■m^m m Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/artofadvertisingOOstearich WINDSOR CASTLE, Fm. 18. - The Queen and Eer Royal Highness Princess Henry nf lUittenberg dro^e out yesterday aiter. oon, attended by the Hen. Mr«;. Grant. Ilie Marquis of Salisbury, K.G., Prime Minister and Secretary of SUte for Foreign Affairs, arrived at the Ostle aud bad n.n audience of Her Majesty, and after- witrds had the booour of dining with the Queen and the Royal Family Her Majesty went out this mominj;, accompanied by Ha r C! rand Ducal Highness Princess Louis of Batten- berg The Marquis of Salisbury has left the Castle The Bishop of Bangor (the Right Rev. Watkio Herbert Williams, D.D.) arrived at tbo Castle to-day and was introduced to the Queen's presence by the Lord in Waiting and did homage on his appointment. The Right Hon. Sir Matthevr White Ridley, M.P., Seci'etary of State for the Home Department, waa present and administered the oath. The Bishop of Winchester, Clerk of the Closet, was in attendance Her Grand Ducal Highness Princess Louis of Batten- berp was present with Her Majesty. The Earl of Denbigh and Colonel Lord William Cecil were in attendance as Lerd and Groom in Waiting Pkbbuaey 19 The Queen drove out yesterday aftemoonj_nccom- ^ Xof ROY.'\L ADVERTISEMENTS. CDe Urt of Jiaoertisinfl. Its Theory and Practice Fully Described BY WILLIAM STEAD, JR WITH THIRTY-SEVEN ILLUSTRATIONS. PRICE 3s. 6d. PUBLISHED BY T. B. BROWNE, LTD., 163, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, LONDON, E.G. AND AT MANCHESTER, GLASGOW, AND PARIS. All Kighis Reserved. H^ sPBfcjcas " The man who first took advantage of the general curiosity that was excited by a siege or a battle to betray the readers of news into the knowledge of the shop where the best puffs and powders were to be sold, was undoubtedly a man of great sagacity, and profound skill in the nature of man." Dk. Johnson. " The great art of writing advertisements is the finding the proper method to catch the reader's eye, without which a good thing may pass unobserved." Joseph Addison. "Advertising is to business what steam is to machinery, the grand propelling power." Lord Macau lay. 113552 CONTENTS. Preface PAGE 7 PART I.— THE THEORY OF ADVERTISING. CHAPTER I. The Universality of Advertising II. The Function of Advertising III. The Advertising World IV. The Evolution of Advertising . V. The Advertising Agent II i8 24 36 42 PART II.— THE PRACTICE OF ADVERTISING. I. T. B. Browne, Ltd. II. The Art of Advertising III. Colonial Advertising . IV. Foreign Advertising V. Pictorial Advertising . VI. Auxiliary Branches PART III.— THE GROWTH OF PRESS ADVERTISING. I. The Day of Small Things 115 II. Progress since 1855 128 138 • 51 . 61 . 75 91 . 95 . . 105 III. Magazinedom . IV. Hints by Experts 145 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, facing facing A Royal Advertiser . Royal Advertisements Two Characteristic Advertisements A Doctor's Advertisement A Typical Hoarding . . A Row OF Sandwichmen . The Microcosm of a Nation . Mr. Gladstone's Post-card The Old Style of Pushing Wares Now-a-Days : The Advertising Agent Specimens of the Advertising Agent's Handiwork A Nerve Centre of the Industrial World T. B. Browne, Ltd. : Counting House . Do. Do. Branch Offices . Do. Do. Strong Room and Safes Do. Do. Electrotype Store Room Exterior Black Shop, or Moulding Room Do. Do. Battery Room Rutland Foundry Do. Do. PAGE 13 14 15 16 25 27 29 32-3 38 39 47 53 55 56-7 59 59 61 63 65 T. B. Browne, Ltd. Do. Do. Do.' Do. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Checking Department Newspaper Filing Room Colonial and Foreign De partment Sydney, New South Wales Melbourne, Victoria Ottawa, Canada Calcutta, India . Capetown, Cape Colony . T. B. Browne, Ltd. : Art Department Etchers' Room Photographic Studio Trade Marks Department Compositors' Room T. B. Browne, Ltd. : Press Department Facsimile of the First Known Press Advertise- ment Facsimile of Title Page of the Weekely Newes . Facsimile of Cover, Etc., of " The Advertiser's Do. Do. Do. Do. Do, Do. Do. Do. A.B.C." facing Diagrams Illustrating the Growth of Newspaper Advertising facing PAGE 67 69 77 79 79 81 83 87 97 lOI 103 107 109 III 116 117 130 136 PREFACE, " To Advertise or not to Advertise ? " is the question which continually confronts the business man. In order to assist in the solution of this problem, we publish this booklet on " The Art of Advertising." It is an attempt to explain, in a simple and lucid fashion, the relation of advertising to modern business enterprise. The importance of advertising has long been recognised by the more enlightened members of the business and industrial world. Many, however, have not yet grasped its true significance, or have failed _tc^ fully appreciate its seriousness. It is for these that the following pages are written. Instead of reiterating the supreme importance of advertise- ment we have rather endeavoured to describe the laws which govern the action of advertising. Without entering into too minute detail we have indicated the reasons which are com- pelling business men, year by year, to pay increased attention to the advertising branch of their business. The first part of this booklet is therefore devoted to " The Theory of Adver- tising." Advertising has sprung up so rapidly that little attention has been paid to the laws which control its growth. Although, from our experience, extending over thirty years, we are convinced of the immense importance of adver- tising in business, we are equally certain that advertisement, without an adequate comprehension of its elementary laws, is simply a waste of good money. Wise and accurate know- ledge is essential to successful advertising. 8 PREFACE. Ill the second part — ''The Practice of Advertising" — we have taken the work of our firm as a practical example of the methods by which advertising can be successfully employed. In doing so w^e have no desire to claim credit for ourselves to which we are not entitled. But it seems to us that we owe it to advertisers and to the public generally to place at their disposal the practical conclusions at which we have arrived after years of the closest study of advertising at Home, in the Colonies, and Abroad. This, we believe, will give a more vivid idea of how advertising is carried on at the present day than any other method that could have been adopted. In Part III. we have endeavoured to give a readable but succinct account of the extraordinary growth of Press Adver- tising. We have traced its development since its establishment on English soil to the present day. We hope that the chapters devoted to this subject will not only interest the advertiser and the general public, but will enable them to form a more accurate idea as to the position of the periodical Press to-day and the part Advertising has played in its rapid and remarkable expansion. Finally, we hope this booklet may help in dispelling some of the erroneous impressions which are prevalent among the public as to Advertising and Advertising Agents. PART I. THE THEORY OF ADVERTISING CHAPTER I. The Universality of Advertising. In time past there was a prejudice against Advertising. It still lingers here and there, but it is rapidly passing away. There is an impression, widespread, but unfounded, that the art of advertising is an invention of the latter half of the nine- teenth century. Nothing could be further from the truth. Advertising has always existed, and must necessarily always exist. Even in the most primitive condition of society the advertiser flourished, although the means he employed were rude, and such as appealed to the imaginations of those in the midst of whom he lived. The scalps with which an Indian chief decorated his person would shock the feelings of a more sensitive age ; but it was the most effective means the Red Indian could adopt to advertise his importance to his fellows. As society has become more civilised, advertising has not only become more general, but also more refined. The spirit of the nineteenth century has influenced advertising as it has modifled all the conditions of our life. Formerly, advertising was the monopoly of the privileged classes ; now it is recognised as being the common privilege of all sections of the community. To look down on advertising as if it were something which may be necessary, but which is at best a disagreeable necessity, is entirely to misread the history of the development of mankind. But for advertisement, progress would largely cease. Advertisement is the vital force which animates society, which spurs on 12 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. the more backward and acts as a linely linked chain, binding man to man and nation to nation. If we look at society as it exists to-day, we find that all classes of the community diligently and persistently advertise. By so doing they preserve themselves from extinction. The outcry of some people against what they regard as a new- method of a Democratic age is unreal and disingenuous. For what is objected to proves upon examination not to be adver- tisement'itself, but only the particular method of advertisement which offends the taste or shocks the modesty of the critic. For it will be found that in most instances those who say they object to advertising are themselves profiting every hour of their lives by a system of elaborately organised advertisement, which is none the less advertisement because in many cases it does not need to be paid for. So much free advertisement is the birthright of every peer, baronet, knight, and country squire in the land. Plain John Smith inherits no right to free adver- tisement, so, if he wishes to remind his fellow men that he in- habits this planet, he must do so at his own expense. He must advertise. But the duke or the baronet has no need to incur such expenditure ; a right to a prominent place in all the direc- tories, court guides, peerages, and the like is secured to him by the mere accident of his birth. He is the happy possessor of unlimited free advertisement from the cradle to the grave. Wherever he goes, whatever he says, is carefully chronicled in the papers. And this lucky mortal with a perpetual free run in the news columns of the papers sneers at the man who can only obtain admittance into the advertising pages in return for money dow-n ! We all advertise — from the Queen on the Throne to the shoeblack in the street. The Monarchy, for instance, adver- tises itself everywhere. The Queen, it is true, does not buy space in every newspaper in order to make known her existence. But, paradoxical as it may appear, the Queen is probably the best-advertised person in the Three Kingdoms. THE UNIVERSALITY OF ADVERTISING. 13 What advertiser among the leviathans of trade and industry would not joyfully exchange his best position for that occu- pied by the brief, bold diary of Royal movements in The Court Circular f The Sovereign does not placard the street with great posters on every hoarding. These things perish with, the day. The Monarchy has advertisements of the mural order which are not so ephemeral. The Royal A ROYAL ADVERTISER. Arms confront us everywhere, and the Royal initials are to be seen stamped on every letter-box of the land. Carved in stone or cast in bronze they are a perpetual advertisement of the existence of the Monarchy. But this does not exhaust the ingenious devices adopted by Royalty to advertise itself. The Royal Standard is essentially an advertisement, and in itself is no bad substitute 14 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. for the sandwich-man. It is at once more effective and more conspicnous. Not even the most resourceful and successful merchant has been able to devise an advertisement which is as telling as the few yards of bunting w^hich bear the trade-mark, as it were, of the nation and the Alonarch. The advertising instinct of the Crown is very keen. Some years ago an ingenious advertiser stamped his name and superscription across the French pennies that were then largely circulated in England. Everyone admitted the eft'ectiveness of the advertisement. But no coin is allowed to go into . circulation until it has been stamped w-ith the image of Her Majesty the Queen. Copper, silver, gold — it is all alike. The circulating medium of the nation is nothing more nor less than a Royal advertisement. After the coin of the realm nothing is so universally used as the postage stamp. Here again the Monarchy has been quick to recognise a unique opportunity for advertisement. Every stamp bears a reproduction of the Queen's head. By this means the Queen of England is advertised in the remotest corners of the world. It is simply nonsense to say this is not advertisement. In what does it dift'er from the oft'er of the enterprising printer who, when post-cards were introduced, wished to supply the cards for nothing if he might print his name and address inconspicuously on each ? And yet there are people who, while honouring the Queen's advertisement, have nothing but haughty contempt for the printers ! We find the same anxiety for advertisement in all grades of society. Let no one imagine that the gentry '^ who never advertise " are indifferent to advertisement. No people could be more prompt to resent the dropping of their names — their advertisement — from the pages of '' Burke " or of ^' Debrett." It is almost as essential to the maintenance of their position in the country and in society as advertisement is to the prosperity of Pears' Soap or Cadbury's Cocoa. A THE UNIVERSALITY OF ADVERTISING. 15 conspicuous instance of the use of advertisement among a class which is usually, but erroneously, supposed to consider itself '' above " advertising is the display of coats of arms, crests, and coronets. A coronet on the panel of a carriage door is essentially the same as, say, the outstretched hand of the Homocea advertisement with its legend, *' It Touches An Earl's Coronet. (C2 2s. a vear.) ■• IT TOUCHES THK SPOT." (So much per inch. Probably not less than ;^io,ooo a year.) I'WO CH.AK.ACTEKISTIC .AUVERTISEMEN1> the Spot." The proud possessor of the coat of arms pays the Government annually for the right to advertise himself on his own carriage door, just as the trader pays the newspaper for space in which to display his device. In both cases the object is the same. Each advertises as best he can i6 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. the fact that he is either better than his neighbours or different from them. In other words, each endeavours to gain attention, to make himself, if not conspicuous, at least capable of identilication. In the world of politics the instinct for advertisement is as fully developed as in the world of commerce and industry. Even the statesman, who in public loudly professes his disdain for newspapers, is eagerly anxious that his utterances should be fully reported in the press. This is his advertise- ment ; it is his rieans of making himself known to his fellow countrymen. Those who know anything of political life are w^ell aware of this keen competition to obtain full reports of speeches ; that is to say, a conspicuous and prominent advertisement. The rivalry is quite as eager as that between two merchants for the best positions in a newspaper or magazine. Certain professions affect a horror of advertising, and strictly forbid their members to practise it ; but if we look closely we soon discover that they advertise as persistently as those persons upon whom they look down with supreme contempt. Advertise they must, in order to exist ; and advertise they accordingly do. A doctor, who would be ostracised by his fellow practitioners, if he inserted an adver- tisement in a newspaper, is in fact advertising himself as clearly, if not as effectually, when he places a red lamp in front of his door and a brass plate upon his gate. It is simply another method of advertisement, but it is advertise- ment all the same. The legal profession expresses a pious horror of advertising ; open and straightforward adver- tising being barred to them, they avail themselves* of all manner of devices to make themselves known to the public — to advertise themselves. Lawyers and solicitors are. as eager to see their names in print as is any merchant who desires to make known his goods. If the lawyer can obtain this advertisement without paying for it in coin of the realm, well A DOCTOK'S ADVERTISKISIENT. THE UNIVERSALITY OF ADVERTISING. 17 and good ; no one has a word to say against him. It is only when he pays for his advertisement, as other people do, that he is regarded as one who has unfitted himself to practise in his profession. Wherever we look, we see the same thing. Advertising is universal, and must necessarily be so. It has always existed ; but it is only in the last decades of the present century that it is being systematised and treated in an intelligent fashion. The instinct of the advertiser is inherent in human nature. It is one of the mainsprings of progress. The day has passed when anyone who would interpret correctly the history of past or present times can afford to ignore it. The Advertising Agent can no longer be looked upon as the undesirable person it has been the fashion in the past to regard him. By hard work, trained knowledge, and practical experience he has won for himself an honourable place in the community. He is a specialist in his business, bringing to it an aptitude which is peculiarly his own. He has systematised 'and regulated a practice which is universal, and is as indispensable to society as it is at present constituted as the lawyer, the doctor, or the chartered accountant. CHAPTER II. The Function of Advertising. It is an undoubted fact that without advertising business cannot be prosecuted to any large extent. Advertising is the force which vitalises all the other work which may be put into a business. After the merchandise is purchased and the service hired, the steam that is generated in order to make the machine move is the advertising, f That, briefly stated, is the function of advertising in the modern industrial world. It is the dynamic power which drives forward a business concern to success. It is the fundamental thing — the corner-stone of any business which would win for itself success or prosperity amidst the keen competition w^hich is a characteristic of modern civilisation. Advertising occupies much the same relation to business that steam does to the locomotive. It is the driving power without which progress is impossible. The engine may be complete in every detail, but that fact does not move the cars attached to it. Until the steam is generated in the boiler the locomotive might as well never have been invented for all the help it is in moving the merchandise from one place to another. So it is with a business. Unless it advertises, it remains stationary and does not prosper.! The reason why this should be so is not difficult to understand. Competition in the world of industry and THE FUNCTION OF ADVERTISING. 19 commerce has become so severe that a manufacturer is obhged to keep his goods continually before the public. If he does not, they will be pushed aside by more enter- prising firms, who not only appeal to the general public, but also try to encroach upon the ground which the old-established firm has hitherto regarded as within its ^* sphere of influence." Any new business endeavouring to get a footing in the industrial world is equally compelled to advertise. It is of the most vital importance to the success of the concern to attract public attention to its existence. If it cannot do so, the excellence of the commodity manufac- tured will neither benefit the manufacturer nor the consumer. Neither has the necessary knowledge to enable him to become mutually helpful. Advertisement is the most efficient method of putting manufacturer or retailer into direct touch with the consumer. It is the connecting link which binds the one to the other. The part played by advertising will be more easily under- stood if we take the case of a manufacturing business at the outset of its career. Let us suppose that John Jones is a manufacturer of a jam which he claims to be both cheaper and better than that sold by any other manufacturer. Many people use jam, but are already supplied by other makers. If John Jones is to build up a successful and prosperous business, he will have to convince these people that he can give them a better article than they are at present buying. He will also need to persuade the general public that it can easily afford to add jam to what it regards as the necessaries of life. He is, therefore, at the very beginning of his career as a business man confronted with the necessity of advertising. His jam may be infinitely better and cheaper than any other, but as long as the public is ignorant of its existence that fact will not help him to sell it. He is in the position of the sailing ship in a dead calm, when not a breath of wind is stirring, or of the steamship with its bunkers empty. 20 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. If, however, John Jones can do one thing he will at once succeed. If he can induce so many thousand housewives to ask their grocers for ''Jones's Jam" instead of simply order- ing jam, he will be a successful business man. In those two words lies the whole secret of success. Before he can induce the housewives of the nation to utter those two magic words he must do two things. First, he must inform them of the existence of his jam, and next convince them of its excellence or cheapness or other peculiar advantages. Unless he can do this, it is of little interest to him that they buy jam at all, for he will not be benehted. When John Jones realises this fact he will set about adver- tising in one form or another. He may endeavour to inform the housewife of his jam through the retail trader who supplies her. He may offer such terms to the tradesman that it will be to his own interest to push Jones's jam rather than his rivals'. In this way he can, doubtless, do much to promote the sale of his jam ; but the foundation on which he is building is a somewhat unstable one. He has succeeded in reach ing the housewife only through the shopkeeper. There is nothing to prevent his rivals offering still better terms, and so induc- ing the tradesman to prefer their jam to John Jones's. Further reductions may follow, but this is a policy which very soon cuts away the margin of profit. John Jones can, however, adopt another method. He may appeal directly to the housewife and the public. He may approach them through the daily paper, weekly periodicals^ and monthly magazines, or in any of the innumerable ways in which advertising, as it is understood to-day, can be carried on. In this manner he places himself in direct touch with his customers, who, although they do not buy from him directly, do not depend upon a third party for their informa- tion. He is able to secure a much firmer foundation for his business than if he merely approached the public through an termediary. As long as the housewife is ignorant of Jones's THE FUNCTION OF ADVERTISING. 