UC-NRLF B ^ 5oe 12b iri M Lessons IN dvertisin^ and Sellin GUY HIJBBART Advertising and Selling Each of these lessons is suitable for school use and outlines a method by which the student or sales person may develop his or her ability in selling a special type of goods. The subject matter affords a practical basis for self improvement along general lines of retail salesmanship. By GUY HUBBART Columbia University School of Business Retail Advertising and Sales Expert "The Dry Goods Economist" and "Atlantic Coast Merchant' Reprinted from Atlantic Coast Merchant NEW YORK U. p. C. BOOK COMPANY, Inc. 243-249 W. 39th Street Copyright, 1921 BY U. P. C. BOOK COMPAISTY, Inc. HAMMOND PRESS W. B. CONKEY COMPAI CHICAGO Foreword llyTE. HUBBART, the author of this book, is so well known as an authority in the field of advertising and salesmanship, that he needs little introduction to any person engaged in either of these two professions. As an educator it is probably safe to say that he has taught more young men and women the fundamentals of advertising and selling than any other teacher in the United States. As chief in- sti-uctor in Columbia University School of Business, Mr. Hubbart has personally trained more than 2,400 salesmen and sales managers, and his success has been in a large part due to the fact that his knowledge of his two chosen subjects was learned through practical experience. He is a graduate of the University of Illinois and entered the advertising field on leaving college because of a genuine love for the work. It was for this reason that he rapidly forged to the front and in a very brief time became advertising manager for one of the best known stores in the Middle West. His reputation as an advei-tising man and sales execu- tive grew rapidly, and for many years he was employed as an expert adviser by some of the most famous stores in the country. As a teacher, Mr. Hubbart originated and developed the ''Idea- and-merchandise " method which is now in use in virtually every im- portant business school in the United States. The major portion of the subject matter of this hand-book orig- inally appeared as a series of articles in the Atlantic Coast Merchant. It has been amplified in several important respects and published in book form in response to the demand of several hundred merchants, advertising men and salesmen who wished to use it for their own guidance and for educational purposes. The Publisher. 3 490303 Table of Contents LESSON I Ideas Make Retail Advertisements Productive 9 Customers read store copy because it tells something interest- ing about merchandise — the user's mind is the source of ideas, and ideas are based on goods. LESSON II Copy Is the Adman 's Message to Customers 13 Headlines, sub-captions, introductories and descriptive items carry the message to readers — they must be built on the main idea of the advertisement. LESSON III Subject Matter Is Drawn from Departments 16 All the material used by the adman in making his message to customers has its source in the goods carried in each depart- ment advertised — other lines are suggested. LESSON IV Have an Architectural Plan for Layout 19 Physical form has an influence on the stimulative and attrac- tion value of our advertisement — schedule is influenced by lines of goods on sale. LESSON V Collecting Material for the Ad Is Important 23 Everything in the advertisement comes from a definite place in the store and for a special reason — care and judgment are necessary to good results. LESSON VI Advertising Ought to Run on Regular Schedule 27 Dates for planned advertisements are made from conditions in stores' stocks of goods and seasons — the schedule is influ- enced by lines of goods on sale. LESSON VII Make the Adv:ertisement Fit Its Purpose 30 Different kinds of merchandising require different kinds of advertisements — the advertisement is not the event, it only herald's the store's selling program. TABLE OF CONTENTS LESSON VIII Use Special Advertisements for Special Occasions 33 What a store offers for sale is influenced by reasons not always linked with the goods — base the message on a sensible reason easily understood by customers. LESSON IX Clearance Sales Need Careful Treatment 35 The public will respond to special values only when specialized interest is created by what appears in the advertisement — three elements are necessary. LESSON X Goodwill Advertisements Pay the Most 38 Extra values for the money or less money for the value is the foundation of store prestige advertising — customers are loyal only in terms of money's worth. LESSON XI Season Advertising Is Founded on Store News 41 Customers like to know what the store has to sell and how it fits the time of year — season copy can be made interesting. LESSON XII Complete Publicity in Stores Is Threefold 44 Advertisements ought to be combined with window displays and show cards — each is an incomplete form of message, but all combined makes a complete appeal. LESSON XIII Everyone Has Something to Buy 46 Salesmanship begins with the customer's need for goods be- cause the purchaser's interest in what she buys begins there — study why people want goods, not why they buy. LESSON XIV Good Selling Demands Good Thinking 48 Sales are made in the customer's mind and in terms of the goods she contemplates buying — make the customer act by making her think in your favor. LESSON XV Every Sale Implies a Human Want 50 Wants reflect needs for goods and represent a certain type of need — good salesmanship requires an acquaintance mth why customers have wants. 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS LESSON XVI Study Merchandise While Selling It 52 Success in salesmanship comes with knowledge of what mer- chandise means to those whom you serve — study in a sys- tematic way every day. LESSON XVII Everyone Has Something to Sell 54 Merchandise is classified finally by the use to which it is put by the purchaser — salespeople improve in service when they realize this fundamental idea. LESSON( XVIII Wants Give Customers the Buying Impulse 56 Salespeople need to understand the csutomer's trains of thought about goods — the customer has a viewpoint entirely different from the store's idea of its goods. LESSON XIX How TO Group People 's Needs 58 Four sources of human needs for goods open the way for care- ful and systematic study of personal salesmanship — goods do not create wants but supply them. LESSON XX How Goods Are Grouped for Use 60 Good service is dependent on the ability to look ahead and see the customer using the merchandise you are selling to her or him. LESSON XXI Learn to Make Rules for Yourself 62 Use-value is the element in goods which brings people back to you for more goods — repeat-sales reduce selling expense and build volume. LESSON XXII Why Do Women Buy Gloves? 64 Every item of merchandise has a definite selling principle be- hind it — salespeople who study these principles always progress to better positions. LESSON XXIII A Rule for Selling Convenience Goods 66 A simple analysis of w^hat an alarm clock does for the pur- chaser gives the groundwork for successful selling of a cer- tain type of merchandise — there are five types. 7 . TABLE OF CONTENTS LESSON xxrv Woolen Underweak and Alarm Clocks Are Unlike 68 Bigger sales and more money for selling comes with a knowl- edge of the differences between different items of goods and systematic study brings this knowledge. LESSON XXV Advertising Is a Special Ivind of Selling 69 Salespeople can by the careful study of advertising develop a special kind of a])ility in selling goods — advertising and selling principles come from the same place. LESSON XXVI Advertising Copy Is Full of Salesmanship. 71 Study the adman's method of interesting his prospect in what he has to sell, then apply the method to personal salesman- ship — this helps you to understand what customers think. LESSON XXVII There Are Five Elements in Advertising Copy 73 Every completed sale can be reduced to the five elements of a forceful advertisement — each element has a definite influ- ence on the customer's attitude. LESSON XXVIII Personality Is the Life of Advertisements 75 Your customer is affected by your personality if you reflect it in your selling method — the purchaser must be interested in your efforts to please her. LESSON XXIX Every Item of Goods Has Five Values 77 There are five steps in a complete sale and they each come from something expressed in the origin and nature of the merchandise. LESSON XXX Direct Your Efforts Accurately 79 Every salesman ought to be able to analyze the steps in every sale he makes in terms of the five values contained in an item of merchandise— study one item at a time. LESSON I Ideals Make Retail Advertisements Productive DRY GOODS store advertising is improving year by year in all types of stores. This improvement is due in part to a better understand- ing on the part of store executives of the value of good advertising as a builder of business. It is also due to the efforts of ad men to turn out better looking, better sounding store messages to aid customers in finding what they want in merchandise. The ad man in the smaller store has one advantage over his brother in the bigger city establishment when he begins to study how to make his advertisements pull more business. He can profitably study the ads of other stores in his own class and those of much larger institutions. Not that the big store ad man can learn nothing from his smaller store brother, but that the latter can find more places where improve- ment is needed in his daily or semi-weekly program. And it is easier to apply a big-store idea, adapt it rather, to a small store ad than the other way around. This is because, after a certain point of excellence is reached in the big stores' method of advertising, new departures must be made slowly. The big store is likely to have better newspaper and printing facilities, better illustrations and more appropriation to spend on space and composition. While the small store may have good methods and policies, its mechanical advantages are fewer than those in the big cities. Improvement in retail advertising can be made in four general directions. The first is in methods of telling the merchandising message to customers — ideas, treatment of copy and the general introduction; the second, merchandising the advertisement — making the goods pre- sented in the ad fit the seasonal needs of customers, the conditions of stocks and volume of sales in the store and the general needs of the special clientele to which the store caters; third, the management of cuts, illustrations, type and arrangement of material; and fourth, the planning of space, schedules and special advertising events. These four subjects will be dealt with in several chapters following in the order mentioned. The remainder of this article is devoted to the first subject — methods of telling the store's message to customers. Copy the message of the store's goods and values, is the ad man's first thought. Through it he tells customers why they ought to buy this or that item, what it is good for, its value in money and its use as 9 10 .BB-:rA.IIj;:^DVEjR:TlSINa AND SELLING a commodity. lie describes the goods, tells its price and tries to arouse and sustain interest in the special item or items of goods the store offers for the customers' consideration day by day. Two Kinds of Copy Copy is of two kinds: Stimulative and directive. That is, it either tries to interest the customer in buying any and all kinds of goods or it specializes on trying to get her to buy a certain thing on a certain day. Most store ads do both of these things, at least a certain amount of the copy used in a week can be so described. Whichever is the purpose of the copy it must have an idea in it or it will fail in part of its aim. The idea is the thing that fastens the subject matter of the ad to the customer's interest. Telling all about how an item of merchandise looks, its price and where to find it in the store is not enough. There is nothing in that which makes the customer say, *'Yes, that is what I want and that's (your store) the place to get it." General description will accomplish the first five words — ''That is what I want," but an idea only will accomplish the last part of the sentence — "and that's the place to get it." What is the use of advertising anj^vay if your store does not get the benefit of the ad? Where Ideas Gome From ''Where do ideas come from?" says the ambitious ad man. The answer is: From two sources; (1) the merchandise and (2) the mind of the average customer. Where else could a retail advertising idea come from, since the purpose of copy is to tell about goods the customer needs or wants. Half the idea is drawn from the goods, the other half from what the goods mean to the customer. For example, your store is going to feature a certain shoe for men next week. You will describe the shoe — the kind of leather it is made of ; the color ; whether lace or button ; the style of last ; heel and toe; range of sizes and give the price. All that is drawni from the goods. It would seem that that is all you would need to say about it, and it would be enough if you wanted only to announce that you have new men's shoes. But you want to interest customers in that shoe from their own point of view as well as the store's. So, you can go further in copy than the mere description. You can suggest that the shoe appeals to men of good taste ; that it looks well for dress or street wear ; that those especially who like their shoes neat and smart and blend well with the rest of what is worn will like this shoe. In other words, besides describing the material points of the shoe, you suggest a train of thought about how it will look and how the customers will feel who wear it. You give the prospective customer a shoe thought — a shoe idea. EETAIL ADVERTISEMENTS PRODUCTIVE 11 That gives your shoe copy individuality and no matter how many other stores in town sell men's shoes, your message will tell the story of your store's goods. This is true of any other items in stock — coats Your LMng Room shoulij firsl 0/ oil glix promise ot Rest and RdaxaHoii OPill fwi. white tomUrl .hoinVbt pr«>mb'tied U- with cQmfort ariij Hospllallly and Good Cheer wiU reign supnme when centered about the dining room M-';|S,n",Ti"l'./wt e»K ;o?u~ ^illSetw"; Ai the family gaftitfir.j pb'i. (o break the bfe.Ml Tupireij loencth ol ihc Witliim md Mary. Tlicii .\Vh*l( Kflod nood -1 i*>n>ih. you will hnd >our o<>>< ^fem fni |h< 4in>t>K (wm ioterpmci] bcfc /^/oAtf M« en/rantv hatl otyour- ' Aonw 6eam a welcome to all who enter )4thi>i I he 10ft (tow oft Tiwr.