LIE MnMBI UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES STATE NOK-IAL SCHOOL LOS AHGBLK& UNIVERSITY of CALJFORNT< AT LOS ANGELES LIBRARY library 'Graduate S^ v ~ol of Business Administration T ~ -*ni*y of California Los ^xgeles 24, California ADVERTISING ITS PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE, AND TECHNIQUE BY DANIEL STARCH, PH.D. UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY CHICAGO NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1914 BY SCOTT, FOKESMAN AND COMPANY T . Library S11 - PREFACE In this book, I have tried, to the best of my judgment, to analyze and to put together in systematic form the available facts and elementary principles of advertising. It is hoped that the book may serve as a first textbook for students and as an introductory handbook for business men. I have tried, therefore, to combine the practical and the theoretical aspects of the subject in such a way that the practical expe- riences of business houses, which are quoted at length, may illustrate the underlying principles, and that the discussion of principles may illuminate the practical results of business. Problems of advertising policies and plans, and problems in the technique and construction of advertisements, are given at the end of the various chapters. These will increase the usefulness of the book as a text. This book does not pretend to be a final treatise on the subject. The last word in advertising has by no means been spoken. Scarcely more than a beginning, in a scientific way, has been made. No one realizes more than the writer, after several years of teaching and of practical contact with adver- tising, the scarcity of thoroughly established facts and prin- ciples. The author takes pleasure in acknowledging his gratitude to the editors and publishers of Printer's Ink, System, Adver- tising and Selling, and Judicious Advertising for permission to quote extensively from these periodicals. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. THE PLACE OF ADVERTISING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 7 PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING : DEFINITIONS 17 ATTRACTING ATTENTION: BEACHING THE PEOPLE 29 V. DISPLAY TYPE : ITS ATTENTION-VALUE AND USE 39 V." THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 45 VI. EMPHASIS AND UNITY IN ADVERTISEMENTS: AVOIDANCE OF COUNTER-ATTRACTIONS 63 VII. CONTRAST : THE USE OF COLORS AND NOVEL FEATURES ... 72 VIII. BORDERS: EYE-MOVEMENT AND ATTENTION 82 IX. MEDIUMS GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 91 X. MEDIUMS MAGAZINES 96 XL MEDIUMS NEWSPAPERS 118 XII. MEDIUMS STREET BAIL WAY CARDS 128 XIII. TRADE NAMES AND TRADE-MARKS 131 XIV. HEADLINES 147 XV. ILLUSTRATIONS 163 XVI. BEPETITION AND CUMULATIVE EFFECT 171 XVII. TYPE AND LEGIBILITY 180 XVIII. ARTISTIC ELEMENTS IN ADVERTISEMENTS 198' XIX. ARRANGEMENT, BALANCE, AND HARMONY 207 XX. ARGUMENTATIVE ADVERTISEMENTS 223 XXI. SUGGESTIVE ADVERTISEMENTS: METHODS OF KEYING 236 XXII. TESTING THE STRENGTH OF ADVERTISEMENTS 249 ^ XXIII. THE ETHICS OF ADVERTISING 267 APPENDIX . 277 \ ADVERTISING CHAPTER I THE PLACE OF ADVEETISING IN THE BUSINESS WOELD The Immensity of Modern Advertising. Advertising plays today a most conspicuous role in the management of a business. It has assumed such tremendous proportions in recent years 'that it is difficult to estimate the exact place which it occupies in present commercial affairs. We may gain some notion of its immense proportions from the amount of money expended and from the amount of space used each year for printed advertising in America. It has been esti- mated that nearly $700,000,000 are spent annually for this purpose and that about 2000 square miles of printed space are used each year in this country. Approximately half a million dollars are spent annually for advertising any one of a score or more of such well-known household commodities as Ivory Soap, Gold Dust, Uneeda Biscuit, and Grape Nuts; or, again, we may gain a concrete idea of the immensity of advertising from the cost of space for single advertisements in some of the leading mediums. Thus, for example, the back cover of McClure's Magazine for a single issue in 1913 cost $1785. The back cover of the Ladies' Home Journal for a single issue in 1913 cost $10,000. Of course these are preferred positions and cost very much more than any inside page. From still another angle the immensity of advertising is indicated by the fact that from two-thirds to three-fourths of the cost of main- taining a newspaper or a magazine is derived from its adver- tising space. The outsider naturally wonders whether advertising, with such high rates for space, can really be a profitable method of selling, for that is its ultimate aim ; or whether it is not simply an expensive luxury indulged in by large manufacturers. 7 3 ADVERTISING However, it takes very little study and analysis to prove that advertising is not a mushroom luxury but a profitable and, as a rule, an economical method of selling. It would not other- wise have become such a momentous business force during the last fifty years. For efficient business organizations are con- ducted in as economical a manner as possible, and if advertis- ing had proved to be a less profitable method of selling than personal salesmanship, or if its aid to personal salesmanship had been unprofitable, it would have been abandoned long ago. The following extract from Printer's Ink may well be read in this connection : The very best proof in the land that advertising decreases selling cost is contained in the situation of Hart, Schaffner & Marx, the famous clothing house, as compared with other clothing houses. Hart, Schaff- ner & Marx are authoritatively reputed to do an annual volume of busi- ness of about $15,000,000. . . . Good advertising has been their keynote all this time; and today their salesmen (who are on salary, not on com- mission) talk little else but advertising to dealers. ... In magazine advertising alone this spring and last fall Hart, Schaffner & Marx spent $85,000. This figure is not a guess, it is checked up from the magazines. One hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars would prob- ably cover the total advertising expenditure, newspaper advertising and all. Now let us measure up selling cost. For the sales' department expense (everything but advertising), I learn from inside sources, Hart, Schaffner & Marx spend only 2 l / 2 to 3 percent. See how this measures up beside other clothing houses: MAGAZINE ADVERTISING 1909-1910 SELLING COST Hart, Schaffner & Marx $85,000 2V4-3% B Kuppenheimer & Co 49,000 4 Samuel W. Peck & Co 29,000 6 Alfred Benjamin 24,000 7 Here is one of the most powerful object lessons ever tabulated regarding the relation of advertising to sales policies. In almost per- fect proportion to the expenditure for advertising, the selling cost has decreased and volume of sales increased. Those clothing manufacturers named above are all advertisers there is an endless number of other clothing manufacturers whose names are little known to consumers, and wiiose selling cost ranges all the way from 6 to 9 percent. They are ADVERTISING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD Q getting neither the reduced cost of manufacture which comes with the larger volume of sales nor the decreased selling cost which comes with trade-marking and consumer advertising.* Effectiveness of Advertising. Advertising, when prop- erly executed, is an efficient and economic tool of business. People are influenced in their purchasing to a far greater extent by advertising than they commonly realize. A recent investigation conducted by the Chicago Tribune showed that 36 percent of purchases of foods were initiated through the influence of advertising. And this does not take into account the forgotten and unconscious effects of impressions made by advertisements. As explained in an article in Judicious Advertising, four questions were addressed to housewives as follows : 1. What are your favorite brands of food and why do you buy them? 2. How was your attention first called to each? 3. "What has your experience been with each? 4. How much are you influenced by the labels and by the known 'purity of food products? Eeplies from those who responded in this contest were classified into 37 broad divisions of food products, ranging alphabetically from baking powder to vinegar. The total votes for all the brands were 30,936. This does not mean that this number of separate replies was received, but that this was the total number of votes cast for all brands. The reason for purchasing each brand was assigned in nearly every case. These reasons were classified in three divisions, as follows: Influenced by retailers, 16,527, or 55 percent of the total. Influenced by advertising, 11,372, or 36 percent of the total. Influenced by friends, 1889, or 6 percent of the total. Those food products in which the influence of advertising was most apparent are, in general, the products that are most widely advertised. These products, ranked in the order in which the influence of advertising was admitted to be strongest, were as follows: Cocoa and chocolate 61% Cereals 60 s >fe Beverages > 48 Flavoring extracts 46 Meat products 45 Milk and baking powder, tied 43 Sauces and relishes 42 1. .T. G. Frederick in Printer's Ink, August 4, 1910, p. 3. 10 ADVERTISING Among the comments from those housekeepers who admitted the influence of advertising there appear a number of unusually intelligent tributes to the manufacturer and wholesaler who advertises. Some of these quotations are given herewith: Advertising governs the popularity of any article. And, in fact, unconsciously, the advertisements that are continually kept before the public influence the purchaser to purchase the articles advertised and to continue to do so until some more persistent advertiser, by sheer per- sistence, convinces one that we ought to also try their article, and its use a few times makes it soon become a habit. We are not interested at all in what we have not read or heard about. I always scan the newspaper pages closely for any newly adver- tised foods, as we are always on the lookout for something as good as, or better than, what we are using. I prefer buying the advertised brands, as I find the manufacturers standing back of them ready to replace any package which is not entirely satisfactory. I always ask for my groceries under the brands or trade-marks, as I find it easier, and then I am sure to always have the same quality of goods. I always read the labels of untried brands carefully before purchasing, and I find the practice to be universal among my housewife friends, as a food may look all right but have some objectionable feature, such as artificial coloring, or may contain none of the article whose name it bears upon the label, such, as Quince Jelly that contains nothing but apples. In case of first purchases, my reasons are substantially the same. In all cases the articles have been attractively advertised. I do exactly what I believe nearly every other woman does, except that most women do it unconsciously while I set about it deliberately: I judge the article by the quality of its advertising (the reliability of the medium first and the apparent honesty and good taste of the advertisement second), and I am seldom fooled, as the same business spirit is usually back of both.i The general effectiveness of advertising is further shown by the increasingly widespread belief in its reliability and by the corresponding decrease in the number of people who con- sider advertising as of little value. (As a matter of fact, many, even of this class, are unconsciously influenced by it.) "W. A. Shryer, 2 a business man and student of advertising, asked this question of a total of 561 persons: "Are you in favor of advertising, or are you opposed to it?" 1. Judicious Advertising, December, 1913, p. 63. 2. System, November, 1913, p. 472. ADVERTISING IN THE BUSINESS WOELD The following tabulation was made of the replies: IN FAVOB AGAINST INDIFFERENT 511 College students and profes- sors 469 21 21 50 Business men 46 2 2 It will be observed that only about 4 percent of the stu- dents and business men were opposed to advertising. Figure I strikingly shows the power of advertising. s en m o en CD O C- o 00 o en 04,000 f3,000 $3,000 .$1,000 Z \ \ FIGURE 1 ' ' The ascending line is a significant demonstration of the cumulative power of persistent newspaper advertising. It is drawn in exact accordance with the showing of sales in a 'county seat' town of central Georgia. The 'sag' marks a poor crop year as well as the panic." By C. H. Post, 1 Adver- tising Manager, F. W. Devoe & C. T. Kaynolds Company, Paints, New York. The horizontal distances from left to right indicate the years from 1904 to 1910 and the vertical distances from below up represent so many dollars of sales of paints resulting from the advertising (1) Printer's Ink, February 16, 1911, p. 4. 12 ADVERTISING Some Concrete Examples. A few examples of actual re- turns of advertisements, drawn from various lines of busi- ness, will serve to illustrate the effectiveness of advertising: The Fitchburg Machine Works, of Fitchburg, Mass., ob- tained $16,185 worth of new business through thirteen adver- tisements at a cost for advertising space of $663. The adver- tising thus cost only 4 percent of the gross returns. 1 The New York Central Realty Company, advertising in Everybody's Magazine, obtained 56 inquiries at $2.33 per inquiry, or a total of $125. These inquiries resulted in a sale of bonds amounting to $7500. The cost of advertising was less than 2 percent of the gross sales. 2 Inquiries resulting from single advertisements often run up into the thousands. In 1911 Colgate and Company placed in a few media, only, an advertisement which brought about 60,000 written responses. It is true that this advertisement offered prizes for brief estimates made concerning the strength of two smaller advertisements reproduced in it. Nevertheless, the result shows the large number of people who read and go to the trouble of writing a response to an advertisement. The advertising of banks and high class investment securi- ties has until recently been stiff and stereotyped. While this condition lasted, the results were doubtful. Lately, however, more active methods have been introduced, and the returns have been gratifying, as shown by the following quotations : A Profitable Advertisement. In 1911 the New York state legis- lature amended the tax law of that state by adding article XV, relat- ing to the taxation of secured debts. This amendment enables holders of investment bonds to render such bonds tax-exempt by the payment of a nominal tax of one-half percent on their face value. This amend- ment became effective September 1, 1911. Prior to that date the Guaranty Trust Company of New York had prepared a booklet giving the full text of the new law with explanatory notes for the benefit of the layman. On the day the law went into effect an advertisement was inserted in the various New York dailies, calling attention to the passage of the law and explaining briefly its provisions. The ad also invited those interested to send for the booklet and also announced that 1. Printer's Ink, October 16, 1913, p. 19. 2. Advertising and Selling, Vol. 20, p. 6. ADVERTISING IN THE BUSINESS WORLD 13 we were prepared, for a nominal fee, to assist investors in rendering their bonds tax-exempt. All of the advertisements were keyed so that inquiries could be traced directly to the source. The results were immediate and most gratifying. Indeed, the demand for the booklet was so great that we were compelled to get out a second edition, and the total amount of fees that we received for thus assisting our customers amounted to more than twice as much as the entire cost of the booklets, the advertisements, and all other incidental expenses. In addition, we found after all inquiries were in that we had gathered together a very valuable list of names for the future use of our bond department. Such opportunities as this, of course, do not occur every day, but when they do present themselves, if taken advantage of on the minute, they are pretty sure to prove of definite worth. General Advertising Pays. There is abundant evidence that bank advertising of a general nature does increase deposits. Here is an example which is reasonably conclusive. The city of Plainfield, N. J., in 1902, had a population of 15,000, with three banks, whose com- bined deposits were $2,000,000. A new bank was started whose policy was radically different from that of the older banks, in that it believed thoroughly in advertising. Its success, which was almost immediate, compelled the other banks to abandon their old policy of silence, and since 1903 all the banks in Plainfield have been consistent and continuous advertisers. The population of Plainfield in the ten years has increased 5000, or 25 percent, while the deposits in the banks have increased to over $10,000,000, or more than 500 percent. The vice-president of one of the banks in that city tells me that in his opinion ' ' this is conclusive evidence of the great value of good bank publicity." A city in southern Michigan, in 1902, had a population of about 10,000, with three banks, whose total deposits were about $3,500,000. Practically no advertising was done by any of these institutions. A new bank was established in 1903, the management of which believed in advertising, and in less than nine years the new institution has accumu- lated deposits larger than were the combined deposits of the other three banks ten years ago. In the meantime the other banks have been forced to advertise more than they did, and they too have grown, so that the combined deposits of the four banks are today about $11,000,000, a gain of over 200 percent, although the population of the town increased during the same time less than 35 percent. The cashier of one of the banks says : ' ' Needless to say, my opinion is that advertis- ing is a good thing, as you observe that this bank has grown from a deposit account of nothing to $3,700,000 in eight and a half years. 1 The effectiveness of advertising is further indicated by the quite generally accepted opinion that more business failures 1. F. W. Ellsworth, Judicious Advertising, November, 1913, p. 57. 