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Legitimate College Advertising

From an Address at the Exercises in Commemoration of the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Founding of Iowa College, Grinnell, Iowa, May 16-21, 1907 By Marco Morrow

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And I suspect the very phrasing of the subject on which I, as an advertising man, have been asked to say a few words, "Legitimate College Advertising," betrays somewhat the same attitude of mind towards this modern commercial factor.

Perhaps what your program committee really had in mind is:

"Can an institution of higher learning legitimately, ethically and with all due dignity, employ in advancing its interests, methods which are most usually associated with pink pills and circus parades?"

The answer to this question, "Yes," or "No," depends as much upon the attitude the college is to take towards life and the college's concept of its function, as upon our understanding of the nature of advertising.

For, if the modern American college stands solely for an aristocracy of brains, for Culture with a big "C," and a limited meaning; if its function is to make scholars instead of men and women; if it teaches for teaching's sake and imparts learning for learning's sake alone, its direct influence upon the life of its day must ever be limited, and it can well afford to repose upon its dignity and in self-conscious superiority wait, as a modest maid awaits her lover, to be wooed and won only by those in whose hearts burn an overpowering desire for her favors.

But if, on the other hand, the American college is what I believe every one of you men and women believe it should be the interpreter of life to the rising

generation, equal with the church and the home in developing national character and in shaping national interests, then it is not only the college's privilege but its duty to go out into the highways and byways and gather them in; to be a missionary of a better, a higher and a fuller life; to become a propagandist of real education and to pursue its high calling with all the zealous fervor of a religious devotee.

And, gentlemen, I hope I shall not be accused of special pleading or of that narrow prejudice which it is difficult for a specialist of any kind to avoid, when I say there is no way in which a college can do this so effectively and so economically, as by employing in the right way, judiciously and with dignity, those means which the modern business world groups under the classification, "ADVERTISING."

In truth, there is no other way; because even in the technically commercial use of the word “advertise,” we embrace every dictionary meaning of the term. Whatever in any way turns the minds of the public towards a merchant, his wares and his business, is considered advertising. The business man's advertising account does not include merely the moneys he spends for announcements in the public press or for the defacement of God's landscape, but in most cases it is charged with an hundred other items whose object is to make known his business to the public.

So the college, either by its own efforts or by its loving friends, does advertise, in most cases legitimately even if not always most effectively.

But can the scope of its advertising be legitimately increased? Is it desirable that it should be increased? To

what extent can straight commercial advertising be employed by colleges?

I can see no reason why the advertising man should not approach this problem exactly as he approaches a commercial proposition. The modern advertising man-if he understands his business -is very wary of pronouncing the last word upon advertising. He knows no infallible rules. He will not say that any certain method of advertising is "best" either in a general way or for a specific commodity, because he has learned at the expense of years and dollars-that different men, different commodities, different classes of customers, different territories, all demand widely different methods of treatment, in order to effect the desired end.

In other words, the advertising man must diagnose the case before he prescribes treatment-and it not infrequently happens that he prescribes the "rest cure," rather than a dose of advertising.

I mean that I shall not attempt to say anything this afternoon which can be applied to the special needs of any special college-because each specific case requires special study. Nevertheless, there are certain fundamental principles which will guide us in determining whether or not a college can legitimately employ this modern force-and to what extent the force may be employed.

Primarily, and I think ultimately, the object of all college advertising should be this:

To give the public the right concept of the mission and function of the college.

On the one hand we have a very prevalent idea-an idea which I fear the higher institutions of learning have sometimes unwittingly encouraged that Education is an end rather than a means, and that therefore the boy who must equip himself for the hard knocks of the world's work can under only especially favorable circumstances afford "to waste" four years in the study of

Latin and Greek and Abstract Philosophy. And so we find many selfmade men pointing with pride to their own material achievements, and saying to the college:

"No doubt but ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you. But I have understanding as well as you."

And understanding of a certain sort they have—and Education, too.

On the other hand we have an insistent demand for a more "practical" education-an education concerned with how rather than with why-an education that deals with the coming man's work, rather than with his life.

The American college has made certain concessions to this demand, and yet the strictly technical schools, the normal schools, the "correspondence colleges," and institutions which educate "while you wait," spring up and flourish. However beneficial they may be under certain limitations, they can never take the place in our national life which the college should and must occupy, and it is the duty of the college to see to it that the young men and young women of America know what it is that the college offers them, and know that they cannot get it elsewhere. And the college itself must bring this knowledge to them.