—ii all thai Uw itr^'otpMi of iTAuT Enl <;iv« thov^l iw '*«tw Hah* ,ihc EninnCY Vtin ,({Ood ihlnpi bcyvii^ (fed I. Tl(c H«ht Co. Hon.c Filtit*. SfCttonsanntul.C.Cr.ioian.PRAC TICAL. and our cnttrf oT^..niH\on is built .iround lliis one grril undcrlytng llioughl **To m«k4 homti b«tl«r. brhlhtci- ind h»pt»i«r. qtHllly, itlllty an4 sttrsctlvenjut *rc neceuarr" The Reception Hall, with Time the Monitor, bidding guestr a right royal welcome ind the Hill O^k t o( turitiiure moil be The ffosteistaltes especial pride 4n ■ milking the Bedroom attractive A Man Is knoum,by His Companions- a Home by Its Floor Coverings M^. (Kmix frutcid of (t>e eld-time ogly "burcoi nthuilon wmJ nm dnwcr i:vie<\ unpte i(>M* and ihe mint r>b« n tiun'i ipcctat imdi' ' ' The Vanity Ca. \vli)rwUe vr lrl{t|icaill lilt rWd. Droitr. Mu> • R»t>c and Vi»iii> Caw. wiib CI1 itt rngtcU Ql wild fflihoranv m aotniac finiih. ^ SpectaUzed DeptiTtmenl for Bedding uHttt Cribs to match any Period *'The Home Beautiful" takes on added cham when graced by attractive Hangings ^ ipend a (hkd of A comforraWc *(hird" ' driftW than without UTtcallhto if bram MVaduti. hild; J body and knn 11/ ELL MfKlrd hat>rnp Fumljh'jour hone eve upon ytiuf floor*: and j Utracll^^ty: plare l^ richeM of Ru|r< Hinfinp a sucfcti haoitingi that, firtt ol indow Scat, for a Dooi reylMC with ideas lot a "Cyy Cortier" (or rayoT Window; and many ^(ifly" (htrtp (1 thcRiMK-ci ai >oo stroll around. McIMfugaU KnctMi Qibtnea fUK iIr ko«KwW( w4w av^* t4M«*«i>0 ibc homn itl* •'«iMCT MieiNn GlWnM. wiU t«r> ITheffechtCa]^ The well fitted Linen Chest ifJOWY Table Lin*n» ire dnt to ihe*hein of-fytrw ,tw-who(htr tbe be miiron or trr44»-^o^»<. '^ ill find here the urt of Table DanTaaaa. Tahf^ and suits, njillinery, underwear, furniture, fancy goods and notions, domestics, dress goods or anything. Notice the advertisement reproduced in the center of this page. It is the ad of a big store in a big city, but it is about something many small stores sell — furniture and home furnishings. It is reproduced here because it is a fine example of copy with a definite and suitable 12 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING idea in it. You can tell this by reading the headline of each section of the ad. "The Hostess takes especial pride in making the bedroom attrac- tive," is the headline of the section dealing with bedroom furniture and furnishings. Tlien the l)ody of the copy goes on to tell in detail what the store has to sell and why it has it. Also it speaks of the use of some of the items. The ''Idea" in this copy is plain. It is in the headline and gives the customer a definite train of thought. It makes her want the kind of bedroom furniture and furnishings described even before she sees them. If the copy had consisted only in descriptions such as size, color, and price, this ad would sell furniture for any store in the city where the ad was published. As it is it directs interest specifically to the store whose name is signed to the ad. His Idea from Goods The Hecht Company ad man got his idea from his goods and from what he knew the people who needed furniture ought to want to think about the use and nature of the goods. A small store would not be wise to use so much space, perhaps, as was used in this ad, and if its furniture did not look like the illus- trations it could not wisely use such illustrations. But furniture ideas are the same no matter what the size of the store, so any store selling furniture, rugs, draperies, hangings, etc., can safely put ideas in its copy. Ideas give life, vigor and interest to othenvise commonplace facts. Look for ideas by studying the use and nature of your goods. Also by reflecting in copy what any customer might think. LESSON II Copy Is the Adman's Message to Customers THE first lesson of this series dealt with ideas — advertising ideas. It pointed out that ideas formed the basis of copy treatment. An idea is simply an image, a viewpoint, based on what the customer needs in the way of merchandise and what the store has in stock that can supply that need. For example, a shoe advertising idea gives the customer a reason or viewpoint upon which to base his or her interest in the shoe. The written or printed matter that conveys the idea is called copy. It is copy when it leaves the store for the printer. It is copy after the printer prints it in advertising form in the newspaper. The word copy covers everything in the advertisement that has to do with describing the goods except the illustrations. Copy in a retail advertisement includes, (1) headlines, sub-head- lines (captions these are called by some people), (2) introductory mat- ter, whether general at the top of the advertisement or specific at the top of the merchandise divisions of the advertisement, (3) departmental headlines, and (4) item descrij^tions. To separate copy from the rest of the things that go into making the advertisement it is called text. In fact, the text means what the customer reads. It is the ad man's copy, but the customer's text. Text treatment or how copy is written is very important, just as important as the wording of a business letter. The text must fit the subject matter of the letter or the advertisement. One would hardly write a love letter in the formal way that a business letter is written or the other way around. One would not write about a purely utility commodity like an ice chest or a rolling pin the way he would write of a beautiful rug, a piece of jewelry or an exquisitely designed piece of lace. The same thing applies in a general way to different departments in the store — ready-to-wear, house furnishings, shoes, millinery, fancy goods, toilet goods and so on. Each group of goods means a specific thing to customers and copy or text ought to fit the goods and demon- strate clearly its field or purpose. Copy may be personal or impersonal; it may be put in terms of fact or images ; it may be argumentative ; reason- why or inspirational. These are merely forms of written expression. But whichever way it is written, text ought to have only one pur- pose; to make the customer want your goods. 13 14 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING It will make her want your goods if it is clear, direct, simple, inter- esting and timely. Copy will be all of these tilings if it tells a stoiy of the goods, delivers a merchandising message. Real Copy Analyzed Headlines, introductory matter, sub-heads and items are well illus- trated in the reproduction on this page. It is not a complete ad, but a section out of a page ad of a big store in a big city. This section is THE EVERYOVTHFUL BLOOM Of SPRING IS REFLECTED IN THESE CHARMING PRESENTATIONS OF jsses' I A prcMntation of radiantly beautiful, fashionjbly corrccl Spring Apparel for tho»c who arc ready foT the glorious Springtime. An array from which both maid vand matron may quickly supply their acceascry nce.vc n.odcl THESE na' ol • of tbwt n- chUut In row botu. f% f\A. EASY TERMS! I 2.25^, NEIV LACES and dress trimmings— frooLi for hn tfpiiBC «w4n4)f . -^y Extra! - For your hgndizvork .Sflfm charmeuse Stwing vtik ifiicial. a y4rd— r-a,i Woolens for Spring T$ *< tpfm.U'iVA /A* M«p Spring tuitt and iktrlt ^p^sif'ditpts^^r vujthg i««A/^7] A^^ Stripe tub silk Houses Superb milliner)^ Spicialized n Suppose you selected four items each out of the lower half; you would have nine departments represented and a good showing of items from each. If you wanted to, or the stocks were in shape to permit it, you could put in four items of shoes, three of carpets and rugs, three of furniture (if it is carried), and you would then have an advertise- ment which would draw customers to twelve merchandise divisions of the store in addition to departments not represented in the adver- tisement. Remember some people come in who never read ads. Such an advertisement would bring in customers w^ho had im- mediate need of goods and it would interest customers who had not thought of certain things needed. 18 RETAIL ADVERTISINa AND SELLING If after running sucli an advertisement you had a good general business throughout the store, you could credit the separate items in each department represented in the ad, because it is the items of silk, notions, shoes, millinery, carpets, furniture, blouses or waists, under- muslins, etc., that interest the readers of your advertising. They see **one thing" they want and then are reminded of ''several" things. When they enter the store they see ** other" things, and so it goes. It is plain that the item is the life of the ad. If it is timely, clear, interesting, if it describes a good value at a fair price, someone is sure to be interested in that item. If there are fifty such items your chances for business are multiplied by fifty plus the average number of people in town who would naturally shop at your store. Merchandising the ad is a job for several people to take a hand in — the head of the store, the buyers for departments, the ad man, and whoever has immediate charge of sales. In some stores one or two people do all of these things. When merchandising the ad, that is, selecting what departments and what items of goods from that department shall be advertised, keep three things in mind: (1) other goods not advertised; (2) the seasons of the year; and (3), the condition of stocks. If you haven't got enough goods in a department to respond to a big day, do not put ten or twelve items from that department into the ad. Put two or three in, and use more items from a department which is more seasonable or which has goods in it which are in steady demand every day. LESSON IV Have an Architectural Plan for Layout IDEAS, form and material have now been outlined in this series of articles in the order mentioned. This lesson deals with how to ar- range the material, give it the power of attracting the eye and holding the attention. Ad men who want to make their advertisements attractive and easy to read use a layout method in arranging material; that is, they make a dummy like the one on the right of this page and mark out divisions for each section or department of the advertisement. This is called a ''dummy" and is sent to the printer with the type directions on it and the copy, each price in which is marked with a letter or figure corresponding to a letter or figure in the dummy. The layout is used by most ad men in planning what is to go in the ad and where. That is, while they are "merchandising" the ad in co-operation with other people in the store as was pointed out in the last article, they decide how much space to give the hat part of the ad, the shoes, the coats and suits, the basement or bargain items and so on. Also the location of each is decided then and indicated on the ' ' dummy ' ' layout. Helps Printer and Customers If the printer gets a layout dummy with your copy he can make a better looking ad for you. It will do your store honor and customers will be more apt to read your ad. It will look interesting and, more important, it will be easier to read than if it is badly set up and arranged. Some storekeepers feel that their ads are so small and the printing facilities of their newspapers so poor that it is a waste of time to prepare a dummy and try to get a good set-up. This is a mistake because the smaller the ad and the fewer the fonts of type on hand the more need for neatness and attractiveness. On the opposite page is the dummy for an eight-section advertise- ment. The space as it stands would be four columns wide and twelve inches deep. It could, however, be set three columns by ten inches deep if a smaller ad was wanted. The dummy is shown here in the bigger size because it reproduces better. Notice the departments represented : Millinery, two items ; corsets, two items ; women 's furnishings, two items ; bedding, four items ; shoes, three items; domestics, three items; twelve items in all. Besides this 19 20 RETAIL ADVERTISINO AND SELLING there is a general headline and an introductory and a special intro- ductory for ''coats and suits." Nothing but a lead pencil, a piece of paper, a ruler and proofs of cuts were used in making this dummy. All else that was needed was an idea of wliere to put each cut and each merchandise section. Of course if this had been a real dummy for a real store, someone would have had to decide what departments needed representation in the advertisement. Since the dummy is only an example, it was made to fit the needs of this article instead of a store. Let us assume that it is a dummy for your store and we are getting up next Wednesday's ad. It is decided by the store head and his department manager that the following departments or divisions of the store stocks ought to be featured in Wednesday's advertisement — coats and suits, millineiy, corsets, domestics and linens, shoes, bedding, hosieiy and gloves. Three Things to Consider Three questions arise after it has been decided what divisions of stocks shall be advertised: First question: How many items or how much of each division? Second question: How much space for the items of each division? Third question : Where shall each division be placed in the adver- tisement? These questions will be answered in reference to the dummy on the opposite page. If they are not answered the store will have an advertisement which looks like the one reproduced here. Notice it. It has good items in it and they represent good value of a fine store, but the advertisement looks like it contained only one item. There are coats and suits in it, notions and domestics ; but the ad is hard to read, unattractive, and in no way interests the casual observer. This is because the material of which the ad is made is not arranged into departments in the advertising space. It would not have cost any more to lay out this ad and use a cut or two to enliven it. Now next Wednesday's ad: The ad man, or whoever handles the ads in the store if there is no regular ad man, draws a rough sketch, four columns (newspaper columns) wide and twelve inches deep — forty-eight inches in all. He has been told or knows that the leading sections are to be millinery, coats and suits and bedding. Corsets are next in importance. The ad man has some cuts either ordered from a cut service or sent by the manufacturers of the goods. Proofs are taken of these cuts either by using an ink pad or by having the printer make proofs. (If they belong to a service, proofs will be sent with the cuts.) A place is marked off for the headline and the general introductory. A double ''X" is marked where the headline goes; a capital ''A" HAVE AN ARCHITECTURAL PLAN FOR LAYOUT 21 Sketch of Rough "Dummy" and "B" are marked for the introductory because it is to be set double measure across the top of the ad — double measure is easier to read than long lines. 22 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING Millinery and coats and suits come next. They are marked '*D" and '*C" and so on through the divisions — *'G" for gloves and hosiery; *'H" for bedding; "E" for corsets; ''F" for domestics and linens, and *'M" for shoes. It will be noted that in sections ''H" and "M" there are figures 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 6, 7. These figures refer to four items of bedding and three of shoes. Letters Guide Printer "When the copy goes to the printer each division of it will be marked with the same letters as are on the dummy. The printer then knows where copy '*XX," ''A," '*B," etc., go. He could tell by the headings, written in with a lead pencil, but it is better to letter both the copy and the dummy. Now the answers to the three questions: (1) How many items; (2) how much space; and (3), where shall each division of goods be placed? These are dealt with before the dummy is made, usually, but for my purpose they will be answered with the dummy to look at for the sake of learners. Important Lines Featured Cloaks and suits are the leading items, so they are put near the top; millinery is reasonable, so it is put near the top and a cut used to give the items life. Coats and suits need only general description so no items are used. Bedding is put at the lower left corner because that is the only space where a big section ^vill balance well with the top of the ad ; shoes are opposite mainly because the space left is about the right size for three items and a headline and cut; corsets are near millinery and coats and suits because they are of similar interest to women; also because of the cut and size of space needed; gloves, hosiery, towels, napkins and tablecloths are placed across the center because they need no cuts and only small compact item descriptions. Notice that millinery, corsets and shoes are "bored in" with rule. This is to divide the space so it will be easy on the eye, also to balance the type area of the entire ad. This ad could have been arranged several other ways, but this way is the most practical and the simplest. The heading of each sec- tion will help readers of the ad to find quickly what interests them; also they make people want to read them. The ad made according to this dummy will look good in the newspapers and therefore it can com- pete for attention with other ads. Also it will suggest, because it looks neat and efficient, that the store publishing it is wide awake and busi- ness-like. There are forty-eight newspaper inches in this dummy. It could be made thirty-six inches, or twenty-four inches, but in the latter case only two cuts could be used, one near the top, the other near the bottom. LESSON V Collecting Materials for the Ad Is Important IN this lesson the most important phase of retail advertising, aside from copy itself, is dealt with. This important thing is known as the ''advertising schedule." The term "schedule" includes broadly three elements: (1) The amount of space used during a given period for the entire store; (2) the time this space is used to advertise a department or section; (3) the amount of money represented by the space, the cost per line or per inch. Only the first and second elements will be dealt with specifically here. The third element, price of space, varies so greatly in different towns that it can be treated here in a theoretical manner only. There are two natural situations upon which the store's schedule of advertising can be planned. Both are practical so they are herewith presented briefly : Plan hy the department — that is, one merchandise section of the store, such as coats and suits or the house furnishings or shoes. Sup- pose it is about time for opening of the fall selling season, September, for argument's sake. All the new fall coats and suits are in stock ready to sell or at least enough with which to open the season. You want to plan for a six weeks' campaign. This will be run into the middle of October, a big selling month in most sections of the country. Your local newspaper may be a daily or it may appear only twice or three times a week. In either case you decide to advertise the coats and suits twice a week for six weeks. That is twelve advertisements, but nothing is said about the size of the space. Before you can decide that, you ought to plan approximately how much space will be used altogether during the six weeks for the coats and suits. Twice a Week Schedule Arrive at it this way : Space in the paper, let us say, costs 20 cents an inch (newspaper inch — column wide, inch deep), ten inches would cost $2.00. That is not too much to spend to advertise the goods. Twice a week will come to 20 inches, or $4.00 in money; for six weeks that will amount to 120 inches, or $24.00. Now, suppose the best two days of the week, if the paper is a daily, are Tuesday and Saturday. Then you will want your advertise- ment to appear Mondays and Fridays. If the paper is published only 23 24 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING three days a week, you have no choice but those days, of course. But assume it is a six or seven day paper. If Saturday is the best business day you will want to run the bulk of your coat and suit space on Friday and the smaller part Monday. Adopt this schedule, then: eight inches Monday, twelve inches Friday. Keep in mind that this refers to space used to advertise coats and suits only. There will, of course, be other parts to the store adver- tisement at least on certain days. This will be treated later. Space Schedule — Six Weeks Make out a schedule sheet in a flat, loose-leaf book or separate sheet that may later be clipped together, and at the head of this sheet write "Advertising Schedule — Coats and Suits." On the right hand side of the sheet mark the days of the week as they appear on the reproduction of the general schedule in the center of this page, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday. Make six such sheets and you have a schedule for the coats and suits covering six weeks of time. ^'$i&feT.