OCR Text |
Show TRADE "DON'TS." From tho experience of American commercial representatives in China, Joseph Timmons, a newspaper correspondent, corre-spondent, has compiled a list of "do's" aud "don't's" for the guidance of manufacturers aud others who may contemplate entering tho Orient trade field. In a special letter published in the San Francisco Examiner, Mr. Timmons Tim-mons gives this counsel in epitomized form : Don't scar out men who aro not expert. ex-pert. Don't hamper your agent with orders to refer prices auH details of contracts back, to tho home office. Don't send a man out 1o sell an incomplete incom-plete lino. If It is machinery, lie must be able to sell the entire line, with all its accessories. If U is something for consumption, con-sumption, ho must be able to sell, all grades of it ' Don't expect to succeed here by other tiiHu honest dealing. Don't try to eonio into this field on a ".shoestring." U is a. market that must be taeklod on a big scale, with plenty of capital, witli intelligence, with determination, determina-tion, with willingness to sow a few years and then lo reap. It is the richest market in tho world for those Americans who will enter it in that way. It is said that there are one hundred hun-dred and fifty new American firms in business in Shanghai. Some of them arc composed of young men who ate taking a "flyer." They havo little capital back of them, no connections, no knowledgo of Chineso trade conditions. con-ditions. They have not been able to touch the Chinese trade, and will not be, and they will fail or at least make less money than they could havo made at homo. Mr. Timmons reports that there is trade of a small kind to be had in tho Itriont, the supplying of the wants of foreigners resilient in the ports. It is scarcely worth the troublo to get aud hold. There is trade of a bigger sort to bo had, and that is selling to and buying from the great mass of the Chinese people themselves. That is a market with, enormous -possibilities, ami it. has barely been touched. "Any American vn ho can induce Chineso by millions to buy an article which he can sell lo them profitably for a cent or for a few cents," says the writer, "hits a fortune beyond his wildest dreams in store for him." An illustration of this is given in Ihc means adopted by the Standard Oil company. There was no demand in China for kerosene, but the company created one. The Chinese used a primitive lamp, a cup filled with soy bean oil, with a wick stuck into it. Its light was dim anil fjickering'and it smoked suffocatingly. suffocat-ingly. The Standard Oil made a tremendous tre-mendous numler of little tin lamps, fully eouippcil with chimneys and wicks. M, filled each lamp with hero-mho hero-mho and sold I he w hole for ten cenls. They w ere sent e erv w here. Chinese were induced to try them, and found I ha t the lamps gave a brighter light than they had ever known. They were .'.dighled, and Hie demand for I he little lit-tle lamps .ipread wilh great rapidity. Later the company placed larger lamps utt the market. The illustration is given as an example exam-ple of how a demand may be created in a land where the peoplo have never eeu or heard of the article sought to be placed. It is indicative of the means which murf be, adopted to introduce in-troduce American goods in tho Chinese market. It is a system requiring time and patience, but it is certain of success, suc-cess, provided, of course, that the article arti-cle be one of utilitarian character. By the same process of reasoning, it is clear that American manufacturers must bo extremely careful lest they forfeit a confidence ouce established. Scrupulous honesty is a prime requisite in this. To sell an inferior article under un-der the pretense of selling a first-class cue would be fatal not only to the furtherance fur-therance of the trade of tho company guilty of such trickery, but also to all other American companies. The process of building up a commerce in a new market is an extremely delicate one, and mistakes are corrected only with tho greatest difficulty and, in many cases, not at all. |