Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1922-01-05
Can Beat Mail Order Houses at
Their Own Game If They
Will Do It.
ADVERTISING ONLY WEAPON
Catalogue Concerns Spend Hundreds
of Thousands of Dollars Annually
to Create Demand for Their
Merchandise.

fight with ire. Ihey know that when
the all-consuming forest or prairie fires
are sweeping toward them their only
hope of safety lies in the ''back-fre."
By kindling and carefully controlling
q fire Of their own they force tue big
ger fire to burn itself out, finding no
further fuel on which to feed.
The merchants of the small cities
and towns are learning that in waging
their fight for existence they must
adopt the tactics of the men of the
West. The great mail order houses
Of the cities are the consuming flames
which threaten to wipe out the retail
merchants Of the small towns unless
the latter, realizing their danger, take
steps to remove the menace. The re-
tail merchants, as whole, are begin
ming to realize that they must fight
fire with fire and that to save them
selves they must build "back fire."
Advertising is the weapon with
which the mail order houses conduct
their warfare on the retail merchants
Of the small cities and towns. The
mail order houses do their advertising
through their own catalogues and
through certain publications which are
known as mail order advertising me-
diums. A big mail order house spends
hundreds of thousands of dollars mere
ly on the preparation and publication
of it's bulky catalogues.
Business Built Upon Advertising.
The catalogue houses also spend
thousands upon thousands of dollars
in advertising in the mail order publ.
cations which look for their circula-
ton to the people of the small towns
and the rural districts. Advertising in
some of these mediums costs as much
as from $40 to $50 for a single inch,
yet the mail order houses find it profit
able to pay these high rates. Their
business is built upon advertising and
if they were denied the use Of the
mails for their advertising for single
month their business would be de.
stroyed.
In advertising, the local merchants
find the only weapon with which they
can beat the mail order houses at their
own game. This does not mean neces-
sarily, only newspaper advertising, al
though that is the big gun in the bat
terry employed by the successful mer-
chant in his battle for trade. Adver-
Using is big word and it covers big
field. There is no longer to be found
the man who does not believe in adj
vertising. Every merchant believes in
advertising of some sort. The placing
Of a display in a show window is adj
vertising. The only difference between
that kind of advertising and advertis-
ing in a newspaper is that where the
one reaches dozens the other reaches
hundreds. Attractive window displays
are, of course, an important adjunct of
any retail store. They serve their pur-
pose but this purpose is only to attract
the attention of those who may be
passing by the store. There are other
forms Of advertising, such as personal
solicitation, but printed matter must
always continue to be the chief reli'
-ance of merchants in attracting GUS
toners to their stores.
Advertising Begets Confidence.
The buying public has learned that
the store which takes the people into
it's confidence through it's advertising
is the one in which it may expect to
get the best bargains and the most sat-
isfactory treatment. It knows that the
store which advertises consistently and
regularly has the best and most up-to-
date stocks because this store sells it's
goods more rapidly than the one which
does not advertise and, therefore, is
not forced.to carry over old stock from
one season to another. The public
knows that the store which advertises
can place lower prices on it's goods be-
cause it turns over it's stock oftener
than the store which does not adver-
tise and therefore does not have its
capital tied up in slow-moving mer.
chandise.
The mail order house does not get
its business by merely letting the pub
lie know that it has dry goods or hard
ware or groceries or some other COM
modify to sell. 1t creates demand
for it's goods by placing in it's catalogue
attractive pictures and detailed de-
scriptions Of the articles which it has
to sell. The lure Of the mail order
catalogue lies in the fact that the
merits, or alleged merits, Of the mer-
chandise offered are placed before the
prospective purchaser in the most
graphic manner. The local retail mer-
chant has the same opportunity to do
this that the mail order house has and
can do it much more effectively than
the mail order house can. The retail
merchant can talk to the people OF his
community through his home newspa-
per and that is something which the
mail order houses as rule cannot DO
for the local newspapers through q
sense of loyalty to their communities
and their home merchants will not ac'
cept the advertising with which the
mail order houses would flood them II
they had the opportunity.