TRADING METHODS

Evening Star, Issue 21080, 18 April 1932, Page 10

TRADING METHODS

SIXTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO In T. G. Shaw's book on wine, published in 1864. there are some trench--ant remarks apropos of the decrease of the advertising type of wine merchant, fsays a correspondent m ‘ The Wine Trade Review ’). Reviewed nowadays, they show that the writer mentioned—he was a wine merchant of long and practical experience—had a keen sense ! of vision ns to the future of the trade and of the possibilities attaching themselves to advertising methods. Thus—- '* A considerable portion of the wine trade is now (1864) in the hands of what are highly respectable and rich; and who. besides buying very cheap kinds to 1 attract customers,’ purchase as good qualities as other dealers. If? is the fashion to speak disparagingly of those who advertise, but it must be mitted 'that they try to accomplish publicly what others seek for by importunities, by letters, by circulars, and by persona! applications or supplications with which gentlemen are now beset: some vying in style with tho effusions of ‘Moses' and ‘Holloway.’. 1 Jut- there is no doubt that, however these may bo laughed at, they aro tho men who have studied, and who acf? upon, the credulity of human _nature, knowing that assertions, often -repeated." will, like a drop of water on the hardest rock, in time make an impression." Shaw might, however, if ho wera alive to-day, be astonished to_ nota the number of firms of the highest standing who have realised the absolute necessity d' publicity for their brands of wines and spirits.