Greene County herald., 1913-03-07
| Advertising /
p Talk. q
SAYS ADVERTISING
IS BEST SALESMAN
First Principle Is to Animate
Your Merchandise, De-
cIares Expert.

yert1slng expert of national reputa-
tion, delivered a characteristic address
before the Adcraft club of Detroit the
other day, and gave in attractive and
epigramatic style the result of his ex-
periences, insisting on the value of
proper newspaper advertising. Among
other things he said:
The very first principle of advertis-
ing is to animate your merchandise
make it stand up and talk for itself.
Every man has personality and
ought to be able to talk, even ii his
merchandise can't. Yet all the most
shirts for $1.95. Most of the time 1t is
a lie on the face of it, and the rest of
the time 1t is uninteresting because
all Of the others are saying the same.
1t was taught us nearly 90 years
ago that store must have code of
ethics the same as a man, yet most
OF US haven't learned it even today.
We have nothing to offer but price,
and the man with better price licks
US to finish. II you haven't any
thing better to say for yourselves than
So shirts for $1.95, you had better get
out of business.
Civic Pride Helps.
Every merchant and manufac-
turer who leads in progressive ac-
tion today; every store and business
that has a civic pride; every adver-
tiser who tries to build his city into
better city, builds himself with his
city. Every storekeeper who builds
a road builds 1t straight to the door
or his own store.
Twenty years ago, to be a mer-
chant was to carry around with you
the stigma of trade. Eight years
ago when l took my first position as
an advertiser, I wore my hat about
in the store for fear some of my
friends would see me and know | was
working there. Today the best brains
of America are being diverted into
trade The colleges are pouring in
their youth. We have found that it
requires as much brains to merchan-
disc dish pan as it does to write a
prescription or prepare brief. Today
We HAVE AlCt CA1aA 10 III 1lOS+ VI tA4& lily
councils and in congress. We have
had two OF them In presidential cabi-
nets
"Ad Cheapest Salesman.
We know that 80 per cent. of the
people are predisposed each day to
read the news. Therefore you must
seak to nnd the news value in your
merchandise. The most interesting
news in the paper should be advertis-
ing news, because 1t tells OF money
to be saved, OF advantages to be gain
ed by better or different merchandise.
or by labor or time-saving devices.
and OF pleasures to be had from new
IDEAS in styles, in fashions.
Advertising should be presented as
nearly as possible in news form. do
rot mean that it is to be set in news
caption and news heads and news
type, but that 1t should be set in the
way that people are accustomed to
reading news plainly up and down |
the page in natural measures and not
across different spaces In odd meas
ures with all sorts of boxes and all |
kinds OF funny little borders set into |
the corners and through the middle |
of 1t.
For the next question, What kind |
OF type shall use? the answer is
the same as to What drinks shall
drink anything you please. only
don't mix them.
"Don't Yell Your Loudest.s
ITO the next question, What are
my headings?' the answer is, make
them as large as you want to. only
remember, once you have yelled your
loudest, you never can yell any louder
again; and the oftener you yell your
loudest, the weaker you get. When
you have done your best. you
are all through. The successful busi-
ness engineer, like the successful rail-
road engineer, never has to pull his
throttle quite wide open to come
through out schedule time
IF your advertising is stupid. you
have no right to blame the people
for not reading 1t. The marvel to me I
is that advertising can be as rotten
as it is and still make good. It is
simply because in comparison to other
selling methods it is so remarkably
cheap. The advertising of the future
will look like news.
"The store of the future will deal
in human interests more than in
commercial interests. 1t will adver- II
tise more personality and less mer-
chandise. AS women do 80 per cent
OF the buying. the store Of the future
will be as much woman's club as
it will be a woman's buying place.
Far less than / per cent. of the wom-
en- of American are club women. The
others have absolutely no place to
90 EXCEPT to theaters and stores. The