The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1924-09-25
IDEAS
OF AN ADVERTISER
EXTRACTS From Address of Thomas K. Kelly Before Cot
ton States Merchants Association)

Extracts From Address of Thomas K. Kelly Before Cot
ton States Merchants Association
A few weeks before my fortieth birthday, which wa
several years ago, my wife handed me a good sized buncl
of letters one morning, the letters being addressed an(
stamped, suggested that I drop them in the mail box OF
the way to the office. | wore my raincoat that morning
as it happened to be raining, so | slipped the letters IN the
pocket Of the coat, and, upon arriving at the office, | plac
ed the coat in the locker, and forgot all about the letters
did not wear that same coat again for several weeks anc
that's where my trouble started.
These letters happened to be invitations to my forti
eth birthday party. The evening of the party came, the
stage was all set. The dinner was supposed to be at 6:Ol
P. NJ, but nobody showed up. We waited until seven
but my friends failed to arrive, then 10 and behold,my
wife said to me, DO you recall a morning some few weeks
ago when l gave you those letters to mail? They were
the invitations to your party" Immediately the thought
struck me, "By golly, those letters are IN the pocket OF my
raincOat at the office"
Stores That Are Busy
That incident reminds me of an old friend of mine who
was in to see me the other day. He told me about a motor
trip he had taken, driving from Minneapolis up north
for a few hundred miles. It happened to be on a Saturday
He visited several towns on his trip, calling in at many
stores, and he remarked to me, "Do you know there were
about two chain stores in each one OF the towns | went
through and they were the only stores that were busy
the other stores didn't appear to be doing much OF any
thing" That caused him to investigate just as a matter OF
curiosity, so I asked him the names OF the towns ne VISIT
ed. then wrote the newspapers in each OF the towns and
requested that they send me their papers OF Thursday and
Friday, two days before the Saturday when my friend call
ed at these stores. Upon receipt OF these newspapers, l
found that in four out Of five papers all the store advertls-
ing that had been done was by the chain stores. That SOL
we'd the problem.
The retail merchants in the towns where my friend Wis
tied had failed to advertise in the newspapers, inviting
the public to their store that Saturday, and the public, not
receiving an invitation, did not come, but the cham
stores had invited them with a neat, effective ad, attract
i've in stvle and chuck full Of common sense, and naturally,
that is where they went.
So the stores that failed to receive their friends were
like my birthday party-the crowd didn't come.
Why They Fail
venture to say that in all the failures of retail mer-
chants the last three years not twenty per cent of these
same merchants advertised r~elgiOusly III newspapers, I
whereas. if they had, their investment In newspaper ad-
vertising would have brought sufficient trade to prevent
a great amount OF their losses.
The total newspaper advertising of 1872 daily news
papers in 20 principal cities Of the United States in the
year 1923 was 1888 ,954,971 agate ines-a gain OF W.
651 800 lines over the previous year.
We are not handicapped today in unfolding our bus
mess the same as our forefathers were who were compel
led to depend chiefly upon personal exploitation of the
Individual, for the circulation in those days was very
small.
First of all the newspaper has circulation. A single :
newspaper will often cover from go to 80 per cent OF the
homes in it's territory Advertising space in that paper
will give a much greater return per dollar spent than VIII
any other form of advertising on which postage is spent.
Second, people are accustomed to reading the news
paper. It is not difficult to get their attention, as in the
case of the circular letter, the booklet and other forms of
direct by mail advertising.
Third, and best of all, it is timely. The advertiser
is able to appeal to his audience by frequent advertise
mentS.
Even Kicks Help
So we are led to believe that even criticisms about
us in the columns of newspapers is good advertising, and
so with the retail merchant, the minute he starts figuring
on selling merchandise, he has got to start figuring on the
advertising that is going to do it.
Advertising certainly has many sides. 1t can scream,
or WhiSper. it can attract the eve or befuddle 1t. 1t