The state of the mind in the conclusive stage is fallow field for persuasive effort.
In the advertising given in this country to the automobile which has placed millions of motor cars in the ownership of people in the United States, not counting those exported, the publishers of our journals have supplied the information, and the manufacturer the persuasion.
It is this double teamwork which, supplementing the business ability of our manufacturers, has put us in the front rank as automobile producers. But baldly to say that the newspapers made the automobile is not giving full credit to the other causes which contribute to our success in this line of enterprise. It has been a combination of causes working together which has made the automobile.
United States a Fertile Field.
There have been other forms of advertising used in automobile selling, besides space in publications, and they are forms the value of which cannot be discounted. “A satisfied customer is the best advertisement” is one of the oldest slogans of advertising. And it is true. The automobile manufacturers of the United States know it is true, and have been guided by it.
Road races, speed and endurance contests, employment of racing drivers with records, automobile shows, outdoor displays—all have been forms of advertising employed in the industry, and all have played their part and exerted their influence to one common end—that of putting the industry in the United States on the highest pinnacle it has attained anywhere in the world in seventeen years.
And while full credit must be given the vision and capabilities of the manufacturers, and the productive value of advertising in all forms, meed for the results can not be withheld from that element, which, in the final analysis, makes all things possible—the people, the base and groundwork on which all successful industrial structures are erected.
All the business ability of all the automobile makers, however great, and all the advertising, however convincing, that could be written, could not have made the automobile business of today if the people had not taken hold of the automobile and put their stamp of approval on it.
“Power of the Press”—what is it but the “Power of the People” expressed on paper? Power of the People—the force that revolves the world, revolved the wheels of millions of automobiles, and will go on turning the wheels of millions more.
The people of the United States supplied the fertile field in which the American automobile grew and blossomed.