Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1916-01-12
ANALYSIS AND MAIL ORDER.

After you have analysed product and prospect and
all the conditions which surround both will be ready to
decide on your method of distribution AS wholesaler or
manufacturer your first impulse be to seek to sell to the
ultimate consumer direct.
That is the usual temptation Why! Because the sue
this phase of maorder business SO romantic
They the largest retail giants They invite
the of imagination to go and do likewise
But beware There have been many, many millions lost
the mail order fortunes. If you have not the re
wait and wait you had better the usual methods
And product and merchandise does not happen to SUIT
the mail order method cannot possibly succeed with that
plan of distribution athO out handsomely IN sell
ing through dealers
Let us suppose that you to manufacture shoes The
maorer plan selected You tell folks what have and
ask them order by mail Can market shoes sue
cessfuly in this way! The public knows how the shoes are
made They know they about the shoes they have
bought their department store at $3.50 If offer those
shoes for $3.50 providing prove reliable people
send for them because they know the value ana he can
compare.
But if you had goods whose value not obvious as
in the case though they might be really cheaper
priceyou could not sell by mail simply for the reason that
YOU could not make the people and appreciate price
argument Take for instance investment bonds There has
been considerable advertising of these in the general publ
cations
Unless those bonds we're government bonds something
Of similar obyosnes of value you could sell them to the
general public unless you explained the bonds to the prospects
personally For very few people outside OF the investment
people know just how much certain kind OF bond should
when you say your ad that bond is fine
opportunity money the person does not I'M
derstand They not able to to themselves as they
would the of something of known value such as shoes
h is worth soandso At the price offered IN this al can
buy to my profit
There another element which have got to consider
before YOU decide to distribute through system OF direct
bvma Remember the factory that not content with
900 business selling through the dealer at minimum
profit to themselves They thought that the dealer could get
S. more than he paid this product which they offered then
there was no reason why they could not get 81 from the
pubc than thew were getting from the dealer for this article
And so without further consideration they embarked on
campaign The first thing that happened OF course
was that their customersthe deaerseft them for good and
all The dealers were mad They did not like to have this
factory say to the people, Don buy from your local dealer
buy direct from the factory and save money =
Consequently chance that this manufacturer
would ever get back those retail dealers whom they had
so much time and money AS far the public was con-
cerned hev found that they got orders from customers
bv mabut not enough pay for the cost OF getting the
orders Success was further pecuded by the fact that what
they were selling possessed repeat quality In other
words during lifetime person might buy two OF these ar
ces-say one and twenty years from now Conse
oueny even the manufacturer gained family as customer
an of two three dollars worth OF advertising and
selling to bring that to their books even then that
customer could not give that manufacturer any more business
for twenty years Consequently the cost OF getting purchase
would be all swallowed in that first sale Zach sale they
made amounted to less than $40 The gross profit was less
than So The cost getting the maiorder over So The
concern failed They had tried to conquer the world by mall
order "~.<*=:"" ...@.
Bu like thousands of other such disasters they found that
the iron hand of economics decreed that the eod
was not the avenue to Fortune after ALL