Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-06-10
PAID
FOR PUBLICITY
BRING PROFITS
Scheme by Which Farmers
May Benefit by Using Bust
ness Methods.
VALUE OF ADVERTISING
BY FREDERIC j. HAsKIN.

marketing problem, of which few OF them
are taking advantage.
It is noticeable that merchants ana
manufacturers, although most of them
are facing reduced sales and a falling
scale of prices, are not cutting down on
their advertising. Many of them on the
contrary, have increased their ex-
penditures for newspaper space, realizing
that this is necessary to counteraet the
tendency toward a slump IN buying.
American business spends on an average
about two million dollars a day in ad-
yertising. but the volume Of sales aver
ages about a hundred million dollars
dav. The two millions dollars is tins
regulator and stimulator of the flow OF
the hundred million. The way in which
the individual business man uses his
share OF the two million determines very
largely what is to be his share CT the
hundred million.
This is a fact which the farmers, as q
class, are just beginning to grasp. The
farmer, for the most part, produces
staple raw materials which may always
be sold at a market price by merely
hauling them to the nearest market I'm
like the merchant and the manufacturer,
be does not face a competition which is
capable of driving him from the market,
nor does he have to create demand for
his product A bushel of potatoes is
always worth something, and people Will
always need potatoes.
THE FARMERS
POSITION.
So the farmer has reasoned in the past.
He ranks among the producers Of funda-
mental necessities. In fact, he produces
the most fundamental necessities of all
Only wood, steel and other basic materi-
ais of industry can compare with food
in this regard
The producers of steel do not adver-
tise The demand for steel is certain,
just as is the demand for food. But the
producers of steel and of most of the
other basic materials of American indus
try are organized and do control the
prices Of their products. That is tbs
great difference between them and the
farmers. If the potato growers were or
ganized they would be in the same strong
position as the producers of iron and
petroleum and lumber. But the farmer
is in no such position. He has almost
no control over the market price of the
staple commodities which he produces.
Some efforts are now being made by
farmers to obtain such control by hold
ing crops and by making agreements as
q
be produced. These efforts Will doubt
less grow in strength and extent, but so
far they have not produced any striking
results, as is shown by the present eco
nomic situation of the farmer, who is
bearing the brunt of the 1ell in prices.
What advantages has the farmer to
counterbalance these disadvantages He
has all of the rights of free competition,
| if he will only use them. He has the
right to produce anything he pleases, and
sell it anywhere he can for the best
price he can obtain. For example, the
price of corn may be down, but if he
can produce high grade of seed corn
and advertise It in such a way that he
can convince others of its excelleace, he
may be able to sell it for a very high
price. Again, beef and hides may be
down, but breeding stock and breeding
service are things for which a special
market at a special price may be created.
There are thousands of suburbanites who
are starting in the chicken business this
spring, for example, and who will pay
good prices for Matching eggs, young
chigkens and breeding stock.
The possibilities and methods of farm
advertising are ably discussed in a book
let on the subject which has been pub
lished by the South Dakota State Agri-
cultural College in collaboratic= with the
United States Department of Agriculture.
This publication especially emphasizes
the opportunities of selling through adj
vertising special product such as seed
and breeding stock. and especially the
enormous opportunity of appealing di-
rectly to the consumer through the want
ad columns of the daily papers.
Subscribers read the want ads" this
read the advertisements first"
study of the want-ads which run
continuously iii any strong daily paper
reveals the fact that farmers are in that
way selling the greatest variety of
things, including things which it would
be difficult, to sell in any other way.
Matching eggs, young chickens, young
tomato and other plants for setting out,
cuttings for starting hedges, manure for
use in flower gardens, special quality
fruit comb honey, rabbits, nuts, cider,
strawberries, are a few of the things
which are being marketed successfully
through want-ads by farmers in one
paper in one city.
PUBLICITY W .r4
FOR FARMS.
There now exist near all large cities
farms which use advertising almost as
thoroughly and scientifically as do mer-
chants. Such farms usually have names.
such as SunnybrOok or High View,
which sound well and look well in print
This name is apt TO be displayed in
large letters on the highway nearest the
farm and also on its barns, its wagons
and trucks. These farms usually make
a speciality of neat and attractive ap-
pearance and treat motorists and other
visitors politely. Such a farm Will have
an advertisement of some sort in the
nearest paper all the time. 1t has dis
covered that with a little enterprise
almost anything that has good value can
be sold at a good price, and that
steady revenue may be made to flow In
quite independently of the staple crops.
The South Dakota bulletin describes the
operations of one large farm which sells
90 per cent of all its products by mail
through advertising direct to the con-
sumer. This farm, for example, sold 500
bushels of alfalfa seed at net profit OF :
500, through a word want-ad, the
cost of advertising being $3.50. Such
farmers are not among the bankrupts.
Despite such successes, and despite the
fact that almost every farm product has
been sold through advertising and by
mail, the proportion of farmers who
make any use of advertising remains
small. This no doubt is because they
are not accustomed to it, have never con-
sidered the possibilities of the thing.
The South Dakota bulletin describes at
some length the composition of adver-
tisements, but the farmer who wants to
insert an ad in the nearest local paper
will usually find the men in the news
paper office ready to help him in this