14 ADVERTISING occur among unadvertised than among advertised concerns. To quote from Printer's Ink, January 19, 1911, p. 31: It is interesting to analyze the failures which occurred during the past year. There were 3280 manufacturing failures 250 more than in 1909, but 500 less than in 1907. The greatest number of failures were in clothing and millinery lines largely women 's clothes, which in the finished shape are less advertised than any other large division of mer- chandise. The industry suffering the next greatest number of failures was the lumber industry another unadvertised class; and next the millers. Flour advertising is done by practically two recently three concerns. Machinery and tool makers, glass, earthenware, and brick makers, and printers and engravers suffered more heavily than any other classes; and all of them are practically unadvertised. Mr. Farmer, Time is Money You cannot afford to run vour Cream Separator by 1 hand. Buy a VICTORY CiEARLESS and run it with : your Gasoline Engine or if you wish run it by hand. The power machine that lasts. No gears, no worm spindle. Larger capacity than hand separators. The low price will astonish you. Ask for prices and circulars. Just send us your address. Dept. A, La Crowe, Wisconsin. FIGURE 2 The above advertisement, appearing in Hoard's Dairy- man and costing $22.40, brought forty-four inquiries at 51 cents per inquiry. The advertisement was very efficient and brought inquiries at a low figure, in view of the fact that the cost of selling a cream separator by personal salesmanship is from $15 to $20. It is sometimes assumed by business men that an article which has been used and advertised for many years will, by the sheer force of its past momentum, continue to have as wide a sale as before, if all advertising is stopped. What happens, however, even with a widely known commodity, ADVERTISING IN THE BUSINESS WOBLD 15 when all advertising is suddenly stopped, although all other methods of distribution are kept the same, is a rapid dropping off in sales. To cite one example (Printer's Ink, March 9, 1910) : A short time after the death of Charles Vogeler, of St. Jacob's Oil fame, his widow called in a banker to look over affairs. The banker, representing ideas of a former commercial epoch, toiled microscopically through the books, and was outraged at the items spent for advertising. He would mend that! See how much more money might have been made if there had been no advertising ! He figured the publicity expendi- tures entirely as useless ' ' expense, ' ' and he attempted to make the widow see it that way. The widow had a lot of faith left in her husband, for she herself had seen millions of bottles sent away to uncounted buyers. Yet there were the awful figures "squandered" just for space in magazines and on billboards, and, besides, wasn't a banker an all-wise man whom one shouldn't dispute? So it happened that St. Jacob's Oil came less and less frequently to the attention of the public. As the contracts ran out they were not renewed and before long St. Jacob 's Oil, which had been known to nearly every man, woman, and child in America yes, and the world through the tremendous force of advertising, quietly effaced itself from Ameri- can landscapes and from magazines and the newspapers. Within a year or so all advertising had practically ceased. St. Jacob's Oil had a splendid distribution. It could be got any- where. The banker had said that it would sell anyhow, because every- body had come to know it so well. But ... as the advertising had nicely ceased to bother the expense columns of the ledgers, the demand slackened. Complaints reached headquarters from dealers that St. Jacob's wasn't going as it had. And so within another two or three years the golden stream of orders had shrunk to proportions that would have driven its former proprietor frantic. St. Jacob's had become a back number. Advertising and Prices. Advertising has been charged with being responsible to a considerable extent for the in- creased cost of living. It would seem improbable, however, that advertising has contributed any appreciable amount to the prices for the necessities of life. For we must remem- ber that advertising is on the whole an economical method of selling. In numerous instances it has increased the number of sales and thus decreased the cost of manufacturing as well 16 ADVERTISING as of selling. It has, in a certain sense, educated the public toward buying foods in more sanitary containers. As a matter of fact, the retail price of many of the most widely advertised commodities has remained the same for years even in the face of the increased cost of labor and raw material. An inquiry made among twenty-nine large firms 1 concerning this matter showed that during recent years in which adver- tising has been largely employed, five firms have reduced the price of their commodity and maintained the same quality, eight firms have maintained the same price and quality, five firms have reduced the price and improved the quality, and eleven firms have maintained the same price and improved the quality. Advertising Founded on Principles. The careful analy- sis of a successful or an ineffective advertisement reveals underlying principles which have been applied correctly or in- correctly, or possibly ignored, as the case may be. Success and failure are not matters of good or bad luck. Complete analysis of a proposition and careful execution of the plans bring results with as reasonable certainty in an advertisement as cause and effect follow each other in any other controllable human affairs. Advertising is a field in which immense sums of money are expended, in which invaluable permanent assets of good-will are developed, in which large results are sometimes produced as if by magic, in which success or failure often hinges on a minute understanding of human nature and of economic con- ditions. Such a field deserves the most scrutinizing study. It is the purpose of the succeeding chapters to point out what the scientific foundation is, and what some of the underlying principles are. 1. Printer's Ink, January 22, 1914, p. 3. CHAPTER II PEOBLEMS OF ADVERTISING: DEFINITIONS Problems Confronting the Advertiser. In order to obtain a clear understanding of the theoretical and practical prob- lems of advertising, let us examine for a moment the actual situation which confronts the man who is preparing the plan and copy for advertising a given commodity. What informa- tion must he have, and on what principles must he proceed? To make the situation entirely concrete, What problems would be involved in preparing the advertising plan, for ex- ample, of coffee ? Without attempting at this point to make a systematic enumeration of all points concerned, let us note some of the numerous queries that the advertiser must meet and solve, if his copy is to be effective. The first large question that he would have to face would be the method by which the coffee is to be sold and distributed. Shall the advertising begin before the distribution of the coffee among the dealers, or shall the dealers be solicited to have it in stock in advance of the advertising ? Shall personal salesmanship and advertising be promoted simultaneously? What shall be the general sales policy ? What is the condition of the market ? How severe is the competition ? The second large question relates to the technique and_ execution of t.hp g.^vertigiiugjDlan. that is, the manner in which the advertising should actually be done. In order that we may appreciate the complexity of the situation we may enu- merate some of the specific advertising problems as follows: What class of people will be the natural buyers of the coffee ? tfy what mediums can this particular class be reached ? What islihe best time for launching the advertising campaign ? How large shalT the individual advertisements be? How fre- quently shall advertisements be inserted? Shall small adver- tisements be used frequently or shall large advertisements be 17 18 ADVERTISING used at longer intervals? How large a part of the people shall the campaign attempt to reach ? What features will be most effective with the class to be reached ? What shall be put into the headline ? Shall an illustration be used, and if so, what shall it represent ? If the coffee has never been on the market, by what name shall it be designated ? What kinds and sizes of type will be most effective? What kind of borders shall be used ? What shall be the arrangement and location of the dif- ferent parts, such as illustrations, headlines, and paragraphs ? Should argumentative or suggestive text, or a combination of both, be used? How may the effectiveness of the appeals be tested ? Planning a Campaign. The advertising plan of Instant Coffee illustrates in an actual, concrete way how numerous and intricate the problems of a campaign are. 1 The following illustration has been selected to show the complexity and the interrelation of the problems of advertising and the sales policy. Part of the success of this campaign is due to per- sonal salesmanship, soliciting, canvassing, and demonstrating, and part of it is due to advertising : We started three years ago, my associates and I, with a new product, a crystallized coffee, put out under the brand name of G. Washington Prepared Coffee. Four months after our start we had secured a foot- hold in what is generally acknowledged to be one of the most difficult markets in the world and were selling the .equivalent of 42,500 cups of 40-cent coffee every morning. Now, after three years, our sales have reached the equal of about 1,000,000 cups a day. We have done it partly through advertising and partly through various sales methods. We have made our share of mistakes; and some of them have been costly. But the net results of our efforts have been gratifying. This was the situation three years ago, when we organized in New York the G. Washington Coffee Eefining Company to take over a small going business and develop the distribution of what we have described as a "prepared," "refined," or "crystallized" coffee. We have dodged the use of the word "extract" or "essence" as a description of the product because of the undesirable associations those words have. Besides, it is not strictly an extract. It is the result of a refining process, just as sugar is the result of a refining of sugar 1. Printer's Ink, October 2, 1913. p. 3. PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING 19 cane or sugar beet. The best part of the coffee is there, powdered, for handy package in tins. The first thing, naturally, was to settle on the brand name. We have been criticized for making use of the name "G. Washington" and the well-known Washington signature. To some the apparent exploitation of the Father of His Country seems little short of sacri- legious; to many others a breach of good taste. As a matter of fact, our critics are entirely wrong. The Washington for whom our coffee is named is not the immortal George Washington, of the English branch, who has won a right to the use of his own name. This George Wash- ington is the inventor of a kerosene vapor lamp, which is on the market today. He worked fourteen years on this coffee refining process. Yes, there is plenty of justification, moral and otherwise, for the use of the name. As for the signature, its resemblance to that of the immortal George Washington is broad rather than close, and arose, I suspect, out of Mr. Washington's natural admiration for his distinguished relative. So we kept the brand name. The next step was to lay out the campaign. Confident though we were in the unbounded possibilities of the product, we proceeded cautiously. Mr. Washington had done busi- ness on a small scale and we desired to satisfy ourselves that the mer- chandising conditions were right, by trying it out on a broader field. We laid out three lines of development. First, we arranged a try- out at Atlantic City that summer, in 1910. Second, we put a small advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post in the hope of getting a line on the attitude of the public in all sections toward a prepared coffee. And, third, we planned to get distribution and educate the retail grocers and others through territorial agents. We were feeling our way. The results soon began to point to success. The Atlantic City demonstration store we opened quickly reached an average sale of 160 cans of 25-cent and 80-cent coffee. We had to increase these prices later to 30 cents and 90 cents and put out a hotel size can. By means of these sales and the accompanying demonstrations, the brand name of the coffee was carried all over the country. We immediately followed this up by organizing a force of forty can- vassers and twenty demonstrators and working from town to town, touching all the places of ten thousand and over in the East. The demonstrators worked in the local grocery or drug stores and the can- vassers sold from house to house. We also took in all the convenient food shows. Thousands of letters came in reply to the advertisement in the Post and confirmed the judgment of the public as shown at Atlantic City. We had our opposition pretty well sized up by this time. It was not a proposition for the small dealer at first. When our salesman talked 30-cent coffee and then showed a can about half the size of a tea 20 ADVERTISING cup, the small grocer would throw up his hands. He couldn 't see the value then. So we saved time and energy by following the line of least resistance and selling only the largest and most progressive grocers in every town. By fall we were ready for advertising. And here we faced a dif- ficulty. What sort of story should we go to the public with! We should have liked to rehearse the many talking points of our unique process and product, but we were afraid the public might not see it through our prejudiced eyes. We would have liked to play up the modest inventor of the process, but he was inexorable in his refusal to be exploited. Six leading physicians of the country have told us the use of our refined coffee in place of ordinary coffee would add five years to the life of the average coffee drinker, but our advisers warned us solemnly against helping out the anti-coffee campaign; and we could not claim any actual improvement in flavor. There was but one strong talking point left convenience. G. Wash- ington coffee is made in an instant, in the cup. The powdered or crys- tallized coffee is dropped in and dissolves in an instant when hot or cold water is poured over it. This idea furnished our copy. It was possibly not the strongest argument we had; it probably would not help us as much as some of the other interesting facts we have to tell; but it was safe; it would not start the mind running in critical directions. It might not create an intense desire, but it has provoked curiosity and led directly into sales. Our plan was one of territorial campaigning, sending our sales force into a community and backing it up with local newspaper advertising to run just before and while the salesmen were working the territory. The newspaper support was all we had at the time; no store cards, window displays, or any other auxiliaries. We began in New York City and Brooklyn and worked outward, with the help of local advertising, for the next two or three months, and after that, until the fall of the following year, 1912, without it. Our salesmen handled the proposition in this way: One of them would call on a dealer with a case containing two vacuum bottles, a can of sugar, and a can of G. Washington Instant Coffee. One vacuum bottle contained hot water. The other bottle contained cream. The salesman introduced himself, made a cup of Instant Coffee on the spot by putting a spoonful of the crystallized coffee into a cup and dissolving it instantly with the hot water. This he served to the grocer, with or without cream and sugar. Our men were calling on the leading grocers. A great majority of the latter were impressed by the demonstration and stocked goods. All this time we were adding to our string of brokers. Some of PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING 21 these were secured by the traveling salesmen ; the rest by correspondence. By the end of the first year we had the big centers covered and were getting good orders from our brokers through the jobbers. A year ago last summer we began to prepare for our fall campaign. We had used the local newspapers to get started. We thought we were ready for a national advertising campaign, and concluded to try the magazines. A list was made up for a four months' run, beginning with October. This included the Saturday Evening Post, the Ladies' Home Journal, the Butterick trio, Literary Digest, Collier's, the Woman's Home Companion, Illustrated Sunday Magazine, Pictorial Review, and Good Housekeeping. The space ran in quarter pages in all of the magazines, except Good Housekeeping, from once to twice in a month, and in Good Housekeeping full pages for the four months. It contained an offer of a booklet on new desserts and delicacies made with our coffee. Many of these booklets were distributed by this means. The beneficial effects of this advertising, after a silence of ten months, were soon apparent. It stimulated the trade and also softened it toward our salesmen. We followed this up after a time with ten or a dozen painted bulletins in New York City, divided among the residential section, Brook- lyn Bridge, and the trade district. Some of these are still up. Later, also, we added eighth, quarter, and half -page ads in class magazines like Field and Stream, Outdoor Life, the Trained Nurse, Christian Herald. We had great hopes in regard to our sampling. We spent $25,000 trying out a campaign of it in New England, but so far as getting any tangible results out of it, it was a flat failure. I am disposed to think, however, that the failure was not due to any inappropriateness of the method or the way in which we handled it, which was by the usual crews, carefully supervised, but to the fact that our samples were too small, whether for the purpose of making an impression or securing a fair test. The sample contained only enough for four cups, that is to say, less than four teaspoonfuls. I have no doubt that many housewives and cooks tossed it away without giving any thought to it it. was so small. And it certainly was too small to start a habit or break up the old one. One of the popular impressions we have to overcome is that G. Washington Instant Coffee is good only for picnics, motor trips, kitchenette apartments, hotel rooms, and travel, where it is inconvenient to use the ground coffee. Our advertising had perhaps strengthened this impression. And one or two cups of coffee made from samples are not enough to change the habit of years. The Shredded Wheat people tell me that they try to cover the whole country once a year with a sample box of their biscuits. A salesman will go to one family and find no one who cares for Shredded Wheat, He leaves a sample and goes on. The 'second house is the same; nobody 22 ADVERTISING cares for it. And the third, fourth, and so on. He comes to the tenth house, and there is one little boy there that likes it. The sample left the year before has made a consumer out of him. And some of the samples left that year will make consumers in the other families. And it pays to