Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1914-04-23
BUSINESS BUILDING
VS.. SALES-GETTING
The Halfway Success In Adver-
tising-MerChants Must Make
Buyers "Repeaters."
By CHARLES N. PECK.

lens.
Are they not---invaria blythe ones
who are advertising to get business.
rather than to build business?
Mr.. X is OF this class.
He sells hats-and nothing more.
He believes in vertising-although
he is sometimes doubtful If his own
advertising pays.
But he's fair and square In his Ideas
and he's doing his best to make ad-
vertising pay.
Unknowingly, however, he is max
ing the mistake OF advertising only
to get business.
He gets the business all right. but
at too great cost
The methods employed, and not al.
vertising itself are to blame.
His half-success Is due to the fact
that he hasn't developed an under
standing OF advertising.
He knows nothing of the higher.
truer utility OF advertising and its ca
pacity as a business builder.
If you should step out. for the first
time, on baseball diamond and en-.
deavor to bat home run, you might
accidentally excel the men in train.
Ing upon your first attempt. Your
luck might enable you to do as well
or better than the men who were
practicing to do the thing scientitical.
ly. But as days went by you might
return again to the diamond and strike
at the ball in your own way without
even hitting 1t.
Meanwhile. the men whom you at
first excelled would have acquired
form" ard would double and treble
your record.
So, too, with the merchant who is
advertising simply to get business.
The advertiser who has developed
form who has gone at the thing
scientitically-w has advertised to
build business on a broad basis in
stead of merely getting business for a
day--iorges nearer and nearer to the
front.
True Aim Of Advertising.
The true aim of advertising is to
attract permanent buyers
to the store Of the advertiser.
In advertising. as in any form of
craftsmanship, 1t Is vitally important
that your efforts be directed toward
q certain class-folks most likely to
be Interested in your product.
10 Afoh IN fan
.uch persons than thousand who are
not
Success In advertising does not de-
pend upon the number Of people you
reach.
That idea, in fact, II carried to the
extreme, will result In the undoing of
any advertiser
But success In advertising does de-
pend upon your ability to find field
for your product first; and next, upon
your ability to cultivate that field into
Its greatest productiveness.
Competition tends more and more
each successive day toward definite,
focused, specialized effort.
A farm of two hundred acres that
has been brought up to high state
Of cultivation will produce more mar.
ketable products-energy and cost
considered-than one OF four hundred
acres with half Of it covered with tim.
ber and brush.
An ounce OF effort rightly directed
In advertising accomplishes more than
ton OF pressure distributed over too
large surface.
Considered Advertising Expense.
Once upon time-not 30 very long
ago-a prominent Chicago merchant
kept a sign In his window stating that
he could afford to sell his goods at
lower prices than his neighbors be-
cause he was not burdened with an ad-
vertising expense of $20, 900 a year.
That was nothing more or less than
an admission that he did not know
how to intelligently apply advertising
to his business.
For years he seemed to successfully
defy the march of advertising prog
ress.
He stubbornly insisted that adver-
tising was an expense.
Eventually others handling the same
line Of goods crowded In about him.
He felt secure because his store had
been established since the stirring
days of the Civil war.
He had a large following that was
apparently loyal to him.
But his new competitors were
bright, persistent advertisers.
In the space Of few years some
of them transacted as much business
as he did.
Their merchandise was as good as
his and they actually met his prices.
Sometimes they annoyingly went be-
low his figures.
1t Is fact that they accomplished
In five years, by the use of intelligent
advertising, as much as he and his IA
ther before him had accomplished in
a half-century.
Although he turned deaf ear to
the advertising men who approached
him. and lost his temper on numerous