The Portland daily press., 1890-02-10
ADVERTISING SCIENCE.
Newspapers the Only Profitable
Field.
New York SUM-

New YORK SUM-.
sNobody has tried more different kinds
of advertising than we have" said a
member of well known clothing firm.
a few days ago, cor tried the different
kinds more thoroughly, but we have set
tied down now to regular newspaper
advertising, and believe that, for per-
manent business, that alone pays. We
were the first to use the sails of vessels
in the harbor as an advertising medium.
Then we got up the alphabet puzzle
and gave away half million puzzles
while the craze lasted. Afterward we
invented the Waterbury watch idea.
We had to do something, because three
OF our principal competitors had failed,
and their stocks were being sold for next
TO nothing by assignees, SO we decided
to give a Waterbury watch with every
twelve dollars worth of goods DUR.
chased. We advertised the watches
wound and Set To wind them fast
enough we had to rig up little machine,
worked like sewing machine, that
would do the winding, and we kept sew
eral boys at work winding and setting
them. Before we quit we had given
away forty thousand of the watches.
NEWSPAPER "ADS."
"But nothing ever pays us like the or
binary newspaper advertising The fact
is, there has come to be in this city a
class of advertisements readers, just as
there is Of news readers. They read the
advertisements every day, and, of course,
the man who wants to attract them has
Al
it. The day of standing advertisements
in the paper, GO to So-and-So's for cloth
ing or go to This-and-That's for shoes
has passed, just as the day for painting
signs on rocks and fences or on the sails
Of boats has passed. You must have
something interesting and fresh every
day in the advertisement, and it will be
read. We have proof of this all the time
in our business, for an advertisement of
any certain thing is sure to bring throngs
of people into the stores inquiring for it
next day. BY the number of such in
quiries we rate the success or failure of
an advertisement. can guarantee to
bring thousand people to our stores any
day by the insertion of an advertisement
of some specially in the morning papers
"We were the first firm to introduce
the use of outline cuts in newspapers.
An Englishman who had done caricatur-
ing on the other side offhand sketches
as part of the entertainment of show
Of some sort, and had come to this
country, first brought the matter to our
attention, and we tried few of the cuts
as an experiment. They succeeded SO
well that we made them a regular feat
ure. After while the papers them
selves caught onto the outline idea, and
now that is almost the only style of
newspaper illustration used. A while
ago we concluded to try the experiment
of dropping the cuts. They are expen-
sive, because besides the cost of them,
the papers charge double rates for the
space they occupy. 1t has been poor
economy, however. The cuts were worth |
much more than they cost as an adver- |
tisement, and we shall go back to them.
MUST BE TRUTHFUL.
Another thing about advertising of
late years is the gradual increase in the
truthfulness of it. People are learning
that it doesn't pay to lie in an advertise
ment any better than it does anywhere
else The theory that "a suckers born
every minute and he's just as likely to
come in here as anywhere else won't do
for a permanent thing. / think that there
has been a noticeable improvement in
this respect lately, and that business men
are rapidly learning that honesty is the
best policy in an advertisement as well as
outside of it.
IA s-t
is between advertising for women and |
for men. For man an advertisement |
must be short and to the point. 1t ought |
to treat of but one subject and to be writ
ten as terscly as possible. Men read adj
vertisements on the jump; they never |
deliberately sit down to go through the |
advertisements in a paper. For the |
women, on the contrary, you can put |
in as much detail as you please;
once woman is attracted to an
advertisement she will read it all through,
no matter how long it is or how fine the
type is. Then there is no use putting an
advertisement for man in q Sunday
paper. If you make it big enough to be
seen in one of those enormous sheets it
will be too long to be read by man. An
ordinary advertisement, such as would
attract him in a week day paper, is bur-
led in the great Sunday editions. But
you can take page on Sunday and be
certain that the women will look for it
and read it all through carefully. Thou
sands of them buy the papers, and espe-
eciially the Sunday papers, for no other
Inins han to read the advertisements.
Inc big dry goods houses know that, and
that Is why they all use the Sunday pa.
pers so freely"
Canine Introduction.