sample. But there must be enough large-sized samples to switch or start the habit. The development of the prepared coffee idea in our advertising we subsequently changed the name to Instant Coffee suggested a logical sales development, and we went after the fountain trade as well as the grocers. The fountain had already been using old style coffees and extracts. And we were to get an entrance as a novelty and build up a distribution through several thousand drug and confectionery stores. This, of course, helps the grocery store sales. In the press of other matters we have not given the attention to literature or dealer helps that we should have. We are now going into that. We have one rather elaborate cut-out and a fountain sign; also a decalcomania sign for the dealer's window. This has our trade-mark, together with the legend "fresh creamery" on one side and "fresh eggs today" on the other, the whole in bright and attractive lettering. Our men put this up themselves, as well as place cut-outs and hangers in stores. As a result of the three years' work we have done, we have a large majority of the most progressive dealers in the leading towns of the country from Eastport, Me., to Vancouver, B. C. We are now figuring on a broad fall advertising campaign to back up the growing sales promotion. We shall give more attention to win- dow and store display, to dealer cooperation in all its phases. Grocers are continually asking for more store demonstrations, and we shall have to develop that important side. We shall get back to sampling sooner or later. The thing called for now is intensive work, a campaign of education directed at the consumer and a campaign of trade work to bring in the small dealers whom we could afford to neglect while we were laying the framework of our distribution. We have got to go after both now. And advertising will naturally play a large part. Relation of Advertising to Business Management. Thus we see that advertising itself is simply a large branch in the still larger department of the marketing of a product. Its aims and methods must naturally first be fitted into the gen- eral plan and policy of marketing that particular commodity, and then the specific advertising problems can be dealt with. We shall confine our present study to the principles and tech- nique of advertising, and deal with the general sales plan only in so far as it may be necessary to clarify the former. PBOBLEMS OF ADVERTISING 23 The precise place which advertising with its various prob- lems occupies in what for our present purpose of analysis we may call a complete modern business organization is set forth in the following outline. Such a business has two main divi- sions, the manufacturing of the product, and the marketing of the product. The former does not concern us here and so we shall not analyze it. The latter has two large subdivisions, the methods of distributing the product from the factory to the ultimate consumer, and the means of selling the product. The ramifying subdivisions of the latter are indicated in the outline. From this analysis it will be seen that the advertising prob- lems cannot be dealt with independently but must be consid- I N )N Manu- factur- ing rMethods Manufacturer to retailer to consumer Mar- keting eos Dlstri- | Manufacturer to jobber to bution L retailer to consumer Selling Methods Personal Salesmanship Advertising Field or class to be reached The advertise- ment Location Number Sex Profession Social Status Financial Status (-City -{ Town ^Country ("Education -{ Nationality LKeligion, Etc. fWealthy J Middle Class I. Poor r Continuous Demand J Seasonal ^Competition fAdvertis- ^Material able J Workmanship points of ) Serviceability Commodity L Fnce etc. Technique of Adver- tisements (-Type Borders Arrangement Emphasis Headings Illustrations Size of space insertion Frequency of Layouts, etc. fMagazines Newspapers J Posters .Mediums ] Car Cards Circulars I Letters, etc. Personal Salesmanship .and Advertising Combined 24 ADVERTISING ered in their relation to the other problems of a business or- ganization, at least so far as the general policy is concerned. Definition of Advertising. In order that we may obtain a systematic view of the whole mass of problems, let us inquire what the function of advertising is. Then we may accordingly group these problems under the various functions that a suc- cessful advertisement is intended to perform. Of course the prime object of commercial advertising is to sell. In some instances the immediate object may be some- thing else, such as to cause people to make inquiry about an article, to ask for a booklet, or to create a general desire, but it takes very little analysis to recognize that the aim, either immediate or remote, is to sell. There are other forms of ad- vertising besides commercial, as for example, political adver- tising in which the candidate for office is advertising his quali- fications for the office. Still other forms of advertising con- sist in the announcement of an event such as the time, place, and nature of a public gathering. In view of these various forms of advertising it is difficult to formulate an all-inclusive definition. To comprehend all the different types, we may define advertising as nhe presentation of a proposition to the people, usually through-print, in such a manner as to attempt to induce them to act upon that proposition.\The business man tries to present his commodity in a manner that will induce people to buy it. The candidate for office tries to present his qualifications in such a manner that voters will be induced to vote for him. A public gathering is announced so that peo- ple will be induced to attend it. In any instance, advertising consists in offering a proposition so that people will be induced to react favorably upon it. Commercial advertising, with which we are here concerned, is the offering of a commodity, usually through print, in such a manner that the public may be induced to buy it. Functions of an Advertisement. Further analysis shows that in the accomplishment of this ultimate aim an advertise- ment has three chief functions : to attract attention, to stimu- late interest, and to secure a response. Obviously, the first PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING 25 thing an advertisement must do is to secure attention, to be noticed by the public. This may involve nothing more than the arresting of the reader's eye. Second, it is not enough merely to catch the eye ; the advertisement must interest the reader at first glance to such an extent that he will read and examine it. In the third place, it must impress him so that he will react favorably upon the advertisement either im- mediately or at a later time. These three functions overlap more or less. If the adver- tisement has favorably attracted attention it has taken a long step toward persuading the reader. If it has interested him it has taken a still longer step toward leading him to purchase. But for the sake of analytic clearness we must consider these functions separately, realizing all the while that they inter- mesh everywhere. This threefold purpose furnishes the most convenient basis for systematically classifying the numerous and detailed problems of advertising referred to at the beginning of this chapter. First, the securing of attention, or the placing of the ad- vertisement before the public, may be accomplished by the following means: 1. By the size of the advertisement itself and by the size of the print in the display lines. 2. By novel and unusual features in the make-up of the advertisement. 3. By proper emphasis and the avoidance of counter- attraction with other advertisements and among the parts of the advertisement itself. 4. By arresting the movement of the eyes, through borders, type, etc. 5. By placing the advertisement in position seen easily and frequently. 6. By placing the advertisement in mediums that reach the desired class of people. Second, interest in the contents of the advertisement may be aroused by the following means : 26 ADVERTISING 1. By interesting headlines. 2. By interesting illustration. 3. By text and arguments that are terse, pointed, and full of news. 4. By making the advertisement timely. 5. By making the advertisement easily comprehensible. 6. By making the typography inviting to read. 7. By making the advertisement inviting in appearance and artistic in its make-up. Third, a response may be secured by the following means : 1. By creating a reasoned conviction. 2. By directly or indirectly suggesting action and response. 3. By appealing to and stimulating natural inborn desires of response and action. A fourth function might possibly be added, namely, that on advertisement should be remembered. But obviously that is not necessarily a universal function, since many types of advertisements aim to secure an immediate response. Of course, the majority of advertisements aim to make a per- manent impression on the memory. At any rate, the chief principles of securing remembrance are similar to the princi- ples of securing attention and interest. That which makes a deep impression, or arouses intense interest, is quite apt to be remembered. Advertising and Psychology. From this analysis it will readily be seen that the ultimate basis of advertising, the "why" and the "how" of specific problems, lies in an under- standing of human nature. All advertising problems are sub- sidiary, in the last analysis, to the one main question, namely : By what means and in what way may the mind of the poten- tial customer be influenced most effectively? Such questions as, What is the most appropriate headline? What is the most attractive form ? What are the most pulling arguments and points? What is the most effective way of expressing them? What is the best style of type? What are the most suitable mediums? What will arouse attention to, and inter- est in, a given proposition? What is most apt to secure re- PROBLEMS OF ADVERTISING 27 sponse? and the like, find their ultimate answers in the light of how they will influence people, and, in particular, the class of people to be reached in any particular campaign. The principles of advertising, therefore, are based, either directly or indirectly, upon psychology. Broadly defined, psychology is the scientific study of human nature, of human behavior, of the functions and laws of mental life. Its central question is, How does the mind work? To know how to in- fluence human beings, one should know the workings and laws of human behavior. PEOBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. If you were to prepare an advertisement, for example, of an article of food, what facts would it be important for you to know? Make as complete and systematic an analysis as you can of all points involved. To bring the force of this problem fully before you, construct an advertisement of baked beans as well as you can, and make your analysis in connection with it. 2. What is the difference between advertising and publicity? Define each and show that the former includes more than the latter. 3. What are the differences and the similarities between advertising and personal salesmanship? In what respects are the steps in a personal sale similar to the steps in a sale through advertising? 4. If psychology is the science of human behavior, show that the principles on which advertising is based are psychological. 5. To which of the ordinary mental processes, such as attention, imagination, memory, reasoning, suggestion; imitation, feelings, emotions, will, etc., does advertising appeal most? Give examples. 6. In which is the advertiser more interested, in the characteristics and laws (mental and social) of communities and classes of persons, or in the idiosyncrasies of individuals? Illustrate your answer in adver- tising, for example, an article of clothing. 7. As accurately as you can analyze, to what extent are you influ- enced by advertisements? Concretely, can you give illustrations of pur- chases you have made in which you were influenced (1) entirely by advertising, (2) partly by advertising? 8. Study the campaign of Instant Coffee cited in this chapter. Make an analysis and a list of the chief problems that had to be met and state how they were met. Distinguish between the problems that relate more strictly to advertising and those that relate to the whole field of mer- 28 ADVERTISING chandising. Do you see any weaknesses in the campaign? Were the problems solved in the best way? Can you show in what way the problems here involved are funda- mentally psychological? NOTE. The usefulness of this book as a text will be greatly increased if it is possible for the instructor to make an arrangement with mer- chants and business houses whereby each student can make an intimate study of the advertising of a given firm, and to have the student prepare the advertising for that house during the entire time of the course. The problems at the end of the various chapters could be correlated with that work. This would gjve actual contact with and real practice in carrying out the principles set forth. If the work is done intelligently and tactfully, business men are glad to make such arrangements. CHAPTER III ATTEACTING ATTENTION: BEACHING THE PEOPLE Necessity of Securing Attention. Under this head we shall consider the first elementary function which every ad- vertisement must perform, namely that of arresting the atten- tion of the reader. In colloquial terms, whatever else an ad- vertisement must do, first of all it must catch the reader 's eye. No matter how effective and pointed the text of the advertise- ment may be, if it remains unnoticed it is wasted. Many an otherwise excellent advertisement is a loss simply because it fails to be noticed. On the other hand, an advertisement must not spend all its substance on securing the reader 's attention ; it must also have something to offer after the attention has been arrested. But the vital point remains that the securing of attention is an indispensable function, as can be abun- dantly shown by campaign results as well as experimental tests. In a recent investigation a tabulation was made of all the firms advertising with full pages in the year 1890 in two stand- ard magazines. These advertisements were then classified into three groups according as their attention-values were judged to be good, fair, or poor. Then the advertising sections of the same two magazines for the year 1910 were searched to find which ones of these firms were still advertising in them. The investigation brought the results in the following table : NUMBER OP FIRMS USING FULL PAGES IN 1890 NUMBER OF THESE FIRMS LEFT m 1910 Attention-value good 35 17 or 49$ Attention-value fair 30 5 or 17$ Attention -value poor 32 5 or 16$ Hence approximately three times as many firms whose ad- vertisements had high attention-value as firms. whose adver- 29 30 ADVEEI1SING tisements had inferior attention-value were still advertising in the same mediums twenty years later. While these figures do not absolutely prove the point in favor of the attention-com- pelling advertisements, they have, nevertheles3, considerable weight. There are many obvious reasons, besides inefficient advertising, why a firm might not be advertising in the same mediums twenty years later. The mediums might not have been suitable for its products, or the business might have been discontinued, or the product might have been in demand only temporarily, or the methods of selling might have been changed. Nevertheless, these figures have a strong corrobo- rating force in favor of the greater efficiency of properly con- structed advertisements. Testing the Attention- Value of Advertisements. The dif- ferences in mere attention-value among advertisements even in a first-class medium are extremely large. To obtain a measure of such differences the following test was made. The plan used obviously is not free from shortcomings, but it prob- ably gives a fair estimate of attention-value. This test was made with several purposes in view, and will be referred to later as the "magazine test." A copy of a magazine (Cosmopolitan, April, 1910, or Everybody's, March, 1909) was placed in the hands of each of 374 persons for the purpose of examining its advertising sec- tion. These persons were instructed to read what they liked and to skip what they/\liked, but to turn every leaf of the advertising section. Fifteen minutes were allowed for this purpose, after which each one was asked to write down all the advertisements he remembered having seen. In the test 284 persons were given the Cosmopolitan and 90 were given Everybody's. A table was then prepared to show the num- ber of times each advertisement had been mentioned. Selected samples of full-page advertisements treated in this table, together with the number of times each was mentioned, are given in the accompanying illustrations, Figures 3 to 14. Several points of criticism of this method of testing the attention-value, of advertisements should be noticed here. ATTRACTING ATTENTION 31 FIGURE 3 (131) FIGURE 4 (94) FIGURE 5 (92) NAB . SUGAR WAFERS It is in the nice details of dessert ser- vice that artistic originality is discovered. The dessert suggestion illustrated presents one of the mynad possibilities of Nabisco. Sugar Wafers as auxiliaries to ices, creams or sherbets. In ten cent Hit* NATIONAL BISCUIT COMPANY FIGURE 6 (80) The numbers at the bottom of Figs. 3-14 indicate the relative attention-value of these advertisements as determined by the test described on page 30. The larger the number, the greater the attention-value 32 ADVERTISING FIGURE 7 (79) FIGURE 8 (74) Style V The World's B FIGURE 9 (59) Annual Special Sale Ostermoor Mattress FIGURE 10 (48) A study of these advertisements will reveal some striking differences in their construction and mode of appeal, such as the use of illustrations, text, type, contrast, and borders. These and other factors account for the variations in attention-value ATTRACTING ATTENTION 33 :. j We Spend Unseen Thousands - - COMFORT. STYLE aaxl DEFENOAIMJTy r.:;,T([ .,-. priMf ut St'j f~k*f.vr Oepc: i iruoOAia AUToitoBa 'col 'ir/sorni KXD. no. flglepropftlosiery FIGURE 11 FIGURE 12 (30) Did Ton Ever See a Tired SHOP GIRL? Or a Worn Out ERRAND BOY? THE EQUTTABLE LIFE ASSURANCE SooEnr Of THE VMIU> STATES "Strongest in the World" Iwc-^r-M^fclij iiihi-*.< h.