The Advertising of Retail Lumber Dealers

Excerpts From an Article by Mr. E. M. floward, Manager .for the Tulare County Lumber Company, Visalia.

A great deal has been written and much has been said about advertising, and in t'he articles and discussions on lumber yard advertising we are all very much interested, so this article is going to include the "private thinks" of a line yard manager on some of that which has already been written, as well as on the advertising of retail lumber dealers, itself.

Advertising has ahvays appealed to me, especially that of the building world, machinery, development projects, anything of a constructive nature. I like to learn what the other fellow has, what he has to say about it, and what it rvill do. I would almost as soon pick out the good ads in the daily paper and read them as the sensations heralded in black face type on the front page. For, did you ever stop to think what romance, what LIFE, is depicted in such advertising?

One firm's advertising tells me that their cement met the high standards necessary and was used in the construction of the mighty Shoshone Dam. And I visualize that enormous block of concrete with its billions of gallons of rvater back of it. I see that water rushing, roaring, down the flumes and thru the gates to the fertile acres of the Cody country.

Still another advertisement tells me that a certain firm uses particular care in the selection, drying, milling and storing of the lumber it sells for use in the hot valleys of California. And I see homes of beauty and endurance spring up thru-out the state.

Lumber yard advertising has gone thru several stages. You remember the old "cards" that ran something like this: "We carry a complete stock of lumber, lath, shingles, cement, plaster, windows and doors." Also another one: "Come in and see us, we sell lumber and building materials." Well I should hope that you do carry a complete stock and that you do sell from that stock; if you don't you will not be in business very long. That wasn't advertising; it was, primarily, a black faced statement of uninteresting cold facts, and mainly a donation to keep the editor in town.

One excuse for this type of advertising was, that, "my business-the lumber business-is different," and "that's all the advertising necessary." That was the BUNK Why is it any different? We carry an article or articles, according to whether it is just lumber or lumber and all the trimmin's,.that a large percentage of the buying public rvant and buy. All business is fundamentally the same, every sale has four elements, and the object of every business is the same-net profit. And from another angle; people are not interested in the fact that you carry a stock of boards, for at least two reasons, that is-because they naturally suppose that you do, or you would not be in business, and also if they want a board or a two-by-four, they will either go.to the place where'they have been trading or they will go to the first yard they come to. But they ARE interested in the visions that you can create for them of what those boards and two-by-fours will build for them.

There was a time when the dealers advertising dealt in the mottoes: "Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home," "Home, Sweet llome," and such truths. Now, it may have been very appropriate, then, to use them as ads, but it seems to me that it would have been better to have the ads inform the prospective builders of the blessings of being able to teach their children those legends in their own home. At any rate that line of advertising has been used so much that it is overdone and has lost any effectiveness that it ever had.

Retail yard advertising has come to be informative; to educate; an endeavor to create the desire for better homes, better buildings; and to speak the language of the consumer. Make your ads informative, let them tell the story of your plant, your equipment, your organization, and your ability to deliver satisfactory materials and of the materials themselves. BUT DON'T BRAG. If you do, even slightly, your copy might meet the eye of a modern young child with the result that: "Hot cookie, say Dad, this guy sure thinks he's the soup's potatoes." And as father don't like to deal with a superior being, he goes to the other lumber yard for his materials.

Inform your public as to what your materials will build, -a home, a garage, a barn, a pergola. of anything that they will build; but do not say that you have two-by-fours, they are number one common and sell for thirty dollars a thousand feet. If you want to talk about your two-byfours, or about any other item in your yard, then make a story out of it; make it informative and interesting; tell something of the romance of lumbering, the history of lumbering, the care you use in buying, or in caring for your stock in the yard; there are a number of stories that could be told. For instance: There is a world of pathos, of tragedy, in a little, common lath-don't you remember the old folks back home, the old home place, the old woodshed out back of the house, and father's knee----oH !ouCH ! Or was it a shingle?

In advertising to educate your customers you must be very, very careful. With especial emphasis on the "very" and particular emphasis on the "careful." Are you on such a high and noble plane that you must first look down on youi customers, and then elevate them to your level be- fore you can associate with them? Your customers may be beneath you socially, mentally, morally, but they certainly don't like to b-e shown that they are; told that they are, or have it inferred that they are. So, don't let that sort of "education" enter into your ads, and don't fool yourself into thinking that they don't KNOW this kind of advertising. Advertise a particular thing and go after that class of business with all of your pep, but if it COULD BE true that farmers need bath rooms and bath tubs more than any other class of people, don't let your advertising insinuatingly, or by inference, announce to the world that you are selling bathrooms to farmers because they are a dirty class of people. i

Your prospect reads your ads to find out what you have, what it will do, and what you will do for him. He prob-

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