^©^'f^ace' 't)is^t.: F»qxt03!«a| I Cojrt,'. Safe {"''Heinraaiil^'v; -f-v ^«^^- M.^.'//5Lrw.,:^^'-^'>' y(a'^./> :4x>^ ^^-n^^-li;.. va.: Specimen of Schedule Sheet. Opposite each day the ad is to run, mark the amount of space. "Monday, 8 inches," "Friday, 12 inches." In case a bigger ad is needed for some special week, use less the week before or skip Monday's 8-inch ad and have a 20-inch ad Friday. This method can be applied to any division of the store's stock any time of year, either by first deciding on the amount of money you intend to spend in six weeks or the amount of space or both, since space costs money anyway. Most stores carrying a full line of departments prefer to keep COLLECTING MATERIALS FOR THE AD 25 a general schedule showing how much space per day or per week shall be spent for the entire store, department by department. Notice the schedule sheet reproduced here. It indicates a prac- tical and simple method of keeping track of the days to advertise, the inches of space used, the cost per inch and the amount of business for the day the advertisement is run, remarks about returns, and finally, the week's total of space, cost of space and amount of business in lines advertised. Analyze the week beginning September 10, 1920, according to the details used in the reproduction. The figures are in no way accurate. (They are merely used for example.) On Monday eight inches were used for coats and suits. . No other departments were advertised. If they had been, the amount in inches, etc., should have been stated in the ''Monday" strip opposite the word Monday. Make the space deep enough to hold five or six departments. It is made small in the reproduction to save space on the page. On Wednesday one department, shoes, was advertised; on Friday three were advertised, shoes, suits and coats, and housewares. In all during the week 42 inches were used, the cost for space was $8.40 ; the sales for the advertised departments on those three days amounted to $265.00. Do not assume that the $265.00 can be attributed wholly to the advertisements. It cannot, because there is no way of telling how much of the day's business was brought in directly by the advertisement and how much came in naturally. In a year's time, however, with a record such as this the store can finally gauge the general effect of consistent advertising. And this alone is worth the small amount of time required to keep the weekly record. Large stores in big cities use this method to determine how much money to appropriate for adver- tising year after year. They figure it at a certain percentage of the volume of business done by the entire store and then prorate the amount of space each department should have and the percentage of the total appropriation each department must pay. This, of course, is only practical in a highly departmentized store. The store not so highly departmentized only needs the method outlined above. In the ''Remarks" column keep a record of the comparative value of the day's business. For example, notice that after Wednesday's shoe ad is the remark "average day's business." This means that there was about the same amount of business done on an advertised day as on a not advertised day. But this does not disqualify the ad. It is only a comparative record. Possibly the next time shoes are advertised with the same or even a less amount of space the average day may be doubled. The important thing is to know how the ads are drawing. The 26 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING only way is to keep a record of dates, space, costs and departments advertised. At the end of the twelve months of 1920 you may find you have done a $50,000 business and have spent for advertising one-half of one per cent, or $250. You can compare this with the business for 1919 and the amount spent for that year's advertising, and find that in 1919 you did only $45,000 and spent more money for advertising. The conclusion might be that the 1920 advertising drew better or that general business was better. That would be interesting, but the important thing is that you have a basis for advertising expenditure for 1921. You may decide to appropriate 1 per cent of the sales for advertising in 1921. If you do and are careful to write good ads and put the right items in them you may increase your 1921 year's business a great deal. It has been done. Some store ad men keep their daily record on ordinary brown wrapping paper. The sheets are made the size of the newspaper page for convenience in writing. LESSON VI Advertising Ought to Run on Regular Schedule NORMALLY it would seem that the subject of this article should have appeared first instead of sixth in this series. But an ad man must know how to create ideas, plan and write copy before he can be told how to manage the details of getting it ready to print. So now that ideas, introductories, items, merchandising and scheduling of the advertisement have been dealt with in the order mentioned, let us take up what the advertisement is made of — the subject matter — and how to get it to the printer in good shape. Before the material that goes to make up a retail advertisement can be made into an advertisement, it must be collected and assembled. The question now is : Where do the different parts come from? Where do the ideas come from, the themes of the introductories, the merchan- dising points in the items? Where do the illustrations come from; that is, what influences the kind of illustrations used? In the first place a retail advertisement has its beginning in the stock of goods in the store. The goods are there ready to sell and would sell to a certain extent if they were never advertised. By the judicious use of advertising, however, these goods will sell more rapidly and to a broader clientele, certain lines can be sold to better advantage both to store and customers and the store will have a greater prestige than if no advertising were used. Naturally, if it is the spring season suits and dresses are in stock ready to sell. Also light weight underwear is in stock, as are dress goods, corsets, veils, gloves, stockings, shoes, household goods, etc., clear through the range of seasonable lines. The ad man will, if he sees the advertising in the proper light, go to the good's to get his start. And, of course, the start means an idea to put life into the copy, as was dealt with in the first article of this present series. Take the first item in the reproduced advertisement on next page for example. The item is spring dresses. Before the ad man wrote the copy he decided on three things : First, to make "spring wear" the theme of his argument; Second, to feature the idea of desirahility of design and finish; Third, to emphasise the exceptional value for the money. All these things came from the goods. There was no other place for them to come from. The idea for the illustration came from the same place — the goods. The illustration is designed to show actual 27 28 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING details. The cut for the ad was made from a pen drawing. This adver- tisement avoids confusion. It shows clearly what is being offered. Of course there were other dresses in the department, but the ones pictured and written about in the dress section of the ad w^ere selected because of their seasonableness and current style value. The individual descriptions of the four items are intended to interest a wide range Exclusiveness knJ Beauty CKaractenscs Tne Spring D :'#< B^^ H^m-' tt WU 1 SB fil-nnllHI L ^m 1 JS-!^ th-. resses Tricotine and Serge *Very desirable for out a coat or y/iih a sirart ,[i>r are these frocla. and dcsis^iers have given close attention to striking effects m embroideries, interest- ing new lines (or the ^J^uetle and unusual points of styling. $53.00 "sstTso' *iKl*l ir br^uiiruli/ "ssf'Iso $37.50 Hoiiig Staples ss.so $i.2S„, COLORED PLAtN VOILEt. VOt 98c HEMMCO PILt-OW CASI 75c ...» V ENOtllH LONaCLOTH. ^ 45c Woaien s Gov€s $1.25 CCOO OUALITV O' KAVfltR $1.25 U&LC THAEAO GLOVC* 69c Hosiery lEN-t MERCcnizeo CI00IE8' FIBflE SILK COCKS 75 c p.,. /*Nk;=./., Women's Warm Weather Underwear IM HARVCr DRAWERS. P*<« 98c in«Dl u*4 h«*« be*ii prW«d for ouKk •elll««. Mide la ■ 111 ria $1.75 Nemo Self Reducing Corsets, pr. $1.50 auMMCft vcrri 59e $6.00 Model for the full figure, low bus loiig skirt, heavily boned, graduated.] front clasp, wah th^ patented self- reducing straps, which banish excess flesh permanently and support the body scientilfcally. Let one ol our trained corsetieres fit yoo to your Nemo corset today; sizes 23 10 10, The Dress Goods Counter Presents Your Summer Wardrobe By The Yard — Contintfes the Sale of Silks at ysrd Silk Corduroy Velvet Coordinated Subject Matter. of taste. To get this element into his copy the ad man analyzed the taste and inclinations of the customers of his store. Customer analysis is important not only for the ad man but for the merchant and buyer as well. It is simple enough to get enough items for the leading section of the ad, such as the dress section of the one reproduced here, but care is needed in selecting the material for the remainder of the sec- tions. You will note that all other merchandise is seasonable in so far as spring goes, also it is allied in use if not in nature to the dresses. ADVERTISING OUGHT TO RUN ON SCHEDULE 29 Most of tlie other lines of goods are personal — use commodities just as the dresses are — goods worn by or used by an individual rather than by a group. The exception to this is found in the section headed ''Home Staples." These are household-use goods. Merchandise to serve any member of the household, even if used in an individual way, is classified as household-use goods. The silks do not come under this classification but under one identical with dresses. It is clear then that a good advertisement is one whose sections and items tend to draw trade to one another. It is possible, for example, that one customer may buy from all sections of this advertisement. (It is noted that the headline, signature and introduction are not on the ad because it is used merely to illustrate how merchandise sections were selected.) To get the items the ad man visited, if in a small store, each of the department heads whose goods are represented in the ad. He got the descriptions of goods from their department heads, also the main selling points. Then he wrote the copy, planned the layout and sent the material to the printer. LESSON VII Make the Advertisement Fit Its Purpose IN the preceding lesson the details of how to plan, write and manage retail copy were outlined. Each of the six articles brought out one important point in connection with (1) working up ideas; (2) applying the ideas to copy and goods; (3) merchandismg the ad; (4) arranging material and illustrations; (5) handling the time and space schedule; and (6), getting advertising material from sections and departments and putting it into the hands of the printer. These things all referred directly to how to produce a retail adver- tisement. Assuming that the store management and the ad man have assimilated this material and have tried to add it to the store of adver- tising knowledge they already had, we now turn the application of that knowledge to the daily news of the store. There are many kinds of retail ads. Each has a general and a special purpose. The general purpose is the same with all ads, no matter what kind — to stimulate business, increase sales and build up good will for the store. Specific purposes of ads depend on various things and conditions. These conditions may be expressed in a broad way as follows : (1) Season conditions — ^meaning the demand for goods that is brought about by the calendar seasons such as Spring, Winter, Summer, Autumn. (2) Merchandise conditions — meaning the condition of stocks in the store, such as new goods, heavy stocks, too much goods of a kind, special purchases, season end stocks like remnants, odd sizes, discon- tinued lines, slow movers, ''stickers," etc. (3) Store conditions — re- modeling, removing, reorganization, new departments, etc. (4) Local conditions — meaning buying or business conditions in the town, such as competition, increased or decreased buying population, new territory, mail order competition and so on. (5) Conditions due to new or changed policies, such as a popular price store going after better trade or vice versa, or changing the merchandise policy from cash to cash and credit or the reverse. All these conditions require certain kinds of advertisements and special treatment of the material in such advertisements, which will be dealt with in several different ways later on and in connection with varying conditions. In this series the conditions will be secondary to the ads, but will be dealt with in coim.ection with the treatment of the ads. Specimens 30 MAKE THE ADVERTISEMENT FIT ITS PURPOSE 31 of good and bad advertisements will be used to illustrate the points as they are brought out. Retail advertising men and women constantly strive for channels through which new or different appeals may be sent to customers, for it is an obscure store indeed which has not created events of its own in the hope of individualizing attention. Competition is keen, and often in the same town stores are similar in size and character. That is one cause for the striving for characteristic effects. Then there is the real cause, one that is never absent — the similarity of merchandise carried, the similarity of needs to be filled. If there were but one store in a town, possibly it could get along with the same type of advertisement every day or with an advertise- ment in which nothing but the seasonal items would be changed week |iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii luiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuKiiiiniiii iiiiiNiiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin niiiiiiiiiiiiig 1 g I Retail Ads Classified to Fit Store | I Conditions During tke Year. | M g 1. Store Conditions Kinds of Ads Needed | M s I ( 1 ) Season Conditions ( 1 ) Event Ads | I (2) Merchandise Conditions. . (2) Specialized Ads | I (3) Store Conditions (3) Special Ads | I (4) Local Conditions (4) Merchandise Ads | I (5) Policy Conditions .