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THE UNKNOWN QUANTITY—ADVERTISING
YOU MAY HAVE THE BEST MOUSE-TRAP IN THE WORLD BUT
YOU HAD BETTER LET THE WORLD KNOW ABOUT IT
, , ' By L. EDWIN MITCHELL
Frofessor of Advertising, DePauw University
Member, Kiwanis Club of Greencastle, Indiana
Advertising is still a mysteri
ous unknown quantity of many
*
of our merchants although the art
it almost as old as man himself and
here is nothing about it which cannot
be successfully understood and intel
ligently practiclced ab ynyone who
ligently practiced by anyone who
cares o give a little thought to the
subject in general, and his own spe
cific neds in general.
Undoubtly it has become some
thin gos a fine art. We read the ad
vertising pages with a degree of fas
cination, in fact we often consider
them the best part of our weekly and
monthly magazines, even of our daily
paper. The story is told of Rudyard
Kipling that a friend sent a bunch
of American magazines to him, and
fearing that he might not like the
great mass of advertising, carefully
removed every page of advertising
that it was possible to remove. Mr.
Kipling wrote back, “The next time,
send the advertisements. I can write
torises myself.”
This is a cooperative age, mayhap,
but it is also still a competitive one,
Emerson cannot be taken as a proper
merchandising advisor when he says
that, “If you make a better mouse
trap than your neighbor, the world
will make a beaten path to your door.’
As a matter of fact you can make the
hest mouse-trap that was ever made
and the weds will grow so high
around your house that you cannot
see out, unless you remember to go
up on the roof and let the world
know that you make a better trap
than your neighbor.
Good buying is essential to pros
perous business. Attractive store
rooms, good locations, intelligent
sales people, all have an important
place in the merchandising scheme,
but the business that does not take
advantage of very display medium,
of counter, of window, of newspaper
space, or direct mail, will not be able
to reap the proper returns for effort
expended.
Reduced to its lowest terms, adver
tising is simply the attempt to influ
ence people favorably. While there
are a thousand methods, schemes, de
vices, stunts and psychological pre
cepts, it can all be reduced to this
M HEADQUARTERS FOR CHRISTMAS AT Cg
3 LEADER & ROSANSKY'S I
'fi VISIT OUR TOYLAND M
J&g Unmatchable Values in Toys, Games and Dolls for the Children ySf
tW and Grown Up Children. Also a complete assort- (m
ment of Tree Ornaments
_—
vSy r styles, one assortment, values up to
f|- Ladies’ Hats Men’s Hats m
Mb> Closing out 250 of them, values up to $3.98 One assortment, values up to $17.00 Here is your chance to get one at a 100 per cent lower price
*' '' SIO.OO Values up to $5.00, Your Choice, going at the price of—
fl One Assortment, values up to $9.95 g mm f|‘ X
vPIsUU $6.98 $1.95
simple dictum. Thus everyone has
need of it, no one can get very far
without practicing some of its prin
ciples. Broad classifications usual
ly divide all advertising into general
or foreign advertising, and retail ad
vertising. The latter is the one with
for when a candidate for office wish
which we are most vitally concerned,
wishes a larger congregation, when
es to attract voters, when a church
■ a bank desires more deposits, a col
lege w r ants more students or more
money, a doctor or dentist more pa
tients, they use retail advertising.
After all, no professional man or
business institution is ever quite sat
isfied with the amount and chai*ac
ter of the business which is being
handled at any particular time. We
want more business, or a better type
1 or quality of business. Both demands
can be met by advertising and large
ly by advertising alone. The crying
need of the average merchant and
1 professional man, who wants to use
! this rapidly developing are, is for
simple, concrete writing and type
| displays, in order that they may spend
i their mney intelligently.
The mail order house is constantly
encoaching upon the business of the
local merchant and he feels more or
, less helpless in combatting this insti-
I tution which is so adept in the use of
every advertising appeal. The, bright
well illustrated catalogue goes ifito
almost every home to compete with
the local stores’ advertising, but the
! greatest competition is in the train
ed advertising intelligence which
| knows how to write a piece of adver
| tising copy to supplement an illustra
, tion so well, that the prospective buy
er knows just what they expect to
get, all about materials, colors, sizes,
etc., and, not least in importance, just
how much it is going to cost them.
