Belt Valley times. [volume] (Armington, Mont.) 1894-1977, 1923-04-26
THE VALUE OF ADVERTISING.

Advertising has made many a business. Among them may W.
point out an example of what a small thing is required to make
business and how large a part advertising plays. Allen s. Ohm
stead of Leroy, New York, invented Aliens Foot Ease many years
ago. He believed in it and advertised it extensively. From the
fifty-cent and twentyfive-cent sales of his product, direct AND
through drug stores, he accumulated a large fortune. Advertis
ing made the Victrola dog famous the trade mark, B. V. d, the
name of a style of underwear, has put Arrow Collars around your
neck and has made a market for millions of Ford cars.
When we compare the amount of advertising done by the Belt
merchants with that of the merchants of Cascade, Hamilton,
Whitefish, Sweetgrass and many other places we are compelled to
believe that our merchants are averse to advertising their wares
and when we compare the live news, the neighborly attitude, and
the wide circulation of your paper with others, we wonder why
tits.
Unsolicited testimonials as to the efficacy of our columns as
advertising mediums have come to us repeatedly from those who
advertise right. But still there are many who use our columns
only in a perfunctory way.
Recently we ran two pages of Great Falls ads which covered
fields not affecting our advertisers but we heard several express
ions of disapproval.
Newspaper subscriptions just about pay for paper, cuts, ink
and postage. The revenue which pays the mechanics wages and
gives a living to the publisher comes from its columns which carry
news of bargains, sales and service. A printer is a high class me-
chanic who has spent years in learning his trade and he r~ightful1y
receives good wages and when we remark that the support this
paper gets from the local merchants barely pays the printers
wages you may read between the lines. No merchant would re-
fuse to sell a man goods because he came from Great Falls. The
Times columns are for sale for advertising purposes but it would
much prefer to fill its columns with home advertising.
The summer season is at hand. The roads are good. The cars
are being overhauled and prepared for the road. Now is the time
to advertise if you would keep that money in circulation here. Now
is the time to convince people that the Belt merchants can sell
goods at reasonable prices and can save money to their patrons.
If this is not done it will be tantamount to Icing down on the
job and allowing the ready money of the community to drift to
the county seat without a struggle.
Some of the merchants of Great Falls expend yearly three per
cent of their gross sales in advertising and the biggest advertisers
do the biggest business. They look upon advertising as just as
much a part of their business as the bookkeeping or the sales de-
partment.
The Belt Valley Times has increased its subscription list by
one-third in the past five months and it is still growing. It's col
umns are read and its ads studied. If you do not get results from
your advertising there are possibly two reasons therefor-you
may be offering something which no one wants or your method
of presenting it is at fault. We disclaim any responsibility be-
cause each week are brought to our notice too many concrete
examples of the advertising value of our columns.
Business men may all feel assured that so long as they give
us a reasonable support we shall be willing to go through the cam
paign with them, taking the adverse conditions by their side and
prospecting as they prosper.