Newport daily independent., 1918-11-25
MERCHANTS MUST
 BUILD 4BACKFIRE'
Can Beat Mail Order Houses at Their Own Game If They
 Will Do 1t.
ADVERTISING ONLY WEAPON
Catalogue Concerns Spend Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Annually to Create Demand for Their
 Merchandise.

Copyright 1917, Western Newspaper Union.
 The forest ranger and the prairie
 farmer have learned that they must ] fight with ire. They know that when l the all-consuming forest or prairie fires
 are sweeping toward them their only
 hope of safety lies In the "back-tire." !"
 By kindling and carefully controlling 1 fire of their own they force the big ger fire to burn itself out, finding no
 further fuel on which to feed.
 The merchants of the small cities | and towns are learning that in waging
 their fight for existence they must adopt the tactics of the men of the West. The great mail order houses
 of the cities are the consuming flames 1 which threaten to wipe out the retail merchants of the small towns unless the latter, realizing their danger, take steps to remove the menace. The re- tail merchants, as whole, are begin. ming to realize that they must fight
 fire with fire and that to save them
 selves they must build 'back fire"
 Advertising is the weapon with
 which the mail order houses conduct their warfare on the retail merchants
 of the small cities and towns. The mail order houses do their advertising through their own catalogues and through certain publications which are known as mail order advertising me diums. A big mall order house spends
 hundreds of thousands of dollars mer:. ly on the preparation and publication
 of its bulky catalogues.
 Business Built Upon Advertising.
 The catalogue houses also spend
 thousands upon thousands of dollars
 in advertising in the mail order publi'
 cations which look for their circula.
 tion to the people of the small towns
 and the rural districts. Advertising in
 some of these mediums costs as much
 as from $40 to $S5 for single inch
 yet the mail order houses find it profit able to pay these high rates. Their
 business is built upon advertising and if they were denied the use of the mails for their advertising for a single
 month their business would be de stroyed.
 In advertising, the local merchants l find the only weapon with which they can beat the mail order houses at thei1 own game This does not mean neces. sarily, only newspaper advertising, al
 though that is the big gun in the bat. | tery employed by the successful mer' | chant in his battle for trade. Adver' | Using is a big word and it covers big field. There is no longer to be found 1 the man who does not believe in adi 1 vertising. Every merchant believes in | advertising of some sort. The placing 1 of a display In q show window Is ad' | vertising. The only difference between | that kind of advertising and advertis. | ing in a newspaper Is that where the one reaches dozens the other reaches | hundreds Attractive window displays
 are, of course, an important adjunct of any retail store. They serve their pur' 1 pose but this purpose Is only to attract l the attention of those who may be | passing by the store. There are other 1 forms of advertising, such as personal
 solicitation, but printed matter must always continue to be the chief reli.
 ance of merchants in attracting GUS toners to their stores.
 Advertising Begets Confidence.
 The buying public has learned that
 the store which takes the people into 1 its confidence through it's advertising Is the one in which 1t may expect to get the best bargains and the most sat l isfactory treatment. It knows that the store which advertises consistently and regularly has the best and most up-to- | date stocks because this store sells its goods more rapidly than the one which does not advertise and, therefore, is | not forced to carry over old stock from 1 one season to another. The public
 knows that the store which advertises
 can place lower prices on its goods be- cause it turns over its stock Oftener | than the store which does not adyer- l tise and therefore does not have It's capital tied up in slow-moving mer- 1 chandise.
 The mail order house does not get | its business by merely letting the pub
 lie know that 1t has dry goods or hard
 ware or groceries or some other com modity to sell. It creates demand for it's goods by placing in its catalogue
 attractive pictures and detailed de- 1 scriptions of the articles which 1t has 1 to sell. The lure of the mail order ! catalogue lies in the fact that the
 merits or alleged merits, of the mer-
 chandise offered are placed before the
 prospective purchaser In the most
 graphic manner. The local retail mer-
 chant has the same opportunity to do 1 this that the mail order house has and 1 can do 1t much more effectively than l the mail order house can. The retail l merchant can talk to the people of his | community through his home newspa- ! per and that is something which the
 mail order houses as rule cannot do,
 for the local newspapers through a sense of loyalty to their communities and their home merchants will not ac-
 cept the advertising with which the mail order houses would flood them if | Aboxy had fha onpnrtunffv