The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

THE ART OF ADVERTISING.

(FROM THE ERA.)
EVERYTHING, it is said, has a handle, if we only knew
where to place our hands upon it ; or, in other words,
there is always a mode of dissipating apparent impossibi-
lities. Twenty years ago it was an " impossibility" to
despatch a message from Londoti to Paris in a few mi-
nutes, but the "handle" was at length discovered, and
the impossibility was vanquished. The road to prosperity
is one along which everybody wishes to travel, but the
sign-posts which direct to it are so differently read, that
the number who find themselves in the right path are,
after all, much fewer than they might be, or than they
will be shortly, now that the turnpike tolls have been
abolished, and the costs generally reduced. Regardless
of being charged with interested motives, we unhesitat-
ingly assert that publicity is a royal road to prosperity ;
and that the best, the cheapest, and the most comprehen-
sive mode of obtaining publicity is through the medium
of a newspaper. We shall endeavour to make this clear.
An advertisement of several lines, for instance, can be
inserted in a newspaper for five shillings, and it may
fairly be calculated that each copy of the paper is seen by
twelve persons. The copies circulated at hotels and other
places of public resort, or those which are successively
sent from friend to friend, are seen by a still greater
number; and every one knows what a large proportion of
the circulation of every newspaper is thus multiplied in its
powers of publicity by this passing and repassing from
hand tohand. But taking the average number of persons
by whom each copy is seen at only twelve, and the total
circulation of the newspaper at 6,000, the entire number
of readers will be 72,000 ; and for sixty-pence, the cost of
an advertisement, an announcement is brought under the
notice of this large number of people. We will say nothing
of the extended publicity which it receives through its
being current in conversation. The advertisement does
duty itself, and by deputy also, and those who do not see
it are not the less informed of its purport. The extensive
relations which an advertiser is enabled instantaneously
to establish with thousands of persons is almost as strik-
ing, if rightly viewed, as the electric telegraph. Every
one of his readers may become a customer, or help, by
their recommendation, to increase his trade, or may
assist, in some way or other, in aiding him in the object
he has in view. It is one of the strangest things that these
advantages are not universally recognised. They have
been seized upon by a comparatively small number of
acute persons, who have monopolised this invaluable
method of making their own fortunes, while others, to
whom the same advantages were open, have neglected this
admirable resource, or have adopted other modes of pub-
licity, far less efficacious than that of advertising in a
newspaper. Those who still pursue the old-fashioned plan
of issuing circulars, or placarding large bills, or delivering
handbills, strangely invert the accustomed habits of shrewd
men of business, for they pay enormously for the least
advantageous system of attaining publicity, as we shall
presently show.
A printed circular, gratuitously thrust in at the door, or
sent through the post, is treated with sufficiently little
ceremony, like most things which are obtruded when they
are not wanted. It is within every man's experience to,
estimate the different treatment of a newspaper for which
sixpence has been. paid. At all events, the circular is not
I handed from one person to another, and to attempt to
render it equivalent, as a medium of publicity, as many
circulars should be issued as the newspaper possesses
readers. The cost, then, of 72,000 circulars would be
something like £3O, perhaps more, and the same number
of envelopes would come to £lB. But the publie are not
awaiting the issue with that eager interest which seizes
upon a newspaper as fast as steam and the most perfect
machinery can print it. An expense of some £5O has
been incurred, but until the work of distribution has
been effected nothing has really been done. To ensure a
circulation in proper quarters, a selection must be made
of 72,000 approved names, and it would take one person
above a month to write the addresses on the envelopes.
The post is the only safe means of distribution, and where
so much money had been previously expended it would
not be prudent to depend on any other. This would add
the small trifle of £3OO to the expense already incurred,
and after an expenditure of at least £350 the result
would not be quite so valuable as a single advertisement
which had cost only five shillings. That largeclass of
substantial persons who live in the country would not be
reached ; the circular may arrive at an inopportune
moment in some thousands of instances, and, unlike the
newspaper, it is not laid aside for a more convenient
season, but is thrust into the fire and forgotten. Sup-
posing the circulars are not sent through the post,
but are delivered by men and boys, the cost of delivery
would be reduced, but at what an immense diminution
of efficiency. The waste-paper shops, the river, and the
fire offer fatal facilities for the disappearance of the printed
circular, while idleness would suggest that an honest dis-
tribution entailed labour and trouble, which could be so
easily avoided without much fear of discovery. The same
number of handbills (72,000) would cost for printing and
delivering about £4O, but this plan has been, as the French
would say, demoralised, and if the cost were nominal, few
persons would think of adopting it in any vain hope of re-
establishing the respectability of the practice of street
delivery. There remains, then, the resource of placarding
large bills. It is cheaper, but quite as destitute of useful
results as circulars or handbills. If even placards get pro-
perly posted they are quickly obliterated, and if they were
to remain longer few persons would stop to read them.
Compare either of these modes, thoughtlessly adopted by.
some persons, to the efficiency of the newspaper. The cir-
cular misses fire—the handbill is contemptuously rejected
—the placard is unread. No one thinks of destroying the
newspaper till it is too old for transmission and perusal,
and before this happens a fresh copy supplies its place ;
and so on from week to week it is looked forward to and
read with undiminished interest. Every week also it is
seen by a large number of fresh readers, so that an adver-
tisement inserted four times, at a cost of 205., is seen in
the course of four weeks, not only by the average number
of 72,000 readers, but by a mass of persons who each week
see it for the first time. By frequent insertions the adver-
tiser's name becomes a " household word." As we have
shown, a single circular sent once to 72,000 persons,
, through the post, would cost about.£3so. For this sum
an advertisement in the newspapers could be placed under
' the notice of as many persons every week for 27 years !
and this advantage might be gained every week during an
entire year at 1-27th of the cost of issuing a circular which
merely attempts to secure a similar result for one week.

As will be perceived by advertisement, Mr. WILLIAMS,
of Ranelagh-street, has opened another office, No. 3,
Hackin's-hey, second door from the George Hotel. We
believe Mr. Williams is termed the " Father of the Estate-
agents, from the length of time he has been in the busi-
ness ; and we have no doubt that the gentlemen on
'Change will find his new office very convenient for the
sale or purchase of property.
SEAMEN'S WAGES.—The following notice to Ship Mas-
ters and Consignees has been pencilled on the slate of Mr.
Duddell's Shipping-office, Hong Kong :—" We, the seamen
of Hong Kong, have held a meeting, and come to the fol-
lowing conclusion : That, for Australia seamen's wages
shall be $2O per month, and one month's advance ; for Ca-
lifornia, $3O per month, and one month's advance; for
Europe or America, $4O per month, and one month's ad-
vance."
THE DEA.TII OF M. GEnxiaos, the Greek Patriarch, at
Constantinople, has given rise to all kinds of reports. It
will be recollected that this high dignitary was particularly
disliked by Prince Menschikoff.
EMIGRATION FROM GERMANY.—In the month of
September, 2,048 emigrants left the port of Hamburg for
America and Australia direct, and 1,402 proceeded from
that port by way of Hull and Liverpool. This makes a
total of 3,450 German emigrants from Hamburg alone.
Of this number, 3,158 were bound for North American
ports, 4 for Rio de Janeiro, and 200 for Melbourne, Sydney,
and Port Adelaide.—Hamburg Hansa.