This may be missionary work, pure and simple, but the college owes its first duty to the community as a whole; the young men and the young women in your class-rooms are merely the materials the people have given you to work with.

Moreover, while educating the general public to a fuller appreciation of the function of the college may be missionary work, like the missionary spirit everywhere, it blesses him that gives more than him that receiveth. No method will do more to attract to your school earnest young manhood and womanhood-the material you most

desire.

But to be a little more concrete. Most educational advertising today is Simple Publicity-the mere announcement of the school, its standing and its physical advantages.

Educational advertising that is strictly competitive, that is, which seeks to build up at the expense of another, can hardly fail to be more or less obnoxious to the real educator. It unquestionably does savor too much of the methods of the gentlemen with the pink pills.

But because Publicity Advertising is not fully effective, and because Competitive Advertising is offensive, does not argue that the higher form of advertising-Creative Advertising, will not be both legitimate and effective.

As to methods, I have already said that each case requires specific treatment, dependent upon the thousand and one special conditions surrounding each institution.

Knowing colleges as well as you gentlemen do, you doubtless would select one institution for one boy and another for another boy-because youth is various and colleges differ in methods and excel in different lines. The college advertisement should pulsate with the individual spirit of that college, and should be directed to those persons whom that college can do the most good.

Most colleges are territorial in their respective spheres of influence. It should be the aim of the college to keep before the parents and youth of that territory a strong, convincing statement that will lead the boy and girl to desire above all things, the training for life that only a college can give-not a perfunctory, formal statement, but direct, heart-toheart talks such as you would give your own son should he weary of school routine and long for the battle of life before he is properly developed and equipped.

The college needs what we call in business a good "follow-up" system. It needs good newspaper and periodical

advertising which will put it in touch with the youth of its territory and then booklets and catalogues and circulars and letters which will keep alive the interest the advertising awakens. The average college catalogue needs a thorough reformation. Today it is attractive enough, perhaps, but it is cold, dignified and formal. It may be just as dignified without coldness, and may be made an "appeal-direct" without becoming gushing. The college must stretch forth its hand and assure the youth of a welcome.

Magazines and periodicals carry more educational advertising every year-the larger proportion of it, that of preparatory, "finishing" and technical schools; the larger "correspondence schools" spend thousands and tens of thousands for publicity, but the college proper— the institution to which the nation looks for its future leaders-is seldom found employing this legitimate means of reaching the youth of the land.

Is it not true that these schools have advanced at the expense of the college? Is it not true that many a fond mother is sending her daughter for a smattering of education to a fashionable "finishing school," when the girl needs the same training that would come from hard work under your guidance? Is it not true that many a young man who could and should be in a real college is spending his time and money in acquiring a half-baked education? Has the student body of our colleges increased in due proportion with the increase in population and increase in prosperity? And, finally, gentlemen, in all courtesy but with perfect candor, has the college itself advanced in public esteem and in standing as it should? To this question I have only the answer of numerous college professors who bewail in the public prints the decline of the college's influence.

As a layman, as an outside observer of matters educational, I deny that the American college today is less efficient

than it ever was. I believe it has kept step with the times and that as able, as aggressive, as noble and as self-sacrificing men as ever before are devoting their talents and their lives to its work, but we cannot deny that it has not the hold upon the public that it once had. And, gentlemen, "What's the good of unknown good?"

Even the gospel of Eternal Life must be heralded incessantly the world around by countless missionaries of the Cross. Can we hope that a matter of lesser importance will take care of itself?

I asked you, in my presentation of facts as I saw them, not to consider me a "special pleader," but before I sit down I want to plead with every college here represented to make known to people what it stands for, and to stretch forth to as many youths as it can by any possibility reach, a persuasive, welcoming hand that urges him to develop to the full the possibilities that are within him.

And, gentlemen, you cannot do it, without the use of "straight advertising" in the public press.

Who Foots the Bills?

What Proportion of the Cost of Production Does the Subscription Income of a Farm Paper Bear?