2r jam, she is content with that which is suppHed by the trades- man : the right of choice hes with the shopkeeper. When, however, the housewife asks for Jones's jam, she demands a specific article. The amount of jam sold may remain the same, but Jones's share of the total will be increased. The necessity for advertising is still more apparent when it becomes a question of inducing people who have not hitherto been accustomed to use jam to buy it. John Jones not only needs to get people who have been buying jam all their lives to take his in preference to all others. He must also persuade the great body of the public to buy his jams. The sole method by which he can reach that public is by advertising. It is the only way in which he can bring before the notice of the people the advantages of jam as a whole- some addition to the household stores. The most striking fact about the great mass of consumers is their dense ignorance. The ordinary man who has to earn his living, and the woman who has to look after the house, have no time to find out the best article in the market. They need to be educated. It is as much a part of a merchant's business to educate his public, as it is to make goods for their use. The importance to the manufacturer of being able to address the public himself, and not only through retail agents, can hardly be exaggerated. It enables him to protect himself against unfair competition. Nearly every large manufacturer's advertisement bears a warning against worthless imitations. If there is any threatened encroachment on his rights the advertiser can at once caution the public, and so prevent what otherwise might be a serious danger to his business. The advertisement column has largely replaced one of the functions of the middleman. He does not cease to exist in consequence. On the contrary his business has been greatly increased as a result of extended advertising. He still per- forms his legitimate function of distributing the goods of the manufacturer to the public. Advertising does, however, limit 22 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. his power of exercising his own discretion. It is a guarantee to the manufacturer that if the pubUc desire his wares they will compel the shopkeeper to supply them. In this illustration jam has been chosen, for it is an article in general use. The '* jam public " is practically co-extensive with the population of the country. The same arguments are, however, equally applicable to any and every description of merchandise. If their use is not so universal as that of jam, the necessity for advertisement is equally great. The only difference is that the advertising will need to be carried out with greater care, so as to reach the Ihnited class which is interested. The function of advertising is in all cases the same. Methods may differ, but the underlying principles do not change. It is quite as important and necessary for the retailer to advertise as for the wholesale manufacturer. Almost all advertising helps the tj-adesman indirectly, but direct adver- tising on his part is indispensable to the success of his business. He is in closer touch with the public than the manufacturer, but he also has to struggle against competition, and is anxious to extend the area in which he acts as dis- tributing agent. All retail traders and shopkeepers advertise to a greater or less extent. Some have recognised the importance of a systematic plan in advertising, and have discovered that this, more than anything else, is the secret of success. Huge retail businesses to-day are almost entirely built up by the aid of judicious and persistent advertising. In the future there is little doubt we shall see the retail trader and tradesman utilising advertising to a much greater extent than they do at present. Advertisement and the expansion of trade are so closely bound together that advertising is steadily becoming a more and more powerful business force. Its importance is not yet adequately recognised. Systematic advertising has as yet been adopted by only the more enterprising members of the THE FUNCTION OF ADVERTISING. 23 commercial world. It is only beginning to be understood that it is a necessary adjunct to all business concerns. All businesses advertise in some way or other, but there are a great many which are still dominated by the traditions of the past. They have not yet recognised that with new times new methods must be employed. The old advertising methods of lifty years ago are entirely inadequate to-day. Bows and arrows are effective weapons when one has to defend oneself against an enemy similarly armed. They are a very poor protection if one's foe has armed himself with the latest im- proved repeating rifle. There are only two courses open in such a case. Either one must adopt the weapons of the enemy, or be annihilated. No amount of admiration for the bow and arrow justifies the placing of the old reliance upon them. Their day is past. It is the same with advertising. The modern merchant, manufacturer, and tradesman must recognise the changed condition of the times, and adapt his methods to them. CHAPTER III. The Advertising World. When the merchant has decided to bring himself into Hne with modern methods and to advertise, he has next to determine on the means he will employ. There is hardly any limit to the methods he may adopt to bring his goods or his shop to the notice of the public. He may deliver leaflets from door to door, he may fill the streets with sandwichmen carrying boards on which in letterpress and picture his goods are lauded ; he may cover the hoardings of the land with huge posters of striking design and startling colour. He may do any or all of these things, and make use of many other chan- nels of advertising. There still remains, however, a more powerful and more potent means of reaching the people. The daily and periodical press commands an audience^ which no other means yet invented reaches. Leaflets find a ready receptacle in the wastepaper basket, the most numerous band of sandwichmen can be seen but by a few thousands of persons, and posters are not permanent. But an advertise- ment in a daily paper, a weekly periodical, or a monthly magazine, reaches hundreds of thousands of readers. This advertising does not merely influence them when they walk down a certain street, or encounter a row of sandwichmen ; THE ADVERTISING WORLD. 25 it is ever present, day after day, week after week, month after month. Another feature of press advertising is equally impor- tant. It reaches the consumer in the spot where he is most susceptible — his home. No other form of advertising has A TYPICAL HOARDING, such Opportunities of penetrating into the very sanctum sanctorum of the consumer. The Press is by far the most powerful and effective instru- ment which the advertiser can utilise. It covers the earth from north to south, and from east to west. A glance at the 26 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. following table* will give some idea of the omnipresence of the Press of the world. The column of the newspaper or periodical is the mer- chant's rostrum. It is his pulpit. From it he addresses the public at large. He can choose his own form of address ; he may argue, plead, or declaim, as seems best to him. He has Approximate Country. Publications. Annual Circulation . . _ (in Millions). United Kingdom 4,423 2,700 Canada ... 565 108 Australia 408 156 India 644 — West Indies, &c ... 66 — United States 20,569 3,300 France 4,100 1,440 Germany 5oOo 1,680 Austria 2,233 480 Italy 1,606 432 Spain and Portugal 1,203 168 Russia 667 144 Belgium 872 156 Holland 300 72 Scandinavia 250 108 Switzerland 450 72 Greece, &c 100 12 Spanish America 1,170 168 Japan ■ 470 — Africa 200 1 here at his command a means of getting in touch with thousands of homes, of laying before the people in attractive fashion the knowledge of his wares. The Periodical Press is the one means which enables the individual to communicate * Note. — This table is based on the calculations made by Mr. Mulhall in his " Dictionary of Statistics " for 1890. The figures .for the United Kingdom and the United States are obtained from other sources. While the number of the periodicals published in each country may be taken as fairly accurate, the circulations are in most cases unreliable, except so far as they indicate the proportion as between one country and another. THE ADVERTISING WORLD. 27 A ROW OF SANDWICHMEN, 28 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. with the world at large. The Press has grown up and flourished as a green bay-tree, and its branches cover all the land. All other forms of advertising sink into insignificance when compared with it. By judicious Press advertising a manufacturer can reach every family in the land, which is at all likely to require the goods he wishes to sell. The imagination fails to realise the effect of an advertising campaign which would include all these publications. They are a medium through which a merchant can, if he desires, reach the uttermost ends of the earth. A manufacturer in an English midland town can inform the colonists in Australia or the Cape what he wishes to sell. He can place him- self in direct communication with any section of the people inhabiting the most remote countries by selecting the papers through which he advertises. He can do the same thing at home. With care and judgment he need appeal only to those who are likely to respond, and need not at the same time waste money by advertising in places where no one wishes for his commodities. The newspaper is a microcosm of the national life. This is as much the case in regard to the advertisements as to the letterpress. A glance over the advertising columns of a large morning paper shows reflected, as it were in a mirror, the whole of the active life of the people. Column after column of notices crowd one another, occupying the most prominent positions in the journal. The announcements of births, marriages and deaths, and the special advertisements in the so-called '' agony columns " are followed by advertisements of steamers and sailing vessels, sailing to the end of the world, prospectuses of emigration societies, and the oflicial announcements of Colonial Governments. Then we come to the reports of financial societies and clubs, mines, banks, railways, tramways, &c. Under the head of amusements are announcements of exhibitions, theatres, meetings, and excur- sions. On another page advertisements of all descriptions THE MICROCOSM OF THE LIFE OF A NATION. 29 ®^iwifij. V SSTKi LONDON. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, dgg ^mm'^'mm m: rmm^^= REDUCED FACSIMILE OF 7/;^ Ti7>U'S. ?^t.«=:^ ^^^11 N"*'"- .jar? Ji'ius™ £io.iovsrA-- — - ^Jk^ii m^i^=^- 30 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. jostle each other. Side by side we ftnd the announcements of jewellers' and goldsmiths' wares, mineral waters and chemical products, pianos and organs, cigars, coffee, choco- late, wines, and all descriptions of eatables. On yet another page will be found advertisements of companies, furnishing houses, drapery, linen drapers, tailors, dressmakers, shirt- makers, carriage builders, dealers in old clothes, money- lenders, usurers ; schools for girls and boys, situations vacant and wanted, announcements of books, music, illustrated and special papers. On the last page we find lists of houses and lands to be sold, apartments to be let, furnished and un- furnished, sales by auction, assignments and transfers, commercial and other situations, coachmen, cooks and ladies' maids and footmen ; announcements concerning coals, hotels, and law notices. No more striking object-lesson in the universality of advertising could be desired than any issue of a daily paper. A historian in future ages would learn more from it of the national life to-day than he would from rooms full of books. Macaulay's proverbial New Zealander gazing on the ruins of the great metropolis from a broken arch of London Bridge, would only fully realise the greatness of the ruined city at his feet, were he to read in the advertising pages of a paper rescued from some decaying ruin, the announce- ments of the busy life which had passed away. A story is related of Mr. Gladstone which is interesting in this connection. It is one more instance of the surprising way in which Mr. Gladstone kept abreast of the times. He fully recognised the significance of that advertising which some old-fashioned people even now deplore. A gentleman was visiting Mr. Gladstone some years ago. " Before I leave," he said, ** I would like to ask you a question." ^' What is it ? " said Mr. Gladstone. *^ I want to know why it is that you have the American editions of the monthly magazines that publish English editions ? " '' Oh," said Mr. Gladstone, '' I subscribe for the English editions for my THE ADVERTISING WORLD, 31 wife, and for the American editions for myself." " Why ? " ^' Because I want to read the American advertising. I want to read it for several reasons. It interests me as reading ; it interests me on account of the high character of illustration, and it is one of my means of gauging the material prosperity of the country." Some twelve years ago, Mr. Gladstone wrote to the Editor of " The Advertiser's ABC and Advertisement Press Direc- tory," published by T. B. Browne, Ltd., as follows : — Sir, — Your Directory bears emphatic testimony to the existence and importance of a new mode both of stimulating and of supplying social wants. Yours faithful and obedient, (Signed) W. E. Gladstone. On pages 32 and 33 we give facsimile of Mr. Gladstone's post-card. The ramifications of the advertising profession are world- wide ; persons engaged . either directly or indirectly in advertising will be found scattered throughout the length and breath of the land. Judged by numbers they may not seem to be a very powerful fraternity, but the influence they exercise is out of all proportion to their number. Every newspaper and magazine published throughout the kingdom has its advertising department. The representatives in London and other large cities of Provincial, Colonial, and Foreign newspapers must be included in the advertising pro- fession. Then there are the great advertising agencies in Lon- don and the provinces, employing large staffs, numbering in the case of T. B. Browne, Ltd., two hundred men and women. The houses of large trade advertisers who do the bulk of their advertising direct employ extensive staffs. In many cases the advertising departments of these firms involve the exclusive service of scores of assistants, clerks, checkers, &c. Many of the large book publishers have the handling of a considerable amount of advertising. These are all directly 32 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. engaged in the business of advertising ; to it they look as a means of earning their daily bread. An immense army of men and women are indirectly FACSIMILE OF MR. GLADSTONE'S POST-CARD. connected with advertising. They act as agents, travellers, clerks, canvassers, and collectors, and in smaller numbers as artists, engravers, compositors, printers, electrotypers, &c. THE ADVERTISING WORLD. 33 '* Out-door advertising" again employs numbers of people. It embraces over six hundred lirms of bill-posters throughout the country, and their employees, also agents and their staffs FACSniILE OK MR. GLADSTONE S POST-CARD. responsible lor the advertising in railway stations, tram-cars, omnibuses, steamboats, &c., and by means of sandwichmen and electricity. To these must be added the manufacturers 34 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. of materials, such as paper, ink, tablets, glass, boards, electrical appliances, &c. It is difficult to arrive at any exact estimate of the number of people engaged in advertising. Sufficient material, however, exists to enable us to form an approximate idea of the number of persons engaged directly or indirectly in the business of advertising. In the following rough estimate one hundred persons partially employed have been reckoned as being equal to one wholly employed in advertising. Press and Outdoor Advertising. Persons Employed in the Advertisement Department London Morning Papers 414 ,, Evening Papers 117 „ Weekly Papers 2,500 „ Suburban Papers 350 „ Magazines, Reviews, &c 2,504 — 5,B85 Provincial Papers, Periodicals, and Magazines 9,250 Advertisement Contractors and Agents, Advertisers' Agents, and Unattached Canvassers in London ... 2,532 Ditto ditto Provinces i,393 Representatives of Provincial Papers in London 550 Ditto Foreign and Colonial 250 Representatives of London Trade and other Papers in Provinces 100 Trade Advertisers in London and Provinces doing their business direct 1600 Trade Advertisers employing Agents, but either wholly or partially doing their own checking 1,000 Book Publishers 250 Printers employed in setting up advertisements in type in Newspaper, Book, and Jobbing Printing Oftices : also Manufacturers of paper and ink, and machinery (proportion of which should go against Advertise- ments) ... 2,000 Percentage of clerks and others engaged in preparing and distributing advertisements of Public Authorities, Railway, Insurance, &c.. Companies ; Solicitors, Auctioneers, Estate Agents, Theatres, Concerts, Ex- hibitions, Music-Hails, Police, Local Tradesmen, &c. 1,000 Outdoor Advertising ' 8,000 Total exclusively engaged in the Advertising Business ... 33,7 10 THE ADVERTISING WORLD. 35 Press and Outdoor Advertising, Total exclusively engaged in the Advertising Business ... 33)7io Women and children dependent on those engaged in Advertising* 15,168 Total of persons wholly dependent on the business of Advertising for their support 48,878 This gives a total of 48,878 persons dependent on adver- tising for their daily support. The number is probably largely underestimated. Almost every shop or business of any importance advertises to some extent ; but it has been impossible to include these in the estimate. Accepting 50,000 as a correct ligure, it means that at the present moment in the United Kingdom one person in every eight hundred either devotes the whole of his time to the profession of advertising, or some special department thereof, or, in some way, is solely dependent upon that calling for his daily bread. These figures are the most eloquent testimony to the immense strides made by the advertiser in recent years. And if we take our calcu- lations a step further, and bear in mind the hundreds of thousands of work-people and others employed by great advertising firms (such as Cadbury's, Pears', Hudson's, Bird's, &c.), who have built up and steadily maintain enormous busi- nesses, chiefly through skilful and sensible advertising, we shall find that probably not less than the huge total of two million souls are concerned, and most closely concerned, with the success or non-success of advertising. In short, a profession which has its representatives in every news- paper office, in all the large trading houses, in almost every shop and store, and far-reaching effects such as those just described, is one which is vitally bound up with all that affects national life. It has a stake in the country which few, if any, other professions possess. * Note. — 15 per cent, has been taken as the proportion of married men , engaged in the Advertising Profession. This percentage has been arrived at by careful investigation in one of the largest advertising esta- bHshments in London. CHAPTER IV. The Evolution of Advertising. The tendency of the present age is in the direction of speciahsing all branches of knowledge. In advertising the same disposition is clearly discernible. Hence we have the Advertising Agent. He is the inevitable consequence of modern conditions. There is nothing to prevent any man from being his own advertising agent. He may also, if he chooses, be his own doctor and his ow^n lawyer. He is not compelled to employ specialists either to cure him or to defend him. It has, however, been found more convenient to delegate these duties to specially trained men, who have devoted all their lives to the study of these subjects. It is the same in advertising. Every year makes it more and more difficult for individuals to devote either sufficient attention or employ an adequately equipped staff to keep pace with the ever-changing condi- tions of life, habits, and trade. For the average man the Advertising Agent is becoming increasingly indispensable. Some firms may do their own advertising, just as some wealthy people can afford to drive a coach and four ; but for the average man the Advertising Agent is as necessary as the omnibus or the hansom. The Advertising Agent is eminently a modern institution. He is the product of a democratic age. He has sprung into existence almost in the lifetime of a single generation. THE EVOLUTION OF ADVERTISING. 37 Advertisement has existed since the creation of the world ; but the Advertising Agent, as we know him to-day, has no ancestors. He is the founder of his own profession. It is, therefore, not difficult to trace his evolution. Fifty years ago he was unknown, or almost unknown. In Mr. Spurgeon's Autobiography there is an interesting little anecdote which aptly illustrates how a vender of goods of former days himself fullilled the functions of an Adver- tising Agent. Mr. Spurgeon says : '' I recollect that when I lirst came to London as a boy, to go to school at Maidstone, while I was sitting in the coach ready to start, a man came along selling knives with a great number of blades. He put one in at the window and stuck it right before my face. Why did he want to intrude on me like that ? He had no business to poke a knife in my eye ; but he had never studied that kind of modesty which some of us have. If he had kept that many-bladed knife in his pocket and quietly said, ' If there should be a person in the coach who would like to look at a knife with ever so many blades, I have one in my pocket,' he would not have sold one in a century ; but he picked me out as a likely customer, and opened the blades as if he knew that such a knife would be wonderfully fascina- ting to a boy going to school." This incident took place in 1848. Here we see the problem of trade in its simplest form. It is quite possible that this pedlar was also the maker of the knives he sold. In that case he would combine in his own person all the branches of industry. Manufacturer, distributing agent, and advertiser would all be found centred in one man. He not only makes the knives, but also acts as the medium of dis- tribution, and at the same time advertises the goods he has to sell. Such a phenomenon, how^ever, is possible only under the simplest conditions of industrial development. As soon as business grows and competition springs up, the pedlar is found to be no longer capable of coping with the changed 38 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. conditions of trade. The tendency to specialise the various departments of the business soon becomes irresistible. The manufacturing of the article to be sold, and the distributing of the article when made, is gradually but inevitably en- THK OLD STYLE OF PUSHING WARES. trusted to men who have had special training in each of these particular branches of business development. The same thing has happened and is happening in regard to advertising. 