HE effectiveness of any plan of advertising must depend largely upon the public that the advertiser hopes to reach. The truth of this is so obvious that there may be waste of space in printing it. Experts discuss the effect of this or that scheme upon the public just as if the farming public were composed of individuals having exactly similar mental and moral characteristics. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is every grade of intelligence, of buying power, of appreciation, of human needs. The public is the aggregate of many classes. When our experts write about the farmer and the way to reach him effectively, I call the roll of some of my neighbors, and try to decide how each would be impressed. Beyond the shadow of a doubt these men have nothing in common except an occupation, and it is a waste of time to regard them as a class to be dealt with in like manner by one who wants to get next to them.

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Of course, it does not follow that there is no science in advertisingno facts gathered and recorded for the guidance of men who want reach farmers. Being human beings, with few exceptions, we may be studied as such, as the natural weakness of the race can be counted upon with confidence. But especially is there need of expertness in classifying us according to our appreciation of our needs. The advertiser who can know the prevailing characteristics of the class that uses his kind and grade of goods freely is the one who can make an intelligent study of the merit of a scheme of advertising. His "public" is not farmers as a class, but it is a class of farmers. He may be dealing with those who need persistent reminders of their inquiry about some article, and who rather like to be receiving confidential com

munications with the address in one kind of ink and the body of the private letter in another kind of ink. There is a lot of just such folk among us. They are not critical. They buy gold rings for ten cents, and they want offers of 90 per cent off on all sorts of things they do not need. Frankly, the class that comprises such purchasers is not small. The man who would reach them should not use the methods employed by the one dealing with a very different class and yet farmers, all of them.

Following up the line of thought in June number of A. A., every class needs reminders of its needs, and the follow-up letter may be an effective means with every class-and therefore with the "public"-but effectiveness must still depend upon knowledge of the characteristics of the class with which the individual advertiser would deal. The following may throw a side light upon this fact:

There is a publication that presents a weekly digest of the news of the day. Although rather high-priced, it meets my needs so well that I was a subscriber for many years. Last year it tried merchandizing as a side line, to be in style and for incidental profit. The book offered appeared good enough, and I sent an agreement to take it and to renew subscription. This evidence of weakness on my part was seized upon as a good business reason for flooding me with most tempting book offers couched in the language that the tencent merchants use with ten-cent customers, and, in their eagerness to do business, error occurred concern'ing the renewal, two copies came to me at the rate of six dollars a year when a necessary three dollars look big to me, and in disgust I wrote the house to cancel all orders, drop my name from the subscription list, and raise the siege. It was the only way out with safety, but I would gladly

pay the price for the publication if the publishers would let me read it in peace.

I make the point that men who know enough to make a high-class literary publication should know that its "public" is a class that does not want an undue quantity of free advice. It is a class that seeks advice, but can select its advisers on all points.

The man who sells automobiles has his public, and so has the one who offers a "high grade leather couch"

for $3.33, but the literature that will be effective with the first class must have a ring to it quite different from that of the follow-up letters that would win the one wanting such a couch. All these buyers are a part of the "public," but the schemes that win with one class would repel another class. Expertness consists in knowing the average characteristics of the class furnishing one's customers, and using the means effective with them. These means, good for him, may be worthless to another.

S a general proposition it is true in the science of advertising as in any other science, that, adjectively speaking, things possess no properties of quantity or quality when considered alone. They are large or small, good or ill, costly or cheap, when compared with others. It follows logically that inquiries can only be considered in comparison with some standard of value. As in advertising the standard of value is the number of orders, so to properly appreciate inquiries, and to give to them their true value, they must be considered in relation they bear to orders. This relation is two-fold and falls naturally into heads of "inquiry cost" and "probability." I shall therefore treat the subject from these two standpoints in the endeavor to point out some means of deriving more profit from advertising by inducing profitable inquiries.

Of course one naturally looks upon a low inquiry cost as an indication of success. But it needs no argument to convince the advertiser that a low rate of cost per inquiry of itself is not sufficient. It is only when inquiries become orders that they are really profitable. In this article I do not consider at all the small mail order trade where cash always accompanies the first reply, but have in mind solely that class where advertising is employed to introduce the advertiser to the prospective purchaser, leaving thereafter to the selling department to secure the order.

The average advertiser figures that so long as he is receiving a large volume of inquiries from his papers, and doing a business that pays dividends, he is a successful advertiser. To an extent this is true, but the true test of success is to do the largest volume of business with the smallest outlay, and not to conclude that because one is not running behind one is making success.

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The common method is of course to divide the amount expended by the number of inquiries received, and the result is the inquiry cost. Thus if ten thousand dollars were invested, and ten thousand inquiries received, the inquiry cost is one dollar. Very simple, but like the age of Ann, or the weight of a brick that weighs half of itself plus 7 pounds, the seemingly simple answer is misleading.

To one selling products by mail, and by mail only, the only customers are those who answer his ads. The one selling to the trade procures his customers by his travellers and salesmen. As the ad. takes the place of the salesman and traveller in the initiatory work, so must the ad. bear its due proportion of expense. If therefore advertising is the sole connection between seller and customer it is at once evident that his inquiry cost is whatever amount is spent upon an inquiry. Thus the amount expended for space, catalogues, circulars, form letters, stationery, postage, clerk hire, salaries of ad. man and assistants, in fact whatever is incurred in working up the inquiry after getting it as well as the mere cost of getting it in the first place. I am aware that the agencies and publishers will take issue with me on this, but for the present I am considering methods for the advertiser to employ. The most flagrant error anyone can make is to deceive himself. The advertiser must figure his cost from his own standpoint, otherwise he is figuring wrongly.

Those of us who had the good fortune to be brought up on the farm, remember the country store where everything from hairpins to harrows, or codfish to carpets, was sold. About everything in fact that the community wanted was there. To be sure, the stock was meagre and choice confined within exceedingly narrow limits, but there was the early department store. When the larger department store and the mail order