Printing quality is another consideration. The design must be such that it can be used in well printed magazines and the poorly printed newspapers, in fine catalogs, on labels, circulars and what not. It is an advantage if it be odd enough to rivet the eye. But most frequently in attempting to accomplish this very thing it goes beyond reasonable limitations. The result is freakish, unattractive. We believe that the preparation of a trademark is worth considerable thought and investment. If figures are to be used, we believe that the best artists obtainable should be secured to draw them. Artists who can stamp an originality upon their work that will make your trademark distinctive, away from all precedent. The famous Wool Soap habies formed one of the best trademark designs that has ever been used. The original of this was drawn by J. C. Leyendecker in his earlier days. And the picture had an artistic value as well as "cuteness, and told a story. Wool Soap had, we understand, more or less vicissitudes. But it is our belief that it was the unfortunate name, and certainly not the valuable trademark, which was their cause. A slogan, too, is important. But here the most careful choice is necessary. So frequently an advertiser is lead to adopt a saying because it has a rhythm, a tinkle and swing, because it is pat and "catchy." Yet that same slogan may not tell the story at all. The ideal slogan is one that sums up the main arguments in favor of a product, in a single sentence. Slogans difficult to create? Of course they are. But they, like trademarks, are worth all the time and money they cost-provided a real one is secured. But important as trademarks and slogans are, there is great. danger in relying upon them too much. The advertiser is likely to get the notion that having a design signifying his goods and a strong phrase about them, he has in reality a complete adver tisement. This is far from true. The trademark and the slogan will work well into the campaign, but they are not the campaign. And they should be relegated to their proper importance in connection with forceful arguments-real selling talk. こ S Working Out By J. GEORGE FREDERICK OME eight or nine years ago, when the combination idea began to permeate everything, someone hit on the brilliant idea that advertising and sales co-operation would be just as possible as financial combination. From that day on there has been increasing attempt on the part of trade associations, manufacturers' associations, groups of manufacturers and allied interests of many sorts, to escape the burden of financing an advertising appropriation through the means of co-operative effort. I must say that the net results have not been highly satisfactory, except in a few isolated cas s. But I must also further say that there is distinctly nothing against the method. The trouble has always been with the men who use the method and not with the method. Combination and cooperation are efficiency methods which cannot successfully be assailed and it is always the people who do the co-operating that make the fall-down. The general trou The trouble is that the small mind invariably sees two things in any co-operative enterprise; he hates to spend any money and kicks at even the small pittance which is asked of him in co-operation. Even when he does pay he is constantly suspecting the other fellow of getting one thousandth of one per cent over him. This has kicked more association plans into the discard than any other thing, and it will not be possible to extend co-operative advertising to any great and successful degree, until the small minds are eliminated from the proposition almost entirely, and the broader minds in NEXT COMES the CYPRESS "SUGI" BOOK: ornate effect in CYPRESS GRAIN "The most distinguished novelty in Wood Finish presented to the artistic public in a century," (And you can do it.) it reproduces perfectly the famous Antique Japanese Driftwood Effects Get your order in for New VOL. 26 Cypress Pocket Library at once so as to give you time to decide what articles made of SUGI you want to give, and whether to make it yourself or hire it done. The book tells all about it, gives many delightful ideas what to make of light-weight Cypress boards after applying the wonderful Japanese "Sugi" finish, and tells exactly How To Do The Work At Home. (Note: The same process has been attempted on other woods but without success. This is our good fortune as well as yours. LEARN WHY in Hew Vol. 26.) 1 CYPRESS BUILD BUTORE Let our "ALL ROUND RELES DEPARTMENT help YOU Our entire resources are at your servire ith Reliable Chal SOUTHERN CYPRESS MANUFACTURERS' ASSOCIATION 1704 HIBERNIA BANK BUILDING, NEW ORLEANS, LA. the industry gather together for closer co-operation. The blanket co-operation idea, including every Tom, Dick and Harry, is pretty well nigh impossible. The great sin which all the associations and co-operative enterprises have been guilty of, and are still guilty of to a large degree, is a tender and misguided belief in the efficacy of the Press Agent. Time after time the press agent has walked away with what little money could be gathered by associations and with many winkings of the eye and golden promises, set himself up somewhere with nothing but a typewriter, a pair of scissors, a paste pot and a scrap book, and began operations to popularize the use of some product. INSIST ON CYPRESS AT YOUR LOCAL DEALER'S IP HE HASN'T IT. LET US KNOW IMMEDIATELY You ble seems to lie in the law of averages. get 100 men together and there is just as certain to be a certain proportion of "dubs" and small minds in the 100 as it is certain that 17 out of every 1,000 people die every year and that 32 to every 1,000 are born every year. Somehow human nature seems to be about as cut and dried as that; and those who have made efforts to influence associations to advertise or combine their sales efforts now look for just this element and direct their first efforts to fighting it. To the advertising men trained in modern methods, this was pitiful and aggravating, but to the men in the industry (usually of the type not able to dispense money for advertising individually) this seemed a most economical way to do wonderful things. At each annual meeting the press agent would appear with scrap books filled to the brim with various kinds of clippings, none of which would be