The Old and the New

(Continued from Page 30)

If there is a mind here that doesn't believe he can create a market, and improve a market, for th{ wonderful, beautiful, useful things that you make, let me remintl you of a successful sales campaign that must bring consternation tg your ideas along that line.

I speak of sauerkraut juice. Now who in God's world ordered that? Yet on every hotel menu, on every Pullman menu, here, there and everywhere, you will find lhem selling sauerkraut juice. You won't claim that iame along to supply a great need, or a great demand, will you? You don't ttrink it's as susceptible to trade promotion worl as a beautiful piece of millwork, do you? Yet in a year's tim'e they have the whole -world drinking the blame stuff' I've been tempted many times myse-if to try it, because advertised things always alpeal to he. Don't y-ou think the sauerkraut men could creatl a market for YOUR goods, if your'places were reversed? But what would YOU do with sauerkraut juice?

What shall you do? I'm ngt going to outline a sales campaignhere. That's a job that woul{ require days to explain, not a half hour. But it cair be done----easily. Your products lend themselves wonderfully to trade promotion work.

I just want to give you a llought or two. Your business will never be as good as you want it to be until you make it that way. You cah't do it individually. That's generally Jungle C.ompetition. You can do it collectively. You can make better products, more useful, more interesting, more beautiful, than other people -mate. You can mark them so that all men who know by that mark that they ARE quality goods. You can illustrate them, you can describe them, you iEn piinl them, you can see that the architect, tle go-ntractor, the luniber dealer are equippe-d with materials for SELLING them; you can see fhat every man and every ry9ryan who is interested in building will kno! your product, and will know your mark, and look for it, just as ygg do when you buy your shoes, your collars. vour eolf balls.

If vriu can'ido all of these tflngs, at least do some of them. Get start6d on some trade promotion work. Begin to help make your business better by showing pegple more and better ways of using such oroducts as vours.

Heie's a sales thought' Only S% of the peopte really think. Then l0/o Eet by by imitatlng the 51o. The other 85%.betieve what thev ttlii ind read. To selfthe public on vour proposition, you must do three things:

First, seli the 5/o on Your Product.

Second, show the l0/o why tbe SVo bought your goods.

Third, t€ll the 85/o what the -15% has done.

That's the whole secrqt of tq4de promotion work. But there are plenty of details.

In the beginning the three fgndamental needs of human life were foOd, clothing, an-d shelter. Flod and clothing are holding their own mighty well, but trade promotion work of other things is giving shelter quite a fit. And of thg shelter business that remains, a lot of the manufactured building materials are by their trade promotion work, giving wooden shelter two or three fits.

There are just as many peo-ple that actually need your product, as need automobiles. But the difierence is that everyone knows about automobiles and wants thpm, while a lot of people don't want your goods because they don't know about them.

I would be very proud indeed to see your Association immediately take some definite step forward in the line of cooperative trade promotion work You will find, a-s. all others have found, that one dip into the sea of better merchan-dising makes you want to go swimming. I tike this Certification .Blan bf Hank Didesch. It is a prac- ticafstep in the right direction.-

I would like to see you folks get a little more of the gambling instinct injected into your businegs-the willingness to try something new, to take a chance, to get oqt of your old rut, to gamble a little in the line of creating a market for your business. You need more of the..spirit of Sporty Mclnnj-ss. I'll tell you about Sporty, and then I'll quit.

One morning at day break a fellow was fishing out on the end of the pier that sticks out into the ocean from Santa Monic:r. He heard the thunder of flying feet,'and looked up in amazement to see a tall individual in a dress suit lunning like a deer down the pier in his direction. The dress suited one hit the end of the pier-like a broad jumper, and sailed tweirty feet out into the waters of the Pacific. Then he came swimmjng leisurely back. The fisherman, still wond-ering, helped him -up on the pier, where the strange one began wringing the water froqr his clothes. Said the fisherman: 'j{hat's the idea, start to suici-4e and lose your nerve?" "Suicide, Hell," -said_,the-dress suited. one, scornfully. "My name's Sporty Mclnniss, I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. One of these here Los Angeles gamblers bet me a million dollars against a dollar I coutdn't jump across the Pacific Ocean, and .with those odds I call all bets."