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By JEROME P. FLEISHMAN

HE other day I experienced a good ad vertisement.

It was the salesmanship of a young man from whom I purchased a pair of shoes. What a relief it is to come across a salesperson who really takes some interest in his work and who seems to get a lot of pleasure out of it!

This young man didn't try to "stick off on me" the first pair of shoes I happened to try on. No, sir.

I tried on five or six pairs and was about to decide on one of them when he said:

"Wait a minute. That shoe looks good but it'll be giving you trouble in a few days be cause it isn't quite long enough. Try this one. I think it's just right."

It was. The heels were a little too high, so I suggested that he lop 'em off a bit.

Then I questioned him as to the advisability of purchasing rubber heels.

"You'll find them very satisfactory," he said. "Been wearing a pair myself right here around the store for six months, and wouldn't be without them."

And then, as a sort of afterthought, he added: "If you're going to have the heels cut down, better have rubber ones put on a while instead of waiting until later. You'll save money that way, as we'll have to charge you a quarter to lower the heels alone."

I agreed. That was early in the morning. He promised to have the shoes ready by 3:30 in the afternoon.

They were ready at exactly that hour, and with the package I got a cheery "Hope you'll find them comfortable, sir; if everything isn't all right, come back and we'll make it right." I just couldn't help contrasting mentally then and there this experience with one I had the last time I bought shoes.

A sour-faced salesman waited on me then. He grudgingly showed me two or three pairs and said of each: "They fit you; shall I wrap them up?"

With a desire to get out of that store as quickly as possible, I bought a pair of shoes that, two days later, were giving me so much trouble that I had to discard them.

Several days after that I happened to see that salesman standing in the doorway of that store, and I told him about it.

"Well," he said, between squirts of tobacco juice, "you bought 'em, didn't you? "Taint my fault."

One-time customers do not build business. Both of the stores I have referred to advertise in the newspapers. Both are located on the same thoroughfare, within a block of each other.

If only two or three men each day have the same experience I had, I wonder how many years it will take to make the advertising of the latter pull about 20 per cent. results and the advertising of the former pull 100 per cent. plus?

Not very many, you can wager.
Another instance:

I asked my tailor, just after he finished the building of a "Sunday" suit for me that was perfectly satisfactory, to mail me some samples of material suitable for business clothes-something that would stand the wear and tear and not soil so easily.

He said he'd send the samples, with prices, the next day.

He didn't. I saw him about a week later on the street and reminded him of his promise.

"Oh," he said; "I must apologize. I forgot all about it. I'll attend to it as soon as I get back to the shop."

He hasn't "attended" to it yet, and that was several months ago.

Now, tell me, does a man like that really deserve business when he neglects to reach out and take that which is waiting for him? I think not.

What he did do was to lose a sale, for I got along without the extra suit he could have made for me had he shown horse sense and business gumption enough to follow up a customer-inthe-making.

He's not the only business man who does practically the same thing.

Oh, no. Not on your life!

And yet, I hear merchants, ever and anon, grumbling that "business is dull"--"the bottom has dropped out of things”—“our sales haven't

shown any increase over the same month last year" and so on, and so forth.

Nine times in ten the grumblers are the very fellows who make no honest effort to get and hold and cause to grow the business which would be theirs if, instead of waiting for it to hand itself out to them, they would put into practice the simple principles of business building.

Stop watering plants for a while and they'll droop and finally wither.

Stop nourishing your business, first with intelligent, persistent, absolutely straightforward advertising, and then with service, and it will do what the neglected plants do.

Plants aren't the only things the welfare of

which depends on obedience to natural law. The natural law of business is service. You've got to make the customer feel that he has got his money's worth and then some.

Advertising begins with the printed news

paper announcement.

It ends only when the customer feels, as I felt in the case of the efficient young shoe salesman, that to come back to you will not only be to his profit but will also be a pleasant experience.

Get that, Mr. Merchant. You can fool the public once. You can serve it again and again. When your store advertising lives up to your newspaper advertising, something is going to happen to make your business grow.

Courtesy

By A. C. G. HAMMESFAHR Manager Advertising Department, Collier's

I can remember how scared I used to be of the ugly man in the railroad ticket office. He was such a sour, gruff, bite-your-head-off sort of a man that almost everybody approached his "cage" with fear and trembling.