(5) Departmentized Ada I in and week out. At any rate, such a store would have one reason only instead of two for striving for effect — to get people to remember what was said in the advertisement. Nothing would need be done to get people to remember the advertisement. But with other stores in the field, ad men must get their adver- tisements read, get them remembered, get them identified — the mes- sages at least — in the reader's mind. It is this situation that is accountable for ''Dollar Day," "Old Home Week," "Clover Day," "Days of Courtesy," "Hour Sales," "9 Cent Sales," "Anniversaries," "Alteration," "Change of Loca- tion," "Eemodeling," and the hundred and one event announcements that appear in a j^ear's schedule. Also, competition is accountable for the different ways of mer- chandising the advertisement — ways of giving lines of goods and de-- partments representation in the advertisement. Broadly there are five different kinds of retail ads, as follows: 32 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING (1) ^'departmentized"; (2) ''merchandised"; (3) ''specialized"; (4) "special" advertisements; and (5), "events" advertisements. A departmentized advertisement gives representation to a group of allied departments: say, millinery, cloaks, suits, shoes, gloves, etc., departments supplying outer apparel. A merchandised advertisement has something in it from practically every department. It is a "whole store" announcement. A specialized advertisement deals with one phase of merchandising a single line of goods in a department. An ad with nothing in it but cloaks and suits or muslin underwear or silks, for example, is a spe- cialized advertisement. A special advertisement deals with a single characteristic of the store's merchandising — price, values, variety, size of stocks, grade of goods, or a special method of selling. An "events" advertisement is one that features a merchandising event aside from the goods it exploits, such as "an anniversary" ad, a "fall opening" ad, a "Hai'vest Home Week" ad, etc. The nature and purpose of the "events" ad will be dealt with in the second article of this series. LESSON VIII Use Special Advertisements for Special Occasions ANY advertisement wliicli has back of it a special occasion is kno^\^l -^^as an ''event" ad or an occasion ad. That is, one whose mer- chandising is emphasized by some happening outside of the merchan- dise itself, but connected with the store. Here are the names of some store events : Anniversary ^ale. Removal Sale, Eemodeling or Altera- tion Sale, Inventory, Clearance Remnant Day, Month End Sales, etc. All these sales or events get their names from a store condition, it will be noted, a condition not directly connected with a special season. There are other kinds of events, such as '*9 Cent" Sale, Old Home Week, Housekeepers ' Sale, and some invented by individual stores such as Clover Day, Specials, Days of Courtesy, Dollar Day, Hour Sales and so on. The last five of these were created by certain stores and adapted by other stores in modified form. It will be seen that these events are all relative to the special selling of goods through advertising. An ad that features any such occasion is termed an event ad. There is a regular line of procedure to follow in event advertising. It is herewith outlined to fit the needs of smaller stores in small cities and towns: First, have a good reason for the event, a reason that is related to store conditions or at least local conditions. Trumped up events are unconvincing and the public is slow to respond to them. But a selling event with a real reason back of it creates interest. Suppose your store is going to be remodeled, a floor added or a floor extended or an entire new section is to be added to the building, that is a good basis for holding a special selling event and for adver- tising it, especially if the remodeling necessitates the removal of a certain part of the store's stock of goods. This should not be viewed as an opportunity to unload a lot of dead stock on the public, but as an opportunity to give the public good values for the money with a special reason for so doing — the need to reduce stocks to facilitate remodeling. This remodeling situation is used here only as an example, since there are few occasions for holding such a sale. It is merely a good example of what a real event is. After the reason is worked out, the next thing is to get a good advertising name for the event. How to get a good name is not such a simple matter. It is an im- portant question, for on the name depends the drawing power of the ad. 33 8 34 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING The name should be a simple, direct statement, and have in it some- thing that will link tlie customer's interest with that of the store, since the ad is in reality gotten out as an aid to the customer whom you expect to buy 3''our goods. For argument's sake let us name an advertising event based on the remodeling of the store about August 10th or 20th, let us say. We are going to try to interest our clientele in shopping for good values. How w^ould this name do for the event? ''Brown & Co.'s Remodel- ing Sale." It is too general; gives no idea of why the event is advan- tageous to customers. How is this? ''Brow^n & Co. Have to Empty One Whole Floor "This" Page^lls 'fS^^tti%' M^^ Fam ous Monthly Economy Event AVhy Our Custom- Economy Basement 9 m Boys' WasKSiitis CoatJI Psat» Ji*' 1,600 Childreii's.Wasfi ^ts and Rompers at O Boys' and Qiildreifs Union SuH« i for $1^ ers Are Inter- ested." This is pretty good, but there is something lacking in both the main title and the sub-title. Here is a better way : ''Brown & Co. Want to Move Half Their Goods Into Your Homes by August 20th." "Household Goods and Ready-to-Wear Stocks at Prices Listed Here.'' This kind of a heading indicates that the store will make it worth while for the public to help reduce stock. The reason must be given in detail, of course, in the introductory and the item sections of the advertisement. Buying Advantages Exploited Keep in mind that it is not the remodeling or whatever other cause for the selling event that counts with the customer. It is the buying advantage afforded her by the event that counts. If the values offered are real and the reason for offering them is legitimate and logical, an event sale is a sure way to increased business. Notice the main title of the ad reproduced with this article : "Bry's Famous Monthly Economy Event. ' ' It announces two things — that the sale is an advantage to the customer and that it is a regular established store event. Then notice how the ad is merchandised. Every item in it besides selling at a dollar is timely and seasonable. LESSON IX Qearance Sales Need Careful Treatment NO store is free from the periodical need to move goods quickly. The need is common to the big city store of metropolitan size and equipment, and the smaller city store less impressive in size and departments. At the end and sometimes in the middle of a season a quick-moving event is necessary to lighten stocks. Here are the outlines of such a method and the general details of the advertising plan that will prove most effective. First, create a good name for the event, a name with something to it besides the idea of clearance. This means that the name must fit the nature of the event and must have behind it a reason for offering goods at reductions or the counterpart of reduced price — extra value for the money. A definite example of this is shown in the advertisement of Rey- mond's, Baton Rouge, La., which is reproduced on this page. The purpose of this event is season clearance of merchandise throughout seasonal departments of the store. But the theme of the event and the ad which announces it is extra value for the money. And the reason is the thirty-seventh anniversary of the store. Sales Elements Behind Event Note that there are three distinct sales elements behind this event. First, the intention of quickly moving goods out of the depart- ments — clearance. Second, the announcement of an incentive for the public — extra value for the money. Third, a definite reason for the event, both from the store's side and the customer's interest. Stores planning a clearance event for any time of the year can safely follow the method of merchandising outlined in this ad because the method fits the purpose of the event. Not all clearance events are held on an anniversary of the store as this one was, but the idea will be the same. The occasion may be nothing more definite than a special calendar date, or a local event like a county fair, circus day, or a local celebration of some kind. The important thing is the reason for the event, the excuse, if you like, for offering good merchandise at a reduc- tion. Reymond's want their public to feel that it has had a part in the 35 36 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING store's growth through thirty-seven years of business activity. They frankly say as much in the introductory and touch on the fact that the store's growth and prestige rests on fair dealing with the public, the giving of good goods for the money, and good values for the amount of money. It is useless to make such a claim unless the store's part bears out the claim. Customers have good judgment and clear memories as a mle. Also a store's reputation rests in the hands of its regular customers. They pass the word around and hand it down from generation to generation; such and such a store can be depended upon to do what it says and do it willingly and gracefully. No amount of clever wording or skilful argument will perma- nently change the attitude of the buying public one way or another. Deeds not words are the means by which the public measures a store. And deeds are shown by actions, especially in store ads. WuhWenaH ^ 965 PAUtS OF SHOES, BELOW-COST SaxmJJe Silkt Sea;-*-' Study carefully the offerings in this ad. Study them by sections in the ad and by departments featured. In ready-to-wear you will see special values in summer dresses, blouses, muslinwear, millinery, shoes, skirts, sport clothes, hosiery, men's suits, underwear, furnishings and silk suits. In household and general lines the ad is full of offerings of household necessities, wash- goods, rugs, traveling goods, toilet goods and linens. There is nothing in the ad but what is seasonable and practically every item represents a constant want or need on the part of individuals and households. This is the real secret of the success of this anniversary event and similar ones in other stores. The public is invited to buy goods it needs while those goods are in season. This at first might CLEARANCE SALES NEED CAREFUL TREATMENT 37 seem to be a very little unimportant point. But it is a very big, very important one. It either makes or breaks a merchandising .event, and it makes the difference between successful and unsuccessful retail adver- tising. When clearance is made the store should be able to offer goodly quantities in a line or department. People are touchy about being told that certain desirable goods ''are all sold out." Also, goods must be up to non-clearance standards. It is disconcerting to look at an item offered at a reduced price and detect signs of inferior quality, work- manship or weight. There is no advantage to a customer to pay less and get less ; but she thrills at getting more or better for her money. Hundreds of so-called clearance events have fallen flat early on account of this point, and not always because the store was insincere. More likely because the merchandising department used poor judgment. Study Condition of Stocks At the near approach of a clearance event, the head of a store and his helpers should take account of what is in stock, how much, what qualities, and the season demand for it. Then an estimate should be made of how long the public's interest can be held by the theme or purpose of the event as expressed in the title of this ad. Ordinarily the words ' ' clearance, " " clearaway, " " stock reducing, ' ' etc., are colorless terms not likely to long remain in the minds of those who read the store's ads. It is better to use such heads as secondary captions, putting a personal note in the name of the event and in the title of the ad that heralds that event. Here is an example of what is meant: ''We Invite Our Customers to Select What They Need from .Our Shelves." Sub-title: "Values Are Plainly Indicated by Prices and Qualities You Are Familiar With — Reductions Will Sur- prise You." The whole secret of a successful clearance sale is, in a nutshell, have a reason for clearance, make this reason clear and interesting and illustrate it by descriptive items in the ad. Last but not least: Run just as few clearance sales as possible. LESSON X Goodwill Advertisements Pay the Most "^TEW business comes to a retail store through two direct channels. -^^ One of these is the demand of established customers for more goods of a certain kind and better goods. This means that the store can, through its advertising and service, interest its regular trade in more carpets, rugs, clothing and so on, and educate them to want better goods as time goes on. The other channel through which new business reaches the store is through new customers, people who have done the bulk of their trading elsewhere. These are best reached through the store's con- sistent advertising campaign. The distinction is clear between purely merchandising ads and those with a goodwill slant. The first kind simply outlines what the store will offer the public tomorrow or the next day; the second kind does the same thing, but in addition makes customers want to buy goods. An ad of the second type is reproduced here. An analysis of it will serve as a lesson in the most productive and least costly of all types of retail ads. Strictly speaking, any good ad a store puts out is a goodwill ad, but there are only a few that are especially designed to build up what is known as prestige. A better name for prestige so far as retailing goes is "leadership." The store that gains leadership in its community is on the sure road to commercial success. Any store can gain leadership, not necessarily in all lines, but in a few. And the thing that characterizes an ad as a prestige ad is leader- ship departments. It is easy for any store to acquire leadership in, say, its ready-to-wear lines, or its shoes and millinery or its domestics. But no store ever attained leadership in any line without special effort. Prestige Methods of Real Value Study the ad reproduced here. It has most of the elements of a distinctly goodwill ad. At first it will appear little different from any other ad, since it has only the physical appearance of the ordinary retail announcement. But behind it there is something not found in the average run of daily retail publicity. It has a definite idea, a specific appeal, that interests certain kinds of customers. This appeal is found in the descriptive items in each of the ten merchandise sections repre- sented in it. 38 GOODWILL ADVEETISEMENTS PAY ;THE MOST 39 Wash Goods and Table Damask Remnants Half-Price awe en Qth,n Cm 0' I- Srilrl.>i(»l| color..!. i"i»t»"inf>i"" "•'"•••»« \DJm»*mtJ^ ik.l "Jl r-t Wl ""« 1 ;v>4m ..Uikal a • r>l *J/^»«| J' ihidri B*litr cont ttrlr (or ihM b«c Mr(*tn. 1^ I rilur •! lU r*ral.r pr1r«'»I lAOOa ruA I Prc-Wcr Pricu r;.ai(( «.ln. WOO CtorrcHc G«(». IM/J. | 40- MrvKr.blr for dr.Mf. <.r iuil> 8i-..-q.. fro >. f rrro* r..*r. t.n. coM. I.thi Vot iuJ ltd. .1.0 S4.50 aarmti»< iwi/ SoHn. iJ.7S -Too m.Kh l.*orfd «..*.. for drru-H and tb.rl. prndrd 0^1 (or\>r.r. Blork. D.«y. l.op« %n>vMOf(«/ Poojct. yJ.. 69c nurl.l U.I., ...Id H... l" "l' .1 II it S7 00 BnaJeJ Sclim. yd.S}9a Anniversary Sa c of Washable Materials «5c Plain WhiUValU. yd. While or Flah Pliat Ctpt. ya,d, ■ ( »( 2300 7.nl' Id ».ll toiiH- fro. 3 lo 10 _ _ kul Krf.rt Brrtk.n.)i» .od C"" JO" » Z Zg\ ,o»-..i„.k^t,b...,-....U Sui,.M.,o, OOC «.75 Pint Nalnscak, pi«t. $4.S9 5* P^VteVoi/c. 59/ir.. ymJ. 49c ?ic Shilling MaJiai. yaij, 59c 43c Dieu Petcale, yetd, 33e "iilO Piece Lang Cloth, 14 30 Fancy Oahng Flannel, yd., 39e 33c AmoJteag Dieu Gingham, yard. 55c 32-inch KiJJie-Clolh, yaid. H.r«l.»ili.nreiobuy a foTlMii>.T. iBf «i>Drr. ^^mm f -A .iroop, ....y m.irr..i lor ooy. ....i. .no ^^ --w ..irrn, m .,r..or.l,l, .oi.r.. W, r > ,.( Hi. r.jl,. ^ Q (J R,l,.ll. r.l.r, .od . r.r,. .«.noi,ol W^tal Iroo. OJ'C Anniversary Sale of Bed Spreads Big vattitj lor home and opailmeni tuet I J6.50 and i750 Colored Bed Spiecdi, ;l°^.™•.",'.''Mi■.J,'l'^,;,'l°!,y w Ot^fsj Sale of Crochet Spreads WnOCnxhel, IttiW, K.Moptd ^h.t.n»98.'h««n...l.o-l.. Mh fcjM WOOCroehM M»M^l.erapH ...d.. »- h U Vi •600 S«1«^;6(8«'.^'t|^»>«d «nd< t»h »4 40 Ripple ^ bimity Spreads ulil 10 d««1fn abd •» r«««r»t figbi lo limit qu^ninj 40c Bleached Muslins YARD, 29c -3S .-.<■»>•• ■■-i* »Dd >■ k food. Mti ftnithH nutJ'D fo» TiBilr itM 45c Unbleached Muslins 55c Pillow Casing YARD, 49c -42 inch** "id*. A c«xl ^•••T f«*« •*^ '**"T •*'^* *' **^*{ " coDp«rtd wiib prtMOt a*rk«t-pncM. 13»«nil piUow «••• *^1^ f/io/ ate mMt wanlal jml now — all txry /kuj Anniversary Sale Dress Goods S600 "Bokmy" Naoy Sttgr. ^d. i.u-i, for d„»,^ -".'