Chapter 2

Why should a newspaper send as many customers to _you_, in _half_ the time it took to fill an establishment which advertised _twice_ as long and _paid twice as much_ for its publicity?

This is the day when the _best_ man wins--after he _proves_ that he _is_ the best man--when the _best_ store wins, when it has shown that it _is_ the best store--when the best _goods_ win, after they've been _demonstrated to be_ the best goods.

If you want the _plum_ you can't get it by lying under the _tree_ with your mouth open waiting for it to drop--too many other men are willing to climb out on the limb and risk their necks in their eagerness to get it away from you.

It is a _man's_ game--this advertising--just hanging on and tugging and straining all the time to _get_ and _keep_ ahead. It is the finite expression of the law of Competition, which sits in blind-folded justice over the markets of the world.

You Must Irrigate Your Neighborhood

Half a century ago there were ten million acres of land, within a thousand miles of Chicago, upon which not even a blade of grass would grow. Today upon these very deserts are wonderful orchards and tremendous wheatfields. _The soil itself was full of possibilities. What the land needed was water._ In time there came farmers who knew that they could not expect the streams _to come to them_, and so they dug ditches and _led the water to their properties_ from the surrounding rivers and lakes; they tilled the earth with their _brains_ as well as their _plows_--they became rich through _irrigation_.

Advertising has made thousands of men rich, just because they recognized the possibilities of utilizing the newspapers to bring streams of buyers into neighborhoods that could be made busy locations by irrigation--_by drawing people from other sections_.

The successful retailer is the man who keeps the stream of purchasers coming his way. It isn't the _spot itself_ that makes the _store_ pay--it's the _man_ who makes the _spot_ pay. Centers of trade are not selected by the public--they are created by the force which _controls_ the public--the newspapers.

New neighborhoods for business are being constantly built up by men who have located themselves in streets which they have changed from deserted by-ways into teeming, jostling thoroughfares, through advertising irrigation.

The storekeeper who whines that his neighborhood holds him back is squinting at the truth--_he is hurting the neighborhood_.

If it lacks streams of buyers, he can easily enough secure them by reaching out through the columns of the daily and inducing people from _other_ sections to come to him. Every time he influences a customer of a competitor he is not only irrigating his _own_ field but is diverting the streams upon which a _non-advertising_ merchant depends for existence. Men and women who live next door to a shop that does not plead for their custom will eventually be drawn to an establishment _miles_ away because they have been made to believe in some advantage to be gained thereby.

The circulation of _every_ daily is nothing less than a _reservoir_ of buyers, from which shoppers stream in the direction that promises the _most value_ for the _least money_.

The magic development of the desert lands, has its parallel in merchandising of men who consider the newspaper an irrigating power which can make _two_ customers grow where _one_ grew before.

Cato's Follow-up System

If a man lambasted you on the eye and walked away and waited a week before he repeated the performance, he wouldn't hurt you very badly. Between attacks you would have an opportunity to recover from the effect of the first blow.

But if he smashed you and _kept mauling_, each impact of his fist would find you less able to stand the hammering, and a half-dozen jabs would probably _knock you down_.

Now advertising is, after all, a matter of _hitting the eye of the public_. If you allow too great an interval to elapse between insertions of copy the effect of the first advertisement will have worn _away_ by the time you hit again. You may continue your scattered talks over a stretch of years, but you will not derive the same benefit that would result from a greater concentration. In other words, by appearing in print _every_ day, you are able to get the benefit of the impression created _the day before_, and as each piece of copy makes its appearance, the result of your publicity on the reader's mind is more pronounced--you mustn't stop short of a _knock-down impression_.

_Persistence is_ the foundation of advertising success. Regularity of insertion is _just as important_ as clever phrasing. The man who _hangs on_ is the man who _wins out_. Cato the Elder is an example to every merchant who _uses_ the newspapers and should be an inspiration to every storekeeper who does _not_. For twenty years he arose daily in the Roman senate and cried out for the destruction of Carthage. In the beginning he found his conferees very unresponsive. But he _kept on_ every day, month after month and year after year, sinking into the minds of all the necessity of destroying Carthage, until he set all the senate thinking upon the subject and _in the end_ Rome sent an army across the Mediterranean and ended the reign of the Hannibals and Hamilcars over northern Africa. _The persistent utterances of a single man did it._

The history of every mercantile success is _parallel_. The advertiser who does not let a day slip by without having his say, is bound to be heard and have his influence felt. Every insertion of copy brings stronger returns, because it has the benefit of what has been said _before_, until the public's attention is like an eye that has been so repeatedly struck, that the _least touch_ of suggestion will feel like a blow.

How to Write Retail Advertising Copy

A skilled layer of mosaics works with small fragments of stone--they fit into more places than the _larger_ chunks.

The skilled advertiser works with small words--they fit into _more_ minds than _big_ phrases.

