KEEPING-THE-NAME-BEFORE-THE-PEOPLE, “and keeping – everlastingly – at – it!” That, dear Reader, is “General Publicity” – a Glory-Game, under a convenient alias. “Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People,” and “Keeping-everlastingly-at-it, “may incidentally “influence the sale” of goods, providing no competing line is being actually Advertised through Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-Paper.
But, the main object of such “General Publicity” may be less mercenary, more altruistic, than mere merchandising.
“Attract Attention;” – “Interest the Public” with pretty pictures and cute catch-words; – “Encourage the Publisher” by paying him for plenty of unoccupied white space; -and lastly, pay some Agency a commission to spend the money with the least effort and the most fire-works. That is “General Publicity.” It is well enough, in its way, of course (like the Carnegie Libraries).
But, what is here objected to is that some folks, who ought to know better, call this “General Publicity” by the name of “Advertising.”
Now, Advertising is, and should be, simply plebeian “Salesmanship-on-paper” – a mere money-making means of selling goods by the quickest and cheapest method.
There is no Glory in the Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-paper -no applause for it, -no admiration, -just Profit.
Because, it is simply common sense brought to bear directly upon the selling of Goods. That is its
province-just selling goods over the counter or by mail.
If you want to find out how few goods “General Publicity” Copy (“Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People”) will actually sell, test some of what you are now using, in a Mail-Order way, -to sell goods, mark you (not merely to give away Calendars or Samples).
That is the test that shatters advertising Idols and dispels “Publicity” illusions. You may have the smoothest “Catch-phrase” that ever happened, -you may be thoroughly tickled with your Witty Wording, Pretty Platitudes, and Artistic Illustrations.
You may fell Cock-Sure that you have a kind of Advertising which couldn’t fail (so long as the Salesmen do its work in addition to their own). But, suppose you should try to actually sell goods by mail with it.
If your World-Beating Advertisement, that “everybody sees” and admires, costs you $2.00 per Inquiry-and if another kind of advertisement you “don’t like at all” brings equally good Inquiries, in the same space and same mediums, at 40 cents each, then you’ve learned something you can never afford to forget.
That is the kind of experience which makes one “sit up,” and think hard, before he recovers from the jolt it gives him. And when he “comes to” he then sees a Great White Light. Under this new light some of the things he thought he knew before fade out into vapory “Will-o’-the-Wisps,” and he longs for things tangibly proven.
When he observes now a hoary old Mail-Order Advertisement, that seems at first sight stupidly simple and countrified, he looks twice into it, to see if it isn’t carefully loaded with hidden Selling Effect and subtle Conviction, under its guise of rural simplicity.
If he notes it running for years, without change, he no longer jumps to the conclusion that the Man who pays for it is merely a Chump, serving his costly apprenticeship to our own Guild of advanced Advertisers.
No, -he looks closely at it now for the hall-marks of Salesmanship, and where he finds it running for months, without change of copy, he concluded there is some potent reason for it.
Because, he then feels that, had he as sure a means of keeping “tab” on results as this Mail-Order Advertiser, he, too, might be using some “stale” copy in “General Advertising,” Instead of changing it often (without evidence) from bad to probably worse.
If he had tried over fifty different changes of copy that had pleased him better than the Stale One, and had found (as others have done) that Inquiries from them cost $1.20 to $2.90 each, he would be might glad to go back to the good old “Chestnut” which produced Inquiries regularly at 40 cents average.
He would look upon that Ancient Adlet in the light of a tried and trusted Friend. If he were asked to sell out his business he might well appraise that bit of much-used Ancient History at a price that would make many Ad-smiths gasp. And, why shouldn’t he appraise it high up in the thousands?
If we spend $100,000 per year for Space and fill that Space with copy that costs $1.20 per inquiry (by mail, or over the counter), we get only 83,334 chances of Sale out of our appropriation.
With the Antique Adlet, or its skilful equivalent, our $100,000 would have produced 250,000 Inquiries at an average of 40 cents each.
These 250,000 Inquiries would have cost us $300,000 to secure at $1.20 each. Why isn’t the proven “40-cent” Advertisement worth all it saves, viz., $200,000 per year, so long as it continues to produce Inquiries averaging 40 cents each, instead of at $1.20 each?
Well,-why isn’t such an Advertisement worth more than the space it occupies each time it is published?
What is the “something” in a successful Mail-Order Advertisement that makes it pull equally good Inquiries at a fraction of previous cost?
It is the same “something” that would make Advertising sell goods over the Retailer’s counter, through General Advertising, at correspondingly low cost.
That mysterious “something” is just Printed Persuasion, and its other name is “Reason-Why Salesmanship-in-Type.”
It is that sapient “something” which makes one Advertiser rich in a few years, while lack of it ruins others who buy their Space equally cheap, pay 5 per cent less commission, and spend equally large appropriations. That “something” is “Reason-Why” and Conviction, saturated into the copy, so that the Reader must believe the statements of merit thus claimed for the article.
Mere brilliance in Advertising fails utterly to produce such profitable results (sales) if it lacks conviction. The “seeing,” “admiring,” or “reading with interest,” of an Advertisement by the Public, avails little in dollars and cents, to the man who pays for the space, if it fails to CONVINCE the Public.
And, that conviction can be imparted, without accident, at will, by the few Advertising Men who have closely studied the thought-process through which Conviction is induced, provided they have had the guiding light of experience with the facilities for comparing Results obtained from a large variety of Mail-Order Copy.
These results have invariably shown that it is far better to repeat one single Advertisement fifty times, if it be full of Conviction, than to publish fifty different Advertisements that lack as much Conviction, no matter how attractive, clever, or artistic, they may be.
In other words, one sound, convincing Advertisement will sell more goods than fifty brilliant, catchy, strikingly displayed “Ads” that have less conviction in them.
The only mission of true General Advertising is to Sell Goods, by driving the People to the stores armed with such reasons and convictions that substitution will be difficult or impossible.
When Advertising is not selling goods (through Conviction), it is not doing as much as it can be made to do. So, any Advertiser who accepts mere “General Publicity” or “Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People” for his money, when he might have had all that and a positive selling force combined with it, is losing half the results he might have had from the same Space filled with sound Reason-Why Advertising.
- Next chapter
- Chapter VII “Why Some Advertisers grow Wealthy while other Fail!”
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- Chapter V They Who Blindly Follow the Blind