*- FA Mot nxsnorr is BOADWAT, E* Tou OTT of only * Pure wheat lead and brad nl an the ncorniced bask necessfties of paint Why? Because they torra a perfect union and, when mixed, have the quafety of penetrating the sur- face covered and fcramnr a part of i. Such paint never cracks or scales. It wears down uniformly and the surface is ready for repaint. off the dust C Use National Lead Company 1 , pure while lead (-Dutch Boy Painter" trademark !. have it mixed with pun linseed at and your pabtnr. ml be econceracal because it wit lao. k wit ako be beautiful. Ask the painter who takes pride to bis C National Lead Con-parry's pun while lead Is the best known and enjoys the larfest sale in the world. It i exactly what we say it pun white lead contaminr. no chalk, baryta or any of those ether subtle adulterants which make pafa&c an exprnse. C If you paint our way you secure both beauty and durabiary. Write us lor our "Dutch Boy Paint Advae, No, 2." Complete NATIONATTEAiii~COMPANY FIGURE 13 (20) FIGURE 14 (2) Differences in familiarity and reputation of the various adver- tisements used in this test were eliminated, as far as possible, by the method explained in the text, p. 34 34 ADVERTISING An advertisement, aside from its attractiveness, might have been mentioned by many, because it was familiar, because it was located on the outside cover, or because it had a special interest. To eliminate the advantage of location, none of the advertisements in preferred positions were included in the present tabulation. To eliminate the force of familiarity, each participant in the test was asked at another time to write down all brands of articles he was acquainted with, through advertising, use, or otherwise. The number of times each com- modity was thus mentioned was deducted from the number of times it was mentioned in the ' ' magazine test. ' ' For example, the Old Dutch Cleanser advertisement was mentioned 219 times in the test and 88 times in the enumeration for famili- arity, leaving 131 mentions due chiefly to the attention- compelling construction of the advertisement. The numbers given in the illustrations have all been corrected in this man- ner and probably represent fairly correctly the pure atten- tion-value of these advertisements. A comparison of their relative ranks and their various make-ups shows interesting differences which evidently explain why some catch the reader's eye more readily than others do. For a psychological description of the nature and laws of attention, the reader may consult the standard treatises on psychology. 1 It will be sufficient for our present purpose to note that the word "attention" will be used in the ordinary current sense of the focal point of mental activity. Difficulty of Attracting Attention Today. Several fac- tors have tended to make the task of securing attention to a commodity a more difficult one today than fifty years ago, when advertising was in its comparative infancy. It is, there- fore, all the more important to study thoroughly this aspect of our subject, namely, the methods and principles of reach- ing the potential customer. Among the most important fac- tors which make the problem of securing attention a difficult one today, we may mention the following five: 1. For example, Angell, Psychology, Ch. 4, James, Psychology, Ch. 13, Pillsbury, Essentials of Psychology, Ch. 5. ATTRACTING ATTENTION 35 (1) Hasty Heading. In the first place, the tremendous volume of printed matter that has literally flooded the land has developed a more hasty reading habit. Half a century ago the typical home had one or two magazines which were read thoroughly from cover to cover. The same home today has perhaps half a dozen magazines which are skimmed more or less superficially. Newspapers, too, were formerly few and small, and their advertisements were therefore quite certain to be read. (2) Increase in Number of Mediums. While we have no experimental or statistical data to prove greater hastiness in reading, yet the inevitable effect of the large masses of printed matter has been to change our habit of reading. The follow- ing table shows the astounding increase in the number of magazines and newspapers since the early sixties. NUMBER OF MAGAZINES AND NEWSPAPERS IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA.* 1861 5203 1891 18,536 1871 6056 1896 19,760 1876 8129 1901 20,879 1881 10,267 1906 22,326 1886 14,160 1911 24,235 During the same period the population has grown from ap- proximately 31 millions to 90 millions. Thus, while the popu- lation has increased only threefold, the number of magazines and newspapers has increased nearly fivefold. (3) Growth in Circulation. A third factor in the growth of advertisement matter is the tremendous increase in the circulation of most of the publications. To mention a few examples: The Saturday Evening Post has a circulation of over two millions. In 1897 its circulation was only 3000. Collier's Weekly has a circulation of about 645,000. Every- body's has a circulation of 650,000 (Mahin's Advertising Data Book, 1912). In 1884 the circulation of the Ladies' Home Journal was about 25,000. Today it is nearly 1,750,000. From 1900 to 1910 the total circulation of the sixty leading 2 1. Based on N. W. Ayer & Son's American "Newspaper Annual and Directory. 2. As listed in the tables published at regular intervals in Printer's Ink. 36 ADVERTISING national periodicals has doubled. In 1912 their combined cir- culation was 21 millions. Among newspapers, the distribu- tion of some of the metropolitan dailies is very large. For example, the Chicago Tribune has a distribution of about 240,000 copies, the New York Herald 100,000, the New York Sun 90,000, and the New York Tribune 92,000. According to F. Hudson (Journalism in America, page 525) the New York papers mentioned here had in 1842 an estimated cir- culation of 15,000, 20,000, and 9500 respectively. (4) Increase in Firms Advertising. In the fourth place, there has been a manifold increase in the number of firms using the advertising mediums, all bidding for the reader's attention. From the following table 1 it will be seen that there were more than five times as many firms advertising in the Century Magazine in the year 1907 as there were in the year 1870. The same relative increase holds for nearly all other standard advertising mediums. 1 TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES OF COMMERCIAL ADVER- TISING FOR EACH YEAR IN THE Century Magazine. TOTAL Nun SER OF DIFFER- ENT FIRMS ADVERTISING DURING EACH YEAR IN THE Century Magazine. AVERAGE NUMBER OF LINES USED BY EACH ADVERTISER DURING THE TWELVE MONTHS IN THE Century Magazine. AVERAGE NUMBER OF LINES IK EACH ADVER- TISEMENT APPEARING IN THE Century Magazine FOR THE YEAR INDICATED AVERAGE NUMBER OF TIMES EACH FIRM AD- VERTISED DURING THE YEAR IN THE Century Magazine. 1870 33 66 113 1875 231 318 162 31 5.65 1880 244 293 186 61 3.04 1835 446 662 150 43 3.51 1890 1061 910 261 50 4.50 1895 902 638 317 61 5.13 1900 946 489 433 88 4.90 1905 1198 393 683 114 5.09 1907 1056 364 650 151 4.30 1908 800 131 1909 888 145 1910 906 159 1911 790 154 1912 702 157 1913 632 169 1. Abbreviated from the table on p. 183, Psychology of Advertising, W. D. Scott. The figures since 1907 have been added by the author. ATTRACTING ATTENTION 37 (5) Increase in Size of Mediums. In the fifth place, not only has reading become more "skimming" and the number of advertisers greatly increased, but, as a consequence of the latter fact, the total advertising space of all kinds has mani- folded even more rapidly. From the table just referred to, column two, it will be noticed that the Century Magazine carried just thirty-two times as many pages of advertisements in 1907 as in 1870. Metropolitan newspapers have increased from four and eight pages to sixteen, twenty-four, and thirty-two pages. Better Advertising Today. These conditions are partly offset today by the more general habit of reading advertise- ments, by the greater confidence which people have in adver- tising, by the better methods of advertising, by a more thor- ough understanding of its principles, and by the introduction of classified advertisements which give the small advertiser a better chance. The general public has been educated to read advertisements and to believe in their reliability, because of the honesty of nearly all advertising in high class periodicals. In its early days, advertising largely dealt with patent medi- cines. There were no standards of discrimination as to the genuineness of the advertisements or the responsibility of the firms back of them. Today the high grade mediums are al- most entirely free from unreliable forms of publicity. This condition has been a powerful factor in making advertising more effective. A fuller discussion of this topic will be taken up in a later chapter. The vital question now is, How may an advertisement be constructed and placed in mediums so that it will receive the greatest attention from the largest number of desirable read- ers? "We shall accordingly proceed to examine in detail the methods and conditions of accomplishing this end. 38 ADVERTISING PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. If the greater number of advertising mediums and the greater number of advertisers today tend to make it more difficult for individual advertisements to be noticed, what conditions are present today which counteract these difficulties? 2. Obtain one advertisement which in your opinion has high atten- tion-value, and one which possesses low attention-value. State why you regard them so. 3. What is the difference between securing the attention and secur- ing the interest of the reader in an advertisement! Obtain an advertise- ment which might do the latter but not the former. 4. Three types of attention are generally recognized: Involuntary (or spontaneous), voluntary or active, and non-voluntary or absorbed interest. To which type of attention does advertising mostly appeal? Why? On which type of attention do classified advertisements mostly depend? Compare as fully as you can the manner of appeal of the classified, with the manner of appeal of the usual display advertisement. 5. Glance through the advertising section of a magazine in the usual manner. Then analyze the ten or twelve advertisements which attracted you most, to find out why they interested you. State the reasons and factors involved. Notice also whether any of them use poor methods of securing attention. State why. 6. Criticize the method described in this chapter for testing the attention-value of advertisements. CHAPTER IV DISPLAY TYPE: ITS ATTENTION- VALUE AND USE The Display Words as Means of Arresting Attention. The earliest and most obvious device for attracting the reader 's attention has been to print a few words of the adver- tisement in large, heavy type. These stimulate a larger area on the retina of the eye and so attract attention more readily. This device, however, is only one particular example among many based upon the general principle of attracting atten- tion, known as the law of intensity. This law must be studied in connection with many practical problems of advertising, notably (a) in the use of display type and (b) in the use of different sizes of space for advertisements. The law of intensity, stated in general terms, is, that, other things being equal, the duration and the degree of atten- tion depend upon the intensity of the stimulus. A loud sound, a strong light, a large object, or a pungent odor arouses the attention more easily and more surely than a weak sound, a faint light, a small object, or a mild odor. Powerful stimuli impress the sense organs with much greater effect than do weak stimuli. This law of intensity is a broad biological principle deeply ingrained in human nature. A strong stim- ulus to an animal as well as to a man, particularly in primitive conditions of life, means a warning signal and therefore some- thing to be heeded. To demonstrate the strength of this law, an experiment was performed by exposing for a short interval of time a card upon which twenty-five words had been printed. Five words, scattered among the rest, were printed in type approximately twice as large as the other twenty. This card was exposed to 39 40 ADVERTISING twenty-two persons, with the following results: LARGE TYPE SMALL TYPE Number of words shown 5 20 Total noticed by 22 persons 60 48 Average noticed per person 2.7 2.2 Percentage noticed per person 54% 11% Thus we see that the words printed in large type had about five times as much attention- value as the words printed in small type, 54% as compared with 11%. "We will now consider in detail the applications of this law to the use of display type in the construction of advertise- ments. The chief practical questions are : Is the attention- value directly proportional to the size of the type ? Is there a limit to the desirable size of type ? What is the best size of display type to use in a given advertisement? That large-type headlines have greater attention-value than small-type headlines has generally been recognized as advertising has developed. In evidence of this point let us notice the following two entirely different sets of data. Increase in Size of Display Type Used. Since the early beginnings of advertising in this country, larger and larger display type has been used. If one turns back to the early magazines, one is struck with the small headlines then in use. In order to verify this general impression, the author meas- ured the height of the headlines in the full-page advertise- ments in two standard magazines (Scribner 's and Harper's) at intervals of ten years since 1870. The average for each year was computed as shown in the following table : YEAR AVERAGE HEIGHT 1870 6.6 millimeters or approximately 24-point type 1 1880 7.2 millimeters or approximately 26-point type 1890 9.7 millimeters or approximately 30-point type 1900 11.3 millimeters or approximately 40-point type 1910 12.4 millimeters or approximately 48-point type It will be noticed from the table that there has been a steady increase in the size of display type. However, it would seem that the maximum size of display type for a 1. For examples of the "point" system of measuring type, see Appendix. DISPLAY TYPE 41 magazine page has now been reached. Headlines larger than 48 points, or possibly 72 points (which rarely occur), would seem out of proportion on an ordinary magazine page held at the natural reading distance. The table also indicates that the most rapid increase took place from 1880 to 1900, the period of most rapid development in. American advertising. More firms began to use advertising during this period than during any preceding period of equal length. The apparent implication seems to be that larger display type, because of its greater attention-value, has made the advertisements more effective and so has come into more general usage. Like many other psychological principles, this one has unconsciously worked itself out in the course of practical experience and observation. Of course the tendency does not absolutely prove the principle. A common usage may sometimes be a common error. But considering that the 'tendency has been constant for so many years and that other facts point in the same direction, the above table furnishes an interesting corroboration of the principle under discussion. Testing the Attention- Value of Display Type. The sec- ond set of data is derived from the experimental investigation referred to in the last chapter as the magazine test. From these results the accompanying table was prepared to show HEIGHT or TYPE IN THE DISPLAY LINES AVERAGE NUMBER OF ADVERTISEMENT WA TIMES EACH s NOTICED 5-7 millimeters 6 8 -10 millimeters 11.4 1 1-13 millimeters 25.5 the number of times each full-page advertisement in which no illustration appeared had been noticed. The "all-text" advertisements alone were used because the object was to determine the attention-value of the different sized display lines in advertisements in which they were the chief means of arresting the attention. The height of the display type in these advertisements was measured, with the result indi- cated above. There is obviously a regular increase in attention-value with the increase in the size of the display type. The last 42 ADVERTISING figure, 25.5, however, is so far above the others partly because one of the advertisements in that group was an unusually familiar one. Mr. Gale 1 made a test on this matter several years ago by exposing cards on which four words were printed in four different sizes of type. These, cards were exposed ten times for a fractional part of a second, to each of fifteen persons. HEIGHT OF TYPE PERCENTAGE OF THE POSSIBLE NUMBER OF TIMES THE WORDS WERE NOTICED MEN WOMEN AVERAGE 2 millimeters. .... 8.7 20.2 27.7 43.0 11.6 15.8 27.5 45.0 10 1 18.0 27.6 44.0 4 millimeters 5 millimeters 6 millimeters These measurements likewise show a regular increase in atten- tion-valua with the increase in size. The largest type was three times as high as the smallest type. It was noticed over four times as often. How Large Should Display Lines Be? Our next question is, What shall determine the size of the display type for a given advertisement? The answer depends on several con- siderations. First, it depends on whether the headline is to be the chief means of attracting attention, or whether a large illustration is to be used. If only an insignificant illustration is inserted, the heading should, as a rule, be larger than if a prominent one is used. Again, the size of the headline should in general be proportional to the size of the entire advertisement. Thus, a full-page advertisement may appro- priately have a heading as large as 48-point type, or possibly in some instances 72-point type, but such type would appear out of proportion in a one-eighth page space. In so far as it is possible to state any general rule of practice, the headings in common use are between one-tenth and one-twentieth of the height of the advertisement. This will hold only for the ordi- nary, rectangular shape of advertisement, and even then there are wide deviations. 1. Gale, II., Psychological Studies, pp. 52-54. DISPLAY TYPE 43 PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. Give two illustrations, not from advertising, of the principle of intensity in securing attention. 2. What is the application of this principle to the size of type in advertisements? What other considerations besides size are involved in selecting the type for an advertisement? 3. What factors enter into the question of determining the proper size of type for a headline? For example, how would the presence or absence of illustrations affect the problem? What conditions limit the size? Obtain an advertisement in which you regard the type of the main headline too small, and, if possible, one in which it seems too large. ON SMALL MOMTfflY Homes Furnished even, punch***. W ct>an fur tbi* <-r*-.1it xrrvio* BO uo*fiBt Bo*stra*ornf kind. Notwcuntyrv^mJreil. Absolut* uuKiactwa or mouy bck. Everything confi>S;ntsaL CAT^LOG w N5L- rai 38 c FREE ni|r*.cufta!a,iif i ." -. ,-..iery, clck! Urap*, iivrwr, yo-ww. rwfr^fi-rators^ stovf Hartman Furniture & Carpet Co. Laivest, otdMt UM) bert known bomafnraiahiDC in Aaicr- ica. Ert. 1866 a year* of in r neai g b% tora oyr .W JW Enough lamp chimneys j break from "accident" ' to satisfy me, without having them crack and smash every time the' light is turned ii]>. Macbeth lamp-chim- neys never break from \ heat. It takes an "ac-; cident" to end theiri "* usefulness. They add to the beauty, comfort and usefulness of the lamp and they fit. There is a Macbeth lamp-chimney made for even- known burner, and my name is on it. My book will tell which one to get for your lamp. It is free. Address MACBETH, rabiuugb. FIGURE 15 FIGURE 16 4. Suggest improvements in the size of the different display lines appearing iu the advertisements shown in Figures 15 and 16. Reconstruct the headings by modifying the size or by inserting or omitting display lines. 