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Tir,ii-t.TTTT.miiT.PHTA. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 1916.
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EVENING
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REACHING THE ACTUAL
FARM MARKET
Tze bwrtfz 0 bwr advertisements descriptive of The Country Gentleman
The farm market is very important to most manufacturers.
But its true character is generally misunderstood.
For example, we are accustomed to thinking of all rural com
munities as farming communities "rural" being applied by the
census to all places under 2500 population. By this classification
Metropolitan New York contains 182,000 "rural" residents. Most
of these persons trade in the city and have city standards.
The census also tells us that 53.7 of our population is rural.
But 30 of the rural population is close to metropolitan cities and
susceptible to urban trade influence.
If you should reach with your sales effort every farm in the United
States, you would still be missing a huge proportion of the actual
farm market. For about 50 of the farm land of the country is
controlled or owned by residents of towns and cities. These absen
tee owners usually do all buying of permanent improvements and
; often dictate the regular purchases. And they are continually
making suggestions and inspiring their tenants or managers.
The manufacturer who wishes to sell the entire farm market
must somehow reach these absentee owners, because they represent
particularly high buying power.
For a farm paper to reach them and obtain them as subscribers
is difficult. You cannot canvass cities from house to house to
search out the owners of farms.
The Country Gentleman, however,has been enabled to reach
such owners because it had a well-developed individual distributing
organization. Through this organization, consisting of more than
2000 district agents and 50,000 boy agents in cities and towns of all
sizes, The Country Gentleman is displayed on newsstands and
carried directly to homes and offices and sold at five cents per
copy each w;cek. By this means, it has been brought to the atten
tion, of farm owners living in urban communities with a force
which would otherwise have been impossible.
'-"'
The large number of city residents who own or are interested
in farms is well illustrated by recent investigation in the following
" citicsr Chicago, Canton, O., Indianapolis, Des Moines, Kansas City,
Mo. Letters were sent to 3000 Country Gentleman subscribers
living in these cities, and replies were received from 1262.
Of those who replied, 691, or 55, owned farms. 60 of these
owned more than one farm.
Of those not owning farms, 289, or 41, said that they intended
to purchase, and 101 more that they hoped to do so.
Bear in mind that these were Country Gentleman subscribers,
living in large cities.
Most farms arc so inaccessible that the cost of canvassing for
full price subscriptions is prohibitive. The large percentage of
Country Gentleman subscribers who live on R. F. D. routes was
not obtained by canvassing. '
The publisher like any other manufacturer must reach the
farmer where he congregates, in the towns and cities where he goes
to do his daily or weekly buying. Here again the sales organization
of The Country Gentleman has been effective. The farmer when
he comes to town cannot always be singled out and approached for
a subscription. But he does pass newsstands and meet boys on the
street.
He buys a copy one week, is interested and buys again. After
he has bought single copies at five cents for some time he becomes
a subscriber, because the yearly subscription is cheaper. The sales
organization is in this way a feeder for permanent sales.
The individual sales organization, therefore, involves both a
promotion and a distribution a method of reaching the actual
owners of farms wherever they may be.
There is a great advantage to the advertiser in the influence which
such a distribution exerts not only upon the consumer, but also upon
the town and country merchant. Country Gentleman circulation
is visible circulation. The dealer sees the paper on the newsstands
and in the hands of boys. He sees farmers buying it. He sees them
reading it. He knows that it is a factor in his community. It is
borne in on him that its advertising columns have an influence
upon his own customers. The inference is obvious.
The advertiser who wishes to reach the actual farm market
will do well to consider (l) the character and location of the more
profitable parts of that market and (2) the effectiveness of the
methods by which The Country Gentleman carries his message to
that market .
.':- ,; ..
THE CURTIS .PUBLISHING COMPANY
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INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA ,'" '"
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;' TJie, Ladies Home Journal.
The Saturday Evening Post
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The Country $&$&
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