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Winning A New
We have been telling in these columns stories
of successes built largely by magazine advertising.
Here is the story of a great Philadelphia busi
ness built without magazine advertising.
We tell it here for several reasons:
First, because it is only fair we should give heed
to the fact that there are Philadelphia industries
which have become great without such advertising.
Second, because many Philadelphia manufac
turers look upon the success of the company in.
question as an argument against advertising, with
out knowing the conditions of the case.
Third, because the story shows the result of
making only 'goods of high quality, putting them
out under the manufacturer's name never under
private brand and selling them aggressively.
Fourth, because we believe that eventually the
company in question will naturally become one of
the great national advertisers.
in Wall Street, by the farmer of the Northwest, by
people in every civilized part of the globe.
Stetson hats have never been advertised nation
ally in magazine space. But they have been heavily
and persistently advertised by their admirers. Hun
dreds of thousands of dollars' worth of newspaper
space is paid for by retail merchants to tell their
local trade that they carry Stetson hats.
And publicity worth an amount that cannot be
computed is given to them through the mouth-to-mouth
advertising of customers who have found
Stetson hats of high quality and know what brand
they are because the name is in them.
Fifty years ago 90 per cent, of the hats made in
this country were produced in Connecticut and New
Jersey. John B. Stetson, who had worked as a hatter
in these States, decided to start for himself. He
came to Philadelphia because it was a great labor
market. With $100 capital he founded a firm which
today makes $9,000,000 worth of hats yearly.
Mr. Stetson made goods of the best materials
and the highest workmanship. He put his own
label on his whole output, never yielding to the
temptations of reducing quality or making private
brands for jobbers. He sent his salesmen all over
the country, selling not just hats, but Stetson's.
The firm has never radically altered this plan
of merchandising, which, plus good merchandise it
self, has enabled it to reach an enviable position.
Today the John B. Stetson Company employs
more than 5500 hands, and its goods are sold by
more than 11,000 American stores.
Hare skins from Saxony, rabbit skins from Scot
land, nutria skins from Argentina, raw silk from
Japan, cotton from Egypt, shellac from India, sheep
skins from France, rubber from Brazil products
from every corner of the world come to Philadelphia
to be made into hats. Stetson hats are called
for by name by the cowboy of the western plains,
by the plantation owner of the South, by the broker
At the time the Stetson business was founded
there were no national advertising media. Sheer
merit, sound policies and aggressive selling have
given the business a steady increase year by year.
Today that company, with its far-sighted
recognition of changing conditions, should see the
importance of giving serious consideration to the
question of national advertising.
The Stetson Company is on the crest of the
wave. It has taken half a century of word-of-mouth
publicity to put it there. But the tide of
commerce moves more swiftly today. Printed
national advertising has now been so developed
that in two years it can do what word-of-mouth
publicity alone takes twenty years to do.
The hat business is highly competitive. The
increasing power of advertising means an in
creasing opportunity for competitors.
A new generation is coming up, a generation
without too much reverence for tradition, ready to
adopt the new a generation to which printed
advertising is a daily education.
The country and the markets are growing. Our
people are daily becoming converts to a higher
quality in merchandise. Hundreds of thousands
who have been buying cheaper hats may be taught
through skilful advertising to care more for quality
and to buy higher grade hats.
Powerful advertising by the Stetson Company
from now on would not only be almost positive
insurance of its present business, but would also re
sult in a very considerably increased rate of' growth.
i .XX . ' I r-A"M I.-jS
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THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
The Ladies' Home Journal The Saturday Evening Post The Country Gentleman
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