5. Type sizes are expressed in terms of the "point system." In this system 72 points equal one inch. Thus 8-point type, set solid, is of such a size that the distance from the bottom of one line of print to the bottom of the next is 8/72 of an inch. Hence nine lines of 8-point type occupy one inch. The designation of size refers to the body of the type and not to the face of the type. If the type is not set solid, 44 ADVERTISING \ usually 2-point leads are placed between the lines. In this case only seven lines of 8-point type can occupy one inch. The "agate line" is the standard unit for expressing the size of advertising space. It runs fourteen lines to the inch. That is, it is approximately 5-point type. (1) On the basis of these data construct a table to show the ap- proximate number of lines to the inch of 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 18-point type, (a) when set solid and (b) \vhen leaded with 2-point leads. (2) Compute the approximate number of words of text of 8-point type set solid that you could use in a quarter-page space of a standard magazine, size 5% x 8 inches. Assume that half of the entire space is to be occupied by a cut and a display line. (3) Obtain one advertisement from a newspaper and another from a magazine, and indicate in the margin, in terms of the point system, the sizes of the type used. See Appendix for samples. CHAPTER V THE SIZE OF ADVEKTISEMENTS The second important application of the law of intensity relates to the size of the space used in advertisements. Aside from minor considerations, such as the use of illustrations, extensive explanatory text, complexity of proposition, funds available, etc., the prime factor in determining the amount of space for a given advertisement is the relative attention-value of the different sizes of space. The Problems of Size. Two practical questions must be examined at this point. First: Is the pure attention-value directly proportional to the size of the space ? That is, other things being equal, does a half -page advertisement have twice as much attention-value as a quarter-page, and does a full- page have twice as much attention-value as a half -page adver- tisement? Second: What are the various factors that must be considered in determining the size of a single advertise- ment, or of a series of advertisements for a given campaign? In considering the first question we must clearly distin- guish between the various problems involved. Whether it is better to use small space rather than large space for adver- tising a fountain pen, or whether it is better to use large space rather than small space for advertising a typewriter, are questions which involve many other elements besides the mere attention-value of the space. These factors will be con- sidered a little later. But in order to get at the ultimate facts of the problem we must single out the separate elements and deal with them in turn. The present question relates to the pure attention-value of space. The Pure Attention-Value of Size. The evidence of ob- servation, experiment, and campaign results seems to indicate that the attention-value increases as rapidly as, if not more rapidly than, the size of the space increases. But we must 45 46 ADVERTISING not prejudice ourselves in the matter. Let us rather examine the evidence at hand. Increase in Size of Advertisements. Whatever the true answer to the question may be, the first significant fact is that, since the beginning of advertising in America until within the last decade, there has been a steady and continuous tendency toward the use of larger advertisements. 150 140 13C 130 110 100 90 80 70 60 60 40 30 30 181 i A/ \s - / / i / /. \ A ^^J - / VA ~r - X J i 1880 1890 1900 1910 i FIGURE 17 Curve showing the increase in size of the average magazine advertisement expressed in agate lines. The average magazine advertisement today is approximately four times as large as it was in 1870 Professor Scott made an investigation to determine the average size of the advertisements for each year appearing in the Century Magazine since 1870. In the table given on page 36 he gives the average number of agate lines per adver- tisement. In 1872 the average number of lines per advertise- ment was 38, whereas in 1913 the average number of lines was 169. According to this investigation, therefore, the aver- age magazine advertisement today is four times as large as it was forty years ago. THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 47 This point is further corroborated by the appearance of double-page advertisements during the last decade and by the tremendous increase in the use of full-page advertisements. Up to 1890 only about one-fifth of the total advertising space in magazines consisted of full-page advertisements. Today the ratio is nearly one-half. Conversely, there has been a decrease in the frequency of using small space. In 1880 half- page spaces were used about two and a half times as often as full-page spaces, in 1890 less than twice as often, and today about one-half as often. "Mortality Rate" of Advertisers. Professor Scott has shown that the "mortality rate" of 'advertisers is very much greater among the users of small space than among the users of large space. He made a tabulation of all the firms located west of Buffalo which advertised in the Ladies' Home Journal during eight years. NUMBER OF YEARS THE FIRMS AVERAGE NUMBER OF LINES USED CONTINUED TO ADVERTISE ANNUALLY BY EACH FIRM 1 year 56 lines 2 years 116 168 194 192 262 218 600 "This would seem to indicate," says Professor Scott, 1 "that in general, if a firm uses 56 lines annually in the Ladies' Home Journal, the results will be so unsatisfactory that it will not try it again. If it uses 116 lines annually it will be encouraged to attempt it the second year, but will then drop out. If, on the other hand, it uses 600 lines annually, the results will be so satisfactory that it will continue to use the same magazine indefinitely." Testing the Attention-Value of Space. In the magazine test described on page 30, the results were tabulated to show how many times advertisements of different sizes were noticed and recalled. These tabulated results will be found on page 48. 1. Scott, Psychology of Advertising, p. 163. 48 ADVERTISING From this table 1 it can be seen that the double-page adver- tisements were recalled more than twice as often as one-page advertisements, the one-page were recalled more than twice as often as half-page advertisements, and the half-page were recalled more than twice as often as quarter-page advertise- ments. If small advertisements had as much attention-value as large advertisements in proportion to the space occupied, the figures in the last column should all be alike, but instead there is a rapid decrease from the larger to the smaller spaces. Considered in relation to size, the double-page advertisements were mentioned about four and one-half times as often as the quarter-page advertisements, the full and three-quarter page were mentioned about three and one-half, and the half-page nearly twice as often as the quarter-page advertisements. MENTIONS NUMBER MENTIONS PER PAGE SIZE NUMBER MENTIONS OF PAGES PER PAGE OCCUPIED or ADS OF ADS PER AD OCCUPIED OCCUPIED MINUS FAMILIARITT 2pp ... 3 13.4 6 67 42.3 Ip. ... 69 48.4 69 48.4 33.0 HP- 10 36.1 7.5 48.1 35.5 Mp. ... 58 10.7 29 21.4 17.0 HP- ... 53 2.4 14 9.6 9.6 An earlier test conducted in the same manner by Professor Scott 2 brought similar results. The number of mentions in his test was smaller, but his results show a similar relative advantage for the larger spaces. He apparently made no de- duction for the factors of position and familiarity. His fig- ures, corresponding to those in the fifth column of the above table, are 19.6 for one-page advertisements, 18.4 for half-page, 13 for quarter-page, and 10 for small advertisements. The larger advertisements received proportionally more frequent mentions. Creating an Illusion of Large Space. Some advertisers arrange their space in such a manner as to suggest an illusion 1. The seven full-page advertisements In preferred positions were not Included In this tabulation. The effect of familiarity Is discounted In the figures of the last column as explained on page 34. 2. Scott, Psychology of Advertising, p. 163. THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 49 of larger area than is really occupied. Examples are shown in Figures 18 and 19. The How .SB Caliber AUTOMATIC PISTOL Pullman Passenger Cars Earn $20 to $100 Per Dav FIGURE 18 A three-quarter page advertisement so constructed that it dominates the page Results of Campaigns. The evidence presented thus far has all been derived from laboratory investigations. It will be of value now, to notice the available evidence derived from actual campaigns. A. II. Kuhlmann 1 made a study of the re- lation between the number of sales of pure bred cattle and the amount of space used in the agricultural papers to effect their sale. This study is particularly important because it was pos- 1. From an unpublished thesis in the library of the University of Wisconsin. 50 ADVERTISING slble to tabulate not only the amount of advertising space used, but also the exact number of sales made. The latter was deter- mined from the registers and transfers of pure bred stock. REMINGTON UMC STEEL LINED SHOT SHELLS FIGURE 19 A different method of using a three-quarter page space so as to create the impression of a full page The results are set forth in a table which shows the num- ber of column inches of advertising used and the number of sales made during each six months from 1900 to 1907 : JAN. TO JUNE JULY TO DEC. TOTALS YEAR C*m TTMM ADVER- ADVER- ADVER- INCHES FOR TISING SALES TISING SALES TISING SALES ONE SALE 1900 118.0 63 245.0 30 363.0 93 3.9 1901 246.0 48 262.2 25 508.2 73 6.9 1902 326.0 97 292.0 105 618.0 202 3.1 1903 326.0 82 327.0 108 653.0 190 3.4 1904 347.0 107 390.0 90 737.0 197 3.7 1905 599.5 171 397.5 188 997.0 359 2.8 1906 427.5 161 361.0 137 788.0 298 2.6 1907 537.0 254 492.0 195 1029.0 449 2.3 IRE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 51 The interesting facts brought out by a study of this table are that the number of column inches per sale decreased as the advertising space increased, and that the sales and the ad- vertising space as shown in the curves of Figure 20 have a close parallel fluctuation. "With an increase of space there is a relatively greater increase in the number of sales. Or, in other words, the larger amounts of space were slightly more profitable. These facts are portrayed graphically in the curves of Figure 20. It will be observed that these curves run 793T FIGURE 20 Curves showing increase in column inches of space for adver- tising pure bred stock and the parallel increase in the number of sales produced parallel to a remarkable extent. When the advertising space was increased the sales generally increased, and when the advertising space decreased the sales decreased. The in- crease in space was not due to the use of more mediums, but to the use of larger space in the same mediums. The returns tabulated from the advertising of the Amer- ican Collection Service by Mr. W. A. Shryer 1 point in the 1. Analytical Advertising, p. 171. 52 ADVEETIS1NG same direction. The figures in the accompanying table indi- cate that the cash return per dollar of advertising cost is greater for the full- and half -page spaces than for the smaller spaces. EELATIVE VALUES OF SMALL AND LARGE COPY. SIZE OF AD NUMBER OF MEDIUMS NUMBER OF INSERTIONS INQUIRIES ADVER- TISING COST CASH RETURNS . COST PER INQUIRY RETCBNS PER DOL- LAR ADV. COST 5 lines classified 7 lines. . 16 lines. . 20 lines.. 36 lines. . 1 A P-- 66 50 55 12 15 42 721 84 126 12 18 99 13374 911 3643 127 1078 2766 $4441 484 2549 185 476 2109 $20222 921 5476 114 827 3730 $0.30 .53 .70 1.47 .45 .76 $4.50 1.90 2.10 .60 1.70 1 80 y> p 21 60 2458 2246 6095 .92 2.70 1 p.. 18 69 4296 4774 10772 1.11 2.30 Mr. Shryer presents these results to show that the large spaces were less profitable than the small spaces. That is true if the cost per inquiry alone is considered. The cheapest inquiries were brought by the five-line classified advertise- ments, and the most expensive inquiries were brought by the larger advertisements. But it is quite obvious that not all inquiries are of equal value. The author has therefore com- puted the number of dollars of business brought per dollar invested in advertising, as shown in the last column which is the ultimate test of the efficiency of advertising. It will be seen that the most profitable space was the small five-line in- sertion. It brought $4.50 worth of business for every dollar spent for advertising. The returns, however, for this classified advertisement must be omitted from the present consideration because the problem of attracting attention by classified mat- ter is very different from the problem of attracting attention by general publicity advertising. Attention in the former case is largely of the voluntary type, whereas in the latter it is largely of the involuntary type. The large space would probably have shown even greater relative value if it had not been for the fact that much of TEE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 53 the larger space had been arranged for as ' ' trade deals ' ' with mediums which might not otherwise have been selected. The full- and half -page spaces brought the most profitable returns. The twenty-line space proved to be the least satisfactory be- cause the text of the advertisement was very poor. It had no illustration all other advertisements had; the heading was small, and the body type was small. It would be well for the development of a science of advertising if other firms followed the excellent example of Mr. Shryer in keeping accurate returns, where that is possible, and in making these results public. Experience of Large Advertisers. Recently an investi- gation was made by Printer's Ink 1 of the question whether "small space in many media is better than large space in few media. ' ' The inquiry was addressed to large advertisers and attempted to ascertain what their experiences and actual results were. Replies from the twenty-six advertisers who responded fell into the following groups : Seven were in doubt and said that it depended on the particular conditions involved. Three firms favored small space in many media. These were the makers of the Parker Fountain Pen, Three-in-One Oil, and Onyx Hosiery. Sixteen firms, or about two-thirds of the entire number, favored large space in fewer media. Some interesting and significant statements may be quoted from this group : E. Mapes (Cream of Wheat Company) : Personally, I believe in the use of large spaces and preferred positions for a product like ours. C. W. Mears (Winton Motor Car Company) : We have tried the small-space-in-many-publications idea, and, so far as we could learn, we created practically no impression whatever. On the other hand, we have abundant evidence of having created an impression by means of large space in few publications. E. St. E. Lewis (Burroughs Adding Machine Company) : Speaking from the standpoint of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company, we believe that a big space in a few media is better than a little space in many media because we must tell a story. T. A. De Weese (Shredded Wheat Company) : In the last three years we have completely changed our methods of newspaper advertising, going from 80-line space to 440-line space. In that time the sales of Shredded 1. Printer's Ink, October 5, 1911, p. 3. 54 ADVERTISING Wheat Biscuit have more than doubled and we have not added a dollar to the original advertising appropriation. B. D'Emo (William Wrigley, Jr., Company): . . . spent several thousand dollars in small space without creating a ripple . . . then shifted to space twice the size used the same number of times, creating thereby a large and profitable business within slightly over a year. W. L. Taylor states that the Wilbur Stock Food Company, in keep- ing a careful record of the cost per inquiry, found that ' ' a full-page advertisement once a month in a weekly publication was found to pro- duce larger returns at lower cost per inquiry than the regular insertion of small copy in each issue. To be definite, a full-page once a month in a weekly publication produced better than quarter-pages in each of four consecutive issues. ' ' Numerous examples might be quoted to show the experi- ences and policies of national advertisers regarding the use of space. The recent change of policy of Montgomery Ward & Co. is interesting and instructive. 1 A year ago Montgomery Ward & Co. made a radical change in the advertising policy, which in the opinion of the house is thoroughly justifying itself. The old type of advertising was of a piece with the advertising of all other mail order houses, and might often have been considered a model in its way; but it was growing less and less effective. For years the cost of getting inquiries had been increasing with this house, as it had with all others. The day of the ten-cent inquiries was long past. The average had climbed, first up to 15, then to 20, 25, and at last even to 30 cents. The argument for economy had been all along with the mail order houses, but certain practices of less reputable concerns in the field had been having a deleterious effect on public confidence. The increase of cost in getting replies was the measure of the harm done. This was the reason why the bargain offer, "This chair for $7.98," or "Send now for our catalogue and save money," lost a great deal of its original effectiveness. Montgomery Ward & Co. became convinced that the bargain idea was the wrong one to put forward. The real need was for a restoration of confidence. They decided to attempt this on their own part by giving the public a new conception of Montgomery Ward & Co., one that should impress it with a sense of the quality of its merchandise and service, the consistency of its prices and the integrity and generosity of its policy. 