The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1912-02-17

believes that he has got to argue the
question out with the prospective pur-
chaser, that when a man arrives ct
the point where he feels that he wants
to own an automobile his interest is
sufficiently intense to lead him into
study. Hence he devotes Is much a.
5000 words to his subject. He esti-
mates that it requires from to two
hours Of the average mans time to
read his Observation-Disclosures the
usual citizen reads slowly and cornpre-
hends more slowly--and that it Is nee
essary to address him with that fact
in mind. This cannot be done in a
paragraph-or two paragraphs. The
entire theme must be gone into inter-
estingly and the story must be told in
structively. Information must be &C
~curate and the details so arranged that
when the end is reached the reader
will have come to the conclusion that
he wants the particular q he has
been reading about.
I agree with Mr.. Pelletier in every
particular, but in my personal expe-
rience / have never found an adyer-
tiser with gumption enough to com
prehend the advantages of the full ar
g~umentative style. The worst enemy
of the progressive copy writer is ig-
norance. The average man with a
proposition and money to spend de-
veloping sales for 1t is too often
weighted with SO much stupidity that
he demands copy that will appeal to
himself rather than the readers OF
newspapers. He contends that "the
people will not read so much. OF
course they will not read a lot OF hog
wash, but If the lengthy, exhaustive
story is told interestingly they will
wade through it with as much avidity
as they will features or fiction.
Being asked by one OF the guests II
he did not believe an automobile COM
pany needed magazines and class me-
diums to give prestige and permanent
cy, Mr.. Pelletier replied that he con-
sidered the highest form Of prestige to
have been achieved when he succeeded
in selling a car and the most perma-
.nent thing he could think of was a
sale after it had been made.
This the Flanders company has got
ten through it's newspaper advertising,
but its newspaper advertising had not
stopped with creating a demand. 1t
also created dealers and made their
business a success, educated them and
made good statesmen of them.
Newspaper advertising as Mr.. Pei
letter conducts it, drives the customer
to the dealer, but before the dealer
encounters the customer he has him
self been convinced by the same adver-
tisement, and in those instances where
a new model is introduced that is al
most certain to develop some defect it
is the newspaper advertising that
keeps up the spirit and courage OF the
dealer until the difficulty is surmount-
ed.
No campaigns are planned in ad-
yanced. They are arranged to meet
conditions, and so quickly can the
public be communicated with through
newspapers it is never necessary to
anticipate obstacles or deterrent in
h~uences. In emergencies advertising
is sent by telegraph, but the very slow
est time in which action can be had is
the schedule of the fastest trains
across the continent.
To keep the wheels of the Flanders
company revolving requires a tremen-
dous newspaper advertising campaign.
A weeks cessation in sales means the
accumulation of $1,00O,00o worth of
cars, and newspapers are the only ad-
vertising mediums that can successful
ly grapple with the monumental prop
osition that this big problem involves.
Those In the automobile industry
who scoff at newspapers will sit up and
take notice when they read this re-
port, and If the newspapers in the
country and those representing them
In the advertising field do not see that
this great testimonial to newspaper
supremacy is widely distributed and
read they're crazy in the head.