"service With Every Stick" Says Fine Californ ia Lumber Merchant

By Jack Dionne

When you go to discussing the "livest lum,ber,merchants in the United States," you will be doing a decided injus; tice to a very deserving applicant for membership in that exalted group if you fail to consider the case of one Charles G. Bird, who brings happiness to the heart of the building folks in and around the good .city of Stockton, California. He is the executive head of The Stockton Lumber Company.

He believes in the powers of modern merchandising, believes in the ability of the retail lumberman to CREATE business by intelligent effort, believes that the retailer owes a service to his trade, and he keeps busy anywhere from ten to fifteen hours every day, putting into actual practice these things that he believes in.

For ,Charlie Bird is one of these birds who takes the business of working entirely too seriously. He almost overdoes it. He is the opposite of the ;many, many merchants you meet who are {ull of intell'igence, and enthusiasm, and good workin$ ideas, but who don't put enough of their time at the game to prove their Point. Charlie Bird spells work with all capital letters-WORK-and he thinks that the best time for a modern lumber merchant to make hay is before "breakfast, between breakfast and lunch, after lunch and before d'inner, ,and for a few hours after dinner. The rest of the time he loafs.

He believes in hard work, attractive oflice, plan service, newspaper advertising, mail and other intelligent publicity, personal coirtact, etc. And he puts the whole thing 'into his ,mighty good slogan, which you will find all over his stationery, literature, advertising, etc., which reads-

..SERVICE WITH EVERY STICK"

I like that slogan particularly well, because I have written and spoken the declarat'ion some severval thousand times in the past fifteen years in talking m'erchandising, that "every stick of lum'ber and every shingle that goes out into the world seeking a market should have a definite service behind to make it GO."

Charl.ie Bird is on the lookout all the t'ime for a selling idea, and every time he gets hold of one that looks good, he tries it out. I am just going to tell briefly of some'of his merchandising activities here.

To begin, with, he has that wh'ich the large majority of willing lumber merchants haven't-the reason being that they claim it is too much work to make and keep up-and that is, a good mailing list for his sellin$ terr'itory; and he has it indexed and 'cross in'dexed, something like my old friend Jasper Fair has in Kansas, so, that he can fix up a letter ofiering a certain thing for sale to a certain kind of trade, and a clerk in his office can grab the particular cards for that particular trade without work or confttsion, and send out the dope.

And Charlie Bird, like every other lumber merchant I ever knew who really created and used such a mailing list, says it is as 'i.mportant as. his capital stock itself.

In ,his territory of homes, farms, orchards of many kinds, etc., there is a variety of uses for building material and for building service, so he keeps changing his line of mail attack to suit the season, and he sends out his calls at the proper time to suit'the kind of trade he is then seekirg'

He has in his office file a prospect list, ,and a card for each prospect, one side of the card telling all about the proposed building, and the efiort his firm has made to sell it. On the other side of the card is shown what happened to the prospect, who landed it, what the price was, etc.

Back of this file he has a prospect "morgue," where these cards are retired to after the job is let to someone, but they have it there for reference later on, if need be:

When I was in Charlie Bird's office the other day ths was getting out two pieces of literature

One *as a white slip with a picture of a wooden tank on it, wh.ich he wa.s mailing to all the grape growers, and water tank users in his surrounding far'm territory. The tanks are for sale for storing either water or grape juice. In the old days they stored wine in them. He offers these tanks for sale in knockdown form, together with definite instructions for erecting them. This is the sort of litera- ture he keeps gathering and sending out, and he finds that it sure sells goods.

The other item he was sending out was a postcard, o{- ett, 'Wash., made famous several years ago in selling their Red Cedar Shingles. Charlie Bird had this mug drawn and liked it so well

Post Card

STOCKTON LBR. CO., STOCKTON, CALIF.

Do You Need A "FIX IT MAN?" Consultation Free

FOR THE HOME

New Residence.

Remodeling

Repairing

Addition...... Roof

Sleeping Porch.

Garage...... Fences......

Clothes Line Posts.......

Pergolas

Flower Boxes

Driveways

Kitchen Fittings.

Shelves

Sidewalks our N,ame.

Garden Stakes...

FOR THE BUSIT,I.ESS l)isplay Cases.., Oabinets

Stands..... Shelving.....

Bins....... Racks

Pa,rtitions.. .. Counters..

Crating Lum.ber.

Car Decking vour I'hc,ne {f;ii Yorrr Address...... fering the services of a "Fix It Man" for anything in the line of building repa,irs or additions. I thought well enough of that to reproduce it here, showing both sides. He prints it on a bright pink card so that it catches the eye, and the card offers all sorts of building service. These were going out to his entire mailing list. The idea is good, and can be used by other dealers. The items can be changed to suit the territory of the merchant who uses it.

Mining Tirnbers. Dredger Studs..

Not only does Mr. Bird work his slogan hard, but he is now putting another advertising assistant in harness, in the person of "Reddy Servus." You will find Reddy's mug around here somewhere, when you read th'is article. Reddy Servus is gning to be the Stockton Lumber Company cartoon mascot from now on. He is a snaggle tooth kid, probably a first cousin to the flame haired boy picture "Red" whom. Conner & Bailey, the shingle folks at Ever- that he ran it in the local papers and offered a cash prize for the best name to be suggested for his newest family addition. A Stockton lady won the $10 cash for suggesrt. ing "Reddy Servus," and from now on this kid's mug id going to be shown on the advertising matter of this con: cern,

"Follow The Arrow" 'is perfectly familiar to every man; woman, and chitd in the Stockton territory. It is just a little condensed map of Stockton that they print as small as an inch and a half in size, wih an arrow 'pointing to the block covered by The Stockton T umber Co. plant, and the words, "Follow the Arrow" a1s always there. So "Follow the Arrow" has made lots of folks buy BirfE stock in Stockton. r1

And the entire office of The Stockton Lumber Cort'rpart$

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