40 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. The man with the many-bladed knife employed a rough and ready method, no doubt, but his way of pushing his wares was actuated by the same principles which underlie the methods employed by the great advertising hrms to-day. For what did the man do ? He had an article to sell which was useful to a certain section of the community. He did not waste time in offering it to in- fants in arms, nor to people incapable of using their fingers. No, he chose the person who was likely to be in want of just such an article, and he presented it to him in such a way as to induce him to buy it. These are two of the elementary principles of all advertising. The objects and methods of the large Advertising Agent to-day are the same, although he may be spending thousands of pounds a year, and addressing a public which is numbered by the million. The Advertising Agent of to-day does for the industrial world what the man young Spurgeon met on his way to Maidstone did for his time. The untrained man following his instincts has logically and inevitably developed into the special agent with his trained staff of assistants. The trans- formation was a natural evolution, a fitting of the means to the end. A business in its infancy and before the discovery of steam and electricity did not require to embark on elaborate advertising campaigns. It appealed to a limited number of customers in a well-defined area. The simplest methods of advertising sufficed to make the goods known. With the increase of the business and the cheapening of the means of communication the problem of how to advertise became one of great importance. New markets had to be found, their condition studied, and the best means of gaining a footing in them carefully attended to. The crude, old methods of advertising were no longer practicable. Their day had passed. As modern industrial methods and requirements became more complicated the advertising staff of the business necessarily was compelled to devote all its attention to the THE FAVLUTION OF ADVERTISING. 41 varied conditions which affect industry and the great body of consumers. Thus, gradually and almost imperceptibly, the advertising department of a large business became a highly specialised body of men who brought experience and training to the solution of the problems which confronted the expan- sion of the business. In a very few years, for commercially things move quickly in these days, the primitive Advertising Agent of the forties was transformed into an expert department with all its atten- tion concentrated upon advertising. The step from such a department to the establishment of an independent agent, whose time and attention are devoted solely to advertising, is a very short one. The Advertising Agent offers to the general advertiser, without charge, the same information and know- ledge that the special advertising department places at the disposal of the merchant. The embryo has developed into a fully matured organisation complete in all its details. % M ^m ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ®^^^ ^"'^^^^^ ^P^^k)^ ^^^^^^^^w" m^ fe^-^ ^^ ^^^^k^0 u z o < o GO H cc UJ > Q < CO UJ O CQ OQ WERTISIXG. .-i:?^ to U ^e) c^ 58 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. is practically co-existent with the development of modern advertising. Founded some time in the sixties (the date is not accurately known), the present management has behind it the practical experience of a long period in which many experi- ments have been successfully carried out. With the growth of advertising the business has expanded until the central office alone employs two hundred men, whose whole time is devoted to transacting the business which has rewarded the enlightened and businesslike policy pursued by the hrm. Department after department has been added as the require- ments of advertisers have been made apparent. Around the great central departments which are exclusively occupied with the business of advertising, a number of auxiliaiy depart- ments have sprung up. Such are those devoted to Trade Marks and Patents, which have proved themselves to be invaluable adjuncts, especially in the held of Colonial and Foreign advertising. In short, the office in Queen Victoria- street is a little self-contained world in itself. In 1893 the lirm established a branch office in Glasgow, and subsequently another in Manchester. These two pro- vincial offices are in daily, almost hourly, communication with Queen Victoria-street. All the information gathered at the branches is* placed at the disposal of the head office. Another notable departure, indicating the far-reaching interests of the modern advertising agent, was made when a branch office was established in Paris. This branch was founded in order the better to deal with foreign advertising, and to collect the necessary commercial and trade particulars relating to each country, so as to enable an advertiser to push his wares in the markets of the Continent. T. B. Browne, Ltd., do not simply wait for advertise- ments to come to them ; they initiate and create. That is t(^ say, they approach manufacturers and convince them that it is to their interest to advertise. T. B. Browne, in fact, carry on an advertising propaganda, preaching the gospel of possi- 59 T. B. BROWNE, LTD. : STRONG ROOM AND SAFES. T. B. BROWNE, LTD. : ELECTROTYPE STORE ROOM. 6o THE ART OF ADVERTISING, bilities to the trader and the manufacturer. They help the merchant to individuahse his manufactures, and by the resources at their command are enabled to make the public do the same. The importance of this the hrm have long recognised, for in it lies the secret of success. In the following chapters we shall see how T. B. Browne apply their accumulated knowledge, and how they are able to place it at the service of the smallest as well as the largest advertiser. CHAPTER II. The Art of Advertising. Advertising is an art. But this is not true of all advertising. A great deal of so-called advertising has nothing about it which would repay anyone for studying it. But advertising as conducted by a great advertising firm is an art upon which all the appliances of civilisation are concentrated. The day is fast approaching when the best literary and artistic ability will be called in to aid the advertiser in his appeal to the public. The better educated the public the more rehned advertising necessarily becomes. An immense transformation has already taken place. This is almost entirely due to the large advertisers who can afford to employ lirst-class men to invent and design advertisements. The secret of the art of advertising is very simple. By mounting flight after flight of stairs the visitor to the offices in Queen Victoria-street will come to a large room on the top story. Here he will discover the secret of the success of the advertising agency of T. B. Browne, Ltd. A labyrinth of woodwork reach- ing from floor to ceiling, divided into double rows of shelves, fills the spacious room. Here are filed daily some three thousand newspapers and periodicals, not only from England, Scotland, and Ireland, but from the Colonies, India, and foreign lands. Files of newspapers meet the eye on every side. The periodical press represented by these files is the immense keyboard upon which the Advertising Agent plays, filling the whole world with the sound of his instrument. Through these thousands of papers the firm gets into touch 62 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. with the great pubHc. To reach it is one thing ; to influence it quite another. There is a general behef abroad that any- RUTLAND FOUNDRY : EXTERIOR. one can write advertisements. This behef is altogether erroneous. Ordinary persons cannot write advertisements any more than they can write poetry. Ordinary persons, of THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 63 course, attempt to do both, and fail. Only a man with a special training can write an advertisement which is really an advertisement, and not a mere announcement. The advertisement writer requires peculiar abilities. He needs to have an eye for effect, to be in close touch with the public he is appealing to, and to know the best way of approaching it. ''The writing of advertisements is as difficult and as important as the writing of political and other subjects in the editorial pages of our journals." This is RUTLAND FOUNDRY : BLACK SHOP, OR MOULDING ROOM. the witness of an advertising authority who has advertised as largely as anyone in the Old or New World. Unless a man is going to w\aste his money in advertising it must never be stupid. His advertismg is as much part of his business reputation as is the quality of his goods. His advertising is a test of his character. By it he is judged by the general public. In this important respect the Advertising Agent pos- sesses an immense advantage over the individual advertiser. 64 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. T. B. Browne, Ltd., for instance, employ a skilled and experi- enced staff which is constantly in touch with the public, and which has peculiar opportunities of learning how best to frame an advertisement. Their outside representatives come into personal touch with the merchant desiring to advertise. A cortipetent staff at once takes the advertisement in hand. The pictorial portion is, when necessary, carefully drawn and developed, suitable type is selected and artistically arranged, a wood or process block is made of the whole, and proofs are submitted for the approval of the merchant. The whole work is done with clockwork precision, so thoroughly has the staff been organised. An advertisement to be effective must be printed in bold, clear, legible type, easily read, and characteristic. As the subject-matter ought to be in good English, so the printing ought to be in good typography. A visit to T. B. Browne's printing establishment in the basement of the Queen X'ictoria- street building will convince the visitor that here again the firm is well equipped. A member of the staff is perpetually on the watch for new type, new shapes, and new designs. Consignments of new type are continually arriving from the principal foundries of the world to be utilised in the make up of advertisements. Illustrations form a very important part of modern adver- tising. The time has gone by when illustrations can be ignored by the advertiser, or when woodcuts made by carpenters will satisfy the public taste. Nowadays the public demands that illustrated advertising shall not only be striking but also artistic. T. B. Browne, Ltd., practically created as well as popularised systematic pictorial advertising. They have, therefore, an unrivalled experience of how illustrations can be most efficiently employed. All the appliances for pro- ducing the most finished picture, from the artist to the stereo- typer, are to be found on the premises at Queen Victoria- street. The firm constantly employs a number of artists. THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 65 They have rooms to themselves, where they can work at their ease either with brush or with pencil. If a wood block is required the hrm employs men whose whole time is devoted to wood engraving. Many of the illustrations, however, are produced from process blocks. Here, again, the hrm is well abreast of the times. On the roof is to be found a studio with gigantic cameras and electric light, so that a picture can be reduced or enlarged at any time of day or night irrespec- r^^-^ RUILAXI) FOUNDRY: BATTERY ROOM. five of the condition of the weather. Complete apparatus for Ijiaking the blocks is situated on the floor below, and any number of duplicates can be produced in the Rutland Foundry across the road. Some idea of the fertility and resource which the hrm has displayed in illustrated advertising can be gathered by a visit to the basement, where thousands upon thousands of blocks are stored, carefully classihed and arranged. The amount of work which a great advertising agency accomplishes is almost incredible to anyone who is ignorant 66 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. of the extent to which advertising is employed. The weight of the day-books, ledgers,- acconnt-books, &c., deposited nightly in the strong rooms of T. B. Browne, Ltd., is no less than a couple of tons. These are the books in actual use. This alone will give some idea of the pains which a huge advertising hrm takes to secure not only the best value for the money expended, but also the careful verilication of all advertisements inserted. The checking department at Queen Victoria-street is a wonderful sight. By every mail hundreds of papers arrive from all over the world. These are sorted out. The advertisements which appear in them are compared with the orders. If they in any way differ, either in wording or position, or if they are in any respect defective, a note is made of the error. The paper in question is duly notified, and the amount is deducted from the bill when presented. Some papers have complained that the advertiser gains by these deductions. Nothing could be more absurd. The agent's profit is strictly limited. If he deducts any sum he decreases his commission, and at the same time increases the running expenses of the business. Until every advertisement has been checked no bill is paid, and so the advertiser can feel assured that he gets full value for his money. A voucher copy is also available for his inspection. If he desires to do so, he can thus verify all accounts himself. Such, briefly, is the elaborate system which T. B. Browne, Ltd., have adopted to check all advertisements. T. B. Browne., Ltd., are the sole advertising agents for many large manufacturing lirms. In such cases the Advertising Agent becomes practically a department of the business he advertises. In order to advertise to the best advantage, he keeps in touch with the condition of the business and the policy on which it is conducted. The Advertising Agent is, in fact, the head of a supplementary department ; independent, and yet bound by the closest ties THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 68 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. of confidence and self-interest. The advantages to the manufacturer of such an arrangement are obvious, for he obtains a much more skilled and experienced staff than he could afford to employ, and has to pay only a fraction of the cost which he would otherwise have to incur. If the Advertising Agent is a boon to the large manufacturer and retailer, he is a much greater help to the small advertiser. The man who has only a small amount of money to expend in advertising, if he undertakes to advertise on his own account, will in nine cases out of ten simply waste his money. If, however, he entrusts his advertising to an experienced Advertising Agent, he secures all the advantages enjoyed by the largest manufacturer and advertiser. At the ofhces in Queen Victoria-street, for instance, all advertisements receive the same treatment ; an advertisement costing a few shillings is as carefully entered and checked as one involving the expenditure of hundreds of pounds. It has been conclusively proved that advertising on a large scale gives the best returns ; this does not, however, exclude the small advertiser. Most of the largest advertisers of the day have commenced their' advertising on a small scale. A small advertiser needs, however, to be extra careful in the expenditure of the money he devotes to advertising. He may have only a few pounds to spend, but it is quite as easy, probably a great deal easier, to throw that sum away than it is to waste a thousand pounds. The misuse of such a sum is felt much more keenly by the small man than a much larger amount would be by a large hrm. What ma}' prove only an incon- venience to the large manufacturer means ruin to the small business man. The Advertising Agent with his wide knowledge and extended connection is therefore quite indispensable to the small advertiser. Under the guidance of a reliable Advertising Agent he may be confident he will not throw his money away, but will get the best return for it. If he pursues a bold and persistent policy, there is not much doubt THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 69 70 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. that before long he will be spending thonsands of pounds in advertising where he has spent tens before. The art of advertising, as carried on by T. B. Browne, Ltd., has reached a high state of perfection. Some idea of how carefully the subject has been studied may be obtained from the way in which the English Press has been arranged for the benefit of advertisers. T. B. Browne, Ltd., have divided England into groups of counties ; these groups have each been studied, and their principal characteristics ascertained. The whole of the geo- graphy of the district has been carefully observed, and all the facts necessary to intelligent advertising noted and classified. When this has been done the newspapers best suited to reach the inhabitants of the district have been selected. These papers completely cover the ground. With the great majority of them, by reason of their extensive business, special contracts have been entered into, which enable T. B. Browne to give their clients better terms than if they applied directly to the papers. The building up of this connection with the advertising Press represents years of special work and experience, and a very large annual outlay. This knowledge, however, is the Advertising Agent's capital. T. B. Browne, Ltd., know exactly in what districts advertise- ment of any class of article will produce the best results. They have also at their fingers' ends the information which enables them at once to select the papers in the district cir- culating among the class it is desired to influence. Without this special knowledge it is easy for an advertiser to waste his money by advertising, say, agricultural implements in a newspaper which circulates among factory hands. The following extract taken from T. B. Browne's " Geo- graphy of the Provincial Press," is an illustration of how far advertising has progressed as a fine art. At a glance the would-be advertiser can see where he should and where he should not advertise. THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 71 GROUP G.— MIDLAND COUNTIES. POPULATION— SEVEN MILLIONS. Series 11. — 300 insertions per week, including all weekly newspapers of consequence published in the undermentioned counties. The selection thoroughly covers the entire district, in which are in- cluded about 850 towns and places. Series 12. — 150 insertions per week in weekly newspapers, including a large proportion of the leading and widely circulated journals. Tlic i^ronp is further snh-divided into districts covered by 100 and 50 insertions per week. BEDFORDSHIRE— Bedford, Dunstable, Leighton-Buzzard, Luton, Wo- burn. BERKSHIRE— Abingdon, Wallingford, Reading, Faringdon, Maiden- head, Newbury, Windsor. BUCKINGHAMSHIRE — Aylesbury, Buckingham, Uxbridge, Fenny Stratford, Newport Pagnell, Chesham, Stony Stratford, Slough, Wy- combe. CAMBRIDGESHIRE— Cambridge, March, Chatteris, Ely, Littleport, Newmarket, Wisbech, Soham, Upwell, Whittlesea. DERBYSHIRE— Alfreton, Belper, Buxton, Chesterfield, Derby, Glossop, Heanor, Ilkeston, Long Eaton, Matlock, Ripley. GLOUCESTERSHIRE— Dursley, Bristol, Cheltenham, Chipping Camp- den, Coleford, Cinderford, Stroud, Gloucester, Lydney, Moreton-in- Marsh, Stow-on-the-Wold, Tewkesbury, Cirencester. HEREFORDSHIRE— Bromyard, Hereford, Kington, Ledbury, Leomin- ster, Ross. HERTFORDSHIRE — Barnet, Berkhampstead, Hemel Hempstead, Hertford, St. Albans, Hitchin, Royston, Bishop's Stortford, Watford. HUNTINGDONSHIRE— Huntingdon, St. Ives. LEICESTERSHIRE— Hinckley, Leicester, Melton Mowbray, Lough- borough, Market Harborough. 72 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. LINCOLNSHIRE— Boston, Cleethorpes, Grantham, Grimsby, Horncastle, Barton-on-Humber, Spalding, Mablethorpe, Market Rasen, Gains- borough, Retford, Skegness, Sleaford, Stamford. MONMOUTHSHIRE— Abergavenny, Chepstow, Newport, Monmouth, Usk, Pontypool, Tredegar. NORTHAMPTONSHIRE— Brackley, Daventry, Kettering, Northampton, Oundle, Thrapstone, Peterborough, Rushden, Wellingborough. NOTTINGHAMSHIRE— Beeston, Hucknall, Mansfield, Newark, Not- tingham, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Retford. OXFORDSHIRE — Banbury, Bicester, Henley-on-Thames, Oxford, Thame, Witney. RUTLANDSHIRE— Oakham, Uppingham. SHROPSHIRE— Bridgnorth, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Newport, Oswestry, Wellington, Stone, Whitchurch. STAFFORDSHIRE— Brierley Hill, Burton -on-Trent, Cannock, Cheadle, Wolverhampton, Tipton, West Bromwich, Handsworth, Hednes- ford. Leek, Rugeley, Lichfield, Longton, Wednesbury, Bilston, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stafford, Hanley, Tamworth, Uttoxeter, Walsall. WARWICKSHIRE— Alcester, Aston, Birmingham, Atherstone, Bedworth, Coleshill, Coventry, Kenilworth, Leamington, Rugby, Nuneaton, Solihull, Stratford-on-Avon, Sutton Coldfield, Warwick. WORCESTERSHIRE— Bromsgrove, Dudley, Evesham, Kidderminster, Malvern, Oldbury, Redditch, Shipston-on-Stour, Stourbridge, Ten- bury, Worcester. This group, comprising a population of seven millions, and covering the twenty Midland Counties here specified, is very varied in its character, being in certain well-defined districts strictly agricultural, while in others, as distinctly defined, the community is mostly industrial. In the counties of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Hunting- donshire, Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Rutlandshire, Shropshire, and Oxfordshire, everything pertaining to things agricultural is strongly re- presented, and the leading newspaper mediums of those counties embrace many old-established and influential county papers of the first importance to Advertisers desiring to reach the classes to which these papers are more particularly addressed. The more thickly populated parts of the Midland Counties include the thriving industrial county of Warwickshire, with Birmingham and Coventry as its chief centres ; Staffordshire, with the great district of the Potteries in its Northern Section, and the rich Iron and Coal fields which occupy the Southern portion of the County ; Gloucestershire, with Bristol as its most notable town ; Nottinghamshire, taking in the county town of Nottingham, famous for its lace manufac- ture, and Mansfield, Newark, and Retford ; Derbyshire, with its busy manufacturing towns of Derby, Chesterfield, Belper, Glossop, Ilkeston, &c. ; Northamptonshire, where the boot and shoe industry has been so THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 73 a X o Q y j BUXTOX ( MATLOCK ( CHELTENHAM ( CLIFTON 1 'Si y o a a s i s 1 % O X H a a u LEAMINGTON MALVERN to 'S S = 1 a :^ a DERBYSHIRE GLOUCESTERSHIRE HEREFORDSHIRE LEICESTERSHIRE LINCOLNSHIRE MONMOUTHSHIRE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE SHROPSHIRE STAFFORDSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE WORCESTERSHIRE •5 "y rs 1 1 1 BEDFORDSHIRE BERKSHIRE BUCKINGHAMSHIRE DERBYSHIRE GLOUCESTERSHIRE HERTFORDSHIRE a X X s X a a o a a MONMOUTHSHIRE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE OXFORDSHIRE SHROPSHIRE STAFP^ORDSHIRE WARWICKSHIRE WORCESTERSHIRE 13 1 " 1 i i BEDFORDSHIRE BERKSHIRE CAMBRIDGESHIRE GLOUCESTERSHIRE HEREFORDSHIRE HERTFORDSHIRE HUNTINGDONSHIRE LEICESTERSHIRE LIXCOLXSHIRE NORTHAMPTONSHIRE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE OXFORDSHIRE RUTLAXDSHIRE SHROPSHIRE 1 74 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. lon^ established ; Worcestershire, which includes such noted industrial centres as Worcester, Kidderminster, Bromsgrove, Dudley, Kedditch and Stourbridge ; Leicestershire, with its extensive manufacturing towns, the headquarters of the hosiery trade ; Monmouthshire, with its busy mining and manufacturing towns of Newport, Abergavenny, Monmouth, and Pontypool ; and Bedfordshire, which has to a large extent the monopoly of the straw-hat and bonnet trade in its two towns of Luton and Dun- stable. Considering the principal towns in this large group singly, we have several important centres of population : — Birmingham, containing 510,343 inhabitants ; Aston, 79,887 ; Nottingham, 236,137 ; Wolverhamp- ton, 88,051 ; Coventry, 58,348 ; Northampton, 67,518 ; Derby, 104,834 ; Dudley, 45,740 ; Hanley, 59,510 ; Kidderminster, 24,803 ; Bristol, 316,90c ; Boston, 14,593 ; Grantham, 16,746 ; Grimsby, 61,130 ; and Leicester, 208,662 ; in all of which towns there are newspapers of wide circula- tion and influence, appealing both to the masses and the classes. Besides the foregoing, several inland watering-places and towns of a strictly residential kind are included in this group, such as Leamington, Buxton, Matlock, Cheltenham, Malvern, &c. CHAPTER III. Colonial Advertising. ''Trade follows the flag," is a saying which the Adver- tising Agent can thoroughly endorse. The vohime of trade within the Empire is ah'eady great. In 1897 the exports from this comitry to the Colonies and India amounted to ^86,964,369, as against ;^207,209,749 for the rest of the world. The markets for British manufactures within the Empire are not exhausted. On the contrary, they have hardly been more than prospected. The trade within the bounds of the Empire is capable of a much greater extension. Within the last five years the increase in Colonial trade has been 9 per cent, as against an increase of 4^ per cent, in the trade with foreign countries. The development of the Colonial market offers one of the most promising fields of future enterprise to the British merchant and manufacturer. In these markets the British trader possesses advantages which the foreigner does not have. Notwithstanding this fact the systematic exploiting of the Colonial market has, as yet, been undertaken by comparatively few firms. The experience of those who were enlightened enough to look ahead and bold enough to rise to the occasion has been full of encouragement. They have increased their business to such an extent that in some cases the export trade now forms their principal source of revenue. 