The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 7, 1917, Page 10

e GO e st Tfl Eai’mmé e ee———————ta ettt ‘?mm@% Thiz iz & Sopartment of the Leadar dovoted % news feeis information and opinions of intercst to farmeers as ferymers snd ax Dusiness e, Coaxmg the Market a Useful Art L S A OAXING the market is one of the arts of farming, which farmers seemingly must cul- tivate, at least wunder the present arrangement of sell- ing to those who control the market. Coaxing the market is commonly called “advertising.” To advertise one of the most advised ways is to produce a supericr article. Those who buy can take their choice of where they buy and it stands to reason they will buy that which appeals most to them. Hence the ever-ready advice to “pro- duce the best” so that the article car- ries its own inducement. to buy. Of course not every farmer can pro- duce the best even though he may think s0. The point is to make the independ- ent buyers think so. That is one of the burdens of farming heaped on tap of manuring and seeding and milking, and harvesting. After he produces a good article the farmer must make some buyer—just as like as not some buyer who will dictate the price and . place and time of delivery—want his product more than that of his next section neighbor. To do that he must do some coaxing. If his article is away yonder the best, that will per- haps end his advertising, but if it is not, ahd if his next section neighbor has better hogs or better seed potatoes, why that neighbor will probably get the buyer. WHY NOT TAKE A RUNNING START? Advertise farm products? Why cer- tainly. Do that much to even up your opportunities with those of the busi- ness men, who use all kinds of devices to get you to patronize them instead of their next-door competitor. The ma- chinery makers, you know, think so much of advertising, and regard farm- ers as such primitive creatures, that they advertise by using bright colors of paint on the mowing machines and plows and harrows—yellow, red, green, big flourishes, fine straight lines, and what not—all just to catch the farmer’s eye and to make the farmer buy. Get even with big and little business by doing some advertising of your own. You are entitled to all it will bring you. It is one of the modern discoveries that many farmers overlook because they Just take farm products for granted. Next to the advice-givers’ advice to produce the best (which doesn’t alweys get recognition anyway under the controlled system of marketing that prevails) the best kind of advertising is community advertising—co-opera- tive coaxing. A good many farmers know this, but not as many as ought to. The New Salem Breeders’ circuit in North Dakota, the Northfield com- munity in Minnesota, the Waukesha county organization in Wisconsin, are all instances of co-operative coaxing. They have cut out competition among themselves, and have joined to tell of the good' dairy cattle, vegetables, but- ter and other good things they can make in those communities. There are also others. By doing this they are coupling the name of a good product with a whole locality and making that locality a signboard for the buyers of those articles. After a while the names of those communities will mean the articles that flourish there best, will be inducements themselves to those who need those things. The fruit growers of the Pacific Northwest have caught onto that little device. They are advertising in com- munities, and North Yakima apples, Hood River strawberries, and such things are known in Chicago and New York as well as through the prairie states. The California orange growers made a bigger grab for coaxing power than that, and as a result “Sunkist” oranges are known all over the orange- eating United States. TELL THE CUSTOMERS HOW GOOD IT IS These fellows who did these stunts of advertising, were really *“wise guys.” They were at “home” under their hat. Incidentally ' they cut out a-.lot of neighborly competition among them- selyes. Men who own orchards or strawberry patches or orange groves next to each other get the benefit of the same advertising, and they have turned that over to a central organ- ization of experts to handle for them. These experts do it loyally and more efficiently than the farmers could single handed, and they leave the farmers more time and more money to spend in other ways. But in some way you should tell your customers how good your products are. But not all farmers are organized into such coaxing communities—such advertising centers. They must there- fore coax alone. There are a good many ways of doing this. Many of the progressive farmers of the Northwest do it by using printed stationery. Some of them could use more attractive stationery than they do, add a motto or a single word of their own coining, ‘a cut of the grove about the farm _ home, the picture of a prize winner at the fair, or more attractive type. There’s no use overlooking. a chance 80 easy as that. The letterhead goes in all your