The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1920-01-01

over North Dakota, and / went 10 the
wholesale grocers and said, IL want. to
get out an advertisement myself, gro
Gerry ad, Just as attractive as these maii
order people send out" They got up
this advertisement. They sent this out
to their trade. We used this adver-
tisement, and believe me, we sold some
merchandise. And they thought that a
good idea. They went out and sold
over 200 of the customers that idea,
and | think eventually that we are 60
ing to get out of it wonderful results.
found that 65 per cent Of the coffee
in the state of North Dakota was being
sold by peddlers and mail order people.
| knew we did not have the coffee
business and began to investigate why.
| found we were selling pound pack
ages and mail order houses were sell
ing 25-pound packages for few cents
cheaper, and for that reason the differ
ence in price. These men told me
about it and suggested what we ought
to do. bought coffee in larger pack
ages and started advertising. Put a
sample in a sack. Wrote them about
it. Told them we were putting on sale
on this date and attached sample
which would show them what kind Of
coffee it was, so that when they read
the letter they had the coffee to sam
pie it. / used this same method in
dried fruits.
After visiting about rs newspapers
| found that the hardware stores didn't
advertise in the papers. In this town
| didn't see an advertisement of this
kind in the papers. Why won't adver-
tising sell hardware as well as any
thing else?
My brother go out an ad. This ad
came out in the paper Thursday night,
and / noticed it increased the sales in
this basement about 500 more than
the previous Saturday.
There are two classes Of leaders,
jewelry stores and hardware stores,
who don't advertise. What a wonder
full opportunity they are overlooking!
They seem to think that the small
country store ii the little town is &C.
ing to be a thing of the past on ac-
count of the mail order competition
and the impossibilty of educating the
smaller merchant: also on account of
the automobile used in the country,
which enables them TO come to cities
and get larger aSSOrtmentS
To my mind if you are not spending
in the clothing business per cent of
the gross sales for advertising you are
losing a wonderful opportunity. Mr..
Hart said to me last week in Chicago:
Don't spend less than per cent If
you went out shooting ducks and had
a double barrel shotgun you wouldn't
think what the cost Of the other shell
was. You would fire both barrels"
Let's give them both barrels.
There is a town out in our state,
good town 1t is the third town of the
state They have a merchants organiz-
alton in that town. They have such a
close organization that penny store
or Woolworth couldn't get into that
town unless the community in that
town said so. They have control of
all the property. They don't allow any
thing in there because they have it
nailed down. At a meeting of their or
ganization one man said: whats the
use? If we don't any of us advertise
we will do the same business. What's
the use of advertising?" So they
didn't. Do you know what happened
to that town out there? Bellies Hass,
representative, found out the condition
of that town and put in four solid car
loads of catalogues and just simply
cleaned that territory with ready to
wear business and sold $4,000 900 in
North Dakota.
That is just the idea. If you don't
advertise don't forget there are lots
who are willing to advertise outside Of
this town. Just stop advertising and
see what will happen. The whole
thing will stop.
know it is fact that great many
men believe that the great packers, the
operators of flour mills and other ad-
vertisers are spending their money to
keep from being attacked. If the mills
would take off their travelling men,
quit newspaper advertising, take down
their billboards, in two years the mills
would be obliged to quit business.
My advertising will not cost me any
thing. l will clean up on advertising.
This is not ridiculous statement If
| did not keep up advertising my busi-
ness would sag. l could not do it. My
salary is there, it doesn't make any
difference. The managers salary is
there. If the sales come up better he
may get more commission at the end
of the year But all in all trim profit
accumulates il you get to a certain
stage. If you can put on that extra ef-
fort-and it is a well known fact that
the cheapest method of selling mer-
chandise today is by advertising
there is no other method of salesman
ship know of that will compete with
it. I believe absolutely that in nine
tenths Of these who are not advertising