•>■'<. "^ '- X" ^o.cfy 17.75 "Piieiihy," Clolh, 13 9i $7.30 Spoil! Velanr.fS 99 16.00 All-Waal Plaidi, Ut9 f7 30 Spaeli Plaidi. t4 S9 S900U'hlleSeige,yd.,f7.39 While FienJiSeige'tSM t3.00WhiuCaclini.f3.9S 17.65 Velixl Ctrduny, VM Anniversary Sale of Bedding EXTRA— il.9S Hemmed Sheet, lo, V.., i..i»...»d».-.'"'"«- "I. >-'»■• OJC.v/O 5Sc PlHoU) COKJ. J9c iJ.OO Ufwj Sheth, t230 Ow 'Coianada" Shedi: 17 75 Sheet, at 1249 Pillaia Cmm. {7000 AM Roha. SI300 Bed Blankets UTS, Cr*r. MiT" ^ • ti. 'Shik<. UiM Beaev* I Bed Comforters Customers' Needs are Featured Here are sentences out of three of the items : From the dress goods section — " Silh and ivool mixed weaves that are so much in demand for pleated shirts or dresses." From the bedding department — ''They are made exclusively for us.' 40 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING From the washable materials — ^'Very sheer quality for the dainty summer frocks and ivaists." From the silk section — "A good dependable grade that will give long service." From the household muslins section — "Heavy enough for pillow cases and sheets and will soon launder white." From the bedspreads section — "Very dainty and will harmonize with finest furnishings." Consider the selling value of items with definite ideas in them such as these sentences indicate. They not only sell goods but furnish the reader of the ad with ideas as to the use and application of the merchandise. All the regular customers of the store read such items ^y\i\\ interest, and everyone else who reads the paper will receive a decisive buying impulse from the ideas contained in such items. That is why this ad is a goodwill-building ad. It tells the customers some- thing definite besides the color, weight, texture and design or price of the goods, while the ordinary item tells only things the customer already knows. The items quoted above create buying interest, and buj^ing interest attracts the attention of customers who are always on the lookout for goods and ideas. It does not require a \qyy long series of ads of this kind before new people begin to filter into your store, one, two, five and ten a day until, before you know it, your business has increased because your merchandise interests them. What could be simpler or more profitable than carefull}^ written ads that cost no more than carelessly written ones? All the store ad man needs to know is the difference between an ad that is merely a bulletin of known facts and one that has the facts plus ideas to fit them. And the difference will be that one sells goods only while the other sells the institution behind the goods or its ideas, which amounts to the same thing. Smallest Store an Institution Do not forget that your store is an institution, no matter how small it may be or how limited its clientele of customers may be. It is the merchandise after all that people buy, but they are attracted to and remember goods with ideas attached; that is, descriptions of goods that contain an idea. You can build your business and expand it by putting the same intelligence into your ads that you put into your study of the market and the study of serving customers well. Prestige or goodwill can be threaded throughout every headline, introductory illustration, sub-caption and editorial in your ads. Good- will is an asset upon which no money value can be placed because it means just what it says, "goodwill" — the will to favor your store on the part of the buying public. LESSON XI Season Advertising Is Founded on Store News RETAIL advertising is an influence. Each ad the store runs in- creases the influence every time a customer reads it. This is just as true of the smaller store in the lesser town or city as it is of the big store in the bigger cities which use maybe a page a day. It isn't the page or the half page but what goes into it that counts. Also the followup ad counts and the next followup. Here are some ideas on how to open a fall campaign of advertising and how to follow it up until the season is well under way or merges into another season. Fall is the season of new activities in the home and in the store. New goods are in stock ready to supply the fall needs of individuals and householders in your store and every other store like it in your city or town. What kind of ads will you use and how many and how much space? These are the questions that need answering before the fall schedule is perfected. To make the answer to these questions fit individual needs is impossible without special data from each store, so let us take an average case as a basis. We shall assume that yours is the average size store in a city of ten thousand more or less. You used on an aver- age last year three columns of space every other day, six days a .week. That amounts to 180 inches a week if the page depth is 20 inches. It will do for illustration anyway. You may use twice or only half that much but do the apportioning yourself. What counts here is the idea. Here's a suggestion: Open the season with, say, a four-column ad. Feature four of the leading season line of goods such as the ready-to-wear, especially cloaks and suits, millinery, shoes and wool dress goods. Use the rest of the space for carpets and rugs, draperies, etc., if they are carried, and small furnishings, neckwear, gloves, corsets, hosiery and so on. These may not all be affected by style elements but most of them will be in the early fall, especially the ready-to-wear, shoes and furnishings. Feature the four lines mentioned by giving them fairly good space, an illustration or two and put a few items in on the other departments. The idea is to give the opening advertisement enough interest and grip to start the public to thinking about the store. That is why the first of the opening ads is so important. Everything about it is important, but the main headline and the introductory are vitally so. They need to carry a real idea set forth in simple but interesting language. 41 42 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING Do not above all tilings call the opening ad a sale. Not even if it is one, which is the worst thing it could be. Instead of a sale event, adopt an exhibit of some kind, like '^Advance Exhibition of Fall Goods." Final Clearauice Prices on THE NEW Sommer Blouises B TAILLEUR SUITS pnm^ Im(. *a« mhI Anv-quutri \rnfAt Jtrw*, ttmmd m M|uar« nwk. rrfuUtNn •fyfc faiM FrCKk v*^ (»(MM Md MgWwH AkaSpwlBlMMBhDCT -•AmICTmU. (U- dMdwUWtli ' $ 5.95 Blouses at H.^ l $ 9.75 Blousts aK $5.95 ( - $ 7.95 Blouses at $4.95 | $11.95 Blouses at.. $6.95 $13.95 BUises a!. $8.95 Women's Regular $18.00 ^1 ^ - Laird-Scliober Brown Pumps' * ^ TV» *»k iS^ .riFKl ifw .l(^.«p of Sundrrd. ol -oro« temono- TV Li.rd- 5chct*t Pump. (« *«««> »f« U«nou» » iK* bcM r.-Jrt ihroughoui tKr UftJ. wd Kun^ l U*'o •^moi u wcB M iMndretli ol woiara m [Kvleiritory »w lAird-SchcUr PoVwt.T iSf iui •ound. Ve offet o«r reguUi $16 00 Brow* KjJ and C«ll Pump* « Tor.rf .nd r< Stria. •mK Tun S«la tftd LXV Hnk •■ i>« UrdSchob«i OMVe— ALL 5C£S AND » ff)THS— a«« m> S 1 1 8>. jnMthM moMi. «Hi««IK dca(>UFd (w IS FOUNDED 43 Title for the third ad : * ' New Fall Dresses Are Leaders for Tomor- row in Our Great Opening Exhibit — Study These Prices as You Read the Descriptions of Goods." Title for fourth ad : ' * Tomorrow Is the End of Our Opening Week and Here Are Some Interesting Leaders — Fall Is Just Starting. Start Early with Your Shopping." These headlines suggest the treatment of the introductory, but each store would naturally be better able than an outsider to write that introductory. But here are some suggestions, five of them : 1. Talk about the season and its merchandise needs. 2. Talk about how to use the goods. People know how to buy them. 3. Speak of the different kinds of interest in fall merchandise — new styles, new patterns, new shades and weaves, new qualities and new assortment. 4. Say a word or two about the kind of customers who like new things for fall. 5. Write a ten-word introductory for each separate section of the ad so as to link it with the general theme of the campaign — fall opening is the general theme. Think in Terms of the Customer Keep in mind people do not think as you do of your goods, not at least until they have bought them. Use your advertising appeal to tell the customers what to think about the new things. Their natural needs will do the rest. And be sure to link the first ad with the second at least in a merchandising way. Here is how: Notice the layout and general merchandising of the two ads repro- duced here. One of them is a good example of an advance opening ad— the one with the section headed ''The New Tailleur Suits." The other one is a good example of a followup, although it is the ad of a different store. Notice that what is featured in the first ad is secondary in the second and what is first in the second ad is se'condary in the\ first. Ready-to-wear is the leader in the first ad, household staples is the leader in the second ad. If they w^ere run consecutively by the same store the second ad would serve as a good followup so far as mer- chandising goes. Most stores make the mistake at fall opening time of featuring ready-to-wear for four or five weeks to the exclusion of staple and household lines. Feature the style lines, of course, but keep some of the regular staples in the ads all during fall advertising. Fall announcements with an art design of some kind and a hundred words of general publicity are going out of date. Merchandise ads are the thing for openings. People want to know what you've got and what they can use it for. Put that in your copy. LESSON XII Complete Publicity in Stores Is Threefold NOW and then there appears in the want ad columns of trade papers and newspapers a want ad worded to this effect : "Wanted — com- bination window display man, card writer and advertising man .... experienced, etc." The store advertising for a combination man has in mind a man who can write ads, trim mndows and print show cards. If the want ad went on to say, "Who can link our ads with our windows and our goods ' ' it would express the idea behind this article. More than any other type of store the smaller to^vn and city store needs to combine the power of windows, show cards and advertising copy every day of the year. It is not enough to have a good window now and then, a good set of show cards some other time, and a power- ful ad another day; they should work together every day if ads are run every day. If ads appear only every other day or tmce weekly the Avindows and show cards can be made to bridge the gap, and they will do it better if the three publicity factors are used together as often as possible. How to Combine Publicity Here is a concrete example of linking windows, cards and ads: The store has just got in a new stock of fall millinery. It is to be put on sale Thursday of this week. It is the kind of millinery that brings good prices for a short season and then goes out of vogue quickly and cannot be sold at any price. The season for millinery is about at its height and there are two weeks of good selling season left. How can you push this millinery for all it is worth while it is worth it? That question has been asked and answered — sometime — in every store in the country. Here is what usually happens in a situation outlined as above : The hats sell well for three days ; then they sell one at a time until something new crops up, and then they must be marked down, sometimes to an actual loss, in order to clear them out. Here is your answer: Put in a good display of the hats, one or two windows if the merchandise is important enough for that, and in the department use show cards or price cards similar to those used in the windows (small, simply lettered cards are best). Then before the sale opens feature the hats in a good-sized section of the ad, using a facsimile of the cards as a price mark. This can be done with type 44 COMPLETE PUBLICITY IN STOEES IS THREEFOLD 45 and rule. Then write a line or two, either as part of the introductory or as part of the descriptive item something like this: **They make a splendid display in our fourth street window. Look almost as good as when correctly dressed women wear them." On one big card in the window put this same sentence. This links cards, windows, advertisement and millinery in the mind of the lady who reads the ad or sees the window. Remember that all sales originate in the customer's mind. Everything that calls her attention to a special line or item helps make her want that special item. Most customers look at windows and read ads. All of them look at display cards, especially those with prices on them. The only way they can get a threefold impression of the desirability of an item like, for example, a beautiful hat, is for the store to combine that impression in its cards, windows and ads. And what is true of millinery is equally true of most other lines. Windows Exert Intimate Influence In reality windows should be the basis for all seasonal advertising of departments. They exert an influence on the customer when she is nearest the store and when she is most surely in a buying mood. In other words, the window display is a form of retail advertising whose drawing power is in the thing advertised rather than words written about it, as is an ad. This is all the more reason why the newspaper ad should carry a description of the window : because it describes advertising. A win- dow is a form of advertising, while an advertisement is an advertise- ment. The show card or price card comes in here ; it is a part of the window display whether it is in the window or in the department. Combining them is a matter of plain resourcefulness and ingenuity, but when they are combined the value of each is magnified threefold. Always follow the rule that every department of your business must be considered in relation to the whole. LESSON XIII Everyone Has Something to Buy ALL the principles of salesmanship are simple. And the simplest -^^ of all may be expressed in these words: ** Everyone has some- thing to buy." You "will see as your knowledge of the nature and purpose of selling increases why this principle is stated in terms of the purchaser rather than the seller. It would be natural, at first thought, to say that ** Everyone has something to sell." This is true enough, but no one could sell a thing if someone else did not need it or want it. Salesmanship, like advertising, is based on merchandise, goods, commodities. If no one needed or wanted soap, pianos, automobiles or shoes, there would be no soap salesmen and no piano, automobile, shoe or piano salesmen. Or if each one made everything he needed, as was the case in the early stages of society, there would be no need for the business of selling; there would be no principles of salesmanship. But everyone does need something to use or to wear or to eat all the time. That is why salesmanship is the most universal of all the trades, crafts and professions. Also, the fact that merchandise touches so closely on the personal life of people makes it the most human of all businesses. The retail salesman deals directly with either the user or con- sumer of the goods. Retail salesmen meet their customers face to face in the presence of the goods. Wholesale salesmen meet the dealer, the merchant, who sells the goods to the consumer or user of it. The specialty salesman sells sometimes to the consumer, sometimes to the distributor, depending on what he is selling. Retail Selling for Beginners This series of studies deals largely with retail selling — selling directly to the consumer. This type of selling is best suited to the needs of beginners. Also retail selling offers more breadth of view regarding the types of merchandise upon which basic principles of sell- ing depend, and a wider range of needs which customers want to supply themselves. Finally, retail merchandise is more or less familiar to all of us. All of us have to buy goods almost every day and we are familiar with their use and nature. 