AN ECONOMIC DEPRESSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 2 September 1933, Page 9

AN ECONOMIC DEPRESSION.

DOES NOT CHANGE HUMAN NATURE Daniel Eisenberg, general manager of Tepper Brothers, Plainfield, U.S.A., addressing a meeting of merchants from smaller cities, urged more time and more thought for promotion during 1933. “I have had merchants tell me that their advertising does not pull,” he said. “That may be the case in some isolated instances, but let us not blame poor results on the newspaper. They can only deliver the message which you give them into the home and the result of that message can only be effective if our promotions are well planned and followed through. “A department store in the smaller city is often the largest business in that town and people expect to read interesting advertising about that store. An economic depression does not change human nature. People still have the same desires. More playing cards were sold in 1932 than in 1928. ‘Keeping up with the Joneses’ is still important and just for the sake of advertising or a desire to create volume, it -would be idiotic to promote merchandise that does not appeal. Price alone is not the magic spark. We must not forget that advertising and promotions can, even in 1933, create desires. We must not forget that the power of words is not the basis of selling. “The use of daily newspaper space brings a daily message which must be presented in much the same manner as a continued, story. It must keep up the interest of the public and present a continuity of thought. Let me take the store which I represent as an example. It is situated 25 miles distant from the greatest retail shopping area in the world, in a city of 35,000 population with a daily newspaper circulation of 14,500 and covering a local and semi-suburban area. We have an investment in advertising space in that paper, covering a period of 25 years, amounting to £200,000. Can we disregard that investment and all that it has done in the past by accepting haphazardly planned, untimely promotions?” —Editor and Publisher,