O

NE FALL MORNING, in Waterville, Minnesota, a number of us young fellows in our late teens and early twenties - farmers' sons were anxiously waiting for the 5:30 train to Minneapolis to pull in. Anyone who has ever tried to rouse a healthy boy from bed before daylight knows that the incentive has to be pretty strong in order to get young America up. When he rises of his own volition and drives or walks several miles to town, it means that a small army of motives is at workthat he is mightily interested.

When the train pulled in there was a rush to see what? The boys crowded each other away from a small grating, through which could be seen the "World's Greatest the only Dan Patch," whose record as a racer was known by every schoolboy throughout the Northwest. Putting the theorem into the language of business, fully fifty young men arose at an early hour, some of them walking three and four milės, simply to see an advertisement for a line of stock food.

M. W. Savage, the Minneapolis manufacturer, was, in other words, past master of the art of indirectness in combining personality and result-getting. He wished to market a combination of seeds, herbs and other materials having a beneficial effect on horses and other stock, this marketing to be carried on at a profit to himself. Merely by linking his selling interest with the interest which nearly every one having to do with farming has in fast horses, it was not necessary to draw the natural inference for those to whom the advertizing was directed. Even the most illogical farmer, unused to syllogism and premise could reason out: Dan Patch is the fastest horse of his class. Dan Patch is fed on International Stock Food. That is the reason he is so fast. Therefore, if I feed my horses the same kind of stock food they will become the best in their

class.

This, to my mind, is a typical example of personality that brings results. It avoids the hackneyed; it makes use

of profitable indirectness; it taps a vein of interest which probably will never play out (tho diminished by the advent of the automobile)—three essentials of a good business-bringing campaign based on personality.

ST

IR THOMAS LIPTON could well afford to charge to his advertizing department the hundreds of thousands of dollars he has spent on racing yachts. Not that a yacht has any direct relationship with tea, but he has proved to the great buying public on both sides of the Atlantic his unselfishness in promoting good, clean sport. The ten million dollars surplus profit which Henry Ford shared with his employees last year, wouldn't begin to pay for the world-wide publicity which this "philanthropy" secured for this man's business. His new plan to share additional profits with his patrons, is another masterpiece in indirect business building. Unless he sells a certain number of cars this year the division will not be made, hence every patron is an unrestricted salesman, boosting for Henry Ford. There are hundreds of other men who are making personality a real asset in their business, but we must acknowledge that Henry Ford holds the center of the stage.

Even if a business is of small dimensions with a limited field, still there is opportunity for the expression of personality. Out in Clay Center, Nebraska, is a business using thousands of form letters each year—yet the rule of the founder, M. M. Johnson, was that every letter should be individually written and signed. No battery of duplicating machines, despite the many known economies and advantages in their use, is to be found in the sales promotion department of this factory well at the top for incubator sales throughout the United States.

The founder of the business had an individual career, as one of his associates expressed it, and was a firm believer in individuality in marketing methods. This individuality he carried over into his selling methods in the following manner: There was taken,

as a premise, the fact that the farmer is a man who deals with facts rather than subtleties. He deals directly with the forces of nature-and is used to seeing the forces of nature fail him, many times, between seeding time and harvest. He has a natural distrust of promises, be they made either by nature or by a department head in a business

and subjects such promises to a heavy discount. Finally, when once his confidence is secured, it is not easily lost, but remains constant over a long period of years.

F

ROM the very start the selling plan of Johnson bristled with personal appeals. First of all, the machine he had to sell was thought out with his own brain, and the early incubators were made with his own hands after a hard day's work at the mill. Next, he made it plain that he wanted only a "farmer's profit," the same profit that a farmer might expect when he turned off a load of hogs or a bunch of cattle. Finally, he told his sales story in farmer language.

Here were a number of personality incentives that make a peculiarly effective appeal to the farmer. What a man has thought out himself and made with his own hands, is pretty surefrom the farmer's standpoint-to be ruggedly honest. The farmer has too much trouble with hired men who look for their "salt pork at sundown," as the eastern Yankees used to say, rather than for a chance to do good work—to be kept from thinking that the result of the owner's labor can be inferior to that done by the best employees. So personality, in this business, made its appeal here.

Second, the subject of profit is one on which the farmer does some long thinking. His own business is really a manufacturing enterprise, yielding-were it not for the automatic rise in land values which enriches many poor managers a comparatively small margin of profit. As a consequence, besides the economy appeal-strong in itself— the manufacturer who puts a line of needed goods upon the market at a

(Continued on page 214)

S

EASONAL hiring and discharging of skilled workers plays havoc with the efficiency of a business,” says an executive of Hart, Schaffner & Marx. "It takes time and money to train a skilled worker to fit harmoniously into a business and to produce to his utmost capacity both as regards quality and quantity. Every man so trained represents a vital part of the commercial structure. To go to the trouble of fitting men into an organization and then to lay them off every few months is to unnecessarily interfere with the smooth running and profit-making powers of a business. This practice also works hardship on the employees; and anything that affects the employee also affects the employer in the end.

