Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-07-26
RETAIL ADVERTISING
From the Viewpoint of
the Country Merchant.


a well-known merchant and adver-
tiser of Atlantic, Iowa, before the
meeting of the Western Iowa Editor
ial association at Council Bluffs:
It is a sad but too true fact that
the country merchants as rule are
not extensive advertisers. l am con-
vinced that they should advertise reg
ularly and persistently. l believe SO,
not only because some people who
are supposed to know say SO, not only
because my actual experience in con-
nection with retail advertising In a
small town has demonstrated to me
the far-reaching benefits, both direct
and indirect, to be derived from per-
sistent advertising.
In this great period of advance
ment and progress, mere storekeepers
can no longer succeed. 1t takes live,
wide-awake, aggressive merchants to
| succeed today. The successful mer-
chant of today, whether in the large
! city or the small town, must deal
with modern conditions. One of the
most important of these is the fact
that this is great age of publicity.
! Printers ink is today selling more
goods than ever before in the worlds
history and from present indications,
| Its usefulness in this respect is only
J beginning.
People depend upon their news
! papers and magazines for information
on what to buy and where to buy.
II we would be successful We must
tell the public what we have to offer.
| We must, through the judicious use
of printers ink, convince the people
| that our wares are desirable and that
our values are consistent with the
| prices asked The ultimate end of
the non-advertising retailer Is very
prophetically depicted in little incl
dent credited to Mark Twain. Dur
one of his readers found a spider in
his copy of the paper and wrote Mark
asking what it meant. The reply was
! that the spider was looking over the
columns of the paper to ascertain who
were the non-advertisers, so that he
could weave his web over their doors.
So If the small town merchant does
not advertise the people of his COM
munity are not advised of the fact
that he has reliable and desirable
goods, or that he offers excellent val
ues. They read the announcements
of the large city merchants; they are
attracted to the cities or, in too many
instances, they fall victim to the al
Turing literature of the mail order
houses. Trade which rightfully be-
longs to them is leaving solely be-
cause of lack of publicity. For this
reason it is obvious that extensive ad-
vertising is one Of the strongest
weapons that the country merchant
possesses against the giant mail or.
der houses.
But. If 1t Is true that it pays the
small town merchant to advertise ex-
tensively, If it Is true that adver-
Using is one Of the merchants most
extensive means of combating the
mighty mail order establishments,
then. you ask, why is it that he adj
vertises so little.
There appears to be- ewo reasons.
The first applies to, | hope, but a
very small per cent. of the existing
dealers. They are not progressive;
they believe what was true ten or
twenty years ago is true today: they
forget that this is an age of pub
licity; they do not understand the
mighty power of advertising; in short
they are what we would term "old
fogies." But, gentlemen, do not class
all merchants who are not liberal
users of printers ink as back num-
bers.
Advertising Is difficult PROPOSE
ton and it is especially difficult for
the small town merchant | say. ad-
vertising pays, but that doesn't mean
that if l buy large quantities of space
and fill it full of type that l get re-
suits. The very fact that this is an
age of publicity makes it all the
more difficult to prepare winning ad-
vertisements. Hundreds of advertise
ments are being printed daily. The
country merchants printed announce
ments must compete with those of
the city merchants and mail order
ouses, which, by the way. are carefully
prepared by advertising specialists
The advertiser must therefore make
his advertisements attractive. He
must study first of all the layout. he
must carefully plan an arrangement
SO that he may obtain an effective
appearance.
But although the arrangement and
layout should be the first considera-
ton of the advertiser, 1t is evident
from the appearance of most country
merchants ads that their first con-
sideration is the text. Here again
the merchant has some difficult work
mapped out for him. He must first
determine what to advertise, and
then comes the description and argu-
ment. Assuming that he has gained
the attention of the reader, the sue
cess of the announcement now de-
ponds upon the ability IS the adver-