Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1922-09-27
Tx. KNIGHT TELLS
RETAILERS WAY
TO PROSPERITY
Va. Known Decorah Merchant Gave
w Mighty Interesting and
20. tive Addresses at
lux and
Agt0n.
TALKED ON VALUE
OF ADVERTISING
According to His Views Way t.
Prosperity and Back to Normal
is Via Newspaper
Advertising.

| Advertising.
Mr.. L. X. Knight, of Decorah, oil
the dry goods firm of Connor- Knight
attended big meeting of the Iowa
Retailers held at. Burlington last
week, for three days and was on
the program for number of adj
dresses, which proved highly inter
esting and beneficial to all in at
tendance. Mr.. Knights presence al
these big meetings of retailers and
wholesalers, both in Iowa and Mime
sofa have been much in demand
While at Burlington Mr.. Knight
was honored by being elected a
director Of the Iowa Retailers As
sociation.
The Burlington Gazette, of Sept.
IA, gives the following interesting
write. up of Mr.. Knights addresses,
and says they were full of sound
advice:
The road to prosperity and back to
normal is via newspaper advertising,
and the more advertising, the more
business, according to Leon X.
Knight of Decorah, Iowa, who de-
livered an interesting address full of
sound advice to the retailers at the
banquet in Keokuk, Iowa, Wednes-
day evening.
Twenty eight cars with more than
130 persons drove from here to Keo-
kuk with the Iowa Retailers. They
were met at Keokuk by the band
and delegation of Gate City mer-
chants.
After a parade they inspected TIE
power ii5 and theA assurrhbied n
the X. of c. hall, where sumptuous
banquet was served.
Emil Streetey of Keokuk delivered
an address on Coupling Up the
Country and the Town." Mr.. Green
of the Sugar Refining company made
the principal address and c. w. Bond
of the Greater Burlington associa-
ton thanked Keokuk for the enter
tainment and feast. There was
much favorable comment on the fine
road from Fit. Madison to Keokuk.
knight Speaks
In delivering his address on adj
vertising, Mr.. Knight said, "No mer,
chant can meet the changed retail
conditions and keep up his past vol
ume of sales, unless he gets more
new customers and sells more to ole
ones, the only two possible sources
for an increase in sales volume.
Selling merchandise today demand:
extra advertising effort-and the
utilization of every phase thereof
We gather here to exchange ideas a:
to what best can be done to slim
ulate sales-not by spasmodic effort:
in which business is stimulated only
for a short time, and then falls down
even lower than before-but by
steady increase each day. As mat
ter of fact there is one thing above
everything else that will spell Pros
perity" for our business, and tha
one thing is intelligent advertising
If we want to increase our sale
and increase our profits; if we wan
to attract new customers to ou
store, the kind of customers that hav
the money to spend and will spen'
il: if we want to secure the beS
class of cash or desirable credit Gus
toners to be had in our communlt.
this fall and winter-we must star
advertising right now on blgge
scale than ever before, and keep !
up the rest of this year.
Spend More Now
No matter what percentage OF ou
gross sales we have been spending
we should spend half as much agal
covering this period.
The pressure of competition, bot
local and outside, will be the great
eSt we have ever experienced. Man
of the things we have learned aoou
the retail business during the TIM
we have been in that business WI
! hinder rather than help ns. )"
must be more ready than ever De
fore in the history of our business I
reject old ideas that are not gettln
reSuIts and try out new ideas, plan
: and methods that have worked 10
someone else. -.
In the last few years, we nav
been forced to be more of a specu
Ilator. sometimes, than business mei
Now we cannot afford, nor do W
have to speculate much in the buy
ing of merchandise. We must, there
fore, change ourselves from retail
neutrality-suspicious. into retail
! merchants advertisers. The merei
clever buyer in the retail bushes
} will be succeeded by the man WI
may not have been the best buyt
in the world, but who knows how
sell!
: We cannot meet the existing con
petition from within by merely b
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