correspondence, and you'd be surprised to see how interestedly, yes, and how critically, most people examine letter heads. You do your- self. Therefore let YOUR LETTER- . HEAD tells something important about YOUR FARM or about your best line of products. Better put a similar name, motto or design on the envelope as well. Many people will see the en- velope who will never see what's in-- side of it. Therefore give them some- thing to think about while they look at YOUR ENVELOPE. Maybe the post master would mention your letter head .next time he sees Jones, and tell how much better it is than the other letter -heads he sees. And that might sell Ox Team and Tractor Side by Side something for you without going through the hands of a middleman. THAT THOSE WHO RUN MAY READ One method of advertising that is coming more and more into demand and proving its usefulness, is naming of farms, and putting a bulletin board in the lane. Perfectly legitimate and mighty effective. Even the city guys out shooting prairie chickens and trying not to see trespass signs, would take a look 'at your bulletin board. You might have a half case of eggs ad- vertised on it with chalk at ten cents a dozen less than those guys would have to pay in town which would yet mean a profit of ten cents a dozen more to you. They would chance being _caught trespassing for a saving of ten _cents a dozen on eggs these days. Peo- ple out in the country have a little idea of the household ripples caused in towns by the present prices of eggs. The farm bulletin board ought to be well built, well painted and have the name of the farm and its chief line of products painted on prominently and tastefully. You know how the auto- mobiles race by the farm houses trying to hit a squawking chicken. Make your bulletin board so -attractive and promi- nent that such joyriders can’t help but see the name of your place and what your spectalty is, evén if you can’t read their tail number. In between these prominent lines could be painted some well-worded information about your farm and what it handles or what prizes its products have won. A black- board space for advertising seasonable things—specialized coaxing—would be .. IIIiLIlIiIlIIHIllllllfllllll!llllIIIL]II!ll!II!Il[lIIlllllIlI!llIIIllllIIllll[IlIL_!IIIIIhI'Il'IIIl[IIhlItIIlIIm Ifl—'llhllildlllllllll IS Hints on Farm Advertising to Make Both Ends Meet Almost side by side on the prairies of Montana, the primitive ox team is working with the modern tractor in the great industry of agriculture. Both these pictures were taken on the Montana prairies. The small: tractor can haul three plow bottoms today faster than three oxen could formerly haul one. For out of the way places oxen still furnish a ready motive power that does not easily get out of repair, and can subsist on the prairie grass. a helpful feature and would seil a good deal of produce. CATERING TO WHIMS IS GOOD COAXING Going to the fairs with the best products is one of the most ancient and jolly methods of coaxing the markets. winnings and showing well groomed animals at a time when even the well dressed women of the cities trip down the livestock alleys looking admiringly at species wholly strange to them, has its rewards. The breeders and buyers are all there, and a good showing un- doubtedly wins some attention that often results in sales. There are other effective ways, such as using special labels on packages, using farm or community trade marks, wrapping well such things as fruit; putting up butter, dressed chickens, or eggs in clean, attractive cases; assort- ing vegetables into similar sizes, and using new sacks instead of dingy, ragged ones. There is a lot more in appealing to the whim (if you please) of neatness and cleanliness than many people sup= pose. Even things equally clean, equally good get a better chance to bring a profit if the APPEARANCH Telling of one’s previous . of neatness and cleanliness, and uni= formity is strong. Use this as a part of your advertising power: It should be borne in mind that these ways of coaxing are great helps to make the sweat and the long hours count at the finish. To be sure it is sort of going in a circle—if you adver- tise, I'll advertise stronger, and so you will have to go me one better—but after the farmers have tried out these indi« vidual methods and have seen that they pay for themselves and a little more, they will do what the communi- ties just named did: they will estab- lish community advertising, and pere- haps there will come a time in the not far away future when these commimi- tles will unite—when they will grow into one big community, and the state will' provide such marketing facilities that cutthroat competition between farmers to sell to consumers what the consumers must have anyway, will eliminated. A 5 Then need for this strenuous coax- ing of the market will cease. But until it does, putting a punch to their neces- gity, by showing how good a thing one bhas for sale is an important sxdeline of farming. e ” "