The simpler the language the greater certainty that it will be understood by the _least intelligent reader_.

The construction engineer plans his road-bed where there is a _minimum of grade_--he works along the lines of _least resistance_.

The advertisement which runs into mountainous style is badly surveyed--_all minds are not built for high grade thinking_.

Advertising must be simple. When it is tricked out with the jewelry and silks of literary expression, it looks as much out of place as _a ball dress at the breakfast table_!

The buying public is only interested in _facts_. People read advertisements to find out _what you have to sell_.

The advertiser who can fire the _most facts_ in the shortest time gets the _most returns_. Blank cartridges _make noise but they do not hit_--blank talk, however clever, is only wasted space.

You force your salesmen to keep to solid facts--you don't allow _them_ to sell muslin with quotations from Omar or trousers with excerpts from Marie Corelli. You must not tolerate in your _printed selling talk_ anything that you are not willing to countenance in _personal salesmanship_.

Cut out clever phrases if they are inserted to the sacrifice of clear explanations--_write copy as you talk_. Only be more brief. Publicity is costlier than conversation--ranging in price downward from $10 a line; talk is not cheap but the most expensive commodity in the world.

Sketch in your ad to the stenographer. Then you will be so busy "_saying it_" that you will not have time to bother about the gewgaws of writing. Afterwards take the typewritten manuscript and cut out every word and every line that can be erased without omitting an important detail. What _remains_ in the _end_ is all that _really counted_ in the _beginning_.

Cultivate brevity and simplicity. "Savon Français" may _look_ smarter, but more people will _understand_ "French Soap." Sir Isaac Newton's explanation of gravitation covers _six pages_ but the schoolboy's terse and homely "What goes up must come down" clinches the whole thing in _six words_.

_Indefinite talk wastes_ space. It is not 100% productive. The copy that omits prices sacrifices half its pulling power--it has a tendency to bring _lookers_ instead of _buyers_. It often creates false impressions. Some people are bound to conceive the idea that the goods are _higher priced_ than in _reality_--others, by the same token, are just as likely to infer that the prices are _lower_ and go away thinking that you have exaggerated your statements.

The reader must be _searched out_ by the copy. Big space is cheapest because it _doesn't waste a single eye_. Publicity must be on the _offensive_. There are far too many advertisers who keep their lights on top _of_ their bushel--the average citizen _hasn't time_ to overturn your bushel.

Small space is expensive. Like a _one-flake snowstorm_, there is not enough of it to lay.

Space is a _comparative matter_ after all. It is not a case of _how much_ is used as _how it is used_. The passengers on the limited express may realize that Jones has tacked a twelve-inch shingle on every post and fence for a stretch of five miles, but they are _going too fast_ to make out what the shingles say, yet the two feet letters of Brown's big bulletin board on top of the hill leap at them before they have a chance to dodge it. And at that it doesn't cost nearly so much as the _sum total_ of Jones' dinky display.

Just so advertisements attractively displayed every day or every other day for a year in one big newspaper, will find the eye of _all_ readers, no matter how rapidly they may be "going" through the advertising pages and produce more results than a _dozen_ piking pieces of copy scattered through _half a dozen_ dailies.

The Difference between Amusing and Convincing

An advertiser must realize that there is a vast difference between _amusing_ people and _convincing_ them. It does not pay to be "smart" at the line rate of the average first class daily. I suppose that I could draw the attention of everybody on the street by painting half of my face red and donning a suit of motley. I might have a sincere purpose in wishing _to attract_ the crowd, but I would be deluding myself if I mistook the nature of their attention.

The new advertiser is especially prone to misjudge between amusing and convincing copy. A humorous picture _may_ catch the eyes of _every_ reader, but it won't pay as well as an illustration of _some piece of merchandise_ which will strike the eye of every _buyer_. Merchants secure varying results from the same advertising space. The publisher delivers to each _the same quality of readers_, but the advertiser who plants _flippancy_ in the minds of the community won't attain the benefit that is secured by the merchant who imprints _clinching_ arguments there.

Always remember that the advertising sections of newspapers are no different than farming lands. And it is as preposterous to hold the publisher responsible for the outcome of unintelligent copy as it would be unjust to blame the soil for bad seed and poor culture. _Every advertiser gets exactly the same number of readers from a publisher and the same readers_--after that it's up to him--the results fluctuate in accordance with the intelligence and the pulling power of the _copy_ which is inserted.

Some Don'ts when You Do Advertise

The _price_ of the gun never hits the _bull's eye_. And the _bang_ seldom rattles the bells. It's the _hand on the trigger_ that cuts the _real_ figger. The _aim's_ what amounts--_that's_ what makes _record_ counts-- Are _you_ hitting or just _wasting_ shells?

_Don't_ forget that the man who writes your copy is the man who aims your policy.