"Years ago the system in vogue in the tailoring industry was to employ as many people as were needed for the busy season, and then to make wholesale discharges when the slack season came. The tailoring business is seasonal-it consists of rush seasons and slack seasons. On this account it was considered absolutely necessary to take on and lay off men to parallel the business in hand.

"This procedure, however, is no longer followed in our shops. We aim to keep our organization as nearly intact as possible the year round. This is necessary, we consider, in order to obtain the highest efficiency.

"Obviously it was not practicable to keep idle men on the pay-roll during slack seasons simply in order to hold the organization together. We had to find some way to keep them at work the year round. This problem we solved by lengthening our selling seasons. During the slack seasons we manufacture surplus goods which are sold at bare cost, and often at a loss. This plan keeps our workers busy and also enables consumers to buy goods at certain periods of the year at special prices. It benefits everyone concerned -ourselves, our workers, our dealers, and the public.

"We have made it a fixed rule in our shops to divide work equally among all our workers, so that none is discharged on account of lack of work. If any part of the work is changed or abolished, the workers who have been em

ployed on it are transferred to other positions. This plan has proved satisfactory to both the employees and the

company.

"There is no such thing in our shops as summary discharge. Every employee has the right to be heard and can appeal to the Board of Arbitration and retain his position unless a sound reason for dismissing him can be shown."

T

O KEEP their plants running full time, and skilled workers on a pay-roll the year around, is a problem that looms large to many manufacturers. No manufacturer willingly closes down his plant, or even slows down production, at certain peri

ods.

To do so represents an immediate money loss, irrespective of the disrupting of his organization. The

chances are that skilled workers, whose training represents invested capital to the manufacturer, will drift to other plants. Even if they do return when the factory opens up again, there is a possibility of their having been forced into debt in order to tide over their period of unemployment. And no man can work at top-notch efficiency when money troubles occupy his thoughts.

Present-day economic conditions mitigate against most manufacturers doing an equal volume of business each month in the year. Trade demand generally rises and falls with the seasons. Manufacturers as a whole are either

busy or slack-seldom does trade-demand allow their plants to be run un

der uniform conditions.

Τ

HE RISE and fall of manufacturing activity at certain periods of the year is shown in a striking way by a national investigation made among manufacturers in the principal lines of business. The following instances are typical of the whole, and show that the great majority of businesses have to contend with rush periods and dull periods.

The busy season for manufacturers of agricultural implements is in the Spring; billiard and pool tables, September to May; brooms, August to June; bridges, March to November; cord, rope and twine, the Spring; furniture, Spring and Fall; gloves, September to January; photo supplies,

June to December; pumps and valves, March to November; tiles, August to December; wall paper, March to June.

Fluctuations in business may be classified under three heads: (1) Seasonal; (2) Presidential elections; (3) Special conditions, such as panics, wars, and the like. Economists who have studied the matter say that there are two "bad" years in every ten. Statistics show that taking the United States as a whole, as well as each principal industrial state, the number of persons employed in the industries fluctuates regularly, with one crest in May and another in September or October.

Without doubt the seasonal fluctuations of trades are largely unnecessary,

and could be remedied by concerted effort on the part of manufacturers. But that is another story. The fact remains that the condition exists, and

how to overcome it in individual cases is the immediate problem. This can be done. It has been done by a firm that had to contend with seasonal trade in its most severe form. But let Mr. Adrian D. Joyce, General Manager of Sales and Distribution, The Sherwin Williams Company, tell the story:

T

HE TIME was," says Mr. Joyce, "when two-thirds of our business was done during the Spring; the public had the idea that the only time to paint was in the Spring. This condition naturally resulted in working conditions throughout our en

uneven

tire business. We were forced to mark time to the ingrained public habit of cleaning and brightening up buildings and houses only once a year, instead of keeping them in first-class condition all the time. We never could see any sound reason for this condition. But it existed, and, like most habits, had a firm hold. The public simply followed custom-the line of least resistance.

"We had an idea that the public could be educated out of the springcleaning custom, and be induced to paint houses and buildings as often as their condition warranted it. We never could see why buildings should be brightened up only once a year and allowed to get out of condition the rest of the year.

"Our first step was to launch a 'Paint in the Fall' campaign. This

CURRENT OPINION

gave us two busy seasons each year, but we were still slack in between these seasons.