76 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. Colonial trade and Foreign trade stand on entirely different footings. There is one important particular in which they differ. The advertising columns of a Colonial paper are as important as the same columns in the Motherland. In foreign countries the value of Press advertisements is just beginning to be realised. It is, therefore, possible to approach the Colonial market in a much more direct fashion than the Foreign. Wherever the English-speaking man has gone he has carried the newspaper with him. No community of English-speaking people, however small and however remote from the centre of civilisation, is complete without its newspaper. Whether it be the wilds of Mashonaland or the dreary solitudes of Klondyke, it is the same. No sooner does a pioneer party arrive than before many weeks have passed a newspaper is flourishing in their midst. It may be written by hand or it may be a stencilled sheet or a roughly printed page, but whatever shape it takes the advertisement column is certain to form a part of the paper. The result is that the Colonies are covered with a network of periodicals. Thus the would-be advertiser can reach the inhabitants of the remotest Colonies in the same wav in which he would appeal to his own townsmen. At home and in the Colonies the method of reaching the public is the same. All that is necessary is a special knowledge of the condition of each country, and the best means of approaching its inhabitants. T. B. Browne, Ltd., have long recognised the value of the Colonial market to the British manufacturer. They were quick to realise that here was a held in which the services of the Advertising Agent were indispensable. To influence the Colonial market they needed only to proceed along the lines laid down for advertising in the Home Country. They have, consequently, devoted much time and attention to studying the whole problem, ascertaining the necessary facts, and building up a connection with the COLONIAL ADVERTISING, 77 78 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. Colonial Press. A special department has been created to deal with the Colonial advertising of the agency. This department keeps in touch with the Colonies in the same manner as the other departments do with everything affect- ing trade in the United Kingdom. Its relations with the pubUcations of Australasia, Canada, South Africa, India, and the East and West Indies, &c., are very extensive. T. B. Browne transact business directly with the papers themselves. No middleman is employed. A merchant making use of this department is, therefore, able to obtain terms which he could not procure even from local distributing agents. These in almost all cases have not had the requisite experience or training to enable them to carry on large advertising operations with success. They do not possess the appliances necessary for up-to-date artistic advertising. T. B. Browne, Ltd., do not rest content with sending out advertisements to the Colonial papers. From the head offices they send instructions, copy, and electrotypes. This prevents mistakes and insures the best style of advertising. Parcel post and rapid mail boats have rendered this possible. The Colonial papers are as carefully checked as is the English Provincial Press, and voucher copies can be seen by all advertisers. Estimates are given free of charge to intending advertisers for any country they may wish to inHuence. The strictly advertising business of the department is further supplemented in several directions. It obtains introductions to Colonial houses of good standing which are open to undertake agencies on consignments or purchase for British manufacturers. The firm recognises that it should, as far as possible, smooth the way of the intending advertiser, and place at his disposal the best and latest information, so that he may embark on his new enterprise with every chance of success. Many manufacturers, when they have at last realised the importance of the Colonial market, have contented themselves with forwarding trial shipments of goods to various export 8o THE ART OF ADVERTISING, markets. They have rehecl altogether upon the abiUty of their receiving agent to push the goods. The result in many cases has been disappointment and failure. The merchant has thereupon retired from the enterprise, convinced that the Colonial market is closed to his goods. This conclusion is, in most cases, too hastily arrived at. If the merchant had supplemented the efforts of his receiving agent by a vigorous and judicious advertising campaign, the result would probably have been very different. The export merchant has, from the nature of the case, many disadvantages to contend with. But the greater his disadvantages the more imperative is it that he should neglect no means of making his goods known. If the Colonial market is to be captured, the way must be carefully prepared beforehiuid. The most effective method of doing this is undoubtedly by a judicious use of the adver- tising columns of the Colonial Press. Such advertising should precede and supplement all other efforts. The Colonial market grows in importance year by year. The Colonies are not only increasing their population, but also their trade with this and other countries. The present time is an excellent one in which to commence operations in the Colonial markets. The wave of depression which for a period affected Australasia and some other Colonies has now passed away. After 1892, for two or three years, our exports to the Colonies showed a general decline. Now they have not only risen again to the old figure, but have even surpassed it. The tide of prosperity has set in, and any merchant who desires to obtain a footing in our Colonial markets should not delay, but seize time by the forelock while still he has the opportunity. Many of the Colonial Governments are waking up to the advantages which would accrue to their people if they could sell their produce in the English market in place of the foreigner. They have in various ways begun to lay the foundation of what promises to be in the near future a flourishing Colonial trade with the Motherland. This is of COLONIAL ADVERTISING. 8i the first importance to English merchants. The Colonial products do not compete with theirs, but, on the contrary, indirectly stimulate British trade. As Colonial trade with England has grown, English trade with the Colonies has un.WVA, CA.VADA. increased. A rapid glance over the Colonial markets of the British Empire will show how promising a field they offer to the British merchant and manufacturer. Take the case of Canada first. In many respects it is the 82 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. most interesting and important of Colonial markets. The Canadian Government has recently abandoned its policy of a high protective tariff, which was an obstacle in the wa}^ of British trade. It has done more than this. It is the first Colony to show a preference to British over foreign goods. From last autumn all British products enter the Canadian market at a reduction of one-fourth the duty levied on foreign goods. The past year has been a very prosperous one for the Dominion. Its exports have largely increased. When all these things are considered, it will be seen that the present moment is a very advantageous one for the British merchant to turn his attention to the Canadian market. The population of Canada is now about five millions, the greater portion of which is engaged in agricultural pursuits. The following- table shows the value of British goods exported to Canada and Newfoundland during the last four years for which official figures are available : — Canada. Newfoundlai 1894* • ... .i'563i,5i:> A:78o,o62 1895 .i'5.285,271 i;254,i39 1896 i;5,352,029 £403,697 1897 ... . i;5,i7i,85o £304,341 The most effective means of reaching this scattered popula- tion is by Press advertising. The Canadian Government has fully recognised this fact. A few years ago the Agricultural Department set itself the task of helping the Canadian farmer to produce for the English market, and to push his goods in that market. In carrying out both these tasks tlie Depart- ment has found the Press an invaluable aid. For dissemination of information among the farmers it has proved to be indispensable. The Canadian Government has also supple- mented its efforts in this country by a vigorous advertising *A11 the trade returns given in this chapter refer exclusively to the exports of the produce and manufactures of the United Kingdom. Xo account is taken of the transhipments of Foreign and Colonial merchandise. 83 84 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. campaign in the English Press. A great deal of this advertisement has not needed to be paid for, but it has been none the less effective on that account. The emphatic testimony of the Department is worth quoting. It should convince every merchant that if he desires to establish him- self in the Canadian market he cannot afford to neglect this powerful medium of reaching the Canadian public. '* The Department is deeply indebted to the Press of Canada for more than courteous treatment, and also for generous co-operation in its capacity as a powerful educator of the people. The Commissioner and his assistants are personally, and officially, under a sense of gratitude and obligation to editors and other journalists vvho have greatly aided them in putting before the public whatever information of a practically helpful sort they have to im- part." The following extract from the report of Professor Robert- son, Canadian Agricultural Commissioner, on the advertis- ing campaign carried on in Great Britain, shows that the Canadian Government has grasped the true significance of advertising. '' The purpose which I kept steadily before me was to reach the public eye and the public ear with information which w^ould be remembered concerning the excellence of Canadian products ; and also, incidentally, to inform the British farmers and others who might be considering the matter of emigrating, what the Canadian Government was doing in the way of giving practical assistance for the development of agriculture. There is undoubted commercial value in making known this country and its products in an interesting way, so as to graft them into the every-day conver- sation of the people. Owing to the conspicuous part taken by Canada and Canadians in the Jubilee celebrations, great and continuous prominence was given to Canadian matters in the British papers during the season. As a rule the con- sumers in Great Britain do not trouble themselves with the names of the countries or places whence their food products come. During the year a persistent effort has been made, by pegging away at it almost weekly, to make them aware of the fact that Canada is not only the premier Colony of the COLOXIAL ADVERTISING. 85 Empire, but is a country from which all sorts of good foods may be obtained, from the hnest quality of wheat and Hour to prime cheese to eat with the bread ; from nourishing beef- steaks to luscious and dainty-Havoured fruits ; from golden butter made in the Government creameries in the North- west and elsewhere, to bags and bricks of gold taken from the Kootenay, the Lake of the Woods, and the Klondike." South Africa is another promising held for the British merchant and manufacturer. For years past the value of the British exports to the South African Colonies has been increasing. In the last few years it has gone up by leaps and bounds. Even the disturbances which followed the revo- lution in Johannesburg and the Raid did not check the increase. Judged bv the value of British goods imported, South Africa is the best of all the Colonial markets. It is only surpassed by the Australian group, which, however, includes seven distinct Colonies. The population of the Cape and Natal does not number over two millions, of which a large proportion is native. Notwithstanding the fact that the population is lesvs than half that of Canada, the value of British imports is double the Canadian total. The following figures, showing British trade with Cape Colony and Natal, speak for themselves : — Cape Colony. Natal. 1894 ... £6,978,128 £l,^2l,K)22 1H95 ;^'9,oi6,997 £1,604,209 1896 £10,687,173 £3,134,184 1897 £9.97^\^49 £3407,088 The classes of British goods which lind a ready market in South Africa are numerous. The following passage from a useful little booklet " In Brightest Africa," published by T. B. Browne, Ltd., may be quoted in this connection : — '' The trade of the country is distributed into three distinct classes — the KafBr, the Boer, and the European. The business in ' Kafhr truck,' as it is called, is large, and is rapidly increasing with the increased prosperity of South Africa and the enlarged education of the black man. It 86 THE ART OF ADVEKTISIXG. consists mainly of ready-made clothing, blankets, rngs, cheap hardware, and agriciiltnral implements. In clothing, the dress of the European working man — corduroys and fustians — is purchased by the black. The rug and blanket trade is quite a special one, colours and designs tiuctuating in obedience to fashions as inconstant as those of a Mayfair lady. The Boer buys necessaries and comforts of all kinds, from clothing for himself and his rroiiiv, to tinned goods and musical instruments. In a much lesser degree than formerly, but still largely, his taste is for an old-fashioned and some- what inartistic style of goods. These strictures may not imply any want of durability, but only the absence of any ornamental or tasteful quality. Thus, his own clothing is required to be roomy and convenient and may quite dispense with ' cut,' while his better-half has a fancy for tawdry colours and for out-of-date dress materials. But even the Boer is becoming rapidly accessible to modern taste. The European trade is very much of the same class as that of an English provincial town, and, in the case of Johannesburg and Capetown at least, superior. The big stores which have been referred to have done a great deal to educate Colonial taste to the level of the home customers, and it is now impossible to palm off second-hand goods and remnants upon the town public of South Africa. With the growth of population there is naturally a large demand for furniture, upholstery, carpets, and appurtenances of all kinds. Gas and electric light fittings are in growing request. Hardware novelties always sell well, and are eagerly stocked by storekeepers. There is a big demand for cycles, especially in Johannesburg. The same flourishing centre is an excellent market for traps and carriages. Saddlery and harness is in excellent demand. Fancy goods and presents of all kinds have lately been bought in increasing quantities. In addition to the general branches of trade, there is, of course, an enormous demand for building materials, such as galvanised iron, cement, tiles, and the like ; shop-fittings, iron and steel, and agricultural implements. The enormous trade w^ith the mines in engineering and other stores, as well as machinery, has already been referred to." T. B. Browne, Ltd., have paid special attention to the South African market, and the advertising campaigns they have undertaken in the past have proved very successful. The greatest Colonial market is Australasia. This group includes seven Colonies, covering an area of over three S7 88 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG million square miles. In point of size it comes directly after Canada, and has about the same number of inhabitants. The Australasian market is one which can be easily approached through the advertising columns of the Colonial Press. The population is scattered over so huge an area that the news- paper is almost the only method of reaching the people. In a thinly-peopled country, newspaper advertising is of even greater importance than in densely populated districts. The whole of Australasia, it is almost needless to say, is covered with newspapers which admirably serve the advertiser's purpose. A prominent Australian has declared that " the typical Australian is an ardent newspaper reader, and no other community of four million people throughout the civilised world produces so many newspapers as does the population of Australia." The following table gives the value of British goods exported to the Australian Colonies during the years 1894- 1897 :- ArslKALAh;iA. /^ "X 1894. iSy5. 1896. isgy. £ £ & 4^. West Australia ... 5«9,744 987,004 2,307,614 2,34«,«47 South Australia ... i,59«,473 1,544,800 1,962,534 1,741,125 Victoria 3,775.111 3,939,070 4,833,265 4,622,544 New South Wales . 5,016,030 5,466.099 6,363,976 6,167,459 Queensland 1,691,288 1,931,796 2,602,027 1,964,411 Tasmania 305.529 33«,4«9 423,7^4 412,234 New Zealand 3,031,623 3,103,091 3,995,092 4,027,654 Fiji-.. 36.875 34,460 27.260 26,612 Total 16,044,673 17,344,809 22,515,552 21,310,886 The bad times from which the Australian Colonies have for some years been suffering have passed away. Trade has in consequence revived in all the Colonies. The immense COLONIAL ADVERJISIXG. 89 increase in West Anstralia is due to the discovery of gold at Coolgardie, and the rush of miners and speculators which followed. New South Wales is the largest importer of British goods, although its population is little larger than that of Victoria. New South Wales is the only colony which has followed the example of the Mother-country and adopted Free Trade. The British manufacturer and merchant, there- fore, find a readier market for their goods in New South Wales than in any of our other dependencies at the Anti- podes. These are the chief groups into which the Colonial markets may be divided. The smaller colonies and possessions do not need to be touched upon. What has been said about the larger groups applies equally to them. The case of India, however, is different. W^e already do an immense trade with that country. The value of our exports was ^27,382,091 in 1897, a total which greatly exceeds that of our exports to any other dependency. The Indian trade, however, is not so easily influenced by advertising as the Colonial. The conditions are radically different. Indian papers are few in number, and their circulations as a rule are small. "" Advertising in India has frequently been found un- prohtable. This is due to the prime cause of unremunerative advertising — lack of knowledge. Advertisements are fre- quently inserted in papers which are so much waste paper as far as the advertiser is concerned. But intelligent advertising pays in India as elsewhere. For certain classes of goods there is a large market. The advertising of patent medicines, soap, &c., repays the money expended on it many times over, notwithstanding the small circulations of the papers. The great markets of the future will undoubtedly be found in these colonies and dependencies of the Empire, scattered over the surface of the globe. They are as yet thinly peopled and their trade returns may appear comparatively insignifi- cant beside those of their European neighbours. The 90 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. European market has a splendid history, and is imposing- enough in its present magnitude to dazzle the sense of even the most sober-minded. The European may point with justihable pride to his achievements in commerce and in- dustry. As the decades roll on he looks back with pleasure along the path he has trodden, but regards the future with a continually increasing dread. The colonist, on the contrary, lives in the future. His achievements in trade and commerce lie before him. He has no memories, only aspirations. The advertising merchant and manufacturer will, if he is gifted with any power of foresight, pay an increasing amount of attention to the new^ markets rather than to the old. He will not relax his efforts to maintain his hold of those in which he at present reigns supreme, but he will at the same time begin laying the foundations of a trade in markets over-sea, which are as yet in their infancy. In doing so he will lind an in- dispensable ally in the advertising columns of the Cok^nial Press. CHAPTER IV. Foreign Advertising. Recently much attention has been directed to the great advances made by German trade in the markets of the world. The British mannfactm-er is in some places being supplanted in markets where hitherto he has reigned supreme. In many countries he has to contend with much keener competition than formerly, from rivals who are following in his footsteps. If the British merchant and manufacturer is to hold his own in < foreign markets, he will have to take more trouble in pushing his goods, and more pains in adapting them to the requirements of the foreign consumer. Consular report after consular report tells the same tale. British traders do not trouble about the apparently trifling details of trade. The foreign competitor quickly sees his opportunity of getting a foothold, and soon develops into a serious rival. In this struggle for the foreign market, the British trader needs to have at his command the best available information, and cannot afford to leave any stone unturned. Here, then, is an admirable opportunity for the Advertising Agent in his role of the exploiter of new markets and the developer of old. Any reverses that British trade has suffered have usually been due to the lack of accurate and adequate knowledge of the condition of the country and the 92 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. wants of the people. The best proof that this is the weak point of our foreign trade is to be found in the recent report of the Board of Trade upon the subject. In that report the estabhshment of an office is recommended where ah the latest information will be collected and made available for the use of British traders. Such knowledge is the stock-in- trade of the Advertising Agent. It is not wonderful, therefore, that the Advertising Agent should have recognised this fact several years before our Government did so. T. B. Browne, Ltd., were not slow in perceiving that the foreign market offered them a field in which their energies could have full scope. They had been the pioneers in many advertising ventures at home, and they determined to be in the forefront of Continental advertising. In 1891 the Continental branch of their business was placed on a firm foundation by the establishment of an agency at Paris — 38, Rue du Louvre — with correspondents in every important European city. The Continent is almost an unexplored region from the point of view of the British advertiser. As at home, T. B. Browne, Ltd., place their principal reliance on newspaper and magazine advertising. They did not find nearly so perfect an instrument ready to their hand as that which exists in the United Kingdom or the Colonies. Press advertising in Europe is in its infancy. Until a few years ago the advertisement column in the daily press was conspicuous by its rarity. Recently, however, rapid progress has been made,, especially in France and Germany. Newspaper advertising may now be regarded as definitely established on the Con- tinent, and advertisements are claiming an increasingly large amount of space in the periodical press. In Brussels the daily paper claiming the largest circulation is distributed free,, relying upon its advertising columns for its revenue. Visitors to Cologne by train may recollect the sheet of newspaper thrust in at the carriage window before arriving at the city. If they examined it, a map of the town, together with general FOREIGX ADVERTISING. 