When you stop to reflect what your _space_ costs and that the wrong talk is just _noise_--_bang_ without _biff_--you must see the necessity and _sanity_ of putting the _right man behind the gun_.

_Don't_ tolerate an ambition on your ad-man's part to indulge in a lurking desire to be a literary light.

People read his advertising to discover what your buyers have just brought from the market and what you are asking for "O. N. T." They buy the _newspaper_ for information and recreation and are satisfied with the degree of poetry and persiflage dished up in its _reading_ columns.

_Don't exaggerate._ Poetic licenses are not valid in business prose. The American people _don't_ want to be humbugged and the merchant who figures upon too many fools, finds _himself_ looking into a mirror, usually about a half hour after the sheriff has come to look over the premises.

_Don't imitate._ Advertising is a _special measure_ garment. Businesses are not built in _ready-made_ sizes. Copy which fits somebody else's selling plans, won't fit your store without sagging at the chest or riding up at the collar. Duplicated _argument_ and duplicated _results_ are not twins. Your policy of publicity must be _specially_ measured from your policy of merchandising.

_Don't put your advertising in charge of an amateur._ Let somebody else stand the expense of his educational blunders. Remember you are making a plea before the bar of public confidence. Your ad-writer is an advocate. _Like a bad lawyer, he can lose a good case by not making the most of the facts at hand._

_Don't get the "sales" habit._ "Sales" are stimulants. When held too often their effect is _weakening_. The merchant who continually yells "_bargain_" is like the old hen who was always crying "fox." When the real article did come along, none of her chicks _believed it_.

_Don't use fine print._ Make it easy for the reader to find out about your business. There are ten million pairs of eyeglasses worn in America, and every owner of them buys something.

_And Don't start unless you mean to stick._ The patron saint of the successful advertiser _hates a quitter_.

The Doctor whose Patients Hang On

Out in China _all_ things are _not_ topsy turvy. _Physicians are paid for keeping people well_ and when their patients fall ill, their weekly remittances are stopped. The Chinese judge a medical man not by the number of years _he_ lives, but by the length of time his patrons survive.

An advertising medium must be judged in the same way. The fact that it has _age_ to its credit isn't so important as the _age of its advertising patronage_. Whenever a daily continues to display the store talk of the same establishment year after year, it's a pretty sure sign that the merchant has _made money_ out of that newspaper, because no publication can continue to be a losing investment to its customers over a stretch of time, without the fact being discovered. And when a newspaper is not only able to boast of an honor roll of stores that have continued to appear in its pages for a stretch of decades, but at the same time demonstrates that it carries _more_ business than its competitors, it has _proven its superiority_ as plainly as a mountain peak which rises above its fellows.

The combination of _stability and progress_ is the strongest virtue that a newspaper can possess. _Only the fit survive_--reputation is a _difficult_ thing to _get_ and a harder thing to _hold_--it takes _merit_ to _earn_ it and _character_ to _maintain_ it. There is a vast difference between _fame_ and _notoriety_, and just as much difference between a _famous newspaper_ and a _notorious one_.

Just as a manufacturer is always eager to install his choicest stocks in a store which has earned the respect of the community, just so a retailer should be anxious to insert his name in a newspaper which has _earned the respect of its readers_. The manufacturer feels that he will receive a square deal from a store which has age to its credit. He can expect as much from a newspaper which is a credit to its age!

The newspaper which outlives the rest does so because it was _best fitted to_--it had to _earn_ the confidence of its readers--and _keep it_. It had to be a _better_ newspaper than any other and _better_ newspapers go to the homes of _better_ buyers. Every bit of its circulation has the element of _quality and staying power_. And it is the _respectable_, _home-loving_ element of every community--not the touts and the gamblers--toward which the merchant must look for his business _vertebrae_--he cannot find buyers unless he uses the _newspaper_ that enters their homes. And when _he does_ enter their homes he must not confuse the sheet that comes in the back gate with the newspaper that is delivered at the front door.

The Horse that Drew the Load

A moving van came rolling down the street the other day with a big spirited Percheron in the center and two wretched nags on either side. The Percheron was _doing all the work_, and it seemed that he would have got along far better in single harness, than he managed with his inferior mates _retarding_ his speed.

The advertiser who selects a group of newspapers usually harnesses two _lame_ propositions to every _pulling_ newspaper on his list, and just as the van driver probably dealt out an _equal_ portion of feed to each of his animals, just so many a merchant is paying practically the same rate to a _weak_ daily, that he is allowing the _sturdy profitable sheet_.

Unfortunately the accepted custom of inserting the _same_ advertisement in _every_ paper acts to the distinct disadvantage of the _meritorious_ medium. The advertiser charges the sum total of his _expense_ against the sum total of his _returns_, and thereby does _himself and the best puller an injustice_, by crediting the less productive sheets with results that they have _not_ earned.

