SALES DURING SLUMP

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIII, Issue 13, 16 February 1932, Page 5

SALES DURING SLUMP

POWERS OF ENTERPRISE. ..

Total sales of women's apparel in the United States slumped badly in 1 1930 compared with 1929, and the [general slump continued right along iin 1931.

Amazingly to the contrary, Goldflex Dresses had substantial increases In sales in 1930 over 1929—and in the first six month's of 1931 were 28 per cent, ahead of 1930 for the same period. Sales of specially advertised leaders in the line were 36 per cent, ahead for the same period.

Mr John L. Wilkin, president of Wilkin and Malito, Inc., manufacturers of the line, state that their previous experience of advertising in bad times had led them during the'present time to go ahead full speed deliberately, and with their eyes openknowing that putting on selling and advertising pressure in a time of prolonged depression would work out all right. ' .....

When the slump started his company, in order to keep their sales going, realised that it was essential to keep their advertising going. Despite advice to the contrary, they refused to cut down their advertising appropriation, when other firms were falsely economising by so doing. The Goldfiex dresses were advertised in fourteen issues, in a ye&r when most other women's apparel advertisers cut their advertising heavily, or dropped out altogether. As a result, in the worst year the dress business had known for many years, they continued all year to sell Goldfiex dresses in much greater volume than in 1929.

In 1931, the prestige of the line accumulated during fifteen years of uninterrupted advertising, and strengthened by the largest and most continuous national dress campaign, gave this company the most successful year in their history.