The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1913-07-10
| Advertising
Talk. q
SAYS ADVERTISING
IS BEST SALESMAN
First Principle Is to Animate
Your Merchandise, De-
cIares Expert.

vertising expert Of national reputa-
ton, 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
of US have to say for ourselves Is 50
shirts for s1.95. Most OF the time 1t is
a lie on the face OF 1t. and the rest Of
the time 1t is uninteresting because
all OF the others are saying the same.
1T was taught US nearly so years
ago that q store must have a code OF
ethics the same as man, yet most
Of US haven't learned It even today.
We have nothing to offer but price,
and the man with a better price ticks
US to a finish. II you haven't any
thing better to say for yourselves than
So shirts for $1.96. you had better get
out Of business.
Civic Pride Helps.
Every merchant and manufac-
turer who leads in progressive &C
ton today; every store and business
that has q civic pride; every adver-
tiser who tries to build his city into
a better city. builds himself with his
city. Every storekeeper who builds
a road builds It 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 took my first position as
an advertiser. 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 a dish pan as It does to write .
prescription or prepare brief. Today
we have merchants In most Of the city
councils and In congress. We have
had two Of them IN presidential cabi-
nets.
"Ad Cheapest Salesman"
I'VE know that 90 per cent. of the
people are predisposed each day to
read the news. Therefore you must
seek to find the news value In your
merchandise. The most interesting
news In the paper should be advertis-
ing news, because It 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
not mean that 1t Is to be set In news
caption and news heads and news
type. but that It 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 It.
For the next question. What kind
of type shall I user the answer Is
the same as to What drinks shall |
drink!'-anything you please. only
don't mix them.
Don't Yell Your loudest."
ITO the next question, What are
my headingsr the answer is, make
them as large as you want to. only
remember, once you have yelled your
loudest;- 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 bust.
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 It. The marvel to me
Is that advertising can be as rotten
as II 10 and still make good. II is
simply because In comparison to other
selling methods II 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. II will adver-
tise more personality and less mer-
chandise. As women do 30 per cent
OF the buying. the store OF the future
will be as much a woman's club as
II will be a womans buying place.
Far less than per cent. OF the WON
en- OF American are club women. The
others have absolutely no place TO
go, except to theaters and stores The
treaters are costly. The only place
WHARF, the average women can spend