DOES ADVERTISING PAY?

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2126, 8 July 1907, Page 3

DOES ADVERTISING PAY?

(By “Progress.”) The annual banquet of the Springfielu (U.S.A.) Ad. Men’s Club was held recently in the St. Nicholas Hotel. The principal speaker was Mr Charles AV. Post, of Battle Creek, Michigan, proprietor of the “Postum” Coffee. Among other things Mr. Post said :

“Many years ago the newspaper advertiser was looked upon b the public with a certain amount of incredulity, but to-day it is a thorough well-established fact that no large concerns can long exist manufacturing and advertising an article that is not based on absolute merit. “I believe the salesman who can talk winningly to a dozen customers a day is deserving 1 of credit, but the salesman who can talk winningly to hundreds of thousands of customers, through the dail and weekly newspapers and the magazines, can earn dollars while the other is gathering pennies. “For years the newspapers have granted me the use of their columns lo.sell my products. True, they have been paid, and paid heavily, beginning small and increasing until the anual expenditure of my advertising department averages upwards of £200,000 a year. “"While the basis has been mutually satisfactory, there is one point I never forget. Had it not been for the magnificent machinery of publicity supplied to me b" the publishers, my business, now conservatively worth £3,300,000 to £4,000,000,w0u1d be a very small affair, if indeed, it existed at all.

“Therefore I cannot forget the debt I owe the newspapers and other publications, a debt that money alone does not entirely clear. The newspapers and magazines of America and England go to all parts of the world, and will tell the people of the world the merits of your manufactured products. This -rcat field is open to any man, and will yield him a golden harvest if he will but harness the magazine forces placed at his command. “Every man who lias something worth while to give to the world must in some manner let the. world know it, or he cannot accomplish his mission. Don’t simply announce yourself, but tell what vou have. A good advertiser will talk to the people in plain terms about wliat he has to supply their needs, and, by continuing such a policy, will ultimately build up a reputation for his product. , „ , “Employing terms in dollars ancl cents is necessary to emphasise two facts. First, it pays to manufacture your article on the strict lines of integrity, where you can court the investigation of the most skilled expert in the world; and next, the unadvertised article, not known to the people, may have merit, but it will not sell.”