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

tings ever held in Americus, depsite
the fact that number who had in
Itended 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 Timcs-Recordcr last
/ night at the Windsor hotel for the
members of the Americus Advertising
Iclub participating in the Golden Rule
sales. The men sat for nearly three
lhours and were reluctant to leave,
SO interesting were the subjects dis
cuSsed and SO high the spirit for a
tbig year of business in Amcricus. In
addition to the three speakers from
outside, several of the Amerieus men
expressed themselves in no uncertain
terms, calling for new enthusiasm
in the Golden Rule sales plan here
and 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 message
lof great importance to every mcr-
Ichant, and it was the expressed re-
gret of many of the local men that
icVery business man in Americus was
mot present to hear him. He told of
the successes of the Golden Rule sale
ffian elsewhere, and cited instance af-
ter instance where, the rules being
followed and the game played abso-
luteiy Squarely, fairly and honestly.
1t had grown from a small thing at
the start to a tremendous success in
| the course Of a few months or year
or two. lie 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 S8.19 to- OBJ
tain the first order from a customer,
despite the fact that the average of
all orders is only a little over S4
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
come from the steady accumulation
of business month by month, the crea-
tion Of a habit on the part of the
people of the surrounding territory
ito come here to trade at regular
times, and even between times. He
said a great advertising man had de-
fined advertising as the creation in
| the public mind of confidence in d
merchant and his goods. He stress
! d.this as the keynote, explaining the
NECESSITY of sticking rigidfy to the
truth and the whole truth in adver-
/ tising.
| Mr.. McKeand told the merchants
! that everything they offered must be
aboslutc bargains and nothing but
bargains, because the public knows
| the difference. And he said the Of
|fers must be Of seasoAable goods and
articles in demand .He cited the
instance of Bloomington, Ind, which
be said had started off with the big
gest success ever achieved by d
GoldeIt Rule sale, because lit was
started properly, The second sale
was a tremendous success also. At
i ter that, the merchants got together
and decided they might as well make
some profit on the special bargains
they were offering on these occas-
ions because the people wouldn't
know the difference, and they mark
ed their prices up. The third sale
was very small and the fourth a COM
plete failure, all because the mer-
chants didn't play the game fairly
and to the rule, he said
i Cuthbert transformed.
Jack Mccartney, of Savannah, as
sistant to the president of the Cen
tral Of Georgia railroad, talked in
Itcrestingly Of the successes of the
sales in Georgia and Alabama. He
said@he Golden Rule sales, three of
which have been held there, trans
formed Cuthbert, the Ad club there
taking on the funtion of Chamber
of Commerce, hiring a county agent
and entering other activities besides
injecting new life into the communi-
ty. He said that he was in Carroll
ton on Golden Rule sale day and
| the town was the bluest he had ever
seen-blue with overalls of the farm
ers who flocked in to trade. Car
rollton is playing the game according
to the rules and with great enthusi-
asm, he said, and reaping the bene-
fits experienced elsewhere. He cit
ed a number of other instances in
Georgia.
T NJ Mallory industrial appnt for