too closely examined, and all of which would be claimed as being glorification of the product, the association or interests represented; and the press agent would make great claims as to the approximate advertising value of this free space. The plain unadulterated truth of these things was first: that the clippings did not have anything to do with the subject anyway; and second: whatever got by the newspaper was of such a character that only the eager and niggardly association members could possibly see any hope of it doing the industry any good. As long as the name of their product (the common unbranded staple title of the article) was mentioned, that was sufficient for both the press agent and for such members for a time. For instance; if the interests representing salt would combine and pay the press agent several hundred dollars a week, by some miracle they were satisfied when the press agent presented masses of clippings in which the word "salt" appeared somewhere; no matter in what connection or in what manner. This was called advertising! No wonder that the press agent did not last very long and was succeeded by one after another, until the stock of promises and golden dreams each had were exhausted. After a few years, of course, results would not show any better, usually worse, then the members of such associations would wake up. Advertising men who saw this little game going on finally could stand it no longer and they took the "bull by the horns." In some cases they invited themselves to the trade and association conventions, where these things were discussed and where the press agent had gathered his quarry. And the truth began to be placed before these people. The few thousand dollars which such an association were able to use were spurned by the modern type of advertising men, and the associations then were told to keep their money, if they could not raise a sufficient sum to do the thing right. Any man who refused real money was a novelty to such associations as a rule (for the press agents of course never did!) and they sat up and took notice. But even after some of these associations had become convinced that display advertising of a legitimate sort was the kind that was necessary, new troubles arose in the difficulty of raising and assessing for money. Instead of the picayune sums which had been contrib uted, it was necessary to raise larger sums, and this called for the usual amount of hustle and energy and system. Take the case of the brick manufacturers: The increasing vogue of cement had gradually driven the brick men to very carefully look into their industry and commiserate on their situation. Instead of jumping in long ago and using the same tools -advertising-that cement was using, they delayed a long time and used the press agent method. Then one day a live advertising man told them that instead of spending the few thousands which they had, he would advise that they get up a competition among architects for plans for the best brick house; issue them in a book, and then use the book as a means of securing inquiries when a later sum was raised to go into the magazines. The raising of the sum simply to conduct the contest and print the book was quite a task in itself, and somewhat discouraged the association from attempting to raise the larger sum ($100,000) for advertising. However, a good start was made and the association is now endeavoring continually to raise money. They still hope to swing into a thorough-going national advertising campaign with the book as a basis. Such advertising as has been done has been excellently fruitful, and the association is about convinced of the efficiency of good advertising of the real kind. The tile manufacturers have had much the same sort of experience. $10,000 was raised on a pro rata basis and it was agreed that four uses would be given publicity-tiles for kitchens, for fire places, for walls and for floors. The usual difficulty of dissatisfactions arising from too large a number of people who did not have the broad view resulted, and altho the campaign has been an interesting success, so far as they have gone, an effort is now being made to get a closer and more restricted organization of about seventy-five to carry on the campaign from this point. Thirty-seven thousand inquiries for the booklet were received from the advertising and a single manufacturer was selected to act as a clearing house for these inquiries. They were referred back to the manufacturers living within a certain radius from the originating source of the inquiry. The Holstein Friesian Association (of cattle breeders) is another good example of how perfect unity of interest can carry co-operative plans to thorough success and to demonstrate that there is nothing the matter with the co operative idea inherently. The Jersey Cattle Club is of the same type and both have been advertising effectively. The National Canners' Association has also done an interesting work, brought together by the common necessity of defending itself against the tirade of denunciation of the tin can. It has been the means of reaching a per capita consumption of 21 cans per family per annum, and has put out some excellent advertising. The idea is now spreading into trade associations generally, to be used for more settled purposes than have perhaps been used heretofore. The Lumber manufacturers have grouped together to push the cause of a particular kind of lumber (cypress, white pine, red gum, etc.), with unusual success, and the Laundry Men's Association have endeavored to co-operate to push the cause of steam laundries against hand laundries. It is quite likely that the future will see a great deal more of this kind of advertising than ever before, as there are a great many causes to be pushed and interests to be advanced which are not, in their single units, strong enough to meet the increasing cost of space and the increasing necessity for using larger space, all by themselves. The same principles that A have compelled manufacturers to combine in an association, seems to have effect upon other interests, and resulted in plans for advertising co-operatively. There are some most interesting co-operative stunts being put through in the line of co-operation between non-competitive products. A number of machine tool people in Massachusetts have combined to issue a single