93 information as to the sights and amusements, would be found to occupy a small space. The remainder of the sheet is devoted to advertisements. If the knowledge of the Advertising Agent is valuable in this country, where the conditions of life and the habits of the people are easily ascertainable, it is simply invaluable on the Continent. T. B. Browne, Ltd., through their Paris branch, not only undertake to insert advertisements in any paper on the Continent, but also give full information concerning the suitability of advertisers' goods for the different markets. Much energy has been expended uselessly in pushing goods which were unsuitable. This merchants can avoid by utilising the knowledge which T. B. Browne, Ltd., have accumulated in the course of their business experience. But the work of the advertising agent does not stop here. He suggests the most suitable means of appealing to the many widely differing communities of the Continent. He has also a thorough knowledge of the classes among which the various papers circulate, so that advertisements entrusted to his care reach the public they were intended for. Many British hrms have retired in disgust from Continental trading because they either could not afford or had not had the patience to acquire the special information and knowledge which it is the hrst duty of an Advertising Agent to procure. Many complaints have been made in recent years that the representatives of British hrms do not take the trouble to master the language of the people whom they hope will become their customers. Here again the Advertising Agent steps in and offers his services. T. B. Browne, Ltd., undertake to translate advertisers' announcements into any language ; and they aim not merely at giving correct, but fluent and idio- matic versions of the original English. In spite of heavy protective tariffs, in which almost all the Continental nations put their faith, many j(:lasses of British goods, appealing to a special constituency, an do much to 94 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. increase their sale. Earthenware, stationery, woollen fabrics, hosiery, patent medicines, specifics of various kinds, food preparations, and many classes of hardware and cutlery enjoy a high reputation, and need only judicious advertising to increase their popularity in markets where at present they have a limited sale. In the last few years several British firms have established branches in Paris. This points to an awakening of British merchants to a realisation of the changed conditions of the times. The Continent promises to soon become an important branch of British advertising. T. B. Browne, Ltd., are confident that even at the present moment careful advertising produces excellent results in nearly all the European countries. The United States can hardly be classed with foreign nations. The conditions which prevail in the States resemble much more closely those of Great Britain and her Colonies than any Continental nation. We carry on a large trade with the United States, although nothing like as large as might be expected when the size of the population is considered. The United States market is largely closed to the British advertiser. The facilities for advertising in the States are in some instances superior to our own. The number of newspapers and periodicals is immense, and their circulation is enormous. But notwithstanding these facts, up to the present time the British advertiser has not done much in the American market. The high protective tariff has been a serious obstacle in his path. The constant uncertainty about the tariff has been an even worse cause of annoyance. There can be no doubt, however, that in the near future the British advertiser will find great scope for his activities in the United States. In no country is advertising more largely practised and more essential to the success of a business. CHAPTER V. Pictorial Advertising. The Advertiser is the artistic teacher of the Enghsh people of to-day. The merchant who calls attention to his goods by means of gigantic pictorials has probably done more to develop the latent appreciation of art in the British people than the artists of all lands and all times put together. The future of English art depends more upon the designer of trade advertisements, than upon the whole body of Royal Academicians. This is a hard saying, but a true one. A little reflection will show its truth. The Academy, the National Gallery, and other institutions, although open to all, in reality belong to a privileged few. These great institutions do not appeal to the inhabitant of an East End slum. He never enters them ; they consequently teach him nothing. It is not from them that he obtains any sense of colour or design. The artistic education of the great mass of English men and women is picked up from the poster on the wall^ and the advertisement in the paper or magazine. It has been said that the parish church is the picture gallery of a Catholic population. The picture gallery of the English poor is the hoardings of the streets. If the average man has to walk miles in order to see a good picture, he w411 never trouble himself about painting. The advertiser, how- ever, brings the picture to the man in the street. His picture 96 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. may be deplorably lacking in artistic qualities, but it is to be found in all the most crowded streets of a great city. Wher- ever the advertiser discovers a vacant wall or an unused hoarding, he promptly opens his picture gallery. In a demo- cratic age this democratisation of art is not to be despised. It is laying a foundation from which great things may be expected in the future. This being the case, it is of the greatest importance that the picture galleries of the streets should be able to command the services of the best talent of the dav. The artist who designs these pictorial advertise- ments wields a greater power for good or evil than the most celebrated painter. The advertiser offers an artist a public such as he has never possessed. He offers him a position of influence such as he has never hitherto enjoyed. Artists have realised this to some vSlight extent. In the future it is sincerely to be hoped that they will give more attention to this new lield which has been opened up to them by mcxlern advertising. If a poll were taken to-day of the English people as to the best known picture of the century, there is little doubt which picture would head the list. Sir John Millais' " Bubbles " is the most widely known of all English paintings. The reason for this is obvious. Messrs. Pears saw in it an excellent adver- tisement for their soap ; but for this fact " Bubbles " would only have been seen at the outside by a few thousand people. As it is, Millais' picture has been placarded on every important hoarding throughout the English-speaking world, as well as being reproduced in every leading magazine and periodical. It has been one of the most conspicuous exhibits in the poor man's picture gallery, and has done much to raise the artistic standard of the pictorial advertisement. The plain people have in this way learned to appre<-.iate pictures and understand them. It is extremely interesting to note the development of popular artistic taste. In recent years the public has come to demand a much higher artistic standard PICTORIAL ADVERTISING. 97 98 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. in regard to pictorial advertisements. The rude scrawls with which they were satisfied a few years ago would not be tolerated to-day. The credit of this general improvement in the artistic sense of the community is not due to the painter but to the advertising merchant. I Pictorial advertising is the most popular form of adver- tisement. A picture appeals to all classes of the community whether educated or uneducated. Anyone can understand a picture. [ A man ma}^ not be able to read his ABC, but he can recognise the meaning of a picture as soon as his eye sees it. HORSE may be an unintelligible string of letters to him^ conveying no impression to his mind ; but draw a picture of a horse, and he at once knows what you mean. The old inns and hostelries were not slow in recognising this fact ; they served all people, and so adopted a language which was understood by all. The ''White Stag" and the ''Blue Boar " Inns did not hang out a sign with their names inscribed in letters of gold. They were wiser ; they dis- played a picture of the animal which they had ohosen as their designation. I A picture is more effective than letter- press. Into one small illustration, columns of letterpress can be condensed. In a few strokes an artist can give the gist of an advertisement in a way which "display" type utterly fails to rival.! It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that the advertiser should have harnessed the artist to the chariot of trade. What this combination will be able to bring forth in the future -we can hardly imagine. What it has produced in the past we know. Systematic press and poster pictorial advertising is of com- parativelv recent growth. The first attempts were very feeble, and met with general ridicule ; but the utilisation of pictures in the service of trade was too good an idea to be killed by ridicule. Little by little illustrations became more and more employed, and in the popularisation of pictorial advertising Messrs. T. B. Browne led the way. They scattered their PICTORIAL ADVERTISING. 99 pictorial advertisements all over the civilised world, so that they have become household words wherever the English tongue is spoken. Among advertisers, credit is due to Messrs. Pears for being the first to utilise high-class pictures for illustrating their advertisements. The ''Dirty Boy" is known the wide world over. It was one of the greatest coups Messrs. Pears ever made. The story how the firm came to get possession of this famous sculpture is worth relating. Focardi was a poor Italian sculptor. He hap- pened one day to be in Preston, a grimy, smoky Lancashire town, the last place in the world where one would ex- pect to receive an artistic inspiration. He was staying in a poor quarter of the town trying to find work. One morning he rang for his breakfast. No answer came. Again he pulled the bell, and again with the same result. He grew impatient and rather angry at this disregard of his comfort. He ran downstairs to remonstrate with his landlady. On his way down he passed an open door. His attention was suddenly-arrested. He saw^ a gnarled old woman vigorously scrubbing a very dirty boy, who squirmed under the rough usage and screwed up his eyes and his mouth to keep out the soap. '' Drat the boy ! " cried the old lady wrath- fully. '' Stand still, do ! Will he never come clean ? '^ The rage of the breakfast-less sculptor turned to delight. Here was a subject worthy of his chisel. It was quickly arranged that the old woman and the dirty boy should sit for him. At first some difficulty was experienced in get- ting the right expression on the boy's face. This defect, however, was happily remedied by the simple expedient of periodically throwing buckets of cold water, together with stray soap-suds, over the victim's head. Messrs. Pears gave ^500 for the marble, and found it to be one of the most profitable investments they ever made. Innumerable photo- graphs of the famous group were taken, and thousands of casts were made in clay, bronze, and terra-cotta. loo THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. Another of the early successes of the lirm was the picture of the *' Shaving Monks." It was only, with considerable difficulty that Mr. Barratt, the enterprising partner of Messrs. Pears, induced a Royal Academician to paint a picture which could be utilised as an advertisement for a popular soap. Mr. Barratt, however, argued in this wise : — "A good picture is the best educator in the world ; better than masters, better than lectures, better than preaching. Who can distribute pictures so well as a large advertiser ? He places them on every hoarding at every street corner, in every periodical and magazine, in newspapers, in railway trains, in cabs, in omnibuses — everywhere, in fact, where men do congregate. Given a good picture, done by a good artist, with a good subject, it is always before the eyes of the masses where\cr they go." Mr. Marks saw the force of this argument, and agreed to draw two monks, one shaving and the other Avashing. They proved a most eftective advertisement, and Messrs. Pears made the fullest use of its attractiveness bv scattering reproductions broadcjist over the land. But pictorial advertising is not limited to the multiplication of good pictures which may happen to suit the purpose of the advertiser, j The pictorial puzzle has also proved an efficacious means of attracting attention. A good example of this kind of pictorial advertising was also supplied bv Messrs. Pears. Everyone has seen that practical lesson in optics afforded by the little spot of white in the belt of orange ground. In how many thousands of eves have not those magic words '' Pears' Soap " been reflected I The story of the conception of this simple but striking idea is an instance of the readiness of resource with which the modern advertiser is endowed. Mr. Barratt happened to be sitting in his chair one day, when his eye was attracted by the solar spectrum reflected upon the wall from some prismatic glass ornament on a side table. He looked at the light for a few seconds intently, and then he saw revealed all the comple- PICTORIAL ADVERTISIXG. lOI mentary colours. This gave him the idea, which, however, was not worked out in the shape in which it was displayed in the magazines and on the hoardings until after months of careful study and experiment. 102 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. Another instance of the advertiser's keen appreciation of what will arrest the attention of the man in the street was related by Mr. Barratt a dozen years ago. One day as he lay thinking, it struck him that Mme. Patti's great popularity might be turned to account. He at once sent the prima donna a beautiful box of soap. In this way the campaign was opened. But Mr. Barratt was too well versed in the peculiarities of human nature to leave it unsupported. He happened to know one of Mme. Patti's medical attendants, and induced him to take an interest in the matter. He chose an opportune moment after dinner to tell Mme. Patti how grateful Messrs. Pears would be for an acknowledgment of the little gift. After some delay the scrap of paper, which has so often been displayed, was received by the lirm. Mr. Barratt in like manner procured the commendation of Mrs. Langtry and Miss Anderson. Having secured these recom- mendations the next step was to make use of them. 200,000 photographs of Mme. Patti and Mrs. Langtry were printed. These were pasted upon small, neat mounts, making a picture which the public would not only look at, but would in all probability keep. These few examples taken from the early days of pictorial advertising will suffice to show how effective an instrument it is in the hands of a competent and resource- ful Advertising Agent. ^ Pictorial advertising to be effective must be bold, vigorous, and simple. Its object is to attract attention and to strike the public eye. The simpler the picture, the more effective the advertisement will be.' To crowd it with details is to spoil it. A few strokes of the pen or brush is all that is necessary, but it requires a skilled artist to put meaning into them. The artist-advertiser needs a vigorous touch and a quick eye for effective contrasts. These are indispensable qualities. It does not pay the advertiser to use inartistic pictures any more than ineffective letterpress. If an adver- tiser desires to use illustrations, he should employ the best PICTORIAL ADVERTISING. 103 skilled talent he can discover. This is, no doubt, expensive, but it is a policy which pays. The advertiser, however, needs to keep his artist well in hand. An artist is a good servant, but a bad master. When he carries out instructions I04 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. he is excellent : when he has a free hand, his illustrations mav be well drawn, but they will probably be without point. This is as fatal an error as a bad design. In the artist-advertiser the two sides of his nature need to be equally balanced. If they are, his advertising designs will be both striking and pleasing — the two highest qualities in artistic advertising. 1 Caricature, as yet, has not played a great part in adver- tising. Only a few half-hearted attempts have been made in this direction. In the future, however, it is probable that no advertising agency will be complete without a caricaturist on its staff. Caricature is exceedingly popular. A caricaturist continually appeals to a sense which the artist only occasion- ally touches — the sense of humour. To arrest the attention and to amuse the fancy of the public is the vocation of the hrst-class caricaturist. The advertiser who approaches the public in every imaginable way, cannot much longer afford to neglect this powerful method of attracting public attention.] And here again we hnd Messrs. T. B. Browne, Ltd., well abreast of the times, for their Art department covers every conceivable ground in this aspect of the Advertising Agent's business. It is, of course, only fitting, and to be expected, that this should be .so in the case of the lirm who, in regard to the newspaper and magazine press, initiated, and for more than a quarter of a century have with conspicuous success pioneered, this telling form of publicity. CHAPTER VI. Auxiliary Branches. The auxiliary departments established from time to time by T. B. Browne, Ltd., are a convincing proof that the firm does not regard the duties of an Advertising Agent in any narrow spirit. The mission of the Advertising Agent is to help the merchant at all points in any advertising campaign he may undertake. This endeavour has been the direct cause of the establishment of the departments at Queen Victoria- street dealing with Trade Marks and Patents. As soon as the business of the firm began to extend, the vital importance to the merchant of registering his trade mark became apparent. This was more especially the case when Foreign and Colonial advertising campaigns were organised. A promising trade in a foreign land, supported by vigorous and intelligent advertis- ing, might be rendered futile simply because the merchant had failed to register his trade mark in the country. At the present time it is perfectly possible for an unscrupu- lous person to adopt or register in foreign countries the trade mark of a British trader ; this has very serious results upon trade. When the British merchant wishes to export his goods to that country he quickly hnds out that his trade mark io6 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. has already been appropriated. He cannot in snch a case make use of his own mark, and his rival meanwhile enjoys the benelit of the prestige due to the reputation of the British merchant. In the majority of cases there is no redress ; Denmark is a case in point. Under Danish law it is possible for any hrm in that country to adopt and register any trade mark, whether in use in Denmark or not, as long as it is not registered there. After registration the trade mark belongs absolutely to the hrm which has registered it. If the original owner continues to use it in Denmark he is liable to a hue of from ^lo to ;^2oo, and to the forfeiture of his goods. The question of the registration of trade marks is therefore of the lirst importance to Advertising Agents. Trade marks have now been recognised in every civilised country, and in most lands registration laws exist. In 1896 a treaty was concluded with Japan enabling British traders to register trade marks in that enterprising land. The Straits Settlements is the latest country to adopt a trade mark law. The laws of each country have peculiarities of their own, and with the increase in the number of trade marks, the formalities of registration are by no means simplified. The Trade Marks Department at Queen Victoria-street relieves the merchant of all worry and trouble about registra- tion. It undertakes to see that all the technicalities incident on registration are complied with. Registration in this country is of special importance. In manv cases registration abroad depends upon the previous registration of the trade mark in England. The rules of the Comptroller of the Patent Office are very rigorous, and the office does not enjoy a reputation for celerity. Applications to the Patent Office are usually considered in rotation, hence weeks frequently elapse before an answer as to the registrable character of a trade mark is received. After this patient waiting the applicant may simply get a formal note from the Comptroller informing him that his *' Trade mark does not AUXILIARY BRANCHES. 