Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1922-01-25

ings ever held in Americus, depsite
the fact that number who had in-
tended to be present were prevented
| by illness in their families, the bad
weather or other circumstances, was
the dinner and get-together affair
given by the Tines Recorder last
night at the Windsor hotel for the
members of the Amerieus Advertising
club participating in the Golden Rule
sales. The men sat for nearly three
hours and were reluctant to leave,
so interesting were the subjects dis
cussed and so high the spirit for a
big year of business in Americus. In
! addition to the three speakers from
: outside, several of the Americas men
depressed themselves in no uncertain
terms, calling for new enthusiasm
in the Golden Rule sales plan here
: and a renewed determination to de
: Iwelop the sales into big business pro,
ducers.
The principal talk was made by
A. w. McKcand, of Terre Haute.
Ind, who is in charge of field work
of the community advertising branch
/ of the Associated Advertising Clubs
of the World. He brought a message
of great Importance to every mer-
chant, and it was the expressed re-
gret of many of the local men that
every business man in Americus was
not present to hear him. He told of
the successes Of the Golden Rule sale
plan elsewhere, and cited instance af-
, ter instance where, the rules being
followed and the game played abso-
lutely squarely, fairly and honestly,
1t had grown from small thing at
the start TO tremendous success in
the course of a few months or a year
or two He warned the local men
not to expect too much at the start,
and cited statistics of the greatest
mail order house in America, which
: has found that it costs 1919 to OBJ
tain the first order from a customer,
despite the fact that the average of
all orders is only little over 81
each. The profits come, he said, in
the steady stream of trade that fol-
lows and continues To come.
Works Same Way.
lie said the Golden Rule plan works
the same way; that the first cost
is rather high, comparatively which
however, has already been met by the
Americus club-and that the profits
lcome from the steady accumulation
of business month by month, the crea-
tlon of habit on the part of the
people of the surrounding territory
: to come here to trade at regular
! times, and even between times. He
!, said great advertising man had de-
fined advertising as the creation in
the public mind of confidence in a
merchant and his. goods. He stress
cd this as the keynote, explaining the
necessity Of sticking rigidly to the
truth and the whole truth in adver-
tising.
] Mr.. McKeand told the merchants
, that everything they offered must be
abosluto bargains and nothing but
r bargains, because the public knows
! the difference. And he said the Of
fers must be Of seasonable goods and
articles in demand He cited the
' instance of Bloomington, Ind, which
| he said had started off with the big
, gest success ever achieved by a
, Golded Rule sale, because 1T was
, started properly. The second sale
was tremendous success also. Af-
} ter that, the merchants got together
and decided they might as well make
fsome profit on the special bargains
they were offering on these .oecas-
) ions because the people wouldn't
know the difference, and they mark
' cd their prices up. The third sale
> was very small and the fourth com
plete failure, all because the mer-
e chants didn't play the game fairly
/ and to the rule, he said.
f Cuthbert Transformed.
Il Jack Mccartney, of Savannah, as
D sistant to the president of the Gem
/ tral of Georgia railroad, talked in
terestingly of the successes Of the
sales in Georgia and Alabama. He
said the Golden Rule sales, three of
} which have been held there, trans
formed Cuthbert, the Ad club there
, taking on the funtion of a Chamber
: of Commerce, hiring county agent
! and entering other activities besides
/. iDiactin ~ ,,n,,, ifo int 4bn ,,,,,o