356
70
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that Chinese, British and American adver- tisements appear to the almost complete exclusion of any German insertions. As yet advertising only plays a small part in Chinese economics, and as a rule many brilliant schemes fall rather flat.
If any- thing is done beyond the bare statement that somebody's Tin Tacks or Cough- Mixtures are cheaper than somebody else's the Chinaman's suspicions are aroused, and his summing up of the advertisement would be "too muchee curio." It will thus be seen that the Germans really employed one of the most direct forms of advertising possible, namely, price-cutting, and selling cheaper than anyone else. Nothing appeals so much to the Chinese mind; but as China develops such primitive methods will have to be reconsidered, as they will be shorn of their value to a great extent.
It would hardly be fair not to mention
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the success achieved by the Germans in building up a business in Chemical Fer- tilizers. Only those who have tried to induce the Chinese to adopt up-to-date methods can fully appreciate the difficulties The manner which they have overcome.
in which they established experimental stations and convinced the Chinese by their working that it was to their mutual advantage to buy their fertilizers certainly redounds to their credit.
The manufacturer and producer in Germany is himself responsible for a good deal of the unseemly scrambling for business that was practised by the Germans. As a rule he is for some reason disinclined to appoint a sole agent in any place, or establish an agency of any kind, with the result that often his interests become every. body's business, and finally nobody's. There is something to be said for both