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THE
MUSIC TRADE
many people I must needs go into detail, but when you buy an ad-
vertised article you do not pay for the advertising. When you buy
an advertised ham you do not pay for the advertising. When you
travel on a railroad you do not pay for the advertising of that rail-
road. * When you buy a pair of shoes you do not pay for the ad-
vertising. This applies to every conceivable article which enters
into the commerce of the world. Who pays for the advertising?
Advertising is an economy and not an expense.
I
N order to make this clear, Mr. Hobbs says let us suppose, for
example, that a clothing merchant on one corner does not
advertise, but he pays $100 per month rent, employs four clerks at
$75 per month each—pays $50 per month for his light, and $100 a
month for incidental expenses, bookkeeping, etc. On this total
expense of $550 per month he sells four suits of clothes per day at
a gross profit of $7.50 per suit. This business for twenty-five days
a month brings in a total gross profit of $750, and after deducting
his expenses of $550 leaves a margin of $200 per month as the
dealer's remuneration for his personal services and for interest on
his investment.
Another merchant on the next corner pays the same rent, a
trifle more for clerk hire, a trifle more for light and a trifle more
for general expenses, bookkeeping, etc., and finds that his total
expense for the month is $600-—but this merchant spends $500 a
month in advertising. Somebody pays that. Is it the man who
buys the suit of clothes? No. The customer has nothing to do
with it, and pays no part of it either directly or indirectly. These
two merchants handle the same grades of clothing and sell the same
goods at the same price. At the end of the month the advertising
merchant finds that he has sold eight suits of clothes per day—twice
as many as the merchant who does not advertise—and, making the
same profit on each suit, he finds he has a profit for the month of
$1,500. He deducts his expenses of $600, his advertising of $500,
and finds he has $400 left as remuneration for his own services and
interest on his investment. Who paid for the $500 worth of ad-
vertising? Well, in this case the owner of the building paid part of
it, because he received no more rent from the advertising mer-
chant who sold eight suits per day than he did from the merchant
who did not advertise and sold only four suits per day. That ac-
counts for $100 of the $500 which is paid by the landlord—and then
the electric light company paid $45 of it, because the light bill of
the non-advertising merchant was $50 per month, and of the ad-
vertising merchant was $55 per month, instead of being doubled
at the same time he doubled his sales. So the electric light com-
pany and the landlord paid part of it. Then the four salesmen
paid the other portion, and were glad to pay it. They had once
worked for a non-advertising merchant at $75 per month, and they
are now working for the advertising merchant at an advance of
10 per cent, in salary. They are now getting $82.50 per month
each, and each man sells two suits of clothes per day, while previ-
ously they received only $75 per month and sold an average of one
suit per day. So these four salesmen pay $270 of the advertising
bill, and by so doing gain an increase in salary of 10 per cenc. And
then the bookkeeper's salary was increased 15 per cent, and the
general expense increased 15 per cent., while the business doubled
so that an economy of $85 per month was effected. This amount
went toward the advertising fund of $500 per month.
N
OW there is a comparison of your advertising merchant and
your non-advertising merchant in the same business on the
same street, selling the same grade of goods and employing the
same grade of help. Two men, we will say, of equal ability—one
of them believing that if he advertises he must increase the price
of his goods, and the other knowing that the mere fact that he does
advertise will enable him to sell more goods for the same price, or
possibly at a less price.
Who pays for the advertising?
Get this point, then, fixed clearly in your mind. Advertising
is an economic saving and not an extra expense.
Who pays for advertising? The advertising bills are liqui-
dated by the landlord, the light company, the clerks and even by
the sprinkling wagon that passes before the front of the store.
Being a manufacturer, you say that this does not apply to
your business particularly, and fits only the retail business. This
applies to the manufacturer and the jobber, to the retailer, and to
REVIEW
the mail order house. The manufacturer has a certain fixed over-
head expense which will not increase more than 10 per cent, with
the doubling of his output. I know factories that are closed from
one to three months each year, the major part of the overhead ex-
penses continuing while no goods are being made. Advertising
would keep these factories open twelve months in the year, would
enable the manufacturer to work a night shift in the same building
with the same machinery, thus materially decreasing the cost of
his product and enable him to sell his product more profitably and
at a less price.
Who pays for the advertising ?
The man who doesn't advertise.
IN LIGHTER VEIN
Do not waste valuable time in waiting for big things to roll along
your way.
Do you know that a little tact and a little talk will frequently sell
a customer more than he came in to buy?
The salesman who lies about the quality of the goods he sells will
soon find himself doubted when he tells the truth.
Some men are like the parrot that talked too blamed much.
tell tales out of school and they tell tales in school.
They
When business is dull and customers are few it is hardly the time
to sit down and dream. There is no money In that.
We have never known a man to make a success out of a job that he
persisted in considering only as a "filler" until he got something else.
Hogan—Hov ye hear-rd me daughter Mona sing lately?
First—Both lately an' earlier, behad! 'Tls th' fine Insthrumlnthal
music she do make.
Hogan—Ye ignoramus. Shure, singin' ain't insthruminthal music!
Dugan—Begorry, thin, Keegan towld me it wuz insthruminthal in
causin 1 him t' move two blocks away frum yer house.
The boy of the family, the smart little son of an editor, had just
passed his ninth birthday, and delighted in stirring things up whenever
he found a chance. On his way to school one day he popped into a hard-
ware store.
"Say, mister," he called out. "do you keep knives?"
"Oh, yes," replied the storekeeper, "we've kept them for years."
"Well," returned the boy, starting for the door, "just advertise, and
then you won't keep them so long."
Young Hankinson (making a call)—You have had that parrot a long
time, Miss Laura.
Miss Laura—Yes, we have had him several years.
Young Hankinson—Quite intelligent, is he not?
Miss Laura-i—Very. He can imitate almost anything.
Young Hankinson—They have a remarkably clever parrot over at the
Casterlins', Miss Laura. It can imitate the sound of a kiss to perfection.
Is that among the accomplishments of our feathered friend here in the
corner?
Miss Laura (indignantly)—No, sir. He does not attempt an imitation
of a sound he is not accustomed to hear, Mr. Hankinson. Of that I can
assure you.
The Parrot—Wait, George, dear, til] I take this bird out of the room.
A BUDDING NAPOLEON.—Youthful Capitalist (aged seven) : "Doing
any good?"
His Partner (aged eight): "Naw; I don't seem t* be able t' place
dls lemminade."
"Jimmy Jones selling any pop?"
"He's gettin' rich—took In fifty cents since noon."
"What's our assets?"
"Chair, table an' tumbler, belongin' t' your maw; bucket an' dipper,
de property of my maw; two gallons of sweetened water an' one lemon,
wld de groceryman makin' bad talk about de fifteen cents we owe him—
I tells yer, we're on de ragged edge of bust."
"Any outstanding contracts?"
"Me brudder said he'd buy a drink t-morrer if de Yaller Legs win."
"Good! I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll form a new company, take
over this stand, merge Jimmy's, get out a prospectus and circulate it all
around de street, issue bonds on the equipment, capitalize the indebted-
ness, issue $1 stock, half-preferred, and
"
"Den what?"
"Sell the stock to Jimmy."
"Schucks! Jimmy ain't such a darn fool as to bite at dat kind er
bait."
"Ain't he? You just watch me hypnotize him!"
And It was even so, and the next day Jimmy woke up. They all do.