But that type of railroad employee is becoming as scarce as the wild buffalo on the western plains; and railroads now even go so far as to have Information Bureaus where you can get an intelligent, courteous reply to almost any sort of a question that you would think of asking in a railroad station. So far forget yourself as to ask the man-"What time does the 3 o'clock train leave?"-and he won't laugh at you!

Do you know why?

Because he is learning that "the prosperity of every institution patronized by the public is absolutely dependent upon the good will of the individuals who comprise the public."

I have just been reading the little booklet on "Courtesy" that is "issued by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company to its employees" and I am profoundly impressed with this modern adaptation of a lesson that is thousands of years old. The law of non-resistance and the return of good for evil are its principles. "Meet discourtesy with courtesy, unreasonableness with reason, impatience with patience" it coungels.

Here is a practical application of true wis

dom and philosophy on the part of this great business corporation-The Pennsylvania Railroad.

Each day brings new evidence that the business men of this country are realizing, in rapidly increasing numbers, that the "Golden Rule" has a very practical as well as a moral and ethical side to it. It pays to be good-it pays individuals, it pays corporations, it pays everybody. Some day more people will be good just for the sake of being good. In the meantime, it's a good thing for everybody to realize that it pays.

Particularly in Advertising does it pay to be good and to be "good" means to be honest all along the line-honest in our intentions, honest in the printed word, honest in the value given for the price.

It is fatal to advertise and then fail to "deliver the goods." Railroads and other big corporations whose sole commodity is Service to the Public know this and the more they advertise the greater the need for perfecting that service. That's why such helpful books as "Courtesy" are issued "to employees."

Effective with the first issue in September the name of the Kansas Weekly Capital, Topeka, will be changed to Capper's Weekly, and the date of issue from Thursday to Saturday.

Farm Stock Home

Minneapolis, Minn.

The Farm Paper of Service

has an ideal. It has a circulation of about 100,000 in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Eastern Montana, Western Wisconsin and Northern Iowa. Farmers pay for FARM, STOCK & HOME on account of its value to them. In pursuance of this ideal

Farm Stock Home

has not resorted to questionable circulation methods to get more "names" on the list. It wants men. It wants the best farmers and it is getting them. The matter that appears in each issue of FARM, STOCK & HOME appeals to and interests the best farmers. The other kind cannot appreciate it and will not buy it.

A hundred thousand of the FARM, STOCK & HOME kind of farmers in the territory that the paper reaches is a tremendous buying power.

And each one of them is the kind of farmer that you want to reach. Convince them through the paper that is meeting their needs.

"The Road to Cheaper Money"-a unique booklet-write for copy.

J. C. BILLINGSLEA

1119 Advertising Building

CHICAGO, ILL.

Representatives:

FOREMOST

FARM PAPERS

A. D. MCKINNEY

Third National Bank Building

ST. LOUIS, MO.

A. H. BILLINGSLEA No. 1 Madison Avenue NEW YORK, N. Y.

"F

A Successful Market-Building Plan for Any City-How They Do It in Chicago

By D. F. LUTHER

ACTORIES-that's it," is the cry of all chambers of commerce and "booster clubs." The important thing is to get new factories, thereby adding a lump increase to payroll, population and output. They raise heaps of money for this purpose, and do lots of good work.

A newer idea of city-building is to work as systematically to increase what the city has as to get more from outside.

It is safe to say that no city has yet realized the full possibilities of the "made-in-this-city" idea.

Even in Chicago, where 5,000 retailers and 3,000 manufacturers joined hands for a very successful "Made-in-Chicago" week, there is a frank expression of having only skimmed possibilities.

Chicago Commerce editorially refers to "the difficulties which a policy of continuous service to the idea can overcome. It is true that merchant after merchant may seem indifferent to the scheme, preferring, and perhaps with the best of business reasons, to put on a clearance sale or otherwise serve what seems to be his personal rather than the general interest; but there is that merit in the idea which will yet enlist thousands now apathetic."

Some idea of what Chicago expects to do when it has roused to better local merchandising "thousands now apathetic" may appear from a few representative facts:

Three thousand Chicago manufacturers made a special effort to increase sales locally during this week.

Five thousand Chicago retailers to a greater or less degree made an effort to see how much Chicago-made merchandise they could sell in one week.

Fifteen thousand show windows, totaling over 250,000 front feet of window space were devoted to exhibition of Chicago-made goods. Twenty-five thousand display cards, furnished by the Chicago Association of Commerce were used in window and interior advertising.