107 consist ""of any of the essential particulars required as a condition for the registration of a new trade mark, and is therefore incapable of registration and cannot be proceeded with." Should the^ trade mark fulfil all the necessary io8 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. conditions it may still be rejected on acconnt of some similarity to an existing mark. Even after passing this second ordeal the nnlucky trade mark may be objected to by another lirm which regards it as injnring its interests. The following incident which happened not long ago, is an interesting example of the work done by the Trade Marks Department. The proprietor of a Cuban cigar manufactory desired to register his trade mark in England. He applied to T. B. Browne. Acting on their instructions he filled in the necessary forms and complied with all the rules and regulations. The papers were duly forwarded to the Patent Office. After some time they were returned with the intimation that the application did not comply with the regulations in all particulars. The necessary correction would need to be made by the applicant in person in the presence of a notary public. On a careful examination of the document it was found that the only error was the omission of a comma. .The application commenced as follows : '* So and So, Havana, Cuba cigar manufacturer." The Patent Office insisted that a comma should have been inserted between " Cuba " and '' cigar manufacturer." Until this alteration was made they could not entertain the application. The Trade Marks Department in Queen Victoria-street took the matter up and finally induced the Patent Office to reconsider its decision. By so doing they saved their client the expense,, loss of time, and annoyance, which he otherwise would have had to incur had he not made use of the Department. A similar department is that which deals with Patents.. This branch undertakes to obtain patents both at home and abroad. It looks after renewals and, in short, attends to all the technical formalities of obtaining sealed letters patent. T. B. Browne, Ltd., employ a registered patent agent who at any time is ready to give advice and information free to inventors. Another important auxiliary branch is the Printing Depart- AUXILIARY BRANCHES. 109 nient. It is situated in a well-lii^hted and ventilated room in the basement of the Queen Victoria-street offices. It is well equipped for the work it is called upon to do. Every inch of space is utilised. The setting up of advertising designs in no THE ART OF ADVERTISING. type has already been referred to. This by no means exhausts the activity of the Department. It is responsible for the production of the huge annual of the firm — '^ The Adver- tiser's A. B. C. Press Directory." Its composition and print- ing is no light task. The Directory gives a bird's-eye view of the press and periodicals of the world. Besides this, it contains all the information as to prices and circulation necessary for the guidance of advertisers. It is, in short, an advertiser's guide to the World's Press. A huge rack cover- ing one side of the Department bears silent testimony to the work entailed in the compilation of this gigantic guide-book. On its shelves are carefully stored the forms of the i,ioo odd pages of the Directory. Here they remain until a new edition is ready for the press. This type and material weigh 15,032 lb. — almost seven tons — and is valued at ^1,100. The Directory, a facsimile reproduction of which faces page 130, is in its fourteenth year of publication. To supply London letters, fashion, rural, humour, and other columns and gossipy articles to the Provincial and Colonial Press, seems, at first sight, hardly to come within the sphere of the Advertising Agent. T. B. Browne, Ltd., however, think otherwise. Their " Press Department " is no artificial creation. It has grown naturally out of the daily work of the firm. Artists, printing establishment, foundries, and news were all to be found on the premises. Add to this an ex- tensive connection with the Press, and it is not difficult to imagine how the department originated. Competent men are employed to write the letterpress, and skilled artists to illustrate it. The matter is prepared in columns of various width, so as to suit the requirements of papers of all sizes. Stereos, moulds, or electro shells of the columns are de- spatched to all parts of the w^orld. The extensive use of these columns of news and information throws an interesting side- light upon the innumerable ramifications of a modern adver- tising agency. They appear regularly — in addition to the AUXILIARY BRANCHES. Ill pages of the Home press — in the newspapers of the Cape, AustraUa, New Zealand, India, Siam, Cairo, Berlin, Paris, and even America. Yet another department has grafted itself upon the regular work of the firm. This is the Press Cuttings Department. It 12 THE ART OF ADVKRTLSIXG. was commenced years a^o, in order to assist advertising" clients in searching the newspapers and periodicals. The department has, however, gradually and naturally extended its sphere of operations. At the present moment it is dailv engaged in searching newspapers for references which have not the slightest connection with advertising for clients helon^int>" to all classes of the communitv. PART III. THE GROWTH OF PRESS ADVERTISING, CHAPTER I. The Day of Small Things, Ix no manner can we so well obtain, at a rapid glance, a view of the salient points of generations that have passed as by consulting those small voices that have criedirom age to age from the pages of the press, declaring the wants, the losses, the amusements, the money-making eagerness of the people. As we read in the old musty files of papers those naive announcements, the very hum of bye-gone generations seems to rise to the ear. The chapman exhibits his quaint wares, the mountebank capers again upon his stage, we have the liv'ing portrait of the highwayman flying from justice, we see the old china auctions thronged with ladies of quality with their attendant negro boys, or, later still, we have Hogarthian studies of the young bloods who swelled of old along Pall Mall. We trace the moving panorama of men and manners up to our own less demonstrative, but more earnest, times ; and all these cabinet pictures are the daguerreo- types cast by the age which they exhibit, not done for effect, but faithful reflections of those insignificant items of life and things, too small it would seem for the generalising eye of the historian, however necessary to clothe and fill in the dry bones of his history. — Quarterly Review, 1855. Thi5SE small voices of the Press have now swelled to a mightv roar, a perfect Niagara of sound. By tracing the growth of Press advertising to its well-spring, we not only glean invaluable information as to the life and customs of past ages, but we follow the gradual development of a method of obtaining publicity which has surpassed all other means of advertisement devised by human ingenuity. In this way it is possible to obtain some idea of the magnitude and potencv ii6 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. of the instrument which to-day enables the individual advertiser to proclaim with a million tongues his wares to his fellows. The history of Press advertising carries us back to the days when William Caxton first set up his printing-press in the Almonry at Westminster. The printing-press and the advertiser's announcement have been, and are, so intimately connected, that it seems only fitting that the hrst English printer should have also been the hrst English Press advertiser. Caxton was not only a worthy scholar, he was also a keen man of business. He quickly realised the value of his new inventionfor the dissemination of information with regard to his wares. No sooner had he set up his '' red pole," and put his presses in motion, than he printed and issued the hrst Press advertisement which appeared upon If it please ong man gpirituel or temporcl to ijge our pues of tbJ0 or tljre comemoracio*^ of Salisburi use, emprgnteli after tl)e form of tfjis pre0e*t letre, ini^icfje htn luel antJ trulgf correct, late fjgm come to TOlegtmonegter, into tfje almonestrge at the teeti pole anti Je sl&al Ijaue tfjem goot^ antj cj^epe : Supplico gtet cetrula FACSmiLE OF THE FIRST KNOWN PKKSS ADVEKTISKMENT. English soil. This historic announcement is the parent of a progeny which has multiplied until it rivals the sands of the sea-shore in number. It ran as follows : — "If it please any man, spiritual or temporal, to buy our pyes of two or three commemorations of Salisbury use, emprinted after the form of this present letter, which been well and truly correct, let him come to Westminster into the Almonry at the red pole and he. shall have them good and cheap." " My art of printing had many enemies at the outset, and few friends," Caxton complained. The same might be said with equal truth of the Art of Advertising. It had but few The ij.of May. VVEEKELY Ncvvcs from Italy^ GERMANIE. HVNGARI A, BOHEMIA, the PALATINATE, France, and the Low Countricj Tranflatei oiA ofththi^ Vutch Qpk. L'ONDOr^ Printed by I D. for ISScholas Brnne and Thtmts Arder^Sindsotc to be fold at their Oiopsatdic FACSIMILE OK TITLE-I'AGE OF T/w Weckely Ncwes. ii8 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. friends and many enemies. Despite the scoffs of the learned, the jibes of the witty, foreign wars and domestic disorders, the poverty of the State and the commercial community, and many other drawbacks. Press advertising has grown and prospered. At lirst its development was of the slowest. A hundred and forty-six years passed before the first authentic English periodical newspaper was published. It was not till the latter end of the reign of James I. that a paper was issued from the press at regular intervals in the City of London. On May 23, 1622, Nicholas Bourne and one or two friends published The Weekely Newes from Italy^ Gerniaiiie, &c. No advertisements appeared in its pages, nor in those of any of its numerous imitators. Publishers' announcements there were, but these cannot be strictly considered as Press adver- tisements in the sense in which that term is generally under- stood. For instance in the pages of a paper entitled The Certain Newes of the Present Week for August 23, 1622, the following announcement is met with : — '^ If any gentleman or other accustomed to buy the weekly relations of newes be desirous to continue the same, let them know that the writer or transcriber rather of this newes hath published two former newes ; one is dated the second and the other the thirteenth of August, all which do carry a like title and have dependance one upon another ; which manner of writing and printing he doeth propose to continue weekly by God's assistance from the best and most certain intelli- gence." The domestic strife of the Civil War was fruitful ground for the rapid growth of the periodical Press. But the country was too disturbed to turn its attention to advertising. It was not until the Commonwealth was estabhshed and comparative peace was restored that people discovered the value of the Press as a means of making their wants known and announc- ing their wares. Press advertising therefore may be said to properly date from the Commonwealth and the Protectorate, a period which was so productive of new ideas and aspira- THE DAY OF SMALL THLWGS. 119 tions. Booksellers were the lirst to avail themselves of the printing-press, and they also were the hrst to recognise the value of the newspaper as a means of advertisement. All the earliest advertisements w^e find in the pages of the news- papers of the sixteenth century are of books and pamphlets. The earliest advertisement appearing in a periodical paper was printed four months before the execution of Charles the First at Whitehall, in a paper called Merciiriiis Eleuticus (No. 45), October 4, 1648 : — '^ The Reader is desired to peruse A Sermon Eiiti tilled A Looking-glasse for Levellers, preached at St. Peters, Paules Warf, on Sunday, Sept. 24, 1648, by Paul Knell, Mr. of Arts. Another Tract called A Reflex upon our Reformers, with a Prayer for the Parliament.^' Another advertisement appeared a few weeks later in No. 47 of the same paper, October 18, 1648. It ran as follows : — "The Reader is desired to take notice of two Books newly Printed and Published. One is Anti-Merliniis or a Confntation of Mr. William Li I lies Predictions for this yeare, 1648. The other, A Breefe discourse of the present Miseries of the Kingdom and so forth.'' Both these advertisements are printed at the bottom of the last page. These seem to have been solitary instances, for the next advertisement met with bears a date several years later. This, curiously enough, was the announcement of a poem in honour of Cromwell on his return from the Irish war. It appeared in the Mercnrins Politiciis for January, 1652. '' Irenodia Gratulataria, an Heroick Poem ; being a con- gratulatory paneg;^Tick for my Lord General's late return, summing up his successes in an exquisite manner. To be sold by John Holden, in the New^ Exchange, London. Printed by Tho. Newxourt, 1652." Apparently in these early days of book advertising, the absence of laudatory reviews was made good by the appre- I20 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. ciative criticisms of the bookseller or the author, as the case may be. The vender of quack medicines soon followed in the foot- steps of the bookseller. Specifics of all kinds began to be advertised more and more frequently as the papers obtained a surer footmg in public favour. The following is a fair specimen of announcements of this class in those early davs of newspaper advertising : — ^' Most excellent and Appnn'cd Dciitifn'ces to scour and dense the Teeth, making them white as Ivory, preserves from the Toothache. It fastens the Teeth, sweetens the Breath, and preserves the Gums and Mouth from Cankers and Impos- thumes. Made by Robert Turner, Gentleman ; and the right are only to be had at Thomas Rookes, Stationer, at the Holy Lamb at the east end of St. Paul's Church, near the school, in sealed papers, at i2d. the paper. '' The reader is desired to heivare of coiniterfeitsy — {Merciiriiis Politic us, Dec. 20, 1660). It is interesting to note that even at that date the reader is warned against false imitations. The tradesman and manufacturer were not so prompt in utilising the new method of obtaining publicity. The hrvSt trade advertisement, strictly speaking, is not to be found until the year 1658, or ten years after the appearance of the first Press advertisement. It contains one of the earliest references to tea, or '^ tay alais tee " as the advertisement has it : — ''That Excellent and by all Physicians approved China Drink called by the Chincans Tcha, by other Nations Tay alais Tee, is sold at the Snitaness Head Cophee-Hoiise, in Sweetings Rents, by the Royal Exchange, London." — {Mercnrins Politiciis, Sept. 30, 1658). The art of advertising had made such progress by the time of the Restoration as to be resorted to on occasion by the Royal Family. In the Mercnrins Pnblicns, the Royalist title for the former Mercnrins Politicns, of June 28, 1660, there appeared the following : — THE DAY OF SMALL THLXGS. 121 '^A Smooth Black DOG, less than a Greyhound, with white under his breast, belont>ing to the King's Majesty, was taken from Whitehall, the eighteenth day of this instant fiine, or thereabouts. If anyone can give notice to fohn ElliSj one of his Majesties Servants, or to his Majesties Back-Stairs shall be well rewarded for his labour." Apparently this announcement proved fruitless, for we find in the next number, printed in large italics, the following humorous appeal : — ''We must call upon you again for a Black Dog, between a Grey-hound and a Spaniel, no white about him, only a streak on his Brest and Tavl a little bobbed. It is His Majesties own Dog, and doubtless was stoln, for the dog was not born or bred in Englami, and would never forsake his Master. Whosoever finds him may acquaint any at Whitehal, for the Dog was better known at Court than those who stole him. Will they never leave robbing His Majesty ? Must he not keep a dog ? This Dog's place (though better than some imagine) is the only place which nobody offers to beg.'^ Although the value of Press advertising had been recog- nised by the Royal House of Stuart it was still in its infancy. It struggled hard for existence, but under very unfavourable conditions, owing to the troubles which preceded the downfall of James the Second. Up to 1688 advertisements appeared only by threes and fours, and very rarely exceeded a dozen in any newspaper at one time. They were generally to be found in the middle of diminutive journals or as a tailpiece. They were of a very miscellaneous character, and gave little promise of the vast proportions Press advertising was to assume later. It is only after the Revolution of 1688 that the true value of advertising appears to have dawned upon the public mind. With the political settlement trade began to flourish on all sides, and naturally availed itself of this new and powerful means of publicity. The newspapers increased both in size and numbers. No fewer than twenty-six new papers were commenced within four vears of the accession of William and Mary. 122 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. Dr. Johnson writing in The Idler some years later spoke of advertising in the following terms : — ''The man who first took advantage of the general curiosity that was excited by a siege or a battle to betray the readers of news into the knowledge of the shop where the best puffs and powder were to be sold was undoubtedly a man of great sagacity, and profound skill in the nature of man. But when he had once shown the way it was easy to follow him." This first advertiser, whoever he may have been, certainly had many followers in Dr. Johnson's day. The advertiser was then beginning to feel the immense possibilities which lay before him, and advertising branches forth in many new directions. In 1692 a newspaper was planned called The City Mercury, " published gratis for the promotion of trade." It was to contain only advertisements. It was actually published and flourished for two years. It then came to an end. The proprietors undertook to distribute a thousand copies each week in the coffee-houses, taverns, and book- shops of London. This, however, was soon felt to be a move in the wrong direction. It began to be generally recognised that the publication of news and the dissemination of advertisements were so closely connected that they could not be advantageously separated. Theatrical advertisements were another innovation dating from the commencement of the eighteenth century. They had long delayed making their appearance. The earliest advertisement of this nature probably appeared in 1701. A small theatre in Lincoln's Inn was the first to break the ice. Its example was quickly followed by its contemporaries. The year 1745 is an important date in the history of Press advertising. In that year The General Advertiser was started. This paper marks the beginning of a new era both in the newspaper Press of this country and in Press advertising. It was the first paper which succeeded in the attempt to depend solely on its advertisements for support. From that THE DAY OF SMALL THINGS. 123 day advertisements and news have never been dissociated. The success of a newspaper was from this time forth seen to be dependent upon two conditions — its circulation and its advertisements. These two combined are essential to the continued prosperity of the periodical Press. Until this salient fact was firmly grasped by the proprietors of news- papers the English Press was of a very ephemeral nature. It was not till The General Advertiser proved that the financial foundation of every successful paper was to be found in its advertising columns that the periodical Press began to flourish and to increase in numbers and importance. With an assured income from advertisements a newspaper was placed on a solid foundation which secured for it a continued existence and enabled it to build up an extended circulation. The great service which the art of advertising has rendered to the nation in making possible the unlimited development of the periodical Press has never been adequately recognised. We owe to it practically the whole of our daily, weekly, and monthly periodicals, and all that they represent in the life of our people to-day. No provincial daily existed until after the discovery of this vital connection between advertisements and the circulation of news. As soon, how^ever, as this connection was realised papers sprang up like mushrooms all over the Three Kingdoms. The General Advertiser, which effected this revolution, was almost a modern paper in appearance, if not in size. From the very outset of its career its columns were filled with advertisements. Between fifty and sixty appeared in each publication. A modern advertiser may smile at this number, but, compared with the beggarly array in all earlier papers, it was imposing indeed. These advertisements were classified and separated by rules. The departure of ships was regularly notified in its columns, which were adorned with engravings of the old high-pooped vessels of the day. Trading matters occupied a predominant position, and the 124 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. theatres made a good show. Within the next twenty-hve years The General Advertiser had many imitators and rivals. Press advertising tiourished exceedingly. Dr. Johnson declared in the pages of r//6' /^//cr that, *' the trade of advertising is now so near perfection that it is not easy to propose any improvement." Dr. Johnson, it is to be feared, would be considerably surprised, not to say disconcerted, if his shade could revisit its ancient haunts in this last decade of the nineteenth century. It was not likely that the British Government, which had shackled the newspaper Press with restrictions and taxation almost from its birth, would allow advertisements to escape. As early as 1712 a tax of one shilling was imposed upon every advertisement appearing in " any printed paper, such paper being dispensed or made public weekly or oftener." The size of the advertisement made no difference. A shilling was charged equally for a line or a page. As soon as advertising became an established institution in the commercial life of the nation the Government did its best to prevent its growth, and at the same time to cripple the newspaper Press. The tax on advertisements was increased in 1757 to two shillings, and a half-penny was added to the penny already charged on every copy of any published paper. In 1789 the advertisement duty was raised to 2s. 6d., and again, in 1804, to 3s. 6d. This almost prohibitive tax remained in force till 1833, when it was reduced to is. 6d. The tax was not abolished till 1853. Even this concession to a popular demand was not obtained without long- agitation and prolonged debates in Parliament. Despite these artificial restrictions, the newspaper Press increased both in circulation and in inHuence. Advertise- ments also showed a continuous tendency to multiply. When the duty w^as finally abolished the day of small things had already passed, and the advertiser was prepared to embark upon the era of expansion which constitutes the THE DAY OF SMALL THLNGS. i25 most striking phenomenon of the latter part of the nineteenth centm-y. In 1832, the last year of the heavy duty, the number of advertisements appearing in the English Press was 921,943, or only i for every 26 of the population. The following table sets forth the state of Press advertising in that year : — Copies of Newspapers Circulated. Advertisements. Population of United Kingdom. 