1. Printer's Ink, January 4, 1912, p. 81. THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 55 And they have carried it out, or sought to carry it out, by engaging fifteen of the leading American artists in black-and-white to symbolize the business in allegorical and other designs, and then presenting their work to the public in large space in the leading mail order mediums. This conception and the method of its execution were, it is hardly necessary to say, somewhat revolutionary. They were not adopted by the directors without the most serious consideration. Up to this time there had been practically only one kind of mail order copy in use. Some few copywriters had managed to break away from the standard and achieved excellent results for a while with large space and reason-why copy, but always at last they had been driven back into the old rut. . . . The first copy did not begin to run until September. It went into a list of papers about one-third the previous list and ran on an average of 672 lines or about twelve inches across four columns, occasionally deeper. The contracts were for an average of twenty-eight insertions during the year. The old copy was seldom over six inches, single column, and most of the time four or five inches. When the copy began to run the advertising world was amazed. "Our good friends came in to tell us that we were making the biggest mistake of all, pleasing ourselves instead of the public, and 'shooting over the heads of our customers,' " said Mr. Lynn. "In other quarters, there must have been a lot of quiet chuckling. Our worthy competitors did not pay us the compliment of imitation I do not suppose they are waiting for results before experimenting them- selves; they have simply set the campaign down as a mistake." The critics were only less mistaken than Montgomery Ward & Co. were, no more than Ward had been before. Instead of going far over the heads of the farmers and small-town dwellers it proved the very thing they had been waiting for. No urban population could have shown more appreciation the response was almost instantaneous. Not only did Ward begin to hear from them, but many of them took the trouble to write in to the publishers and tell them that they had never before seen such fine advertisements in their papers, that they were a credit to the latter, and that they hoped they were going to see more of them, a wish in which the publishers were not too diffident to unite, because some of them forwarded the letters to Ward & Co. And striking results were shown in the actual dollars-and-cents returns. The campaign started in September and there was, therefore, only about an average of two insertions per month, in the list, about one- third of the year. But traceable returns in that time cost only 25 cents per inquiry. As traceable returns are seldom more than one-half of the total number, this signified a real cost of not more than twelve and one-half cents per inquiry, which would take us almost to the palmiest days of mail order ! It was too much to expect that this would be kept up after the 56 ADVERTISING novelty began to wear off. It was natural for the feeling to dull after the first impression. But it showed how strong that first impression was. All are confident now that they have touched the spring of the situation and that slowly, perhaps, but certainly, the business will expand until the full cumulative force of the advertising becomes effective and acts with a mighty urge. Because such advertising as this must not only stimulate those who have previously done business with them, but also those who from prejudice or indifference have never bought goods by mail ; it is dignifying and elevating the whole mail order field. The plans and results of several other firms, as recently described, have a weighty bearing upon the problem of space. 1 The Liquid Carbonic Company, of Chicago, about ten or twelve years ago began the manufacture of soda fountains, in a small way. The company previous to that time had been a maker of carbonic acid gas, and machinery for carbonating water. The company's advent into the soda fountain field was at a time when a company commonly known as the Soda Fountain Trust was supposed to have everything its own way. The Liquid Carbonic Company began at once using two and four-page inserts of extraordinary beauty in all the leading druggists' and con- fectioners' journals, setting a pace that revolutionized methods of adver- tising in that industry. This bold, aggressive manner of advertising has been carried on continuously ever since. Today the Liquid Carbonic Company builds and sells twice as many fountains as any other firm in the business and has just completed a new 20 acre plant costing over $1,000,000. Of course, advertising did not do it all, by any means, but big space and good copy did in a few years what small space could not have done in centuries. The Inland Steel Company, of Chicago, had been attempting for some years to build up a trade On galvanized sheet steel, and though that company made an excellent grade of steel it found difficulty in get- ting as high a price for it as a well advertised brand made in the Pitts- burgh district. The company had been using standing cards in many trade papers for a long time. I went to them and told them that I believed they could make a name for themselves and convince the buying public of the high standard of their product by a full-page quality campaign in all the leading papers that reached their trade. A campaign was begun a year ago, and though the past year has been an extremely dull one for the sheet steel world, with most mills run- ning half time, the Inland Company not only sold its full output, but 1. R. R. Shuman, "How and Why Big Space Pays," Advertising and Selling, January, 1911, p. 51. THE SIZE OF ADVEETISEMENTS 57 more than doubled its output, and, on top of it all, is getting a higher price compared with other brands than it ever got before. Dealers, jobbers, and wholesale consumers all responded to this advertising, and many manufacturers of galvanized steel products now make a special point in their own advertising matter of the fact that their products are made from Inland Open Hearth Sheets. In one year 's time this comparative newcomer in the galvanized sheet steel field has made an impression equaled by few firms that have been in the business for a generation. The management of the Hawley Down-Draft Furnace Company, an old established Chicago concern, fell into the hands of the young son of a man who had been proprietor of the business for a number of years. The young man had courage and believed in advertising. The old stand- ing cards that the company had used were therefore abandoned and in their place full-page copy of the most unique and catchy kind was used in the leading mediums to reach the three classes of purchasers of their product steam engineers, iron and steel manufacturers, and brass and metal workers. The expenditure would have made some of the older men turn in their graves, but at that the cost of this advertising campaign is not over one-tenth as large as the public commonly believes. The result of this campaign has beer, such a flood of inquiries and such an increase in business that the company has been forced to abandon its present quarters, and erect a large plant in Chicago. The Cleveland Crane & Engineering Co., of Euclid, Ohio, had been using one-eighth pages in twenty-one magazines, with little, if any, results. A new policy changed this to six or seven magazines, with full- page copy. In three months this advertising brought more returns than all the advertising in twenty -one papers in eight years. Burton W. Mudge & Co., of Chicago, makers of railway specialties, had been using very small spaces one-sixteenth and one-eighth pages in railway papers, without results. They finally took out a contract for a full-page run in the Railway Age Gazette, and it was only very shortly after this campaign began that a railroad official tore out one of these page ads and attached it to an order for ventilator equipment for 100 passenger coaches, the profit on which would probably pay for a full-page campaign for several years, and this was only the beginning of a marked increase in business due directly to advertising. The Marion Steam Shovel Company had been using two-inch spaces in the trade papers for nine years. It was induced to increase its space to one-quarter pages and after four months the representative of the Mining and Scientific Press was asked to call. He went, fearful that these people intended to cancel the advertisement. Instead of that, they voluntarily increased to one-half page, stating that they never knew what advertising results were until they increased to the one- quarter page, and now they were going to try one-half pages or larger. 58 ADVERTISING The Janesville Pump Company, of Hazelton, Pa., accomplished a phenomenal increase in their business by using four-page colored inserts in one paper called Mines and Minerals for one year. Their advertising before this had been perfunctory and unproductive, but this four-page insert got the business. At the end of the first year's campaign the Janesville Pump Com- pany mentioned in their advertisement that they had prepared a conve- nient binder for binding up the twelve inserts just printed and would be glad to send one upon request. They received 1400 requests for this binder! which was something like 15 percent of the whole circulation of the paper. The Imperial Brass Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, started advertising in the American Architect by using one-quarter pages, alter- nating with one-sixteenth pages. About a year ago they increased their quarter-pages to full pages, frequently using coupons on the full pages. While the smaller spaces had brought but indifferent returns, J. J. Rock- well, who handles their copy so ably, testifies that the returns from the full-page ads were so spontaneous and so prolific in direct orders that it would be hard to find a stronger proof of the superior efficiency of the large space. Chauncey B. Williams, the western manager of the Architectural Eecord, some time ago made a study of the files of his magazine for the last twenty years and he discovered that, without exception, all firms who persisted in their advertising campaigns from the first to the last issue of his paper were those who used big spaces. ... Mr. Lampman, of the American Exporter, tells of an experience of a Buffalo firm who had been using one-eighth page space in his paper for six years, without results. The firm increased its space to one page and only a week or two after the first issue was out received a cablegram costing $15.00 for a bill of goods the profits on which would pay for a year's full-page campaign. Instances of this kind might be cited till night, and then again tomorrow, and then the recital would only be begun. My references have been wholly to technical and trade journals, but the same thing applies to the popular magazines like the Saturday Evening Post hence the popularity of the double spread. I honestly believe that the first man who bought a double spread in the Saturday Evening Post got ten times the value that he would have gotten out of a single page, and a thousand times the value that he would have gotten out of a 100 line single column ad. The same tendency is true in bill posting. A man was telling me the other day about a friend of his who was using a 24-sheet poster in Chicago. A 24-sheet poster is a pretty big affair, as you know, and people would come to him and say, "Mercy, man, you must be using thousands of these posters. I see them wherever I go." THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 59 As a matter of fact, this advertiser was using only 112 stands. The same principle applies to window dressing. Mr. Clough, of the Abbot Alkaloidal Company, of Chicago, told of a little instance that came to his own attention. It was one of those little corner stores opposite the schoolhouse where the children go to buy pens, pencils, writing-pads, marbles, toys, and knick-knacks of every kind, the things that children love, including school necessities. But in the center of the window was a pail of choco- late creams, tilted downward so that the candies were spread out in heaping measure before the youthful gaze. The woman in the store told Mr. Clough that she sold more chocolate creams than all the other things in the window. That was an instance of a big ad surrounded by a lot of little ones. This homely illustration brings up another fact, and that is that concentration of attention is vital in order to make an advertisement effective. The pail of chocolate creams was so overpoweringly attractive that the children concentrated their attention on them instead of allowing their gaze to wander over the balance of the window display. The man who has a one-eighth page ad alongside of seven others of the same size gets only one-eighth of the attention, and that confused, and if the one-eighth be on the same page with a one-half and three other eighths he can be sure that the one-half page gets at least three times the attention of all the small spaces combined. The man who will use large spaces and put the right kind of copy into those spaces not only gets larger actual returns far out of proportion to the actual expenditure, but he gets the reputation of being a whole- sale advertiser; if he uses five papers, people think he uses 25, and if he uses 10 they think he uses 100, while he might use little card spaces in a hundred papers and never be known as an advertiser at all. Eight or wrong, just or unjust, this is the day of the big space and the striking copy. If I were to solicit for a trade and technical journal and ran across a man who had a good proposition, but not enough money to advertise it properly, I would advise him to do one of two things; either to borrow the money to do the advertising right, or spend as large a sum as he could afford on classified advertising. Classified advertising is the only small-space advertising that is worth what it costs, and it is worth what it costs because it gets the full value of what is called voluntary attention. In other words, because of the fact that it is classified under its heading it is sought out by people who are interested in exactly the kind of proposition named under the heading. The ad that receives the voluntary attention of the reader is like the store sign. It simply tells the prospective buyer the place and number, the line of goods carried, and if he is looking for that line of goods he may or may not enter the store according to the way he is impressed by 60 ADVERTISING the make-up and surroundings of it, the latter being, of course, an appeal to the involuntary as well as the voluntary attention. People are either interested, indifferent, or uninterested in your product. If they are interested they may go to the trouble of hunting out a small ad; if they are indifferent they may be caught involuntarily, and held for a time by a big, powerful ad. And this is the function of the big ad changing indifference to interest. The big ad also has an educational function in seizing hold of the uninterested, because in these changing conditions of business efforts a man who is uninterested in your proposition today may be interested tomorrow ; and when the occa- sion arises that does awaken his interest, the ad that has most forcibly struck him in the past is the one that he will search out and answer. There is just one more feature about the big ad, and that is its effect on, and helpfulness to, the traveling salesman. Nearly all adver- tising in trade and technical journals is done for the purpose of elicit- ing inquiries, or in other words, making it easier for the salesman to close the deal. You may run one-eighth pages and quarter pages in 40 journals, and there is not a salesman on your force who will take the trouble to look for the ads or refer to them in his conference with a merchant or manufacturer. But begin a full-page campaign and you not only stiffen the spine of your salesmen, but you make them so proud of your efforts that they make it a point to show the ads to their pros- pective customers. And this is true not only of the salesmen on the road, but of every one in your whole business organization. A high- class, full-page campaign, run in the right kind of media, if it is a quality campaign, appeals to the pride and loyalty of every employee, and makes him feel like doing everything in his own individual power to measure up to the standard described in the advertising. This fact I demonstrated strikingly in the case of the Inland Steel Company, whose product, through pure force of interest of every man in the company, has become better and better as the "quality" adver- tising campaign progressed. It was good at the start, but every little means for improvement that was discoverable was discovered. In its last analysis, the big space and the good copy is advertising, and the small space and the standing card is not advertising. Advertising pays. The other thing does not pay. A few good ads pay in proportion to their cost. Hundreds of little ads do not pay in proportion to their cost, because they are not advertising. I am speaking particularly of the trade and technical press. The same principle applies to all other media in a greater or less extent. Conclusion. It is difficult to formulate any generalization because of the numerous factors and conditions involved in THE SIZE OF ADVERTISEMENTS 61 various industries and sales plans. Yet the available facts, both, experimental and practical, indicate pretty definitely that, other conditions being equal, large space in few media brings greater returns than small space in many media. In making this general statement we must place due emphasis upon the modifying phrase, "other conditions being equal." By this we mean that where other conditions would permit just as well the use of either large or small space, the large space would be more effective. On the other hand, when immediate returns are sought, and when no cumulative impressions are necessary, small space is apparently just as profitable as, if not more econom- ical than, large space. But when a deep impression must be made and when an accumulating momentum is sought, as in the advertising of automobiles or pianos, or household articles which are in continuous use, the larger display space is appar- ently the most effective and the most economic. Concretely, we may conjecture that a quarter page once a month would probably not be as effective as a half page every other month, and the latter would probably not be as effective as a full page every fourth month. Or, again, one page in four months would probably not be as effective as one page in two months, and the latter would probably not be as effective as one page every month. What are the reasons for this? In the first place, large space makes a more intense impression by its sheer magnitude. Second, it has less competition with other advertisements for the reader's attention. A full page has no counter-attracting features on the same page, and so is able to secure the reader 's attention more exclusively. A one-eighth page advertisement must compete with the other seven on the same page. Third, large space permits of more adequate presentation of the proposition, such as larger and better illustrations, more com- plete text, better and more readable type. Fourth, it tends to create an impression of the great importance and reliability of the firm which is advertised. The recent movement unquestionably has been in the di- 62 ADVERTISING rection of intensive, concentrated advertising and away from extensive, diffused advertising. Nevertheless, our conclusion must stand as a more or less tentative conjecture which must remain open to revision in accord with reliable experimental and campaign results that may be available in the future. PROBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. What are the chief factors to be considered in determining the amount of space to be used for an advertisement or for a series of advertisements? Make as complete an analysis as you can. 2. What explanation can you offer of the fact that the average amount of space used per advertisement has gradually increased! 