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LSEWHERE in this issue of AGRICULTURAL ADVERTISING it is pointed out that both advertising rates and subscription rates are governed by the same laws which govern the prices of other commodities not controlled by monopoly-that is, by the law of supply and demand. Nevertheless, it is interesting to publishers and advertisers to note the proportion of expense of production of agricultural papers borne by the subscriber and by the advertiser.

The opinions of a number of representative publishers follow:

"I sincerely believe the subscription income of a farm paper ought to net 75 per cent of the actual cost of production. By cost of production I mean the white paper, composition, printing, mailing and paid matter which goes into the publication-leaving off everything except actual editorial work in the preparation of the matter for the compositor. I cannot say that our subscription income pays that proportion, but it comes very near to that percentage. I feel confident, however, that from an experience of twenty-five years with publishers of all kinds of papers, the subscription income does not on an average bear more than

40 per cent of this cost. If this estimate is wrong in any way, it is too high."

"In a new agricultural publication the proportion of expense of production necessarily falls heavily upon the subscription department-often from 75 per cent to 90 per cent of the revenue coming from that source and the balance in whole or in part going in as investment of capital. Later, the percentage declines and the proportion borne by advertising increases until the latter, in the most prosperous farm journals, much exceeds the circulation receipts. I have no doubt that the gross advertising receipts of certain farm publications are 80 per cent of their revenue and that the gross subscription receipts do not exceed 20 per cent. This is perhaps an extreme case of good, low-priced papers getting an extraordinary proportion of their receipts from advertising. What the proportion ought to be, I would not venture to say, but on the average the net subscription receipts do not bear more than 40 per cent of the expense of publication."

"We have always considered that the subscription price of a paper should

carry the expense of the three items affected by the increased subscription. That is, white paper, press work and postage. On our own paper these three items cost us 80 per cent of our gross subscription price."

"In the case of our paper, the receipts from subscriptions pay 80 per cent of the cost of the paper, printing and mailing, and our subscription price is only 75 cents a year. If it were $1 a year, as it ought to be, the subscription receipts would probably pay the entire cost of production. But if you mean by cost of production the entire expense of operating a publication business, including salaries, labor, editors and contributors, postage of all kinds, traveling and other expenses, stationery and printing, subscription work, etc., then our subscription receipts do not pay more than 40 per cent of this expense."

"I believe the receipts from subscriptions for any farm publication ought to pay at least one-half of the total expenses of publication, and that advertising ought to pay the other half. In our case, our subscription receipts pay about 40 per cent of the cost of running our business, exclusive, of course, of dividends. Consequently the advertising pays the other 60 per cent as well as any profit that there may be in the business for us."

"We believe that the subscription department ought to be charged with the cost of the paper stock only. We realize that this does not coincide with the opinion held by other publishers. Indeed, we think there are very few agricultural publications whose subscription receipts will more than pay for the amount it costs to get them, so that the subscription department, I venture to say, of at least 50 per cent of the agricultural papers not only does not stand any of the cost of the production of the

paper, but does not even produce a sufficient amount of money to pay the cost of the circulation department."

"The subscription income ought to bear as much as you can make it bear. In order to explain that this answer is not 'Begging the question,' it is necessary to explain my personal view of the publisher's problem. It is first necessary to eliminate from the business basis of a publication any such consideration as political, philanthropic, or educational purposes. We must assume in looking at the publishing business as a business problem, that the sole motive is to conduct a permanently profitable business.

"This being the case, let us assume that the publisher is running a manufacturing plant, not for the purpose of producing papers, but for the purpose of manufacturing advertising space which will command the highest market price. In order to do this, he has various expenses, such as the mechanical, editorial and circulating expenses, in addition to the cost of raw material, such as paper and ink.

"Now, how are we to arrive at the cost of the product which he is producing? In order to do so, we must regard any income from circulation as an income from the sale of a by-product. Going ahead on this basis, suppose a publisher has produced during a given year 100,000 inches of space, for which he receives $2.00 per inch, or a total of $200,000.00. We will say that his expenses are $175,000.00. We will say that his income from the sale of his byproduct, viz.. circulation, is $25,000.00. We will credit the income from the byproduct against the expense, making a net expense of $150,000.00, or an average cost per inch for the production of his product of $1.50.

"Now, let us see how this works out in a practical way. The publisher appreciates the fact that the more circulation he produces, the greater is the value of

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