37,210,691. 921,943- 24,392,485. These advertisements were distributed between the three portions of the United Kingdom in the follow^ing proportion : 787,649 in England, 108,914 in Scotland, and 125,380 in Ireland. The amount of duty paid in that year was ^172,570, ^'127,986 of w^hich was obtained from newspapers. It is difftcult to conceive the state of things which existed almost up to the year of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. Newspapers were taxed at all points ; the paper on which they were printed paid a duty, each copy had to bear a stamp costing 3|d., and for each advertisement which appeared in their columns, a sum of 3s. 6d. had to be paid into the Exchequer. Some idea of the fashion in which the Govern- ment of the day hampered the free circulation of newspapers will be obtained from the following items paid by The Times in 1828 :— 3,046,500 Stamps = £48,516 13 4 92,969 Advertisementb- = 16,269 ir 6 6,703 Reams of Paper = 3,35r 3 o Total ;^68,i37 7 10 The proprietor of llie Morning Chronicle, Observer, BelFs Life, and Eiiglishnuui paid in the same year : — 2,735,^68 Stamps = £45,597 I5 o 29,638 Advertisements = 5,185 15 6 5,471 Reams of Paper = . 2,735 -O o Total £53,519 o 6 126 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. The reduction of the duty led to the immense increase in the number of advertisements. In 1841 the number had risen to 1,778,957, of which England claimed the lion's share — 1,386,625. The duty fell little behind the highest amount received during the period of heaviest taxation. In 1851 it had . surpassed the figures for 1832, and stood at ^175,094. The railway mania, which set in during the forties, gave a great impetus to Press advertising. A striking example of the effect of the mania upon the revenue of the papers of the day is afforded by the following detailed account of the receipts of T/ic Times from advertisements for two months in 1845 : — Week ending :- Septembei • 6 n 13 5> 20 M 27 October 4 V II „ 18 >> 25 November i i:"2,«39 14 3,7«3 12 3,935 7 6 4,692 7 6,318 14 ^543 17 6,687 4 6,025 14 6 3,230 3 6 In 1855 the stamp tax on newspapers was abolished. This date marks the commencement of modern newspaper and advertising enterprise. The rapid strides made in both branches have far surpassed the wildest dreams of the most enthusiastic advocate of a free Press. One advantage, however, the Stamp Tax possessed. It enables us to arrive at a very fair estimate of the number and circulation of the various papers of the day. This, however, is a more apparent than real advantage, for unstamped papers swarmed in every town. Prosecutions and imprisonment only seemed to stimulate the activity and daring of the publishers of these illegal papers, which were issued at a price placing them within the reach of the poor man. During the struggle between the unstamped Press and the upholders of the tax seven hundred THE DAY OF SMALL THLXGS. 127 prosecutions were instituted, and as many as five hundred persons were imprisoned. The following table gives in compact form the number of inhabitants, and the total yearly circulation of the various newspapers, daily and weekly, in the United Kingdom, at different periods during the century between the establish- ment of the newspaper Press and the repeal of the Stamp Act :— Year. 1753* 1790* iSoif i8ut 1820 1831 1836 1841 1854 Papers Printed. Population. Papers per Head. 7411,757 6,106,366 12 14,035,639 8,540,738 I '5 • 16,085.085 10,942646 14 24,424,713 12,596,803 I '9 29,387,«43 21,272,187 13 37,713,068 24,392,485 15 39,423,200 24,392,485 1-6 60,759-392 27,036,450 2*2 122,178,501 27,724,849 44 * England alone. f England and Scotland. In these hundred years it will be seen that the circulation of newspapers increased seventeen times, while the population only quadrupled. For the greater portion of the time the average allowance of papers per head of population was only a fraction over one a year. Even in 1854 it amounted to only 4'4 per annum per head. That is to say, forty-five years ago, had all the copies of the papers published at that date been evenly divided among the population of the British Isles, each man, woman, and child would only have received a newspaper once a quarter. CHAPTER II. Progress Since 1855. The nineteenth century has been remarkable for the amazing expansion which has taken place in all departments of life. In none has the development been more rapid or more striking than in newspaper and advertising enterprise. When in 1855 almost the last artiiicial restraint was removed from the Press, it received a stimulating impulse which has grown with each succeeding year. Forty-live years ago, the number and circulation of the daily and weekly Press could be realised without difficulty. At the present time the figures are so immense that the mind altogether fails to grasp their significance. For the year 1855 ^^'^ have more or less reliable data on which to base our calculations. To-day, although we have accurate lists of the number of papers, daily and weekly, all estimates as to their circulation must be largely guess-work. The increase in the number of news- papers has been accompanied by a corresponding develop- ment in advertising. The advertising column is the sheet anchor of all periodicals to-day. Were advertising to cease, not one in a hundred papers and periodicals would outlive the year. The advertiser has made the cheap paper and the inexpensive magazine possible. But for him we should still be paying five to eleven pence for our daily paper, and half- a-crown to five shillings for our monthly magazines. The PROGRESS SINCE 1855. 129 figures which give an approximate idea of the increase in circulation, and in advertising, are so remarkable that it is worth while setting them out in some detail. In 1855 there were published in the United Kingdom 649 papers, which were distributed in the following manner between London and the Provinces : — LoxDOX. 1 Provincial. Daily. Other. Daily. Other. 15 74 13 547 89 -I 560 In 1898 the 649 had increased to a total of 3,121, showing a gain of 2,472 publications in the forty-three years. The increase in the Provincial papers is especially noticeable as will be seen from the following list : — Loxuox. Daily. Other. M. E. 25 J2 37 828 86^ Provixcial. Daily. Other. M. E. 66 115 181 2,075 2,256 Comparing these two tables, we arrive at some very striking facts. The London dailies have increased by 22, while the weeklies show a net gain of 754. In the provinces the advance is even more marked. There are 168 more provincial dailies than there were in 1855, and 1,528 more weeklies. This gives an increase of 500 per cent, in publications, against hardly 50 per cent, in population. The increase in the num- ber of new publications shows no signs of falling off ; the reverse is rather the case. Take, for instance, the London daily papers. In 1890 there were twenty-eight, to-day there are thirty- seven. In these eight years nine new papers have been started in a field where the competition is the keenest and the ground the most completely covered. If we turn to the circulation of the newspapers the advance is even more startling. The total circulation in 1855 was 122,178,501 per annum, or 4-4 per head of population. I30 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. What the precise circulation to-day may be can only be a matter of conjectm'e. There are no absolutely reliable facts on which to base conclusions ; but that the annual circula- tions are now counted by the thousand millions where they were reckoned by the hundred millions, is beyond doubt. In the following table the estimated increase in the circula- tion of the daily and weekly newspapers of the United King- dom is given : — Year. 1855 .-. 1864 ... 1870 ... 1882 ... 1890 ... 1895 ... 1898 ... Number of Papers Printed. Number per Population per Year. 122,178,501 4-4 546,059,400 i8-8 700,000,000 220 1,620,000,000 39-0 1,800,000,000 450 2,088,000,000 53-0 2,700,000,000 670 These figures are only approximate estimates, but they suffice to show the great advance made by the popular Press since its liberation from oppressive regulations. Perhaps this development will be more easily realised, if we take the number of papers per inhabitant of the British Isles in the above-mentioned years. Since 1855 only forty-three years have elapsed ; but, whereas every person, on an average, saw a paper only once a quarter in 1855, he now reads one at least once a week. In 1864 there were sufficient papers printed to provide every person with one once in three weeks, or 1 8-8 a year. In 1870 each inhabitant could have read his newspaper once a fortnight, and have received altogether twenty-two papers in the year. In 1882 this had still further been increased to one paper every ten days, or thirty-nine a year. To-day the most conservative estimate would give a paper to every inhabitant once in five days, and, were the weekly periodicals which cannot strictly be regarded as news- papers included, the result would be very materially altered. FACSIMILE OF T. B. BROWNE'S PRESS DIRECTORY. PROGRESS SINCE 1855. 131 It will be seen that there is still much progress to be made before we reach an average of one daily or weekly newspaper for every inhabitant of the United Kingdom per day. It is interesting to note the miserably small circulations of the leading papers, daily and weekly, in 1855, as compared with the hundreds of thousands of copies sold daily of many of the London and provincial papers of the present day. Name. Penny Stamps Issued. Average Circulation. rimes News of the World Illustrated London News .:. ... Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper Weekly Times Reynolds' Weekly Newspaper ... Morning Advertiser Weekly Dispatch 15,975,739 5,673,525 5,627,866 5,572,897 3,902,169 2,496,256 2,392,780 1,982,933 51,648 109,106 108,228 107,171 75,041 48,005 7,644 38,133 The circulation of The Daily News was only 4,160 ; TJie Morning Herald, 3,712 ; Morning Chronicle, 2,800 ; Morning Post, 2,667. When we come to consider the circulation of papers to-day, the difficulty of arriving at what may be considered approximately correct hgures is very great. Fancy figures could of course be easily compiled, but would have no value whatever. With the circulation of the London dailies, the question is not so difficult of solution. According to ^'The Advertiser's A.B.C. " there are at present thirty-seven morning and evening papers published in London daily. By a careful calculation, based upon the actual figures of the papers sold and checked by independent testimony, we arrive at the huge total of three millions as the daily circulation of these London papers. This, if anything, is a slight under-estimate of the actual numbers. To this total the morning papers contribute almost two millions, and the evening slightly over a million. This figure is more than half as 132 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. large as the total daily circulation of all the newspapers of the United Kingdom in 1882, as calculated by Mr. Mulhall. It is a little less than half the total annual circulation of all the newspapers in the British Isles in 1753. A combined circu- lation of three millions per day gives an annual circulation of 936,000,000, a figure which can hardly be grasped. It is more than two hundred millions greater than the total annual circulation of newspapers in the Three Kingdoms in 1870, or twenty-eight years ago. In 1864 the circulation of the London dailies was estimated at 205,462,400 per annum. In the thirty-four years which have elapsed since that date, the annual circulation has increased by 730,537,600 copies. If these figures are fully realised, some idea of the extent to which the papers of the United Kingdom cover the popula- tion may be imagined. This is the instrument which the modern advertiser has ready to his hand. As a medium of reaching the great mass of the people, no more perfect method has ever been invented. Before referring to the increase in advertising as shown in the columns of the newspaper Press to-day, it may be well to give one or two concrete examples of what an advertiser obtains when he inserts his announcement in the columns of a London daily. Suppose an advertiser were to insert an advertisement an inch deep in all the morning and evening dailies of the Metropolis, and to repeat it every publishing day of the year ; at the end of the year he would have obtained an advertisement which, if measured, would amount to a total of 14,773 niiles in length. What this figure means will be perhaps more easily understood when we find that this would be equal to a strip of paper, about two and a half inches wide, stretching from London across the Atlantic to New York, right across the American Continent to San Francisco, and from that city to the Sandwich Islands, Hong Kong, and Singapore ; or, to put it in another way, his advertisement would make an uninterrupted path about a PROGRESS SINCE 1855. 133 foot wide stretching from Liverpool to New York. It would also have appeared in 936,000,000 separate copies, and the amount of money spent by the public in buying the papers containing the advertisement would have been infinitely greater than the cost the manufacturer would have to pay for its insertion. If we take ten shillings an inch as an average rate we find that the advertiser would have spent about ;^5,8oo a year. This is a large sum, no doubt, but in reality it is a mere bagatelle when compared with what he obtains in return. The advertisement of his goods would have been placed in the hands of about a thousand million people, who would have spent something like three and a quarter million pounds in buying the papers which contained his announce- ment. Yet there are people who wonder whether advertising pays, and if it is worth while to embark on so hazardous an enterprise ! Suppose, however, the advertiser took a column advertise- ment instead of an inch. His advertisement would by the end of the year have measured the portentous length of 354,552 miles — a strip of paper which would reach all the way to the moon and almost half the way back again. He would have girdled the world fourteen times, or placed a band round it a yard wide. At the end of the year he could boast of having obtained 8,932 acres of advertisement ; a sheet of paper w^hich would be sufficient to cover up the whole of the borough of Croydon with its 120,000 inhabitants. To say that many large advertisers to-day literally advertise by the square mile is no exaggeration ; it is the simple truth. What is the amount of money spent on advertising ? That is a question impossible to answer with any degree of exacti- tude. The figures for London, however, give us a glimpse of the huge sums expended in advertising at the present day. If we take a moderate estimate and reckon each column of advertising to be worth ;^io, we will find that the daily sum expended on advertising in London is ^5,620, the weekly 134 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. £?>?>y7S^i and the annual ^1,760,625. This equals approxi- mately an expenditure of 9s. per annum for every inhabitant of London. The annual amount paid for advertisements appearing in the London dailies is more than the total public expenditure of Ceylon or Natal, and almost equal to that of all the British West Indian Islands. More monev is spent in advertising every quarter in the daily papers of the capital of the Empire, than was spent on the campaign v^hich destroyed the power of the Khalifa outside the walls of Omdurman. It is an interesting fact that every day there is issued from the newspaper printing presses of London about a hfth of a mile of advertisements, or, to be more accurate, 956 feet. In a year over fifty-six miles of advertisements appear in the pages of the daily journals of the Metropolis. That is to say, were all the columns of advertisements in the various papers to be pasted end on end, they would reach from London to Huntingdon. If anyone were possessed of sufficient patience and perseverance, it would be perfectly possible to arrive at an accurate estimate of the number of advertisements appearing in the periodical Press. The man with so absorbing a thirst for statistics that he would attempt undaunted a task so overwhelming has yet to be found. It is to be feared we shall have to look for him in vain for many a long day. But, should another Mulhall read these pages, we would commend to him this task, which will amply satisfy his craving for fresh statistical worlds to conquer. In order, however, to give the reader some idea of the magnitude of modern advertising, we have had counted, at the cost of considerable labour, the number of separate advertisements appearing in the London daily papers. The conception which will be formed by a glance at the following table will be an inadequate one, for it concerns only a small section of the advertising mediums of the United Kingdom. No account is taken of the 181 provincial daily papers, the 2,466 weekly periodicals PROGRESS SINCE 1855. 135 the 1,564 monthly magazines, and the 246 quarterlies, all of which depend for their revenue mainly upon their advertising columns and pages. The day selected for the enumeration of the advertisements in the London dailies was January 18, 1899. The table below gives the number of columns of advertisements, and the number of separate advertisements appearing in each of the daily papers of the Metropolis on that date : — Paper. Time.* No. of Cols. 48 No. of Advertis'ts. Daily Telegraph ... M. 2,356 Daily Chronicle M. 40 2,153 Morning Post M. 38 1,588 Standard M. 35 851 Daily News M. 26 842 Islington Gazette M. 21 838 Times M. 32 818 Morning Advertiser M. 16 563 Evening Standard E. 24 558 Daily Mail M. 23^ 489 Shipping and Mercantile Gazette and Lloyd's List E. 31 385 Morning Leader M. 21 340 Daily Graphic M. 26 248 sportsman M. 18 220 London Morning M. 13 210 Echo E. 12J 200 Evening News E. 13 167 Star .'. E. 13 153 Siin E. 9 140 Globe E. 10 137 Sporting Life M. II 132 Financial News M. i5i 116 Public Ledger M. 9 114 Pall Mall Gazette E. io 90 St. James's Gazette E. 14 71 Westminster Gazette E. 6 65 Miscellaneous — 27 171 Total — 562i 14,015 * M, signifies Morning ; E, Evening. 136 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. Advertisements, of course, fluctuate greatly from day to day, but the figures given above may be accepted as a fair average. It will be noticed that The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Chronicle, with over two thousand advertisements each, and The Morning Post, with almost one thousand six hundred, head the list, followed by The Standard, The Daily N'ews, The Islington Gazette, and The Times, all with over 800 separate advertisements. The remaining papers follow with a diminish- ing number of advertisements, the rear being brought up by The Westminster Gazette with only 65. No evening paper breaks the serried ranks of the morning journals by an audacious rivalry, with the exception of Evening Standard with 558 advertisements and Lloyd's Shipping Gazette with 385. Compared with the morning papers their evening contem- poraries make but a poor show. They are not so numerous in the first place, and obtain a very much smaller share of the advertiser's bounty. Comparing morning and evening dailies we have the following result : — T(ital Length of Cols. Total Xo. of Cols. Total No. of Advts. Morning 715 ft. i in. 420 12,049 Evening 241 ft. 8 in. 142^ 1,966 Some interesting calculations can be founded on these figures which may enable the reader to realise better what they mean. If we take 14,015 advertisements as the daily average, in a week they would number 84,090, or about 20,000 more than appear in one year in ninety of the most popular monthly magazines. In a quarter the advertisements in the London dailies alone considerably outnumber the sum total of advertisements which appeared in periodicals of every description in the United Kingdom in 1832. Continu- ing the calculation we find that the number of advertisements published in the London dailies in the course of a year mounts up to thd huge total of 4,386,695. Each of these advertise- ments it must be remembered is a separate one paid for each Z£8l ^*"'* ^o^ 1\/201 £58/ ^^^^ ^o^ SlN3MJSIlti3Aay WJOl ^ 2b2/ yvjAyod siNJussiiysnay ivioi PROGRESS SINCE 1855. 137 time it is inserted. This annual output is equal to one advertisement per inhabitant of the Metropolis, and it is safe to assume that the average for the entire Kingdom is not lower. In 1832 the average for the United Kingdom was only one advertisement per annum to every 26 of the population. If the 3s. 6d, advertisement tax were still in force, the State would receive an annual revenue of ;^767,67i 12s. per annum from the advertisers in the London papers alone. This is more than four times the revenue raised from adver- tisements even when the revenue from that source was at its highest. In these calculations, it must be borne in mind, no reference is made to the number of copies sold. The results would be the same if only one copy of each paper were printed daily. Those who desire to carry these calculations further by taking into consideration the number of copies sold, will be able to indulge -their curiosity by the aid of the ligures quoted in this chapter. In the face, however, of calculations which mount up to eleven figures, discretion is the better part of valour. We prefer to drop the subject at this point. CHAPTER III. Magazinedom. The advertiser is not confined merely to the weekly and daily newspapers. He can reach an extended public through the periodical literature of the day. A large proportion of the increased advertising has gone to the weekly papers which do not circulate news, and to the monthly magazines. The magazine world has been as completely transformed as that of the newspaper. The tendency in both cases has been the same. There has been a general all-round cheapening of the price, and at the same time a marked improvement in the appearance and contents of both paper and magazine. It is not so long ago that the magazine public could have been summed up in tens of thousands. The high-priced quarterlies and monthlies were read by a small cultured minority. The bookseller might appeal to their readers with the certainty of a hearty response, but they did not repay the 'time and trouble of the general advertiser. Since that day the public which reads magazines has become almost, if not quite, as numerous as that which buys the daily and weekly news- paper. The magazine public to-day is reckoned by the million. A few years ago a household that subscribed for a magazine was an exception. To-day the family which does not at least take in one monthly magazine is difficult to find. MAGAZINEDOM. 