Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 January 1914 — DOES IT PAY TO ADVERTISE? [ARTICLE]

DOES IT PAY TO ADVERTISE?

By C. F. GOBBLE,

. Anl-

mat Husbandry, Purdue Uni verity ' School of Agriculture. Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

How many farmers advertise? I don’t believe there is . a business man or/a pure bred live stock breeder, or a seed corn grower, who does not believe in advertising. Each of these advertises more or less generally, on a scale, and In such a manner, as the size of his business or operations will warranty . [; On the other hand indiscriminate advertising does not pay. Millions of dollars are spent every year for useless advertising. To bring results, you must attract the man who wants to buy what you have to sell. If you have half a dozen Berkshire gilta for sale, you will not advertise in a Horticultural paper. Neither would you use one-half a column of space {in the Breeders’ Gazette. A small ad In your county or farm paper would probably bring results.

This is not the kind of advertising, however, 1 have in mind for the general fanner. His goods he can sell on the local market What he wants is rating, reputation and credit, and these things are given him according to his thrift and character. A man’s thrift is judged by hiß bank acount, his holdings, etc., but a man’s character is judged by a multitude of things; viz., by the way he treats his horses, bjt tbe/way he houses and cares for ms "machinery, by the way he keeps up his fences and trims his hedges, by the cleanness of his pastures, by the neatness of his barnyard and lawn, by the paint on his house and out buildings. This, to me, is the greatest opportunity for profitable advertising. If you were a banker, which man would you extend credit to, one that always patches and never builds a fance, one who drives half fed, never groomed horses, one who grows common mongrel, all colored hogs, one who uses all out-doors for a machine shed, one who never paints a building or drags a road or pulls a weed, or would you prefer your money to be in the hands of a farmer who keeps up tbe fertility of his soil, rotates his crops, sprays and prunes his orchard, uses only pure bred boars and in general, shows himself by his metods to be a progressive and an industrious farmer? Any one can answer this question and yet how may of you farmers realize the importance of these things ss they apply to you? I can hear yOu say, “I haven’t time to keep everything cleaned up all the time,” but I know and you know men, who have less money invested in their business than you have in yours, who spend more each year for advertising than it would take to hire a man to do nothing else. I know another man who has a fancy set of work harness and a new wagon that he uses solely for selling horses. He says he has paid for "the harness in the sale of one team, simply because they were more attractive, well groomed and in gopd clothes. I know another man who makes a living buying run-down places, deantng them up and selling them again. If one man can increase the value of a horse by showing him In good aur roundings and another gain a livelihood by cleaning up farms, does .it seem unreasonable that you Could increase your earnings and capital by using the same methods? Try this form of advertising. If it does not pay in dollars and cents it will at least give you and your family greater satisfaction when you compare your own home wtih those of your neighbors.