3. What criticism can you suggest concerning the "mortality rate of advertisers" as evidence of the greater effectiveness of large space? 4. Given an appropriation of $5000 for one year, for advertising a new commodity, for example a toilet soap, what plan would you out- line with reference to the use of space and territory to be covered? State how large space you would use for the advertisements, how fre- quently you would insert them, and in what medium or mediums.* 5. What reasons can you suggest for the fact that as a rule large space is more profitable? 6. What are the chief differences between classified and display advertising with regard to the problem of the attention-value of space? 7. How would the problem of space be affected if no advertiser were permitted to use larger than, let us say, half -page space of standard magazine size? 8. Make a study of current advertising with regard to the size of advertisements used for the following lines of commodities: Wearing apparel, toilet articles, jewelry and silverware, furniture, food products, automobiles, and home, office, school, and building and construction supplies. What are the prevailing practices concerning the sizes of space used? Are there any definite tendencies to use large or small space for certain classes of commodities? Are there classes for which there is apparently no uniformity of practice? 1. To answer these questions definitely a directory of rates and circula- tions of mediums should be accessible. Such a directory can be obtained from almost any large advertising agency, such as Lord & Thomas, Chicago; Maliin Advertising Co., Chicago : N. W. Ayer & Son, Philadelphia, and others. A limited list of rates and circulations may be found in Chapters 10 and 11. CHAPTER VI EMPHASIS AND UNITY IN ADVEKTISEMENTS : AVOIDANCE OF COUNTER-ATTRACTIONS Emphasis versus Counter-Attraction. The next principle of arresting attention is partly of a positive character in making a certain feature or set of features of an advertise- ment prominent, and partly of a negative character in the avoidance of competition among the devices designed to at- tract attention. It is known as the principle of emphasis or isolation, or the principle of counter-attraction, and may be stated in the following general terms: Other things being equal, the amount and duration of attention depend upon the absence of counter-attractions. That is, the smaller the num- ber of objects is, the greater are the chances that any given object will attract attention. A single person going by your window is more certain of being noticed than the same person in a crowd. One conspicuous feature on a printed page or on a billboard is more certain of being noticed than a dozen. Experimental Demonstration of the Law. The law of counter-attraction was demonstrated experimentally as fol- lows : To each of ten persons a set of cards was exposed for a brief interval of time. The first card contained five words, the second ten, and the third twenty-five. Immediately after the exposure of a card each person wrote down the words he had noticed. Number of words exposed 5 10 25 Average number of words noticed by each person 5 4.9 4.8 In this test the average number of words noticed was five and this number was practically constant, no matter how many words were exposed. The test would seem to show that the greater the number of words, the smaller the chances that any particular word will be noticed. Thus, when only five words were shown, each word was certain of being noticed; 63 64 ADVERTISING when ten words were shown, the chances were one in two that a given word would be seen ; and when twenty-five words were exposed, the chances were one in five that any particular word would be noticed. The basis of this law is the fact that the grasp of the atten- tion is limited, a fact which holds not only for visual impres- sions, but also for auditory and tactual impressions. Thus, in a rapid succession of sounds no more than five or six can be recognized at a single impression. The same is true of touch. If you place your finger upon a group of raised points you can recognize at a single impression not more than five or six. This fact is observed in the construction of the alphabet for the blind, in which the maximum number of raised points for a letter is six. Applications to the Construction of Advertisements. The applications of the principle of counter-attraction to the structure of advertisements are interesting and of practical importance. First, this principle has a significant bearing upon the structure of the display line. In the usual habit of glancing over advertisements the time given to any one feature is almost momentary. Now, it is obvious that if the reader is to derive anything from this snapshot impression which may further interest him in the advertisement, the headline must contain no more than the mind can grasp instantaneously. "We have demonstrated that this limit is approximately five words. It would follow that unless there are definite reasons to the contrary (and this is rarely the case), a good headline ought to be limited to the smallest num- ber of words possible, not more than four or five, and prefer- ably less. Note the difference in quickness and ease with which the two headings in Figure 21 can be grasped. If a prominent illustration is used, the structure of the headline is not quite so important a matter. In such cases, however, the illustrations ought to be relatively simple and compre- hensible. Increase in Short Headlines. It is significant to notice here that the number of headlines containing five words -or EMPHASIS AND UNITY 65 less has gradually increased as advertising has improved, so that today the large majority of high grade advertisements have short headings. The long, wordy heading has gradually tended to disappear. Observation and experience have proved the short, terse headline to be the best, for the simple reason that it can be grasped more quickly, and that therefore it has greater attention- value. Only $1500 Yet See What This Car Has Done FIGURE 21 The accompanying table, compiled from the advertising sections of standard magazines, shows for several intervals of years the percentage of full-page advertisements contain- ing short headlines, that is, headlines of five words or less. 1881 37% 1890 59% 1885 57% 1909 87% Thus it appears that in the standard mediums all but a small percentage of the full-page advertisements have short headings. The proportion has grown in the last twenty-five or thirty years from 37 to 87 percent. Good judgment and wide experience have proved the short heading to be the most effective. The Magazine Test. This fact is further borne out by the results of our magazine test. If we take the advertise- ments in which the headline is the chief means of arresting attention, we find that the advertisements with the short dis- play lines were noticed and remembered much oftener than the advertisements with the long display lines, as the follow- 66 ADVERTISING ing table indicates. There were ten full-page advertisements and seven half-page advertisements which had either no cut at all or else an entirely insignificant one. In both cases the advertisements whose display line contained five words or less were mentioned between two and three times as frequently as the ones whose display line contained six words or more. It is self-evident that for this comparison advertisements with- out illustrations only could be used, because in advertisements which have a prominent illustration the display line is of less importance as an attention feature, and in fact should be less conspicuous. FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENTS FIVE WORDS Six WOI:D.; on LESS OB MUKI: Number of advertisements 5 5 Number of mentions 33.6 13 HALF-PAGE ADVERTISEMENTS Number of advertisements 3 4 Number of mentions 5.3 2.2 The Principle of Emphasis or Isolation. The second ap- plication of the law of counter-attraction may be stated somewhat dogmatically as follows : An advertisement should contain one, and preferably only one, conspicuous feature, which should stand out prominently above the other features as an agency for catching the attention. If there are several prominent features they compete with one another and tend to lessen the value of the advertisement as a whole. Elemen- tary as this principle seems, there are, nevertheless, many violations of it, as can be seen from the illustration in Figure 22. This Underfeed advertisement is weakened by hav- ing four almost equally emphatic features, namely, two dis- play lines, an illustration on the upper left-hand side, and a pair of illustrations at the bottom. The advertisement would be much improved if one of the display lines, perhaps the upper one, were made less conspicuous and if the illustrations were simplified. Compare it with Figures 23 and 24 and EMPHASIS AND UNITY 67 notice the excellent emphasis secured in each of these by making only one feature prominent. This principle of emphasis is more frequently violated in small advertisements than in large ones. The user of small space feels that he ought to say as much as possible in the Out of Your Heating System IT may seera odd to compare the UNDER- FEED Heating System with Savings Banks ; or Investment Bonds. Neither banks nor bonds yield anything like the profit that is j annu&lbj represented by the reduced cost of UNDERFEED heating. The number of other heating plants that DEALERS have torn out of their homes and stores and replaced with UNDERFEED plants during the past season, is expert proof that they KNOW peSk-Williamson Underfeed HFATING f WARM AIR TJ STEAM-HOT WATER SYSTEMS FURNACES -BOILERS Save */2 to 2 /3 of Coal Bills FIGURE 22 Too many conspicuous features available space and consequently he leaves little room for a conspicuous heading. In most instances of this kind the advertisement would be more effective if some of the text were sacrificed to the securing of better display. Notice the instances of this tendency, shown in Figure 25. 68 ADVERTISING Furthermore, it is often profitable to leave vacant white space, especially if the advertisement is one among many on a page. Its display type will thereby stand out more con- spicuously. A striking example of this method will be found in Figure 25, on page 69. Kodak Film . mft of nil*riu:s 1 U Invariably *!. Good Board Colorado $ 8 a Week FIGURE 23 Excellent display. No compe- tition among the parts of the advertisement FIGURE 24 An example of isolating the one prominent feature Still another violation of the principle of counter- attraction consists in making the subheadings relatively too prominent. Unimportant points are often over-emphasized by larger type than the subject-matter demands, and conse- quently they compete unduly with the main headline. (Illus- trations under Problem 4 at end of chapter.) As a general rule, subheadings should not exceed one-third the size of the main display line. The underlying psychological reason for the avoidance of counter-attractions in an advertisement is the limitation of the field of attention. Strictly speaking, only one thing can be attended to at one time, but four or five separate EMPHASIS AND UNITY 69 parts within this field can be apprehended simultaneously by the reader. These principles of attention must be kept in mind in the preparation of copy for advertise- ments, if the greatest degree of efficiency is to be secured. No obligation. New York City Car Advertising Company 225 Fifth Ave.,N.Y. Bonnie Boy" and a Beautiful C&rt .'...^ J,,' SSSf *lr,.''i In ..UI f.ili, ,',!, TutlT I'.IHT L CSffl ''' ''"' FlGUKE 25 An example of the advantageous use of vacant white space which makes the advertisement of the New York City Car Advertising Co. 'stand out on the page 70 ADVERTISING Get this Boo from the ATLAS CEMENT LIBRARY PEOBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. What application has the principle of counter-attraction to the construction of headlines? Obtain an advertisement which complies with and one which violates this principle. 2. Under what circumstances would you use a long headline? 3. Eewrite and improve the fol- lowing headings, taken from current advertisements, so as to express in five words, or preferably less, the essential point in the headline: (1) "The Trend of Demand Is Toward Safe 6 Percent Bonds Se- cured by a Thousand Farms. ' ' (2) "Two Helpful Books That You Will Welcome Into Your Home. ' ' (3) "This Pile of Dirt Was Removed by an Automatic Vacuum Cleaner. ' ' (4) If You Want to Economize Use "Diamond Dyes." (5) Why Pay War Prices for French and Italian Olive Oil? (6) An Excellent 6% Invest- ment for Your Present Funds. (7) A Message to Every Owner of a Victor or Columbia Talking Machine. (8) Don't Throw Away Your Worn Tires. (9) If You Can't Eeduce Your Cost of Living Let Us Show You How to Increase Your Income. (10) A New Way to Meet an Old Difficulty. (11) 'Are You a Leader or a Trailer? (12) You are paying for it Why not have it? 4. Reconstruct the following ad- vertisements so as to give proper emphasis to the essential feature in ,, each (Figures 26, 27, and 28). FIGURE 26 ' Concrete Hou.t. .nd Cotl.se> Vol. I Larpi- H. rases $1.00 Voi.U-Km.ill Houses 1. 00 It will prove an inspiration if you contemplate ImililiiKr or remodeling. It is filled with illus- trations, floor plans and descriptions of fine : homes, all made with some form of concrete. You will learn, among other things, that suc- cessful concrete construction demands cement of the rijht quality the quality that has made -|- I /\C PORTLAND A I LAO CEMENT THE STANDARD Other b. ks yon sh aiboottWH ERIC AN BRAND :Id have are: Concrete in R.jlro.d Coiutr Coiur.t. COM.,.. . ntry Re.idcnc 1.00 2.00 Coucret Atlas Portland Cement is made of ucnuinr Portland Cement Roc k. It contains no furnan; slag. It is ihc brand bought by the Government ! for the Panama Canal. If your dealer cannot supply you with Atlas, w rite to THE ATLAS PORTLAND CEMENT CO. Opi. 60 30 Broa Strati. N.w York ipadtr Lrz"t Pr< >rld. Over 50.000 barrel, EMPHASIS AND UNITY 71 IS ON YOUR LINE Call up your grocer, on the phone. When he answers Hello ! " tell htm I -,. nd j p a can of "White Bouse " Collec- that nothing else will do. IT SI ITS WHEN OTHERS DISAPPOINT No crocer should denv vou. for the w FIGURE 27 BUFFALO LITHIASPRIMS WATER "All the Argument Necessary'* The International Journal of Surgery? August, 1905, under the heading "CYSTITIS" says: "In the treatment of Cystitis water is the great aid to all forms of medica- Puriuin I ITUI A III ATCO i s tne ideal form in which to tion. Moreover, UUrrAtU LI I nlA WAI UK. administer it to the cystitic patient, as it is not only a pure solvent, but has the additional virtue of contain- ing substantial quantities of the alkaline Lithates. Patients should be encouraged to take from two to four quarts per day if they can, and the relief they will obtain will be all the argument necessary after the first day or so." Dr. Geo. Ben. Johnston, M. D. LL. D., K',i-bnioi> itnJ* o< hr Iniht llWTlliJ fac J^ U*l d itoo taj^oar idkntV Jwhitt"* fc Co. > t* o*hr rfwtf BnlrfaKin ta Ikij ranattr rt. IU ttair <. k*Ur. The W..U I. 100-c^T . kM * *^r *a pn*U U TnuU or (Ooo4-r H*) . . ' ** : XNDW1JJ. *. eokn. p.rfrt loot eoatat ott IW Gnb n~J.li krlu< nu " i !> *" T ENDWELL ENDWELL SHOE STORE 200 WEST WATER T, FIGURE 30 Overemphasis of novelty in the illustration tends to withhold attention from the essential points of the advertisement In man, anything novel appeals to the instinct of curiosity and consequently is a strong incentive for closer attention and interest. Contrast Devices. Some of the devices based on the law of contrast which are in common use are the fol owing : Black, CONTRAST 75 gray, or colored backgrounds ; large amounts of vacant white space; odd shapes, circles, ovals, curves, diagonal lines; bizarre type; unusual illustrations; diagonal or inverted position of cuts ; odd borders ; unusual arrangements of type and words; and so on indefinitely. (See Figures 29 and 30.) Practically all of these devices have been used to advantage under certain conditions. Some are more useful than others. All of them, however, if used frequently, lose their novelty and become commonplace. The strength of the device lies in Telaman a distinctive fabric finish for business stationery , a hiyK-gradc bond paper like Strathmore Parchment nukes il possible to tecurc a dignified business paper that Aow dwcriminalkm nd selection. If you prefer llw glazed or the linen 6m4i, the pike is the same. , yt. , _p M qLAUTYBil-JC-.t FIGURE 31 FIGURE 32 The advertisements in Figs. 31 and 32 appeared in a magazine on opposite pages, facing each other. By virtue of their con- trast of black and white they tend to enhance and strengthen each . other its newness. The advertiser is forced, therefore, continuously to exercise his ingenuity and originality. Furthermore, some of the above schemes are accompanied by serious objections. For example, any background other than white makes the advertisement, as a rule, more difficult to read. The same is true of bizarre type, or unusual arrange- ments of words. A dead-black background often is repulsive 76 ADVEETISING to the aesthetic sense. In such cases it is a question of balanc- ing the advantages against the disadvantages, and determining according to the best judgment whether the device can be used effectively. These and other points will be considered in their appropriate connections under other topics. Black and White Contrast. One of the most common forms of contrast is that of black and white. A dark shade and a light shade close together tend to make each other ap- pear darker and lighter, respectively, than they would appear separately. Notice the illustrations on page 75. This fact is an important one to consider in the construction of adver- tisements and in the combination of adjacent advertisements in a medium. Some advertisements by virtue of their con- trast tend to increase the effectiveness of each other, while others tend to weaken each other. Use of Colors. Let us turn now to a more thorough consideration of the uses and values of colors. Their chief uses in advertisements may be classified under three heads artistic-value, attention- value, and illustrative-value. Artistic-Value of Different Colors. Some interesting studies have recently been made concerning the relative attractiveness of colors. Professor Wissler, 1 at Columbia University, tested the color preference of some three hundred men and women and found striking likes and dislikes, as indi- cated in the following table : TESTS ON MEN TESTS ON WOMEN PERCENTAGES PERCENTAGES PREFER- ENCE PREJU- DICE DIFFER- ENCE' PREFER- ENCE PREJU- DICE DIFFER- ENCE' Red 22 5 2 7 42 19 3 7 25 32 15 12 8 1 15 -20 -30 -8 30 11 2 42 8 5 9 9 19 8 8 31 8 21 23 9 34 -23 -3 -12 -14 10 8 Orange Yellow Green Blue Violet White 1. Correlation of Mental and Psychical Teat, p. 17. 