46 EVERYONE HAS SOMETHING TO BUY 47 Selling an item of merchandise to a person wlio needs it or merely wants it is a fascinating process if rightly viewed by the salesman. And the more fascinating it is to the salesman the easier he can sell it. LEARN THIS MOTTO BY HEART: ''People buy goods because they want them, not because the salesman wants to sell them." LESSON XIV Good Selling Demands Good Thinking THERE are only a few principles of salesmanship. Here is the first one expressed in simple terms: *'A11 sales begin in the cus- tomer's mind and all sales are finished there." This means that the salesman's work is primarily head work, mental work, thinking. Prospective customers for what the salesman sells think of it in terms of their own needs, not the salesman's need to make a sale. A customer may enter a store with the express purpose of buying a hat or a pair of shoes or a fountain pen and yet not be in a buying mood. He may go out finally without buying something he really wanted or needed. Then, again, he may come in with no intention of buying a certain article and go out with it under his arm pleased that he bought it. Whatever the customer does is colored by what he thinks, and the salesman's work is to help him think in terms of what he wants. The salesman's first duty is to attract the customer's attention; the second duty is to find out what the customer's train of thought is re- garding the goods. The method — technique — of doing this depends entirely on the personality of the salesman and the nature of the thing he sells. Principle Never Varies Technique in selling door mats is different from that used in selling oriental rugs ; different in selling expensive furs than in selling cheap jewelry; different in selling candy than in selling watches. But remem- ber it is the method only — the technical method — that is different. The principle is the same. This will be brought out in detail in these lessons when the series on specific commodities begins. Before this part of the course is reached the student ought to understand what the essence, the spirit, of salesmanship is. It is service. When you sell a customer something he pays you for two things — the goods he buys and the service you have rendered him. Did you ever get a bill from a doctor or a lawyer? You did. And at the top just in front of the amount you owe is the phrase "For Service Rendered." Your doctor's bill was $8.00. You paid it because the doctor had something you needed — professional advice — and because he gave you the advice. Two things, you see, advice and the giving of advice. The last is a service. You sell 48 GOOD SELLING DEMANDS GOOD THINKING 49 a man a liat for $8.00. He pays you for tlie hat and all you did to sell the hat to him — service. Learn this motto by heart: ''All selling technique— method— is hased on the service that goes with the commodity sold, not on the nature of the commodity." LESSON XV Every Sale Implies a Human Want 'VJO salesman can sell goods unless he knows why people want ■^ ^ them. Every item of goods supplies a human want, and a 'Svant" is just what the word says — the mental expression or manifestation of a need for something. You want a drink; you want sympathy; you want friendship; you want a suit of clothes. You get none of these unless you make your need, your want, kno^\Ti. Reversing the order, you as a salesman, can sell nothing unless you know where the want originates, how it happens to be in your customer's mind. Is he led to want a thing because it is a luxury, a utility commodity, a necessity, a convenience, style or fashion commodity or an impulse commodity — something bought on impulse rather than a previously made decision? The basis of profitable selling at retail is having in stock goods that supply the biggest number of (1) Natural wants; next the biggest number of (2) Created wants; next, the biggest number of (3) Arti- ficial (sometimes known as predatory) wants; and last the biggest number of (4) Individual or personal wants. The salesman's chances for selling are naturally in the same order. He can sell what people want because of natural reasons better than he can sell what they want for created artificial or individual reasons. Natural Wants are those arising from elemental, usually i^hysical, needs — food, clothing, shelter and all allied reasons. A woman buy- ing a loaf of bread or a sack of flour is supplying a natural want. There are scores of other examples just as clear as these which any student can work out for himself. Created Wants are those arising from needs not wholly based on the nature of the goods but on the use of them. Such needs are only partly physical and cannot be traced to elemental or traditional needs. A person buying rubber heels, ready-to-use foods, such as patent breakfast foods; convenience commodities, such as vacuum cleaners, electric washing machines, washing powders or soft drinks, is sup- plying created wants. The rubber heel is a splendid example. No one needed rubber heels until someone invented them and interested "people in wearing them instead of leather or other solid heels. Most goods which supply created wants are a special application of mer- chandise which supplies a natural want. But there are exceptions to this rule. For example, the need for cotton blankets has no relation 50 EVERY SALE IMPLIES A HUMAN WANT 51 to the need for woolen blankets, a traditional need. You will hear more about this in later lessons. Artificial Wants arise from the need for goods which supply a strong mental or temperamental need. When a person buys perfume, valuable paintings, expensive automobiles, diamonds or other gems he is supplying artificial wants. Not artificial in the sense that is usually put on the word artificial — but in the sense of the goods having no definite basis in economic need. You can really need a diamond but not in the sense that you need bread. Artificial wants are some- times referred to as spiritual wants, especially when they are based on the needs for books, literature, mu.sic, art, ease, comfort or friend- ship, if these things could be classed as commodities. If an artificial want is not spiritual it is predatory, meaning the customer buys it because she wants it and has the money, not because she can claim she needs the commodity. Individual Wants include many of those coming under the three other classifications but with the distinction that they are modified by the personal viewpoint of a single individual rather than a group of individuals with the same needs. When a woman is buying silk stockings or a red sweater or a hat with a wide drooping brim she is supplying an individual need for the kind of goods she is buying. Keep in mind, however, that other women may buy the same things with a wholly different reason. What People Think of Goods Thus it is plain that wants classified as individual are so classified because of what the individual purchaser thinks of them, rather than any conventional or set usage. The need for goods that supply indi- vidual wants usually arises from a personal estimate of the use to which such goods are to be put rather than the seller's or even the manufacturer's idea of what they ought to be used for. 'These four types of wants will be referred to continually in lessons where the method of selling specified commodities is dealt with. So try to learn their meaning and application. Select twenty things you use every day and try to classify them under the four heads — natural, created, artificial and individual wants. Learn this motto by heart: '* Human wants are the connecting links between the customer and the goods he buys — they are common ground on which both the salesman and the customer stand. ' ' LESSON XVI Study Merchandise While Selling It SUCCESSFUL advertising men and successful salesmen know their goods. They must know other things, among them human nature and how it reacts to sales appeal, but first of all they know merchan- dise — its use, its value and its meaning. If you expect to excel either as an advertising man or a salesman you must begin now the systematic study of the things you will some day advertise and sell. You do not have to own a store or a manufacturing plant in order to study merchandise; you do not even need to work in a store to begin your study of goods, although retail experience would be most valuable. You can begin with the things you wear, eat and use; you can begin with the goods in your room or your home. They are mer- chandise just as truly as if they were in the factory where they were made or in the store where they were bought — the carpets, rugs, stoves, pictures, curtains, dishes. Anything and everything that is needed and used by an individual, a group of individuals, a household, is merchandise and was once sold by someone just as it was bought by someone. Everything worn, consumed or used is goods, merchandise, and has its classification according to its use, who uses it and its nature. To begin to study merchandise intelligently you must learn the different classifications and their meanings by putting the classifications into groups. There are three broad groupings of merchandise as follows: (A) Merchandise simply viewed as stocks in a store is divided into staples, novelties, specialties. (B) Merchandise viewed as to the needs it supplies to customer is divided into fashion or style goods, necessities, utilities, convenience goods, shopping or impulse goods and luxuries. (C) Merchandise viewed as to its use by customers is divided into personal-use goods, consumption goods, family goods, general-use goods, special-use goods. These groups will be dealt with in detail later on. For the time being just keep in mind that you need to know the meaning of these groups in order to formulate advertising and selling plans and arguments for them. You can readily see that group A is classified on the basis of the selling nature of the goods and not its use, but groups B and C are 52 ; STUDY MERCHANDISE WHILE SELLING IT 53 classified on a basis of the use-nature of the goods. Keep in mind also that these three groups include not only goods sold at retail, but all kinds of goods, nationally advertised, unbranded, goods sold at wholesale and as specialties. Reread the groupings several times and get them firmly fixed in your memory, especially before you begin on the next lesson which will combine some more merchandise information of groups and a special rule for the study of selling goods out of these groups. Commit This Litde General Bit of Selling Wisdom to Memory: Every item of goods is intended to fill a real wmit of some hind; there is no such thing as goods made merely to sell. It is made to use and it must be sold on that basis. LESSON XVII Everybody Has Something to Sell "Tj^VERYBODY has something to sell" is a common axiom in the busi- A-' ness of selling. ''Everybody has something to buy" is just as true an axiom and a most important one in the study of merchandise. Every line, every kind, every class and every item of goods is made to serve the needs of someone. And it is this someone's needs which form the basis of every advertising and selling campaign. Do not get the impression that the goods you see on store shelves and in store windows v^^ere put there in the hope that someone would need them. iThe storekeeper knows someone needs them. He has the goods on his shelves and in his windows to remind the customer of her needs, both those she is conscious of and those she is likely to want as soon as she sees the goods to fill the needs and to supply the wants. Some wants are latent, undeveloped; others are highly de- veloped, always present in the customer's mind. It is the storekeeper's and his salesman's privilege to supply both kinds of wants. Some kinds of goods attract more quickly the attention of the cus- tomer with conscious wants, others attract people with unconscious or latent wants. The second grouping of goods, C of the last lesson, gives you the key to how goods supply wants by showing you how goods are classified as to who uses them. Let us take the third grouping and analyze it as we analyzed group B in the first lesson. Here are the five classifications under group B described as to their meaning: Personal-use goods is any commodity bought to be used particu- larly by an individual such as clothing, a tooth brush, or a toilet article, candy, a watch, a bracelet — anything not for the use of several in- dividuals. Consumption goods is anything which has to be used up in order to get the benefit of it. Items coming under the personal-use classification are in a broad sense consumption goods, but in the narrow sense some of them are not. A watch is not used up, consumed, when it tells time, but soap, candy, tooth paste, scouring powder, lemonade, cigars and tobacco are actually consumed, destroyed in a sense, before the cus- tomer gets full satisfaction and value out of them. Family-use goods are commodities exactly opposed in use to per- sonal-use goods. They are used by several or many people, such as rugs on the floor, dishes on the breakfast table, hat racks in the hall, 54 EVERYBODY HAS SOMETHING TO SELL 55 the bookcase or reading table in the library, the mantelpiece, the fire- place, the chairs and so on. Any one can step on the rug, sit in the chairs, look at the pictures, but only one person uses father's tooth brush or wears his pajamas. Tliey are his personal-use goods; the others are for the family and its guests. General-use goods form a sub-classification of family-use goods, such as the piano, the automobile, the swing on the front porch, the doormat. These are bought primarily for the household perhaps, but their nature is not changed even when they are used by outsiders or strangers. Their use is not modified by the personal standing of the user. Special-use goods are commodities bought to fill a special need aside from the need of the purchaser, such as toys, electric fixtures, books, skates, electric light bulbs, flowers, etc. Toys are bought for something aside from their merchandise value — they are goods to amuse the children. Skates are for use in sports ; electric bulbs furnish light from current; books furnish diversion and inspiration; flowers express sentiment. A Basis for Self Help Now, why is it necessary to consider the shades of meaning brought out by group C? Because you must learn to sell goods on the basis of what they are used for and who uses them. This viewpoint is still more important in advertising, writing copy that sells goods, as you will see in future lessons. Keep in mind that groups B and C may refer to the same goods, but in a different light; the first refers to them as to the needs they fill, the second refers to how they are used. Get this clearly in mind and commit it to memory: The customer hugs luhat he hugs hecause it will serine him; how he uses the goods gives it the final classification, the one all selling and\ advertising appeal must he hased on. LESSON XVIII Wants Give Customers the Buying Impulse EVERY human being in the world has certain needs for goods, These needs are the reflections of wants that exist in the mind. Your sister wants a piano, not because there are pianos for sale, but because of the thing a piano will do for her — interpret music. The piano does not put the want in her mind, it only awakens it. Nature put the want into your sister's mind, in a mysterious way known only by nature, just as the want for food, clothing and shelter were put into your sister's mind or yours. In all probability the want for music as reflected in your sister's being is hundreds of thousands of years old, inherited from her an- cestors of the primitive caveman period of the human race. There were no pianos then but there was crude music, just as there is today with the lowest types of humanity, savages and cannibals in the jungles. Civilization has produced the piano to supply the constantly heightening quality of the demand of the human race for music. Other- wise your sister would be satisfied with the crude sounds of the Indian tom-tom or the log drums of the South Sea Islanders. There would be no pianos in the stores and no piano salesmen if your sister and thousands of women like her did not need music. Be- cause there are thousands of such people you see pianos for sale every- where. Now to sell a piano the salesman needs to understand the want for music — piano music — and the way the piano supplies this want. Also the nature of the customer who needs music. Three things the sales- man must understand: (1) the want, (2) the way a piano fills it, (3) the person with the want — needs, goods and people. Gret this firmly in mind for it is the basis of the next three lessons of this series. They deal with the different kinds of wants and the selling i-ules that supply them. Go into a piano store this week and listen to a salesman as he tries to sell a piano to a customer. See if you can trace the three kinds of knowledge he is using. [Then work up a piano-selling argument of your own. Keep in mind that the piano salesman must appeal to a want in his 66 WANTS GIVE CUSTOMERS THE BUYING IMPULSE 57 customer which he himself has never experienced. He may not like pianos or piano-mnsic at all, you know, and still be a good salesman. This Is Worth Remembering: Different goods supply different wants and there are five big groups of wants. They will he explained in the next lesson. See if you can think up five kinds of wants supplied by five different classes of