Every window of the big Carson, Pirie,

Scott & Co. department store, facing on four streets, was given up to Chicago products. Many other stores did nearly as well.

Pages of newspaper advertising were devoted to promotion of local goods, both by manufacturers and retailers.

Well, Chicago has done this and a lot more with its third year of effort. The plan was begun in 1910, confined to the "loop" district, and was not a great success. The Association of Commerce dropped the plan for 1911; but tried it in 1912 with renewed vigor; it was a great success.

For 1913 there was appointed a permanent "Committee of Market Co-operation," composed of seventeen of its ablest retailers and manufacturers.

A campaign of "education and inspiration" was begun months in advance. The Association's weekly kept dinning the idea, and the newspapers co-operated.

Addresses were made to the members of twenty-two sectional business men's associations scattered over the 191 square miles that make up Chicago. Committees in each organization were appointed to further the work in the section represented. Not only store displays but great parades were planned. A spirit of competition for the best showing was fostered between South Side and Northwest, between West Side and Edgewater, North Clark and Hyde Park, etc.

Correspondence with manufacturers and retailers was systematically handled, and complete circulars of advice were sent out.

"Made-in-Chicago" cards were provided for every window and counter display desired.

And, finally, personal work was done on dilatory or recalcitrant manufacturers and retailers to convince them of their opportunity.

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one week's heavy selling of local products are only primary results of the week. Secondary results are perhaps more important.

Many of the five thousand retailers are live, progressive, advertising merchants, and the week has taught them nothing in that direc tion. But others of the number have surprised themselves with the ready results obtained from fresh, attractive window displays, fresh merchandise, and special efforts to advertise their stores and merchandise. An appeal to local pride to push home products has taught them the lesson of advertising where all previous efforts have failed.

The next manufacturer who urges genuine co-operation with his national and local advertising is going to find a whole lot less inertia to overcome. The next printer who suggests better printing and more of it will have a better reception. The newspaper, poster or street car solicitor will find at least a spark of interest in building a bigger business by advertising. And the consumer who asks for branded merchandise that has been advertised will be more likely to get what she or he asks for.

Then there's the manufacturer's side of it. Chicago is a great city for manufacturers who advertise; a good many Chicagoans were pioneer advertisers in their lines.

But there are a lot of potential advertisers who have been content to do a reasonably good business and believe that "advertising is all right for the other fellow." For some of these this week has been an eye-opener. Urged on by the Association of Commerce they made a special effort to get as many local dealers as possible to handle and push their line; and the ease of increasing distribution was surprising. They gave these dealers all the advertising matter they had ever gotten up, and generously got up a little new stuff. They even ventured a few newspaper advertisements to "make a better showing."

They found it pays to go hard after both the dealer and consumer-to do real market-building, instead of just taking it as it comes. They will go after the local market more strenuously in the future, and later they will naturally broaden out. We shall see some of them national advertisers before very long.

Of course, there is no small advantage to the manufacturer in having out of town trade in the city see his goods on display and sale this way. Some manufacturers take visiting trade on a tour of window and store displays of their goods during the week.

The local-products week is analogous to the prize contest for salesmen in stimulating sales efficiency. The best part of either is not the sales made during the short period of forcing, but the general realization that what has been done in the spurt can be done all the year round.

The plan has proved a success in many other cities. St. Louis found it advisable to extend the exposition two weeks longer. A "Made-inSt. Louis" show at the Coliseum is an annual feature of the week there.

Racine had a central display 180,000 square feet in size, showing products of 200 Racine factories, employing 17,000 workers and having a total capital of over $75,000,000. Can there be any question of both the local and outside advantage of such an exposition? It was the best advertising Racine as a city has ever done.

An interesting feature of the Racine plan was a Milwaukee Day, when several hundred business men from Racine's neighboring city were invited to the Exposition and banqueted in the evening.

Minneapolis and other cities have made good showings with special weeks. Last year, too, a successful "Made-in-Canada" week was conducted in Canadian cities.

An appeal to patronize and advertise home industries is not only good business in its local aspect, but is perhaps as good a stimulus for expansion as can be given.

A mere clannish dinning for patronage of local goods regardless of merit will fail just as surely as an appeal for support "right or wrong"; in fact, one of the advantages of the plan is that it makes local manufacturers more eager to improve their products so that they will prove up with outside manufactures.

It's not blind patronage that's wanted, but good advertising of good merchandise-beginning, like charity, at home, but expanding eventually far beyond the local market.

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