agent that succeeds
in getting inside the door but it is
also like an agent in that it is neces-
sary for it to be entertaining, even
amusing and instructive or the lady Of
the house promptly dismisses it as
she would the dull, prosy agent. The
we'll set-up ad, one of few words and
q good cut, makes the same appeal to
the reader that a bright, clean-cut,
neatly dressed young salesman makes
to the merchant looking for the best.
We frankly confess we wouldn't buy
anything of a house that sent out run
down at the heel statesmen and the
average housewife is just as particular
and discrimin ating and will naturally
take her trade to the store that writes
bright, snappy ads and insists that
they be attractively set up by the
printer.
IN our shop we stand ready to CO.
operate with the merchant in making
his ads attractive and are only too
glad to receive changes of ads from
our patrons. 1t costs US more ia
labor to change your ads but it is
worth the difference to US in the i'm
pr wed appearance and interest our
paper holds for the readers. We
stand ready even to help you get up
your ads if you are too rushed to take
time to write them yourselves. Let US
hear from you on these matters
as you did on bargain sale adver-
Using.
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