70 THE MODEL STOCK PLAN
of anything we may put into our advertising to sell goods to
the great mass of customers.
Perhaps you are ready to object: “But how does this idea
differ from the currently accepted methods of advertising;
isn’t this exactly what every store except the de luxe shop
is doing?”
It is, within limitations. The limitations make the present
general type of retail advertising too often weak and ineffec-
tive, even though the newspaper advertising is, after the
store itself and its goods and merchandising policies, our
most valuable force for bringing customers into the store.
Before we start to point out the defects in the kind of adver-
tising that is now prevalent, suppose we have a look at what
we propose to substitute for it.
The most effective advertising in the future is going to be
that which will make the public understand that all the
values in our complete stock are bargains, that every day is
bargain day in styles as well as prices all through the store.
Obviously, we cannot specifically advertise every day every
kind of merchandise that we have in our store, mentioning
it by name, description, and price. The only type of retail
institution that has found a way to advertise profitably in
this way is the mail-order house, and it can afford to get
out its advertisement, its catalogue, only twice a year.
What we must do, then, is to advertise in a way that will
carry the fact that we have thoroughly complete assortments
and unusually good values at all times throughout our store.
We must particularly do something that will teach customers
that all of our prices and styles are so carefully compared
with our BB’s, and through shopping the BB’s are so care-
fully compared with all competitors’ prices, that not only
those which are advertised today but, almost without excep-
tion, all of our prices and styles are right.! If we can con-
vince them of this fact—and since we are operating under the
Model Stock Plan according to the principles explained in
preceding pages of this book, this és fact and in no sense an
! For a complete explanation of this method of comparing all goods with
BB’s and comparing BB’s with competitors’ stocks, see Chap. IIL, p. 46.