2. Difference between preferences and prejudices. The minus sign means a preponderance of prejudices over preferences. CONTRAST 77 The author made a test with 133 persons 69 men and 64 women using ten standard Bering colors mounted on a white background. Each person numbered the colors in the order of his preference, putting the most agreeable color first, the next most agreeable color second, etc. The following table indicates the results of the experiment. The smaller the num- ber attached, the more highly the color was preferred. TEST ON MEN TEST ON WOMEN Blue 2.4 Bed 3.3 Red 2.5 Blue 4.1 Purple 3.4 Greenish Blue 4.8 Violet 4.0 Violet 5.2 Green 4.8 Green 5.5 Orange 5.5 Yellow 6.1 Greenish Blue 6.8 Bluish Green 6.3 Bluish Green 7.2 Purple 6.5 Yellowish Green 8.8 Orange 6.6 Yellow 9.0 Yellowish Green 6.7 These two investigations agree fairly closely. Both show that the most agreeable color for the men is blue, and for the women red, and that the second choice for the men is red, and for the women blue. 1 It will be noticed that red and blue are practically a tie for first choice with the men in the second table. Jastrow took a color census of 4500 men and women at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1893. 2 He found that blue is preeminently the masculine favorite and red the feminine favorite. Grant Allen, basing his statement on the reports of mis- sionaries, places the color preference of primitive people as red, blue, and green. In view of these facts and their practical bearing upon advertising, it is important to notice the distinction between color preference, or artistic-value, and attention-value. The advertiser must, of course, use those colors which not only arrest attention but w r hich at the same time are agreeable to 1. Or violet in the first table. 2. Jastrow, J., Popular Science Monthly, Vol. L, p. 361. 78 ADVEETIS1NG the eye, so that the eye may be held upon the advertisement rather than be repelled from it. Attention-Value of Colors. Gale made some tests to determine, by his rapid exposure method, 1 the pure atten- tion-value as distinguished from the artistic-value of colors. He exposed various colors for an instant on a white back- ground to determine which ones would be noticed most fre- quently and most easily. His results are stated in the follow- ing table, which gives the number of times each color was noticed and the percentage of times each color was noticed of the total number of times that all the colors were noticed : TEST ON 9 MEN TEST ON 7 WOMEN AVERAGE Red 88 151 87 88 21 8 4 19.5% 33.5 19.3 19.5 5.3 1.7 .8 113 43 66 38 38 29 23 32.2% 12.2 18.8 10.8 10.8 8.2 6.5 25.9% 22.9 19.1 15.2 8.1 5.0 3.7 Black G reen Orange Blue Purple Yellow The attention-value of colors is in the order mentioned in the table. Red has the greatest attention-value, black is next, while purple and yellow have the least. Apparently there are differences between the sexes, but the number of men and women is too small to make a significant comparison. It is interesting that red is first in attention-value and also first in preference for the women and second for the men, while blue is first in preference for the men and second for the women, but it is considerably farther down the list in atten- tion-value. Red has greater attention-value than any other color because it arouses greater physiological activity in the retina of the eye, and possibly because it has long been associated with war and bloodshed. Artists call it a warm color, in con- trast with blue as a cold color. In this connection it is significant to notice that red, next to black, is the most frequently used color in advertisements 1. Gale, H., Psychological Studies, p. 56. CONTRAST 79 in which the color is not determined by the natural color of the object illustrated in the advertisement but in which it is chosen for its power of attraction. A tabulation of colored advertisements appearing in various magazines showed that 77 percent used red, 19 percent brown, 8 percent blue, 6 percent orange, 6 percent green, 6 percent yellow, and 5 percent purple. Illustrative- Value of Colors. In addition to the uses already mentioned, colors also have, as a rule, a very high illustrative-value. Thus by means of colors it is possible to represent adequately and correctly the natural appearance of the article its texture, grain, pattern, outline, quality, etc. The reader obtains thereby a far more realistic impres- sion of the object as it actually appears, and is able to imagine it with much greater facility and clearness. This is especially true of such articles as clothing and rugs. Excellent exam- ples may be seen in almost any high grade advertising medium. 4 Furthermore, the use of colors enables the customer to recognize packages, cartons, and articles much better than the simple use of a name or trade-mark does. Good illustra- tions are the cartons used for foods, canned goods, toilet articles, etc. Recall, for example, the packages, labels, and wrappers of the National Biscuit Company, Colgate & Co., J. B. Williams & Co. Colors also aid in producing perspective. Red seems nearer than blue at the same distance, and a bright object seems nearer than a dark one. These differences in shades and tints of colors help in creating an appearance of perspec- tive and depth in the presentation of objects, which makes them seem more realistic and true to life. Opinions of Big Advertisers. The potency and effective- ness of colors are indicated by the very wide use of colors to- day in car cards, posters, booklets, and even in magazines. A recent inquiry made by Printer's Ink 1 among over a dozen leading national advertisers concerning their reasons for using 1. Printer's Ink, December 19, 1912, p. 40. 80 ADVERTISING color in advertisements showed the following points as justifi- cation for the extra cost of color : 1. Color is more attractive than black and white. 2. Color produces the package as it really is. 3. Color emphasizes the trade-mark. 4. Color gives atmosphere. 5. Color will keep the advertisement on the library table. 6. Color is useful when the product itself is in colors; for example, paint. 7. Color has an innate appeal which is worth the price. 8. Color achieves, through judicious combinations, dis- tinctiveness for an advertisement over others in the same issue. 9. Colored advertisements attract a better class of replies. 10. Colored advertisements are advisable for conventional reasons in preferred positions. "Pulling Power" of Color. A writer in Advertising and Selling 1 discusses the additional cost of color printing com- pared with its additional "pulling power." Although he cal- culates that a booklet illustrated by the three-color process costs four times as much as the same booklet illustrated in black, he nevertheless concludes that the extra cost is abund- antly justified. To quote : Does it possess four times the attention-value and sales-power of the book illustrated in black only? . . . The answer is, it does. Excel- lent proof of this lies in the fact that the big mail order houses, which figure costs and results down to the fraction of a penny, pay the four- fold cost of color process work without a murmur, use more of it every year, and have found by comparative tests that a cut in color will sometimes sell as high as .fifteen times as many goods as a black cut. Mr. Harvey Conover, 2 of Thomas Cusack Company, states that the label of a cough-drop package was changed from white to a design in red, white, green, and gold. In the former case it was unsuccessful, while in the latter it met with immediate success. The mail order houses have perhaps better opportunities for ascertaining the effectiveness of color than almost any 1. Advertising and Belling, Vol. 19, p. 1196. 2. Printer's Ink, December 19, 1912, p. 31. CONTEAST 81 other form of business. In response to an inquiry for accu- rate data the author received the following replies from two well-known firms in Chicago. From one firm: The value of colored advertising material is pretty well established, although we cannot, from our own business, give you any definite ratio of pulling power as compared with black and white. Colored advertising is one of the many topics in which generalizing is dangerous. If color is an essential feature of the merchandise then a colored illustration is pretty sure to pay if quality and price are right according to market conditions. The elements entering into this question are numerous enough to make a book. It has been found, for instance, that a single word in red ink increased the pulling power of a certain advertisement exactly one-third. This was plainly due to the contrast afforded and would not be the case if other color printing had been in competition with the same advertisement. Generally' speaking, our experience with colored advertising is, that it has great possibilities for increasing business but must be used with caution on account of the expense and the many other factors involved. From the other firm : We have found that color cuts pull a great deal better in practically every instance and their additional cost is fully warranted by the tremendous increase in the business that they draw. PEOBLEMS AND QUESTIONS 1. Give two illustrations, not from advertising, of the meaning of contrast as a means of stimulating attention. 2. Obtain an advertisement to illustrate each of the following ways of producing contrast: Unusual border, unusual background, unusual position, and unusual illustration. 3. What objections can you give to the use of a black or colored background, or to unusual position of type, which tend to counteract the advantage of their contrast? 4. What are the main factors involved in considering whether or not colors are to be used in an advertisement? 5. Mention two or three articles in the advertising of which the use of color would probably be of special value, and two or three for which color would afford little or no advantage. Give reasons for your opinion. 6. What factors determine the kind of color or colors that shall be used? In answering this question notice the colors used on the covers of magazines. CHAPTER VIII BORDERS; EYE-MOVEMENT AND ATTENTION One further group of devices for focusing attention and producing emphasis consists of the different types of borders and their modified forms, such as panels, circles, and lines. The Function of Borders. Borders have four more or less distinct uses: (1) When properly applied they tend to increase the attention-value of advertisements. (2) They lend unity, compactness, and individuality. (3) They serve to separate small advertisements on the same page from one another. (4) They may be used to add a decorative and illustrative value to advertisements. Examine the illustra- tions in this chapter, noticing how these uses are exemplified. Let us consider these various uses a little more in detail. First, the attention-value of borders. For a small advertise- ment a border is practically indispensable. The border is necessary to set it off from the other advertisements on the same page and give it an individuality of its own. Observe the illustrations given in this chapter. In this connection it is interesting to notice that throughout the early years of advertising, borders were much less conspicuous than at present, and for this reason the advertisements of a page frequently formed a more or less undivided mass. Compare the two illustrations on this point. (Figures 33 and 34.) Moreover, the full-page advertisement in most instances is enhanced by a border, even though it be a simple one. Compare the illustrations given on the following page, no- ticing the appearance of unity and completeness of the sec- ond in contrast with the first. The border adds a touch of finish and pictorial attractiveness which the borderless adver- tisement does not possess. Then, too, the various modified forms of the border, such as circles, lines, arrows, underscoring bars, contracted borders, 82 BOIWEBS 83 panels, and the like, are employed to set off and emphasize important features of an advertisement which are to receive special attention. Notice the accompanying examples. eo. UHIOM SQUIRE, HEW YORK. J-iumon rf cloM burm it [ferticuUrj toviwd Having their workshops on the premise*, with Designer!, and (he Acknowledged beit staff of Diamond Jewellers in the country, they Offer unequalled inducements Tor the manufacture of Gem Jewellery, and the resetting of Stones. FIGURE 33 FIGURE 34 The advertisement in Figure 33 appeared in 1879. It is a typical illustration of the absence of borders at that time. Figure 34 contains an appropriate border illustrating present practice Increase in Use of Borders. It is noteworthy that borders are a recent element in the construction of advertisements. In the early days they were almost wholly absent from the large advertisements. Of course the small spaces have always required a means of separation, and consequently some form of border has always been present, however inconspicuous at times. The increase in the use of borders is indicated in the table below which shows the percentage of full-page advertise- ments in standard magazines using borders. PERCENTAGE OF FULL-PAGE ADVERTISEMENTS POSSESSING BORDERS 1880 1890 1900 1910 6% 38% 82% 77% 84 ADVERTISING There has been a remarkable increase from the time when large advertisements rarely had a border until today when nearly every one has a border. The slight decrease for 1910 is probably an accidental fluctuation. The enhancing effect has thus gradually been realized. Arresting Eye-Movement. Borders also increase the attention-value by their tendency to arrest eye-movement. The FIGURE 35 vertical lines of the border run at right angles to the usual horizontal movement of the eyes as they glance from page to page. It is a well-known and easily demonstrated observa- tion that objects, and more particularly crosslines, in the path of the movement of the eyes tend to arrest the eyes. The right-hand section of the horizontal line in Figure 35 looks longer than the left-hand section because the crosslines tend to arrest the eyes as they sweep over them, thus requiring more energy and consequently making that part of the line appear longer. The same phenomenon of arrested eye-move- ment can be shown by taking photographic records of the movements of the eyes. Now, it is this function which borders and other lines of the border variety serve. They tend, by mechanical stimula- tion, to stop the sweep of the eyes. And the point upon which the eyes are focused is usually the point upon which the visual attention is centered. If the eye is arrested, the attention also usually is arrested. This is shown by the fact that it is rather difficult for a person to direct the atten- tion to some object off toward the side in the indirect field of vision, while the eyes are focused upon another point. Long established habits have associated the center of vision with the focus of visual attention. It is this principle of arresting and directing the move- ment of the eyes which makes such devices as circles, panels, and lines of all sorts, valuable for securing emphasis upon an advertisement or upon some of its features. BOEDEES 85 Rules for the Use of Borders. Much care must be exer- cised in the use of these devices so that they may not be employed unnecessarily or act as counter-attractions. Notice Figure 37 and the comments made upon it. FIGURE 36 FIGURE 37 Figure 36 shows a unique illustrative border. Figure 37 gives an example of a decorative border. It is too elaborate and tends to detract from the advertisement itself The size 1 and nature of the border to be used for a given advertisement depend upon the size and nature of the adver- tisement, and upon the article advertised. As a general rule a plain, simple border is preferable to a fancy, elaborate border. In fact, it is safe to say that an elaborate, ornamental border should not be used unless there are special reasons for it, in instances, for example, in which it would distinctly enhance the attractiveness or illustrative-value of the adver- tisement. Such would be the case with commodities in which 1. The size of standard borders is indicated by means of the point system in the same manner as type sizes are indicated. The standard straight line borders usually run from one to twelve points in "width. The standard fancy borders usually are wider and range from 6 to 36 points. The latter widths are rarely used because they are apt to be too heavy and too con- spicuous. 86 ADVEETIS1NG the artistic or decorative aspect is particularly important. Illustrations of these points are given in the accompanying examples. The elaborate border is apt to attract the eye to itself rather than to the central feature of the advertisement. Junior Accountants r efficiency, and acquirf DENN-S PRACTICAL AUDITING tRtport; ft lucid exp of the ConlraUwv t *. * short-cut in Audition: besides a great deal of other valuable od practical information, not to bf Pne. by mail postpaid. Three Dollar*. DweriptiT ejreular f rce. CEO. B. REHN, !34 1 Dakin Si. Room 172, Chicago, 111. d;c JFtnanrial of CanaDa. |We are prepared to give a high class ervice to all who are interested in Cana- dian stocks, bonds or real estate. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 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