offer a monthly premium to the one who brings into the store the largest number of new buyers or into the cash-drawer the heaviest receipts. There are certain kinds of business where this plan will work, and will be provocative of such competition as greatly to increase trade.
24. The Railroad Mileage. – Arrange, if possible, with some railroad company to issue mileage tickets as premiums to those who will trade with you. At two cents a mile you could afford to give two miles of travel for every one dollar’s worth of goods. At that rate $500 worth of goods would buy a $20 mileage ticket.
25. The Dial Dollars. – How many figures on the dial of your watch? Twenty-eight, counting the number VI, which is generally either omitted or only partly indicated. Fix a big dial two feet or more in diameter in some prominent part of your store, and announce that when a customer has traded an amount equal to the total figures on the dial you will present him with a watch. Of course, the timepiece would be a very cheap one, but many a parent will trade with you for the sake of getting a watch for his child.
26. First Customer Package. – In some periods of the day you will have more custom than you can well attend to, while at other times you will have nothing to do. The following plan will perhaps help to equalize trade, and also give you additional buyers: Suspend a package in some conspicuous part of your store with the announcement thereon that it will be given free to the first customer in the morning.
27. The Carpet Coupon. – By a system of large-sized coupons – we will say a foot square – you can put into practice a unique system that will appeal to the heart of every housewife. Publish that you will give a free carpet of a certain size and grade when a fixed amount has been traded. A square foot of a coupon represents a sum of money spent in the store – perhaps one dollar. Every woman by measuring her room can learn how many dollars’ worth of goods she must buy before she can have a free carpet.
28. The House Lot Coupon. – This is an extension of carpet coupon. A certain amount of purchased goods entitles one to a building lot, which, if in the country, need not be of great cost. Have the particular lots selected and advertised. Another plan is to offer the lot to the largest purchaser within a certain time – possibly five years. This is a good way to hold on to customers.
29. Price – Time Grade. – If you have the credit system, have also a gradation of prices so as to encourage people to pay at the earliest possible time. A system like this would do – forty days full price; thirty days, two per cent. off; twenty days, three per cent. off; ten days, four per cent. off; cash, five per cent. off.
30. Sales Bulletin. – People like to buy where others buy. Success brings success. If you are doing well, you may do better. Have a large bulletin board in front of your store, or near it, announcing your sales for the past week. Newspapers boom themselves in like manner by publishing their enormous circulation.
31. Best Reason Prize. – Offer a prize to the one who will give the best reason for trading at Push amp; Pluck’s, and then insert in the form of an advertisement in a leading paper a list of the best reasons. Six months before Christmas offer presents to all who will trade a certain amount before that holiday.
32. Birthday Calendar. – A calendar with the birthdays of your customers (age of course omitted), would attract attention, and the offer to give a present to any one trading a certain amount before his birthday would certainly add to your receipts.
33. Conspicuous Price-List. – Buyers are caught like fish. Display in your window a list of cut prices. Passers-by who cannot resist the opportunity of a bargain will come in, and often be induced to purchase the goods which are not reduced.
34. The Early Discount. – In order to equalize the trade of the day announce that you will give a slight discount to persons trading during the dull hours.
35. The Money-Space Counter. – Determine that every portion of your store shall pay. Have every lineal foot of your counters calculated at a certain rate of profit. If you find a department that does not pay, change methods or your goods, and if still unsuccessful drop it. Many large dealers fail because they keep departments where the expenses are more than the profits. But if every foot of room pays only a little, the entire store must pay handsomely.
It will be seen in the foregoing how every leading impulse in human nature is appealed to – curiosity and cupidity, honesty and economy, personal flattery and local pride. If, in addition to these powerful inducements to patronage, you combine shrewdness in buying and cautiousness in trusting, if your goods are excellent in quality and generous in quantity, if your place of business is neat and attractive, and your service marked by promptness and politeness; then it is impossible to fail; you have all the elements of prosperity, and are certain to be a great and successful merchant.
Chapter IV
Money in the introduction of a new article
Success of the “Imitation Cigar” – The Dealer’s Seeds of Gold are Black – Barnum’s Belief in Humbugs – Tricks for Trade – Politics for the Men, Novels for the Women – How the Remington Typewriter was Boomed – A Business Man’s Experience in Advertising.
New articles in all lines of trade are constantly appearing. Inventors of mechanical appliances, authors of books, proprietors of patent medicines, introducers of something novel in groceries, and promoters of new departures in dry and fancy goods, are all anxious to have the public take their products and pay them in cash. The problem is how to introduce the article. However meritorious it may be, it is useless unless the people find it out. The following are believed to be unique methods of advertising:
36. The Puzzle. – Buy some patented puzzle which can be manufactured cheap and scattered broadcast over the land. There is no better way to advertise. If men do not solve the puzzle, they will remember what is stamped on it. The “Get-off-the-earth-Chinese puzzle” enormously advertised its purchasers.
37. The Toy Imitation. – Wooden nutmegs and shoe-peg oats have duly advertised the shrewd ways of the people of Connecticut. A man recently made a hit by the “imitation cigar,” which is only a piece of wood of the shape and color of a cigar. Every boy wants one. As an advertising medium it was an immense success. Think of something as common and cheap as a cigar, get up an imitation for the children, have your enterprise stamped upon it, and it will go from one end of the land to the other.
38. The Cartoon. – A caricature of some political person or situation is always taking. Hit off some social craze, or give a witty representation of some matter of passing interest. Drops of ink in this way are seeds of gold, and the harvest will be golden.
39. The Conjurer. – This is a good way to advertise when the article is a cheap affair which can be shown in the street. There are few things so attractive to the masses as the tricks of the sleight-of-hand performer. Mr. P. T. Barnum uttered at least an half-truth when he said the people liked to be humbugged. For a few dollars you can get an equipment, and in a few days’ practice you can acquire enough of the art for your purpose. You can draw a crowd wherever there are people. When you have performed a few tricks, your climax should be a shrewd advertisement which can be worked into the last performance.
40. The Striking Figure. – If your goods are on sale in some prominent store, this device is sure to draw attention. Make a figure of some animal or vegetable or other form, if your article will lend itself to such a work. The figure could be some prominent man, or represent an historic scene, or illustrate some popular movement. A dealer in confectionery had in his window a bicycle made all of candy.
41. The Advertising Story. – Offer a prize to the one who will write the best story about the merits of your article. The latter must be brought deftly into the story, and the award should be based upon the merits of the
