Reduces

Operating Cost to
Minimum

California Fruit Growers' Exchange Conducts Business at a Cost of 1.55 Per Cent-Annual Report Shows Advertising Investment of 24 Cents a Box on Oranges

Tood products through a co

HE economy of marketing

operative association is strikingly illustrated in the annual report of G. Harold Powell, general manager of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange. For the year ending August 31 the operating cost of the Exchange was less than four cents per packed box, or 1.28 per cent on gross sales. This operating cost covered the maintenance of all of the Exchange departments, the salaries and all other expenses of the sales agencies, brokerages, the daily market news service, the collection of claims, the inspection of railroad service along the different routes and expenses necessary in safe-guarding the interests of the growers in rate, tariff and legal matters.

"The large volume of business handled," said Mr. Powell, "has resulted in the lowest cost of operation per box in the history of the Exchange.

"The average cost of the District Exchange was .0081 cent per box, making the total average operating cost of the Exchange service 434 cents per box, or 1.55 per cent of the delivered value of the fruit.

"In addition to the operating cost, the Exchange has expended 24 cents per box on oranges and 4 cents per box on lemons for national advertising and in dealer service work, to increase the consumption of citrus fruits and place the market for them on a yearround basis; to make the Sunkist brand synonymous with 'Uniformly good oranges and lemons' and to increase the buying temptations and make it easier for people to purchase oranges and lemons and

more desirable for dealers to push the sales of these fruits."

The crop of all the principal varieties of citrus fruit was the largest ever produced by California. And yet this crop, because of the general prosperity of the country, was marketed at satisfactory prices. "While the values of citrus fruits did not increase like the prices of the staple foods," Mr. Powell says, "the greatly enhanced purchasing power of the people allowed more consumers to buy these delicious and healthful fruits regularly, creating a steady demand throughout the season, except for a few weeks following the entry of this country into the war. The shortage in the Florida orange and grapefruit shipments on account of frosts overcame to some extent California's increased crops and a larger percentage of the total citrus supply being handled through the Exchange, allowed of a more intelligent distribution."

The important part played by advertising in marketing the fruit is evidenced by the fact that shipments have increased 80 per cent in the ten years during which the Exchange has been advertising, or four times as rapidly as the population of the country.

"The effect of advertising a good article is cumulative and becomes stronger as the advertising continues," says the report. "Sunkist is now a household word and the public is more and more being convinced of the advantages of a greater use of citrus fruits in the daily diet. The expenditures of the past for publicity are partly investments for the future and advertising must be largely depended upon to increase the demand sufficiently to profitably dispose of the constantly increasing citrus crops of the United States."

In Charge of "Virginia Dare"

Dress Advertising

Marcus F. Weinberg, formerly in charge of the advertising department of M. & H. Rentner, New York, has been appointed to manage the advertising of King & Applebaum. of the same city, makers of "Virginia Dare" dresses.

Advertising Position WANTED

An advertising man of experience and achievement wishes to enter the publicity end of the manufacturing field.

He has created most of his advertising and managerial ability by ten years of hard work in the initiative-developing atmosphere of some of the country's largest retailing institutions.

Through this training he has become expert in news gathering and in uncovering selling points, and making good in such positions has also proved him a hustler from the word "go," with considerable executive ability.

This man has had charge of newspaper, letter, catalogue and circular publicity, from the buying of space and paper stock to the finished work. He Gwes his present position in no small measure to his knowledge of art work, lay-out, typography, engravings, presswork, etc.

Age 36. Total abstainer. References, gilt-edge, including advertising agency with national reputation.

He can make himself valuable to some progressive manufacturer. A responsi ble position on the staff of some "big" advertising executive might also afford the desired prospects.

Address "OPPORTUNITY," Box 5, care Printers' Ink.

WANTED:

A Publisher's Right Arm
Also the Brains to use it

REQUIREMENTS: Experience in publishing business, advertising, circulation, editorial. Should be diplomatic correspondent and clear talker, with pleasing address; good executive and organizer, and able to manage detail.

Salary will be commensurate with the ability of the man selected. An excellent opportunity for rapid development for a thoroughly competent and experienced man capable of acting as confidential assistant to publishers having large interests.

Write stating qualifications, all letters held sacredly confidential. Address "Publishers' Assistant," Box 6, care Printers' Ink.

The Little

A speaker

Schoolmaster's

DISTINGUISHED public was telling the Schoolmaster not long ago of his methods in holding an audience. "When I see them beginning to get restless and look at their watches, I tell them a story instanter," he confessed. "People will always yield to the appeal of a narrative. Even a dull story is more gripping than a brilliant argument which is couched in theoretical terms. It seems as though people can't stand the strain of abstract thinking for very long at a time-and a story is one of the most concrete forms of mental effort."

Do copy writers have a tendency to overlook this fatal tend-. ency of the human mind to wander away from a theoretical argument, and to follow with close interest a story? Certainly good stories in the advertising pages are rare enough so that when one does come along it makes a sharp impression on the mind. Here is one which the Schoolmaster saw the other day, which has not only the merit of opening in a brisk, swinging narrative style, but is also built skillfully around the main idea in the advertiser's argument-the quality of his goods. It is an advertisement of Henry Disston & Sons, of Philadelphia, makers of Disston saws and tools, and runs as follows:

John S. Henry, a carpenter of Robesonia, Pa., died some fifteen years ago and his tools were sold at auction. The auctioneer read the maker's name on a rip saw. "It's a Disston," he said.

After brisk bidding the saw was knocked down to Jacob L. Ruhl, of Manheim, Pa., who found this inscription scratched on the blade:

"John S. Henry, Robesonia, April,

1864."

When John S. Henry wrote his name and the date on this saw the Battle of the Wilderness was still to be fought, the Alabama was still ranging the seas, and the Presidential campaign which reelected Abraham Lincoln was still months away.

The saw was to serve John S. Henry for the rest of his life-nearly forty years. Then it was to go on building homes in the hands of its new owner,

and in 1917 be still at work as young Americans by the thousands again rally to the defense of their flag, fifty-three years after the war-stricken Spring in which old Mr. Henry scratched his name upon it.

This is the kind of service the Disston name stands for. Ask your carpenter. He probably is still using one or more Disston saws with which he began working at his trade. * * *

The "story form" is equally gripping when it appears in a circular letter. Witness this one from Pratt & Lambert, paint and varnish manufacturers, to retailers on their prospect list:

name.

People had trusted him when he was rich, and their trust had not been betrayed. He had helped men who were down, and when misfortune came to him, they were his friends. He had a good name.

Your good name is worth more to you than anything you own--just as ours is to us.

Your name stands for your personality, your business methods and the lines you carry. Just as one man's character places him head-high above his neighbors, just so your goods can make you a leader in your businessprovided those goods bear a name as well and favorably known as your own.

The value of the Pratt & Lambert name cannot be expressed in moneyand the care with which it is protected cannot be expressed in words. Join our name with yours, and you increase the value of both. Thousands of dealers the country over will tell you so, and from our own experience we know it to be true. When you be come a P. & L. dealer, you have added a new partner to your business-one whose chief effort is to serve.

The enclosed card will bring you all the facts. Mail it to-day.

Very truly yours,

The Schoolmaster believes that that letter has the right ring to it, recognizing as it does that the manufacturer is not the only man with a good name worth conserving.

A few weeks ago the Schoolmaster commented on the fact that