goods. LESSON XIX How to Group People's Needs A FAMOUS merchant took a young friend through his store, one -^^of the largest in the world. After they had traversed floor after floor and looked at hundreds of displays of merchandise on tables, shelves and counters, the merchant asked his young friend what he thought of the store. The young man answered: ''It certainly is full of many kinds of goods; how mil you ever sell all of it?" Then the merchant told him how. He said: "All these kinds of goods represent a certain type of human want. Our salespeople are taught to study the kinds of wants which each class of our goods sup- plies. We never could sell anything if we simply sold goods as goods." Wants we have seen are classified as (1) natural wants, including food, clothing, music, and any item related to shelter; artificial — some- times known as cultivated wants — supplied by any item of goods whose use depends on a special need supplied by the goods. All luxuries come imder this head and such specialties as breakfast foods, rubber heels, canned meats and so on. All artificial wants are modified natural wants, just as the goods supplying them are modified goods; predatory or caprice wants, the kind supplied by goods bought entirely because the customer has the money and the inclination to buy; regardless of the actual need for the goods — jewelry, automobiles, silk underwear, fine and expensive clothing, created wants, those distinguished from purely artificial wants because they are dependent upon a special need created by circumstances, not wholly associated with goods — the alarm clock, the typewriting machine, cake, candy, the bicycle, vacuum icleaner and similar types of goods; spiritual wants, these are supplied by things not classed as merchandise but subject to the rules of buying and selling — literature, art, education, travel, companionship, diver- sion, rest. These, of course, are bought or sold only indirectly, but there is a certain kind of trade in them. Only the first four types of wants are of direct interest in our study of merchandise, and these only because they form the basis of the cus- tomer's attitude toward goods. We study goods because we — some of us at least — ^must buy or sell it. And all the selling principles are based on wants. You will recall in the last study a reference to the kind of want supplied by a piano. You will be surprised to find that this want comes under the group classed as natural. You probably thought it a culti- 58 HOW TO GROUP PEOPLE'S NEEDS 59 vated or predatory want. Not at all. The piano supplies an elemental, inherent want. Love of music is natural, taste for it may of course be cultivated, but we are dealing here with wants as wants and the kind of goods which supply them. In the two following lessons you will be told how an understanding of wants is a help in selling. And you will need to refer to the general classification of goods given in the first lesson. Read it and get its contents clearly in mind. Remember what the great merchant said to his young friend. The next time you are in a department store see how many types of wants you can classify by looking at the goods in each department. If you buy anything yourself try to classify the want you are supplying. Here Is a Valuable Secret: Goods do not create wmits, except indirectly; they supply the needs represented hy the want and are merely material symbols of a mental state. See if you, cannot make yourself agree to this. LESSON XX How Goods Are Grouped for Use BEFORE reading any further in this study refer to the merchandise chart given in study number XVI. You will see there the first classification indicated by capital A: staples, novelties, specialties. These are the basis of store stocks. The entire stock of goods in any store is made up of a certain percentage of each kind. The store's selling activities so far as kinds of goods go depend on the amount of each of these classes of goods in stock. Now the selling principles which rest on each class : Staples standardize the store's market; they form the background for all sales effort put forth by the retail organization because they sup- ply known and established wants. 'This is rule lA. Novelties stimidate special channels of trade (selling) creating in- terest in goods by giving customers new viewpoints about staples. A novelty hat stimulates the sale of staple hats and brings in profit in ad- dition, and so on through the entire range of staples. This is Rule 2A. Specialties sustain interest in general sales of staples and novelties. They are usually ' ' something new in this or that. ' ' They sell rapidly and usually go out of vogue quickly but are constantly replaced by new items of their kind. Take an example from the toy department: dolls, blocks and hobby horses are staples; mechanical toys like rail- roads, engines and construction toys are specialties; little bugs that crawl when wound up, dolls that tumble, birds that squeak, are novel- ties. Each has its selling function in the toy department as outlined above. Specialties sustain the interest of customers. This is Rule 3A. Now the group marked B : This group is the basis of sales-building and promotion. Advertising, window trimming and interior display — factors in selling — are based on the nature of group B. Here are the group B rules for each type of goods : Rule IB — convenience goods form the basis of general selling be- cause people (customers) are constantly in need of goods which save time, work and energy — ice-chests, handbags, hat racks, fireless cook- ers, vacuum cleaners, ordinary household and personal-use utensils may all be classed as convenience goods. Rule 2B — necessities form the basis for profitable selling in many departments of stores because it is little trouble to sell goods people must have — food, plain clothing, underwear, shoes, bed clothes and the like. 60 HOW GOODS ARE GROUPED FOR USE 61 Rule 3B — utilities, the same as necessities except on a specialized scale, since utilities have no other appeal than usefulness, not beauty or interest like pictures, furniture or oriental rugs, utilities include kitchen utensils, plain dishes, laundry supplies and a great many items properly classed as convenience goods. All utilities are convenience goods but not all convenience goods are utilities. Rule 4B — shopping or impulse goods are found in the fancy goods, toilet goods and notion departments. They form the basis of continu- ous selling in large volume but at small profit. People buy them largely by seeing them — on impulse — not from long and careful de- liberation. Impulse goods lead people into other departments of the store. A woman may come into the store for a ten cent cake of soap and finally buy a $300 fur piece. Rule 5B — luxuries constitute all goods bought as much on caprice as on utility or necessity. Furs, diamonds, expensive clothing. Oriental rugs, period furniture, are typical. They are bought because the cus- tomer wants them and has the money. Luxuries cover a large range of different goods and are sold in many departments of the store. They produce big volume of sales and much profit with small sales effort. They bring discriminating customers into the store. Rule 6B — fashion goods means any item of merchandise whose sale is influenced by style or current mode. The larger and more expen- sive items of clothing and furnishings are good examples, so are gloves, shoes and millinery. Fashion goods create additional markets for ordinary lines. iThey act the same way specialties do on staples in classification A. They are stimulative in effect. Go into a store before you read the next lesson and see if you can locate an item of goods out of each type under class B. Do not worry much about classification A. It is the concern of the store executives not the salespeople. Lesson 6 will give you the rules for class C — the basis of personal selling, service and established trade in stores. Bury This in Your Head: You must know why a store sells certain types of goods before you can sell them yourself intelligently as a salesperson. Every kind of goods has a reason behind it. You must learn these reasons. LESSON XXI Learn to Make Rules for Yourself CLASSIFICA/riONS A and B of mercliandise are the basis respec- tively of stocking goods in a store and of catering to certain wants represented by certain goods. Classification C as given in Study Number XVI is the basis of sell- ing methods of the store salespeople as well as the basis of growth in volume of business and profit for any retail store. Classification C of the grouping of goods has to do with the attitude of people who use the goods after it is bought. It is the user of the goods, you know, whose money keeps the store going. If people did not make use of the goods they buy they would not buy the second time. They would consider their money as wasted. Classification C, Study XVI, deals not with goods but its use after the price has been paid for it. There are five divisions of this classifi- cation as follows : 1. Personal-use goods — the kind bought for the exclusive use of one individual such as a toothbrush, a suit of underwear, hats, shoes, a razor, a bar of toilet soap, a suit of clothes or other garments of per- sonal apparel. Personal-use goods are goods bought for an individual, not a family or several people. 2. Consumption goods — the kind which must be used up, destroyed in a sense, before the benefit is received from them — food, soap, matches, chewing gum, candy, soft drinks, coal, gas, electricity, face cream, talcum, tooth paste, and so on. Consumption goods may be per- sonal-use goods or several other types but they are not consumption goods unless they are gradually destroyed in giving value to the person who bought them. To get the five cents worth out of candy you must eat it, destroy it in a sense; but to get the benefit out of a $45 cook- stove you do not have to destroy it, you only need to use it. The same with a suit of clothes, an automobile, a toothbrush or a bath sponge. Of course, the latter four will finally wear out but not in the sense of being destroyed. Rules IC and 2C are the same : namely that personal-use goods and consumption goods form the basis for the natural growth of the store's business, the store's clientele — its regular list of customers. If a cus- tomer once becomes interested in a store's personal-use and consump- tion goods lines, it is easy to get return or repeat sales from those cus- tomers. They cling to goods of this type which they have once used with satisfaction. 62 LEARN TO MAKE RULES FOR YOURSELF 63 Rules 30 and 40, family-use and household-use goods form the basis of large sales and an established trade through a long period of years — big items like rugs, furniture, pictures, china sets, table silver, flat- ware and hollowware, kitchen and laundry utensils — things whose terms of usefulness are long relative to the price paid. If they give satisfaction the store can expect repeat sales because families and households do not change so frequently as individuals, the users of personal-use and consumption goods. Keep in mind, however, that the latter two classes of buyers (customers) may also be members of families of households. Rules 50 and 60, general-use and special-use goods, form the basis of season and special selling the same as 30 and 40, except there are fewer items of goods and they appeal to a narrower class of purchasers. Toys are special-use goods, so are electric light fixtures, automobile ac- cessories, sporting goods ; pictures and dishes are general-use goods, so are window screens, awnings and hammocks. Goods in these two groups help the sales of all goods in all other departments. Study the chart in which the three big classifications of goods A, B and are shown and you will see clearly the relations of each to the other and how they affect retail selling, advertising, window dis- play and interior or counter display — technical factors in selling goods. Review rules given in studies numbers XVIII, XIX and XX and get ready for six studies dealing with the actual selling of certain items of goods selected from a list of typical, every-day items which you or some member of your family buy every day in stores. Some of the following studies will show how to select selling points for three items of each type of goods in Olassification B. This Has Made Many Merchants Successful : The thing that helps a salesman sell goods to a customer is the same as the thing that helps the customer buy from a salesman^ — the> point of vieiv reversed is the only difference. So, really, a successful salesman is a successful customer turned "wrong side out," as the old saying goes. The salesman sells the thing he uses himself but substi- tutes anotJier person for the buyer. LESSON XXII Why Do Women Buy Gloves? IS there a definite principle in selling gloves at retail? There is if the salesperson wants to think so. And she can better please her cnstomer if she will think of a glove as serving a definite purpose in the purchaser's mind. ** Purpose?" You may say. ''Why, yes, of course, the customer buys gloves to cover her hands. That's what a glove is for." Yes, gloves are worn on the hands and they cover the hands. But surely they mean more than that to the woman who is ready to pay $3.50 to $10 a pair for them. When a customer asks for gloves think of gloves as an important part of her street attire, if she is buying street gloves. Think of what other items of a customer's dress mean. Her hat is the characteristic element; her shoes the smart element; suit or costume the unifying element; veil, the individual element and gloves, the harmonizing element. Look at the customer in terms of street attire, but do not neces- sarily tell her you are so viewing her. When she begins to look at gloves and you begin to fit her, other details will come up: the material, workmanship, style, finish, color, buttons or snaps, and price. These are details of the gloves. They have little to do with the customer's reason for needing a pair of gloves. She mil buy what she buys with one main thought in mind, ''How will they look with the other things I wear?" If the customer thinks this the saleswoman ought to think similarly but from the stand- point of the seller. This thing is ' ' Gloves are the hannonizing element of a woman's attire." (Men's too for that matter, but this lesson is based on selling women's gloves.) Why is it necessary for the saleswoman to think anything! Be- cause to intelligently serve a customer the salesperson must think in terms of what the gloves mean to the purchaser. Otherwise the sales- woman is merely an automaton, a human vending machine of more hindrance than help to the customer in getting exactly what she wants. A woman buys gloves with a definite purpose in mind and she and the salesperson ought to agree on the purpose. Other details will be attended to naturally in the course of making the sale. She will decide on the style and color, also on the price. The fitting is merely part of the process. , 64 WHY DO WOMEN BUY GLOVES? 65 To be a good saleswoman study stocks and style and keep in mind that gloves are accessory to correct dress no matter what the price or the kind, unless they are work gloves, and even they have style. Good selling must always be preceded by good thinking. Think of the gloves as something the customer needs, not as something the store wants to sell. Gloves are classified as necessities so far as dress goes. The next study will be on how to sell an alarm clock — a conve- nience commodity. LESSON XXIII A Rule for Selling Convenience Goods A CUSTOMER has asked to see alarm clocks. Does he want it because it is beautiful or costly? No; then it isn't a luxury- commodity. Is it absolutely imperative that he have an alarm clock? Hardly; then it isn't necessity goods. Is it useful? Surely; but it isn't bought as utility goods like an ice-chest or a dishpan. Why does ihe customer want it? To waken him at a special time. Then he is buying it because it supplies him with mechanically measured sleep. It is a convenience commodity. He is buying it for a special purpose. Then it is special-use goods. Knowing all this, the salesman can act intelligently as the seller of an alarm clock. What the Customer Buys The customer may want a small alarm clock or one with a muffled bell or a special kind of dial, while you have in stock only plain alarm clocks. Will you lose the sale because of these lacks? Not if you fully understand the kind of need supplied by alarm clocks. No matter what different kinds there are, all alarm clocks are convenient. They all accomplish the same purpose in addition to doing what a regular clock does — tell time. You Sell What the Clock Does So point out to your customer how well your alarm clock serves a convenience purpose — wakens the sleeper at 6 :30 a. m. if set for that hour. His watch will register 6 :30 a. m., so will the family clock, but neither has a device for awakening the sleeper. The alarm clock has. Impress your customer with the things any alarm clock will do for him and feature the points of excellence of the ones you have in stock. Do not sell convenience goods as goods. Sell what they will do for the user just as you sold gloves for what they mean to the user. There is quite a difference you see. A glove is bought for what it means ; an alarm clock for what it does. In the next study you will see how to sell a commodity that is bought because of itself not because of what it means or does, but because of what it is. The subject will be ''Men's Underwear." Study this lesson carefully, it will teach you a great deal about how to sell staple necessities like shoes, socks, underwear, shirts, and other items necessary to the personal wellbeing of everyone. 