The Colville examiner. [volume] (Colville, Wash.) 1907-1948, 1915-09-25

the evident necessity or calling
upon the surrounding population
to come and visit the fair and the
stores and the wholesalers, and
patronize the railroads going and
coming, and ride on the street
cars, and spend some of their
country money in the city.
Never in the history of the
Spokane fair has it been thor
oughly advertised throughout the
surrounding country. There
seems to be an impression In Spo-
kane, as well as in some of the
towns, that advertising is a
vague proposition wherein some
printer gets the money and no
real results are obtained. This
impression is based on facts in
many cases-not because adver-
tising is valueless, but because
the advertising has not been
done right.
If Spokane could break through
her web of advertising density.
and observe how a circus draws
the people by means of adver-
tising, she might draw more peo-
pie to her fair and to her city on
special occasions. A circus ad-
vertises-n alone in newspa-
pers, but in every conceivable
manner. A regular schedule of
advertising plans is maintained,
with the idea of reaching every
adult in the contiguous territory.
The country newspaper is used
most of all, because the country
newspaper is the final resort in
reaching the masses of the peo-
pie. Knowing this, the circus
never haggles with the cost. for
it is seeking results.
A merchant can get results,
just as we'll as a circus. And a
city has even a better chance to
get results from advertising than
has an individual merchant.
Patent medicine houses spend
millions in advertising-not be-
cause they like the politics or the
personnel of the country news
papers, but because they like the
dollars that come as a result of
steady advertising in the COM
mon country newspapers which
really reach the mass of the
people.
Mailorder houses spend mil
lions in sending highly embel-
lished catalogues to every indi-
vidual in the country, and keepit
up year after year. Their cost
Of business runs around 25 %,
but they get results and volume
of business. Were the country
storekeeper, with a cost of doing
business of 1870 to Is %, to pur-
sue the same methods as the
mailorder houses, he could hold
the business himself, and were
he to use the town newspapers
in steadily impressing his super
iority upon the people of the COM
munity, no mail order house
could possibly get any business
away from him, for the weekly
paper is more constantly impress
sive than the yearly catalogue,
and the merchant really can sell
goods cheaper with a 1870 over
head cost, than can the big house
with a 25q6 cost. Every mer-
chant knows this, but he keeps
quiet about it. The mailorder
houses know their precarious po-
sition, therefore they constantly
keep before the people with
their side of the story until the
buyer forgets that there are any
other merchants except the big
ones.
The Spokane fair could be
made the biggest event in the
Inland Empire, and attract every
individual who has the ability to
get there. But to do this, the
fair must do just as the small
retailer must eventually do-use
the country newspaper circula-
ton which really reaches the peo-
pie. The biggest advertising ex-
perts of the country say this, the