It's the _pulling power_ of the newspaper as well as the horse that proves its value, and if advertisers were as level headed as they should be, they would take the trouble to put every daily in which they advertise _on trial_ for at least a month and advertise a different department or article in each, carefully tabulating the returns. If this were done, fifty per cent of the advertising now carried in weaker newspapers would be withdrawn and the patronage of the stronger sheets would _advance_ in that proportion.

_There are newspapers in many a city that are, single handed, able to build up businesses._ Their circulation is solid muscle and sinew--_all pull_. It isn't the number of copies _printed_ but the number of copies that reach the hands of buyers--it isn't the number of _readers_ but the number of readers with _money_ to spend--it isn't the _bulk_ of a circulation but the amount of the circulation which is _available_ to the advertiser--it isn't _fat_ but _brawn_--that tell in the long run.

There are certain earmarks that indicate these strengths and weaknesses. They are as plain to the observing eye as the signs of the woods are significant to the trapper. The _news_ columns tell you what you can expect out of the _advertising_ columns. A newspaper _always finds_ the class of readers to which it is _edited_. When its mental tone is _low_ and its moral tone is _careless_ depend upon it--_the readers match the medium_.

No gun can hit a target _outside_ of its range. No newspaper can aim its policy in _one_ direction and score in _another_. No advertiser can find a different class of men and women than the publisher has found for himself. He is judged by the company he keeps. _If he lies down with dogs he will arise with fleas._

The Cellar Hole and the Sewer Hole

A coal cart stopped before an office building in Washington and the driver dismounted, removed the cover from a manhole, ran out his chute, and proceeded to empty the load. An old negro strolled over and stood watching him. Suddenly the black man glanced down and immediately burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter, which continued for several minutes. The cart driver looked at him in amusement. "Say, Uncle," he asked, "do you always laugh when you see coal going into a cellar?" The negro sputtered around for a few moments and then holding his hands to his aching sides managed to say, "_No, sah, but I jest busts when I sees it goin' down a sewer._"

The advertiser who displays lack of judgment in selecting the newspapers which carry his copy often confuses the _sewer_ and the _cellar_.

All the money that is put _into_ newspapers isn't taken _out_ again, by any means. The fact that all dailies possess a certain physical likeness, doesn't necessarily signify a similarity in character, and it's _character_ in a newspaper that brings returns. The editor who conducts a journalistic sewer, finds a _different_ class of readers than the publisher who respects himself enough to respect his readers.

What goes into a newspaper largely determines the class of homes into which the newspaper goes. An irresponsible, scandal-mongering, muck-raking sheet is certainly not supported by the buying classes of people. It _may be_ perused by thousands of readers, but such readers are seldom purchasers of advertised goods.

It's the clean-cut, steady, normal-minded citizens who form the bone and sinew and muscle of the community. It's the sane, self-respecting, _dependable_ newspaper that enters their homes and it's the _home_ sale that indicates the strength of an advertising medium.

No clean-minded father of a family wishes to have his wife and children brought in contact with the most maudlin and banal phases of life. He defends them from the sensational editor and the unpleasant advertiser. He subscribes to _a newspaper which he does not fear to leave about the house_.

Therefore, the respectable newspaper can always be counted upon to produce more sales than one which may even own a larger _circulation_ but whose distribution is in ten editions among unprofitable citizens.

You can no more expect to sell goods to people who _haven't money_, than you can hope _to pluck oysters from rose-bushes_.

It isn't the number of readers _reached_, but the number of readers whose _purses_ can be reached, that constitutes the value of circulation. It's one thing to arouse _their attention_, but it's a far different thing to get _their money_. _The mind may be willing, but the pocketbook may be weak._

If you had the choice of a thousand acres of desert land or a hundred acres of oasis, you'd select the fertile spot, realizing that the larger tract had less value because it would be less productive.

The advertiser who really understands how he is spending his money, takes care that he is not pouring his money into _deserts and sewers_.

The Neighborhood of Your Advertising

Circulation is a commodity which must be bought with the same common sense used in selecting potatoes, cloth and real estate. _It can be measured and weighed_--it is _merchandise_ with a _provable_ value. It varies just as much as the grocer's green stuff, the tailor's fabrics and the lots of the real estate man.

Your cook refuses to accept green and rotten tomatoes at the price of perfect ones. She does not calculate the number of vegetables that are _delivered_ to her, but those that she _can use_. When your wife selects a piece of cloth she first makes sure that it will serve the purpose she has in view. When you buy a piece of property you consider _the neighborhood_ as well as the _ground_. Just so when you buy _advertising_ you must find out how much of the circulation you _can use_. You must judge the _neighborhoods_ where your copy will be read, with the same thoughtfulness that you devoted to selecting the spot where your goods are sold.