"To overcome these dull seasons we prepared other educational campaigns along the same lines. We íaunched

a 'Finish for - floors' campaign, and brought out the fact that old-fashioned carpets were unsanitary-showed how old floors could be refinished with paints and varnishes and rugs used. This made it possible and desirable for painting to be done in the Winter. One plan followed another until now we have educated the consumer to use paints and varnishes the year round.

"Our business is world-wide. In our efforts to keep our monthly sales volume at about the same average, we make a close study of climatic conditions and crop conditions. For example, in the Winter little outside painting is done in the northern states and in Canada. We, therefore, make a special effort to push for business during that period in the southern section of the United States, and in tropical and sub-tropical countries.

"In the temperate zone the big consumption of paint for house painting is during April, May and June, and in August, September and October. During the other months of the year we push hard on specialties, such as interior decorating, paints for use by manufacturers, and the like.

"The use of these methods has enabled us to overcome slack seasons and to transact a larger volume of business spread equally over the entire year. To-day our monthly sales volume averages about the same the year round."

A

LL BUSINESSES are not so fortunately situated as to be able to change buying habits and to turn an article of seasonal use into one of every-day use. But just because a market can not be made over to suit the manufacturer is no reason why he should give up as hopeless the problem of equalizing sales. He can often accomplish the desired result by making over his selling methods to dovetail with market conditions.

"In the past," says W. K. Page, an executive of the Addressograph Company, "we, like many other manufacturers, had to contend with seasonal demand for our goods. We would experience rush seasons, normal seasons, and slack seasons. We overcame this condition to some extent by finding new uses for our machines and by adapting them to new lines of business. By thus widening our market we hoped that sales would be spread more evenly over the entire year. But while this

plan helped materially and increased our business, it still fell short of thoroughly equalizing our sales.

(Continued on page 211)

Alba Bowls, in Robert Simpson Store, Toronto, Ontario, display merchandise
well and make buying easy.

Good Light Sells Merchandise Customers like to buy in well-lighted stores. They see what they are getting without taking the merchandise to a window or door. They stay longer, buy better and buy more.

Employees do more and better work in good light. Seeing is easier, selling is easier and health is better fewer headaches, fewer absences and "days off".

You get more work done, make more sales and more profits.

Alba Lighting Equipment

Alba shows merchandise at its best and makes your store and windows attractive. Selling is easier.

Alba makes customers comfortable. Buying is easy. Alba softens the light and helps employees to see and work better-no glare; no eye-strain.

Alba costs less (less current).

Send for the facts about good light for

your

home or

If all of its new and wonderful qualities were set forth, before the public had actually experienced them, the description might not be credited.

When we issued our initial announcement of the Cadillac with its Eight-Cylinder Vtype Engine, we found ourselves in precisely this position.

The most ordinary statement of its advantages appeared overdrawn.

Our certainty that it would revolutionize motoring amounted to a conviction.

But we dared not tax the credulity of the public, by telling the entire story, even though the public has always reposed implicit confidence in Cadillac announcements.

Our one thought was to hold ourselves within bounds-to be temperate-to place a check upon our own enthusiasm.

We told only a part of the truth-and yet we are conscious, now, that some of our statements must have sounded at least a trifle fervid, coming from a company committed to conservatism.

But there is no need now to understate the case, because the public knows.

The strongest statements which we made are mild by comparison with those which are echoing from one end of the country to the other.

Thus we said, in an early announcement, that in the new Cadillac "good roads yield up a velvet quality of travel undreamed of." We said that "bad roads lose much of

their terror, and hills seem almost to flatten out before you."

Many a man no doubt made the mental comment that these were strong claims.

But they are as nothing to the assertions which you can and will hear in every city in which the new Cadillac is being driven today.

Again we said, that the Cadillac EightCylinder V-type Engine "produced eight impulses in every cycle-overlapping so completely that they melt and merge, one into another."

And, we added, that this power "ebbs and flows so flexibly that the car can be operated almost continuously under throttle control, without change of gears."

Consult your own Cadillac acquaintances, and you will find that this condition of almost continuous throttle control is a commonplace of the Cadillac owner's every-day experience.

We said that "the motor did not seem to be driving the car, but rather to have given it wings" and the Cadillac owner will express his riding-sensations, today, in even stronger terms than these.

The burden of testimony has passed from us to the finest citizenship of the land.

The uttermost that we might say is being outdone by our friends. The Cadillac car itself, and the owners of the Cadillac have relieved us of the necessity of praising our own product.

We do not believe that anyone, after riding in this car, can resist the charm of such surpassing ease, smoothness, steadiness and flexibility of power.

Our conviction is that the enthusiasm over the Eight-Cylinder Cadillac means nothing short of a national conversion.