circular; while in export lines cooperation in advertising and cataloguing has been a pronounced success. A movement is now on foot to start a Retailers' Efficiency Alliance, which will be financed co-operatively by a group of large national advertisers in order to give the retailers an opportunity to get expert and efficient counsel in their retail problems-thus in the long run giving the manufacturers better service in increasing local consumption of their goods. The germ has thoroughly permeated the sales and advertising field and interesting combinations and ideas may be looked for in this direction. I have recently compiled an exhaustive report for a foreign client on the subject of cooperative sales and publicity methods and I have had my own eyes quite opened by the extent to which I found the method in use among various interests, which I had not known be fore. The Personality Behind Advertising By OLIVIA BARTON STROHM. GREAT deal has been said and written about personality in Advertising, and how a man with goods to sell reveals himself in the way he sells it. Granted that this is true to some extent, it is by no means the law it used to be. For the same reason that editors no longer dominate the policy of the paper, but follow, rather, the trend of public thought, so advertising nowadays must fit in with public sentiment-it must cater to the tastes of the audience rather than echo the personality of the man behind it. In short, the courtesy and good sense that prevail in business today, show themselves, also, in Advertising. It is the buyer, not the seller, who is to be pleased. The politeness which is the rule behind the counter-insisted upon in all departments of modern merchandizing is also extended to the Advertisement reader. The buyer in the home as well as in the store is to be conciliated and pleased-is to be approached as he likes rather than according to the wishes of the man who sells the goods. For example-the man with a Baby's Crib to sell may be fully convinced that the Bank Guarantee of his business integrity, and his own photograph and signature are the best arguments-carrying the most forceful plea in the world. But he is easily persuaded that a woman is more sensitive to the appeal of Free Draperies, by the pictures of the Crib or a pretty baby, and other touches of home-sentiment, than by the masculine idea of business security. So he promptly sinks his own personality and opinions and writes a follow-up booklet which seems to him more sentimental than sensible. But he is polite to his readers-also he sells his goods. Advertisers have learned not only that they must take their goods to the right market; that they must watch the seasons, mediums, etc., but they have learned, also that they must follow the tastes of the audience, and write the kind of advertising the people want rather than what they want. An instance of adapting the style of advertising to the public temper is shown by a glance at the columns of a prominent English daily. Where but in England would newspaper readers wade through columns of six-point type! To be sure, they are interspersed with an occasional cut and frequent bold headlines, but there are columns of Advertising (display ads, too) next to reading matter in type much smaller than that in which the news items are set. Six-inch space with three hundred words of text is not uncommon in the great London dailies. There is liberal white on black, and prices are always prominently displayed, the English ad-writers afterwards proceed to tell the story at length, trusting to the wellknown patience and leisurely methods of the long-suffering Briton. but He would not dare do this in America. An Advertiser may want to indulge in printed harangue, but the readers "won't stand for it" and so he condenses and cuts and after he has said as little as possible he again uses the blue pencil. This is to follow the lead of an impatient, busy people, who, unconsciously dominate whether he will or no. Time was when the ideas and pet hobbies of one man ruled not only the policy but the literary style of the newspaper. His private opinions shone in every stick of type, and the reading world sat up and wondered what the editor was going to say next. But those days are over. And to the people who deplore them there is consolation in the remark of a certain famous editor at a recent journalist's gathering in New York-"The newspaper of today is no longer one man's penny whistle; it is the Nation's Megaphone." And so with Advertising-it is the mouthpiece of the people; the printed message of the markets of the world where are answered every practical human need. And according as its mission broadens-as it gains dignity from universal attention, Advertising must, of necessity, talk to the world in the language and method that world demands. Fortunately the audience is wide and varied; fortunately, too, there will always be plenty of chance for the individuality of the Advertiser to show itself, and for the exercise of his own taste in the main guidance of his campaigns. But after all, that which claims the the public ear, and pulls at the public purse, must, of necessity, be governed by the public taste. Linking the dealer with farm paper advertising in the Northwest is the object of the Dealer's Buying Guide just gotten out by the Orange Judd Company and Bushnell Co., publishers of Northwest Farmstead and the Dakota Farmer. It is a large, substantial book of 200 pages with board covers, and it drives home the moral, "Why Local Dealers Benefit by Handling Advertised Goods." This is the most important contribution to the dealer's co-operation idea that we have seen made by any publication. The book contains reproductions of a series of advertisements used by these publications directed to general consumers, telling why they should buy advertised goods. It also contains reproductions of the most important campaigns that have been running in the above-named two papers. One of the features of this Dealer's Buying Guide is an offer of $500 in prizes for the best letters from dealers on the suggestions brought out by the Guide. At the back of the book are included a large number of perforated post cards for the convenience of the dealer in getting in touch with Advertiser-Manufacturers. Cover of Orange Judd Company's 200-Page TradeBooster, "Dealers' Buying Guide.' |