Imperial Valley press., 1932-08-11
Montgomery Ward
Ready With New
Style Catalogue

During the past several months
the eyes of the business world have
been attracted to Montgomery Ward
~ Co. With the appointment Of
Sewell L. Avery as the new presi-
dent of the company, many things
began to happen. The organization
was materially changed and new
blood from the outside was brought
in to work out the principles and
policies that Avery was laying
dawn" says N. A. Gibbons, local
manager for Montgomery Ward.
with the mailing of the fall
catalogue to millions of customers,
it is interesting to see what the
new policies have done to this book,
which has been issued twice a year
for over so years. Anyone familiar
with catalogue making knows that
it takes more than a few months
to make any. substantial changes
in its makeup.
However, even allowing that the
time has been short, there are many
interesting indications in it of the
new attitude. The first and most
radical departure from conventional
mail order methods is the depart
mentizing of the catalogue. In
stead of finding baby shoes, for ex-
ample, with rubber boots, baby
bottles with cough remedies and
high chairs with kitchen cabinets,
as has been the custom for more
than half century, the customer
now finds everything for the baby
in one section of the book. Like
wise the sportsman, farmer and the
housewife-all find the things they
need, gathered together just as they
would in a big department store.
This is a sample and funda
mental idea that has occurred 10
many users of catalogues, but in
the minds of dyed-in- n-the-wool mail
order men it involved too many
problems to be accomplished. 1t is
believed that the suggestive selling
developed by this new method of
cataloguing will be of material
benefit, in addition to the greater
ease and convenience of ordering
from the new style book. The
10000 items in the big 600-page
book have been grouped in II de-
partments. The new plan is said
to have SO simplified catalogue
buying that the traditional cata-
logue index may eventually be
eliminated.
1.-The book opens with frank
statement of policies, which in
cludes a declaration that selling
effort will be confined to facts de-
void of confusing or exaggerated
claims. The statements we make
about this merchandise are not the
manufacturer selling claims. They
are facts that we ourselves can
guarantee is one of the declara-
tions. And it is fact that the ex-
aggerations and ballyhoo that were
so familiar to an era of business
now past, are not to be found on
its pages.
1.-THE economic principles of sell
ing by mail,' said Gibbons, "are as
sound and acceptable today as when
this business was started 60 years
ago. The potential market is
greater than ever, but in many
ways selling by mail has not kept
pace with the times. We are
adapting the sound basic mail Or
der ideas to modern conditions.
Improvements in the mechanical
processes used in producing cata-
logues now permit a remarkable
degree of flexibility in keeping up
with price and style trends The
prices in this new catalogue very
accurately reflect the current low
market levels for good merchandise.
Prices as compared with those in
our fall and winter catalogue of
1881 will average from 10 per cent
to 25 per cent lower, with reduc-
tions in some instances as great
80 ,Na,. aatat