The local merchant can learn much
from their way of writing copy. In
a recent survey made by students of
j edvertising in DePauw University
j many families were intaerviewed who
j had purchased household furnishing
at what they considered to be unusual
bargain prices, with unusual guaran
tees, and they were surprised to learn
that these same articles could be pur
chased from local merchants at ap-
proximately the same price, some
times even for less, delivered to their
door, all set up ready for service,
and with local service opportunities
and unlimited guarantees. The fault J
is not with the mail order house or
the consumer. Both are within their
rights to buy and sell where they
will, the failure is with the local ad- (
vertiser who has not sold his store,
his product, and his service, along
with his fair price, to his fellow
townsman. i
I
First, you should recognize that
your store has an individuality, a per
sonality. just as you have. Study tKat
personality and try to express it in
all of your copy. Next make a list
of all the points of advertising value
in your store which are common to
other institutions of a like character
but particularly, underscore those
things which are peculiar to your busi
ness, your location, your selling plane
or your service. This is the blue
print to guide in all of your advertis
ing and give it continuity. Have a
slogan or trade name if you can get
a good one and stick to it. Strive to
create an interest in your store or
office as well as in your goods or
service. Find a point of contact
with your customers and then sit
down and talk to them in simple,
i every day English, put in lots of hu- ,
man interest and news interest, tell
the truth but use alittlb imagination
in telling it! ». r*. - -
The function of every advertise- ;
ment is to be seen, be read,- be be- 1
lieved, be remembered. And these
things cannot be accomplished by
those who think that advertising con
sists in a sudden decision to use so I
much space in a miscellaneous publi
cation, and that writing copy con- j
sists in handing the solicitor a letter
or bill-head with a curt, “Run that.” i
If you were going to write an impor
tant business letter to just one cus- j
tomer in the hope of making a ten
dollar sale you would spend more
than five minutes I am sure in formu
lating and typing the message, yet
this message which is to be broad
cast to hundreds of potential custo
mers is often the careless work of a
minute. Such advertising never paid
and never will. Thought must be
given to a caption which will arouse
attention, a beginning that will cre
ate interest, logical steps that will
build up desire, and an ending or
“clincher,” such as reasonable price,
to effect the sale.
But writing good copy is not all of
your task if you are to do effective
advertising in the smaller newspapers
THE VIDALIA ADVANCE
especially. You must be able to tell
the printer what you want in terms
that he will understand and you must
know that the best bit of copy that
was ever written could be made large
ly ineffectual if the elements of type
display and design are disregarded.
Layout, as it is called in advertis
ing vernacular, is not all all difficult,
and, to most merchants, it soon be
comes a fascinating indoor sport,
more interesting and more profitable
than cross-word puzzles. The toote
consist of a few proof sheets, a cut
service ,a pair of shears and a paste
pot.
Go to your local newspaper and
ask for prooof sheets of the common
display and body types which they
have available for ad composition.
Also ask for profs of all linotype bor
ders that they are able to cast. These
proofs will tell you just what kinds
and sizes of type you can specify in
your advertising.
After you have looked over some
fe\v pages of good advertising in the
newspapers and magazine, take your
type written copy and try arranging
it in a certain space with captions,
subcaptions, slogans, firm name,
graphs, price figures, etc. If the de
sign doesn’t suit, rearrange until you
are reasonably satisfied.- Now con
sult your proof sheets and so far as
possible mark the kind apij eiges of
type which y'ou want the printer to
' use. Practice will soon give you
facility in both the writing and de
signing of youi* advertisements and
because there is intelligent design
and planning behind them, as well as
a personality and continuity, they
will soon be read and remembered.
Next week at the Colonial, “THE
V' ANDERER.’ Don’t fail to see this
one.
“My wife is off,
And I have to cook, eat and an
swer every call;
I had rather have a make up,
Than have no wife at all.
Brittian’s Shoe Shop
Ask the Jew.
Wine 384 Years Old
Which is the oldest bottle of wine
In the world? As far as authenticated
records can settle this question ihe
palm undoubtedly goes to a bottle of
Steinweln—a Bavarian hock—which
bears on Its label the date 1540. The
384-year-old bottle and Its precious
contents, which Henry VIII might
have sampled, are in the possession
of a London wine °xnert
J.'.oniai Magnificence
Motif for JNew Palace
. , ' ' ... ... • • ••• •
The great wall of China, undoubt
edly the greatest of all human struc
tures and the ornate palaces of the
Chinese emperors who prevailed in a
civilization that was old long before
Columbus discovered America, are ar
chitectural inspiration of a new mo
tion picture palace of national dis
tinction that is soon to he completed.
It i 3 Grauman’s Chinese Theatre
and is being built at Hollywood Boule
vard and Orchid street, the very cen
ter of the film capital of the world.
It will have two entrances, one to the
forecourt and one to the theatre
proper. The forecourt entrance will
be through a gate In walls that are
forty-five feet high. And the entire
forecourt is surrounded by these
walls. The lower part of the walls will
be lined with tanks built in replica of
tropical seas and will be filled with
varicolored fishes from the Southern
waters.
Inside, the theatre will have aa
aisle which entirely surrounds the
seats. It will be separated from the
seats by columns of onyx seven feet
in diameter and reaching from floor
to high ceiling. Chinese rugs, porce
lains, tapestries and other ornate ob*
jects from the Orient will complete
the decorative scheme and it all will
be coupled with the most recent de
velopments of the theatre. The the
atre is designed to give the premier
performances and runs to each of the
two or three greatest pictures of the
year. The showman who is buildUm
it distinguished himself in the entire
world of entertainment when he
showed “The Covered Wagon” to
three-quarters of a million person* Ih
Los Angeles, a city of a million.
Thousands of the patrons were frbfll
all over the United States and thf
world.