139 No fact about the growth of magazines in the present ceiiLLiry is more striking than the gradual but steady dechne in their price. The old quarterlies charged and still charge 5s. a number. The first step in the direction of cheapening periodical literature of the more serious character was made when the Fortnightly was started in 1865. The Coiitcwporaryy The Nineteenth Century, and The Xational all followed this example. Meanwhile, a still cheaper class of magazines sprang into existence. The shilling monthlies began with Macmillan^s Magazine (1859), Cornhill (i860), and Temple Bar (i860). The sixpenny illustrated magazines date back to the appearance of Good Wprds (i860) and the Quiver (1861). This decrease in price led to an increase in circulation. This in time led to the improvement in the quality of the magazine. The cheaper magazines soon were equal, if not superior, to their higher priced rivals. The result has been two-fold. In the hrst place the older magazines have in some cases decreased their price, as Longmans in 1882 and Cornhill in 1883. The second result has been that the bulk of the newer magazines have been published at the lowest existing price so as to compete with the periodicals already in the field, or have been issued at a still lower figure and appealed to a different public for their circulation. An illustration of this remarkable decline in price will be found in the following figures. In 1831 there were issued in London about 177 monthlies, the total cost of which was ^17 I2S. 6d., or an average of 2s. each. In 1833 the magazines had increased in number to 236, costing ;^23 3s. 6d., but the average price had decreased to is. ii|d. In 1853 the drop was still more noticeable. In that year 362 monthlies were published in London, costing £1^ 17s. 6d., or an average of 9^d. a copy. To-day there are 874 monthlies published in London which may be purchased for ^21 i6s. 3d., or an average of 6d. each. This tendency to lower the price of magazines is still in I40 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. operation. From 1890 to 1898 the ruling price for all new publications was sixpence. The drop from one shilling to sixpence marked the commencement of a fresh wave of expansion in magazinedom. The publication of the Review of Reviews a,t sixpence, met with an immediate and cordial response from the public. The circulation rose with leaps and bounds until it outstripped that of any contemporary. The sixpenny illustrated magazine, it was evident, met a long-felt want, and its instant success proved that it had come to stay. The example of the Review of Reviews w^as quickly followed, but not on the same lines. The secret of the success of all the more recently founded magazines has been lirst liction, and secondly illustration. The Strand Magazine led the way, follow^ed by innumerable imitators. In 1898 a new epoch in magazine publishing was begun by the issue of The Harmsworth Magazine at 3^d., and of Tlie Royal Magazine at 3d. Both magazines obtained circulations which w^ere without precedent in this country. A million copies of the first number were printed in each case. The circulation for subsequt^nt months has ranged between half a million and a million copies. Their success is not so much due to their successfully ousting their more highly priced rivals, as to their obtaining a new public previously untouched by the monthly periodical. It is worth noting that a circu- lation of a million copies means that one person in eve^y forty purchases a copy of the magazine, or, taking the usual computation of a family, one household in every eight is a subscriber. We can pretty accurately surmise what the next step will be. The Penny Magazine issued by Messrs. Cassell is an indication which cannot be mistaken. It will not be long before we have a whole series of penny magazines. When this is the case the magazine public will be as extensive as that of the newspaper. The magazine advertiser, by a judicious system of selection, will be able to appeal to every MAGAZINEDOM. 141 class of the community, from the reader of the five-shiUing quarterhes to the purchaser of the penny magazines. The increase in the number of magazines is another notable fact. Each class of society or section of the community is now represented by a periodical of some description. The following table will make plain the strides made in the number of magazines published during the seventy years of the Queen's reign : — Year. Weekly. Monthly. Quarterly. Total. 1833* 21 236 25 282 1837* 50 136 34 220 1844* ... 60 227 38 325 1853* 56 362 50 468 1863* Included in 453 75 528 i874t 53 482 84 619 i884t 114 699 129 942 i894t 2,375: 1,451 226 4,052 I898t 2,466: 1,564 246 4,276 * Periodicals published in London. f Published in the U.K. : Including weekly newspapers. Even more surprising is the increase in circulation. Magazines in the days of our grandfathers were few and select, and the readers were the same. In these days of colossal circulations, it is almost with a pitying smile we dis- cover that the total circulation of magazines in 1831 was only 125,000. A single popular sixpenny monthly turns out a larger number of copies every month in the year. In 1864 the total annual circulation had increased to 3,609,350. But even this total would make but a poor show beside the sale of monthly periodicals to-day. The weekly papers also are a very valuable medium for advertisements. In fact, they absorb a large proportion of the advertisers' attention and money. Being as a rule of later date than the daily papers, they have adapted them- 142 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. selves with much greater facihty to the requirements of modern advertising. Tit Bits, Answers and Pearson^ s Weekly, together with their innumerable minor imitators, reach a class of the community which the advertiser has found peculiarly remunerative. An even more promising and successful field for advertising is the ladies' weekly paper and the trade journal. One of the axioms of the advertising profession is that advertisements appeal primarily to the woman and not to the man. Hence the swollen advertising pages of the ladies' weekly periodical. The magazine and the periodical offer a peculiarly suitable held for the talents of the advertiser. He not only reaches the home, but his advertisements remain there for a week or a month as the case may be. It is somew^hat remarkable, therefore, that advertisers have not availed themselves of this medium in this country to anything like the extent that their fellow advertisers have done in the United States. When compared with the bulky advertisement pages of the American monthlies, the English periodicals are but lean kine indeed. Be. this as it may, the amount of money spent in advertising in magazines is a very large sum. In the United Kingdom at the present time, 2,265 magazines and periodicals are published. Of these no fewer than 1,321 are issued in London. In order to arrive at some idea as to the number of advertisements appearing in the pages of the monthly magazines we have selected 90 of the more important for examination. These include the bulk of the periodicals which have a general circulation among all classes of the community, but exclude those appealing to special sections. In a given month these 90 magazines w^ere found to contain 1,968 pages of advertisements, excluding insets. The number of the separate announcements appearing was 5,311. In this calculation each publisher's advertisement is counted as a single advertisement, even though it covers several pages, MAGAZINEDOM. 143 If 2,000 pages may be taken as the approximate number of pages of advertisement appearing monthly in about 100 lead- ing magazines, this would give a yearly total of 24,000 pages, which, if bound together, w^ould be equal to about fifty volumes of the *' Dictionary of National Biography." On an average, 63,732 advertisements are published annually in these 90 magazines. When we consider the number of the periodi- cals issued in the United Kingdom we have some conception — though even then only faint — of the extent and importance of this branch of advertising. What is the value of magazine advertising ? This is a difticult question to answer, for no accurate calculation exists of the total number of advertising pages published in magazines annually, nor is it easy in all cases to obtain the scale of rates charged. In order to answer this question, at least in a partial fashion, we selected 46 out of the 90 periodicals already referred to. In all these cases the rates charged for advertising were ascertained. The 46 magazines were found to contain 1,086 pages of advertising matter, representing a sum of about ;^i 3,700. This sum is almost double the amount paid monthly to Cabinet Ministers in the form of salary. In a year the advertising pages of these 46 magazines are worth about ;^ 164,000 to their proprietors. It is quite impossible to estimate in hard cash their value to the advertiser. Advertisements in magazines are naturally charged for at a high rate. This, no doubt, deters many advertisers who would avail themselves of this medium of making their goods known. As it is, the number of distinct advertisements in the majority of periodicals is comparatively small. If w^e turn to the 90 selected magazines, we find that only 13 contained over 100 separate advertisements, and but four over 200. Nine magazines had over 50 pages of advertisements published in periodicals, but several of these were of an Anglo-Ameri- can character. We have no doubt made great progress since 144 THE ART OF ADVERTISING. 1832, with its annual total of 250,000 advertisements pub- lished in periodicals, but there still remains much to be accomplished before this branch of advertising has been thoroughly exploited. No doubt, in the future, advertisers will devote much greater attention than at present to maga- zinedom. It would not be surprising if they discovered it to be an even more valuable means of reaching the public than the daily press. CHAPTER IV. Conclusion : Hints by Experts. In preceding chapters we have pointed out what may be regarded as the secret of success in advertising. In this concluding chapter it may be well to quote the opinions of a few advertising experts, setting forth what they have found to be the essential elements of successful advertising. The iirst essential, according to universal agreement, is that the goods advertised should be of good quality, and the information disseminated of real value to the public. To advertise bad or indifferent articles is not good business. It simply calls public attention to the worthlessness of the goods, and in the end is certain to injure the lirm which sells the inferior article. The function of advertising is to direct the attention of the public to an article and induce them to buy it. That is all. The article advertised is judged on its own merits. It stands or falls according to its own intrinsic value or worthlessness, and no amount of advertising will induce the disappointed customer to buy. something which he has found to be unsuitable. Advertising which simply secures an occasional customer who will buy once or twice is not remunerative. To pay it must make regular customers, and this is impossible unless the article advertised is good in itself. On this point it is interesting and instructive to recall the 146 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. opinion of one of the princes, of advertisers, arrived at after many years of practical experience in the /'art of advertising." He said : — "Those who deal with the pubHc must be careful that their goods are valuable ; that they are genuine and will give satisfaction. When you get an article which you know is going to please your customers, and that when they have tried it they will feel that they have got their money's worth; then let the fact be known that you have got it. Be careful to advertise it in some shape or other, because it is evident that if a man has ever so good an article for sale and nobody knows it, it will bring him no return. If a man has a genuine article there is no way he can reap more advantageously than by " sowing" to the public in this way. He must of course have a really good article, and one which will please his customers ; anything spurious will not succeed permanently, because the public is wiser than many imagine. Men and women are selfish, and we all prefer purchasing where we can g^ct the most for our money ; and we try and iind out where we can most surely do so. You may advertise a spurious article, and induce many people to call and try it once, but they will denounce you as an impostor and swindler, and your business will gradually die out and leave you poor. Few^ people can safely depend upon chance custom. We all need to have our customers return and purchase again." The second secret of remunerative advertising is a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of all the conditions which affect advertising. This, all advertising experts are agreed, is absolutely necessary, if advertising is to be successful. In these pages we have laid special emphasis upon the need of wide knowledge and extended experience in all branches of advertising. It is the general demand for special knowledge and experience in advertising which has resulted in the creation of the Advertising Agent. He becomes more and more indispensable as industrial conditions become more complex. Many advertisers who have begun by conducting their own advertising campaigns have, within the last few years, handed this branch of their business over to an Agent. One of the difficulties which confronts the HINTS BY EXPERTS. 147 advertiser not possessed of special knowledge is well stated by a large manufacturer who has advertised both on his own account and through an Advertising Agent : — ''The circulation of advertisement is the most difficult thing in the world to pass an opinion upon. I may say that it is impossible. The respective value of newspapers and magazines as media one cannot gauge. Endeavours have been made to obtain some comparative gauge, but nothing- like reliable or approximate figures are possible. One must use one's own judgment, experience, and business shrewd- ness." This being so it is natural that the man w^ho spends all his life in studying the conditions of advertising, should gradu- ally become the sole nexus between the man who desires to advertise and the general public. These two things — excellence of quality in the goods advertised and thoroughness of knowledge in the advertising of them — are the great secrets of the Art of Advertising. If they are disregarded, failure will almost certainly be the result. The general experience of advertisers points to the value of two further maxims in advertising — lirst, advertise- ments should be simple, and secondly, advertising should be continuous. "Advertise simply, and advertise constantly," might well be adopted as the motto of the enterprising business house of to-day. Joseph Addison is almost the last person one would suspect of a practical knowledge of advertising. Those, however, who watch see more of the game than those who play, and Addison had a keen insight into the underlying principles of many things, and adver- tising among their number. The whole problem which confronts the advertiser could not be more concisely stated than in the following sentence from The Taller : — " The great art of writing advertisements is the linding the proper method to catch the reader's eye, without which a good thing may pass unobserved." What is the experience of the experts on this subject ? 148 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. They are unanimously of opinion that the best way to catch the pubhc eye is by the most simple methods. An intricate or confused advertisement is, in almost every case, a bad advertisement. It does not arrest attention, and so does not possess one of the most essential qualities of an advertisement. A few" opinions of advertising experts will make this clear : — '' Simplicity is the soul of advertising," a large advertiser recently declared. ^' There are greedy people who think the art is in tilling a certain space. This is a mistake. Of course, the eye cannot take it in." '^ Our experience has satisfied us that the best value is obtained by advertising one article in one advertisement," is the decided opinion of another large advertising firm. Yet another advertising manager with a wide experience in the composition of advertisements is equally emphatic. *' It should be the aim of the writer of advertisements," he said, '^ to use such expressions as at once and at one time appeal to the eye and impress themselves upon it. This is the whole secret of the art, if art you can call it. The words, phrases, and expressions which most rapidly catch the eye are adjectives and adjectival. But there is one thing which could not be overlooked in the choice of adjectives ; they must be appropriate, and they should be startling. I make the endeavour to vary my descriptions as much as possible, in order that the public which is to read the description may read the same thing over and over again until it is, so to speak, fixed upon the mind without the subject becoming wearisome by constant repetition." The verdict of the experts is no less unanimous in favour of continuous advertising. It is only necessary to point to any of the large advertising lirms of to-day, to prove that constant advertising is both profitable and essential to a business. Most of the large advertisers of twenty years ago are still advertising to-day. No business which has once proved the value of advertisement dreams of ceasing to advertise and advertise all the time. No doubt advertisement is of advantage to the advertiser. HIXTS BY EXPERTS. 149 it may be objected ; but what about the pubhc ? The reply to that objection is very simple. Advertising is popular, and for a very good reason. A large proportion of the public are themselves advertisers, and almost all are directly benefited by advertisements. The cry which every now^ and then is raised for the control and regulation of advertisements and advertising is not a popular demand. It may be freely admitted that objectionable advertisements are occasionally to be met with. But, if we wish to discover how objection- able advertisements can become, it is not in the columns of the Press of to-day that we must look, but in the newspapers published during the period of stringent restrictions and censorship. To argue that objectionable advertisements will cease to exist if penalised by Act of Parliament, implies a very limited acquaintance either with human nature or with history. The stamp tax on newspapers did not prevent the appearance of unstamped papers. The very measure which was intended to check license and sedition in reality aggra- vated those evils. It lowered the tone of the Press. All the illegal papers, just because they were published in defiance of the law, were promotors of discontent and revolution. Public opinion had no control over them. It was superseded by an unjust law. It w^as, therefore, in no way surprising that the removal of all legislative restrictions on the Press should have m reality established a much more effective method of control in the shape of the free exercise of public opinion. The same arguments apply equally to advertisements. Any steps in the direction of restriction and regulation are steps backward and not forward. They will inevitably tend to aggravate the evil they aim at minimising. At present any advertisement which can obtain the sanction of the paper in which it is to appear may be published. All advertisements, objectionable and unobjectionable, are subjected to the full light of publicity. If they offend against the common law of the land, they offend openly and publicly, and the most I50 THE ART OF ADVERTISIXG. perfunctory vigilance on the part of the proper authorities should be sufficient to counteract any evil results which may follow from their appearance. But once penalise any class of advertisements, and the task of regulation will become a hundredfold more difficult. The advertisers will simply adopt other and more ingenious methods which, while baffling detection, will almost as effectually advertise the prohibited articles. The Englishman regards the right of a Free Press as one of his most cherished privileges. He has an equal right to Free Advertisements, and to place restric- tions on the latter is as absurd as to curtail the right of public criticism. « # ^ « «: In tjie foregoing chapters we have endeavoured to set forth the vital importance of advertising to modern civilisa- tion. We have shown how advertisement has come to be one of the most potent links which bind all classes of the community together. In doing so we have not acted upon the advice of the old judge to his young colleague, and pronounced judgment without giving any reasons. On the contrary, we have detailed the reasons which have convinced us of the supreme importance of advertising. We have shown that systematised advertising, as we know it to-day, is not simply a curious phenomenon of the latter portion of the nineteenth century. We have traced its growth from its earliest beginnings down to the present day. We have seen how it has developed and expanded with the advance of trade and the growth of population, how it has kept step with the latest scientific inventions, and how it has utilised all the newest discoveries in all branches of life. We have seen also how it has spread to the uttermost corners of the earth. The English- speaking peoples have been the ffrst to thoroughly recognise the value of advertising, more especially Press advertising. The advertisement column is a characteristic feature of every paper published in the English language. In this respect, HIXTS BY EXPERTS. 151 as in many others, the EngHsh-speaking peoples are in the van of progress. But we have also seen how Press advertise- ments are gradually but steadily forcing their way into the most conservative states of the European Continent, the remotest recesses of Darkest Africa, and the most backward countries of Asia. We have been compelled to acknowledge that advertising is no whim or fancy of a moment, but the natural and inevitable outcome of certain laws which per- manently affect trade and industry. Advertisement is therefore intimately bound up with the welfare of national trade. We have seen how the advertiser has his representa- tives in every corner of the land. We have further followed the evolution of the trained advertising expert — the Adver- tising Agent — acting as the intermediary between the manufacturer, the retailer, and the general public. Lastly we have described the actual work performed by an Adver- tising Agent, pointing out how multifarious are the duties he discharges, how widespread is his practical knowledge, and far-reaching his influence. He is in a word, as we have said, the nerve-centre of modern industry. 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