66 A RULE FOR SELLING CONVENIENCE GOODS 67 Underwear is classified as personal-use goods supplying a neces- sity want. You should try to think up other groups of commodities and clas- sify them. It is splendid practice. Think how ridiculous it would be to sell a glove as if it sei'ved the same purpose as an alarm clock or a suit of underwear. If you think of these commodities as onlj^ something to sell, you will sell veiy few of them. On the other hand, think of them in terms of what they mean to the customer and you'll sell many of each in a few hours. The selling is the same; the method is as different as are the uses of the goods. LESSON XXIV Woolen Underwear and Alarm Clocks Are Unlike IF you have read the studies on the selling of (1) gloves and (2) alarm clocks you will remember they are bought for what they mean and what they do respectively. Of course, the glove does something just as the alarm clock does something else. But gloves are bought because of their significance, their meaning, to the wearer while the alarm clock is bought wholly for what it does, not what it is. NoAv about men's underwear, a suit of woolen underwear: It serves Qo purpose that can be compared to the gloves or the alarm clock. It is bought by the customer because it is a suit of woolen underwear. Like the gloves, it is a covering ; like the alarm clock, it is convenient. But it is bought by the customer because it is a suit of underwear and for no other reason. Of course, the purchaser considers several points in buying a suit of woolen underAvear — ^warmth, comfort, weight, fit, style of buttoning and other details of workmanship. He will tell you these things or let you suggest them to him. This enables you to show him the nearest thing in stock to what he wants. But do not forget that as an item of goods, a commodity, the underwear is bought for itself as a suit of underwear, not because of what it means or what it does. At first this seems like a hair-splitting distinction, but it is not. It is a basic fact and if you keep it in mind you can sell more underwear of the kinds in your stock and customers will like your service better than if you think of underwear in the wrong way or not at all. There are many types of goods so far as the Mnd of needs they supply: necessity goods, utility goods, convenience goods, luxury goods, impulse goods, personal identity goods. Underwear has slight elements of all of these except the last but it is primarily necessity goods bought for itself alone. You have had a study on gloves — ^necessity goods with a style element; alarm clocks — convenience goods purely and simply; under- wear, necessity goods of a staple nature. The lesson considers utility goods so-called because their usefulness is their main selling point. Study this lesson. It is one of the most important because of the wide range of goods classified under it. 68 LESSON XXV Advertising Is a Special Kind of Selling Tj^VERYBODY studies advertising more or less. And not all study -t-> it expecting to follow it as a profession. The general public is interested in advertising and they study it because it is the most human of all the factors in the retail business. And retail business affects the life of every civilized person in one way or another. Advertising reduced to the simplest term is a message, a story or news of something needed or wanted by someone. This message tells the story on the one hand, of the nature, use, cost, kind and price of a piece of goods or a service; on the other hand is the reflection of the human mind. No one would buy or use goods he is not interested in. Either his interest is natural or it is created. In either case advertising arouses this interest through a human appeal based on the goods and the customer's need for goods. So, to be an advertising man or woman or a salesman you must begin to do two things : (1) Study goods and their uses. (2) Study people and their needs. These are put first because they form the basis of good copy — the written or printed form of the message. But there are many more things to do to become an advertising person. These will be brought out in the proper order. Before we start let us take a general look at the subject of adver- tising. It is a broad subject. There are three general considerations which you need to appreciate now. The Study of advertising embraces : (1) WTiat advertising is, (2) What it does and (3) How it does it. This course of lessons will deal almost entirely with the third considera- tion — how advertising works. The other two phases will unfold nat- urally as the third is developed. However, here are the answers to the first two considerations — ^What advertising is and What it does : (1) Ad- vertising is a creative force applied to the sale of goods. (2) It gives information about what a firm has to sell, the nature and use of that commodity and where and at what price it may be obtained. The idea once existed that advertising was a mysterious force such as electricity or the wind. It is nothing like either of these except that all three are forms of force. The first two are physical and mysterious, but advertising is a mental force and everything else but mysterious. It is clear and simple rather than obscure and complex. It conveys your ideas about something to the mind of someone who ought to be inter- 69 70 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING ested in the thing you have written about or want to sell. Advertising gets its force from the fact that it is the point of contact between two minds regarding a subject — usually merchandise — of mutual interest. Read an advertisement about shoes in a magazine or a newspaper between this and the next lesson because in that one you will be told how a shoe advertisement is written and you will be shown how to analyze the elements in the advertisement. They are like the selling points but expressed differently. LESSON XXVI Advertising Copy Is Full of Salesmanship WHEN your merchandise message, your story of the goods, is ready for the customer to read it is called copy. This is the term used to designate the news story the reporter writes for his paper. But there is a vast difference between the writing of news- story copy and advertising copy because the subject of each is quite different. The news writer bases his story on an event and its rela- tion to human beings specifically or in general. The advertising copy- writer takes goods, not people or events, as his theme. He directs his story to people just as the news writer does but his theme is not about people or events but about goods, their use and value. Basis for Good Shoe Copy Shoes are necessity goods, at least ordinary shoes are, and are bought purely for use. Beauty and other characteristics are sec- ondary. Because of this your advertising appeal to the customer should be based on the nature rather than the use of the goods. Your copy should create interest in the merchandise itself. In some lines of goods copy must create interest not in the goods as goods, but in the idea back of it. The alarm clock is such an article. No one buys an alarm clock for itself. They buy it for what it will do for thein. It saves mental energy. It watches for the waking hour so the sleeper does not have to waste subconscious energy in doing it. So customers buy what an alarm clock does rather than what it is. If that is what the customer buys it furnishes the theme for the copy to interest him. A shoe on the other hand is bought because it is a shoe. That is why it should be advertised as a shoe rather than as something that will do something special. It will not do anything special but it is something special. Quite a difference you see between the alarm clock and the shoes. Ideas Give Copy Life Now where does the material for shoe copy come from? The material for the little story that is to interest customers and make them buy shoes? The material comes from three sources: (1) the customer's mind, (2) the shoe itself, and (3) the need the shoe supplies. A shoe customer buys a shoe because it is well made, good looking, comfortable and because she must have shoes to cover her feet. The 71 72 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING last reason furnishes no material for shoe copy. It is too obvious. But the other two reasons furnish what is known as the copy angle or appeal. Put into your shoe copy a headline which attracts the eye and holds the attention. Get this headline out of the three reasons a shoe interests a prospective customer — looks, good workmanship, comfort. Then write about 80 words telling how the shoe looks, why it is a good shoe and why customers should buy well made shoes that are com- fortable and good looking. Put in a few words about the kind of leather, the color, whether lace or button, high or low, for every day or dress wear, and the price. This will be a shoe advertisement provided it has five things in it which every complete advertisement must contain. These are in order: (1) an idea, (2) external interest, (3) merchandise interest, (4) correct angle, (5) accurate viewpoint. Angle and Viewpoint The last thing copy does to the reader's mind is to leave a familiar mental taste there. When a man reads an advertisement which speaks his language, the angle is accurate. Otherwise the cop^n^^riter's work goes for naught. When an advertisement tells a reader about the value, the use or the nature of a commodity in terms of that commodity and not some other piece of goods, the viewpoint is correct. These two considerations — angle and viewpoint — express the com- bined effect of how the copy idea reaches the reader's mind and the effect after it has reached it. They are not physically apparent in the advertisement, the way headline and cuts (pictures) are, but they are part of the effect of the copy. If the idea is good, the external and merchandise interest are clear, angle and viewpoint will be accu- rate and correct. These will be mentioned again many times as the lessons progress. LESSON XXVII There Are Five Elements in Advertising Copy APIECE of advertising copy should do five distinct things. First, attract attention to itself as copy — that is, be interesting aside from its subject. Second, create general interest in the subject advertised to such an extent that the reader of the first advertisement thinks of reading a second one on the same subject. Third, tell something definite about the goods — ^its use, workman- ship, quality, color, weight, price and so on. Fourth, it should be so worded that the logical user of the goods will be interested in what the copy says about the goods. This is what is called copy angle, meaning right direction of appeal. Fifth, the copy must reflect something of the natural viewpoint, turn of mind, of the class of individual to whom it is directed. Technical Points Defined How to get the vital points of interest into copy! That is the ambitious copywriter's first thought. How to make it. catch and hold the reader's interest ! In short, how to put a definite idea into a story is his problem. An idea gives life to dead facts the way a lighted match illuminates a dark corner in a cellar, or better still the way yeast livens the other ingredients in light bread. Ideas are not things; they are intangible, except in effect. They are vie^vpoint concentrated into verbal form. They may appear as a slogan or phrase, a certain text treatment or form of argument. Whenever you tell an old story in a new way you are using an idea. If you set your hat at a different angle or lace your shoes a new way you express an idea. In advertisements the idea expresses itself as a new viewpoint. For example, everyone knows that an alarm clock makes a noise when the alarm rings at six A. M. But that would be a poor appeal in copy. On the other hand, if you tell your reader something interesting about getting up early rather than how an alarm clock gets him up, you will win his interest. He forgets the alarm and thinks of how helpful it is. An idea is a viewpoint regarding the thing the copy is about. External Interest External interest is what you say to extend the customer's in- terest in the commodity beyond the mere detail of how it is made 73 74 RETAIL ADVERTISING AND SELLING or what it is used for. External interest puts a colorful cloak on the bare merchandise-facts pertaining to the goods. For instance, when you read a certain advertisement for a certain famous toilet soap, over half the copy is about how the ancient Egyptians bathed, the picture in the advertisement alwaj'-s depicts a beautiful Egyptian princess and a scene from the early history of Egypt. That is external interest. It is about soap, but not directly. In the same advertisement there is a short paragraph about the soap itself — how it looks, how it acts in water and on the skin and what it is made of. This last paragraph is merchandise interest. Together external interest and merchandise in- terest give copy its attention and information value. The first makes the subject of soap interesting, the second makes it tangible, helps the reader digest it mentally. Young copy^vriters and salesmen should begin early to develop the ability to clothe bare facts in interesting raiment. Begin by analyz- ing current advertising copy in newspaper and magazine advertise- ments. Most of such copy is good, otherwise leading firms would not run it in expensive space. LESSON XXVIII Personality Is the Life of Advertisements EVERY advertisement written has back of it the individual interest of the man or firm whose money pays the advertising bill. If I advertise shoes in this morning's paper I want the advertisement to bring people into my shoe department not into yours. If you adver- tise your soap in the magazines you want the advertisement to create a demand for your soap, not the soap of some other advertiser. |To assure that an advertisement creates individualized interest rather than general interest, there are two definite elements of technique (method) to apply to all copy: (1) Give the copy an in- dividual slant ; that is, be sure it has in it a decided element of interest. (2) Reflect a special attitude toward the nature of the goods; that is, ascribe to it in your copy a character or personality aside from its nature as a shoe or hat or fountain pen. There are many different hats, shoes and fountain pens, you know, all used for the same purpose yours are put to once the customer buys them. But you want to sell your goods, not the other fellow's. Degrees of Personality in Goods Some lines of goods like some people have more inherent per- sonality than others. A talking machine or an oriental rug has more personality than a shoe or a fountain pen. So when you write copy for shoes or fountain pens you must create a vivid personality for the commodity, or at least you must magnify to proper intensity whatever personality it has. Copy for a talking machine can be largely devoted to the merchandise nature of the goods because the commodity itself has natural interest. Not so a shoe. It is commonplace and ordinary in the scale of merchandise, a commodity as unromantic and as prosaic as a doormat or a pair of woolen socks. The copy writer must put more external interest and not so much merchandise interest into his copy if he is to attract and hold the atten- tion of the casual reader. He must make the shoe interesting as a shoe. How to Gauge Degree of Interest Careful thinking should precede the writing of a piece of copy. Ask yourself what needs to be said about the commodity which the possible user does not already know or think about it. Also how to 75 76 : -l^ETAIL' ADVJERTISING AND SELLING include what' he' '.