The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1922-08-17

81 have gone through five de-
pressions and have always observ-
ed that the men who increased
their selling effort from as to Is
percent were the men who came
through successfully. THOS.
A. EDISON.
Although many retail merchants
know about Fred P. Mann and his
great success in life, many others do
not.
Mann, folks, is the biggest general
store" merchant in Country America.
He had no better start than the poor
est storekeeper who may read this ar
ticle. His store was in Devils Lake,
N. D., then a very small town, and
even now having only about 5000
population.
But Mann advertised. He let the
people of the community know what
he had to sell and what they could
buy it for. He made his ads newsy
and interesting, and then he just SIM
ply made his public read them by
putting pictures in them. In brief, he
made his ads. attractive.
That sold his goods, and then he ex-
panded his advertising-his kind of
attractive advertising-until it reach
> ed farther and farther afield.
In 1921-sad, depressed old 1921
Fred Mann sold more goods than in
1920, over half million dollars worth
in town of 5000. And here is what
! he says about it:
"When business is hardest to get
that's the time to advertise most.
Some merchants get little squeam-
ish over business, then cut their ad-
vertising. That's mistake. I'd say
cut every other item first, even mer-
chandise on a lower profit basis.
"America isn't broke. There's plen-
ty Of money. There will be more this
spring. Get your advertising going
strong-you'll win your share!"
No mail order catalogue has any
terrors for Fred P. Mann. Those cata-
logues are issued every six months.
He issues his every week-IN THE
COLUMNS OF THE NEWSPAPERS
OF DEVILS LAKE AND VICINITY.
No flood Of advertising pictures in
semi yearly mail order catalogs has
any terrors for Fred P. Mann. He il
lustrates his catalogic advertisements
in the local newspapers every week,
The pictures in the mail order cata-
ilogues become stale and full of dead
ly monotony before the six months
are up. Mann's advertising pictures
in the local papers are fresh every
week.
And if one page of advertising is
not enought to draw big business F..
P. Mann thinks nothing of using as
many as four pages in one issue of
a country paper.
| Mann does not consider his adver-
tising an expense. It is an asset
which, he declares, pays him an ever
increasing dividend.
The moral is plain. You have news
in your store every minute that the
public-the public with money-wants
to, read and surely will read if you
print it in the local newspapers along
side of the other news. You can make
the news of yours beat the mail order
catalogue to death by printing your
items and articles regularly and also
attractively by fresh advertising pic
lures every week.
You don't have to buy the pictures.
Nearly every country town newspap-
er publisher buys weekly service of
illustrations for the benefit of his
merchants. And if sometimes his SER
Ivice hasn't exactly the attention get
ter you want most publishers have a
"morgue" that contains a wealth of
|pictures all ready to slap into your
ad. @ f-.Es
But more about Mann, the small
town millionaire merchant. "The
American Press" wrote to him the
other day and asked him what he
considered proper newspaper adver-
itising", a phrase he used in a speech
Ito the Chamber Of Commerce of In
ldianapolis. -.
| s'I consider proper newspaper ad.
1vertising' he replied, cas- the adver
1 tising that is honest and says some
thing that the reader can understand
very quickly. Dishonest advertising
lsuch as comparative prices, the Civ
ing away Of premiums, discounts ane