Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-01-30
THE TOUCHsTONE OF SUCCESS.
A Modern Science Discussed by an Ex-
pert.
From the New York Sun

From the New York Sun.
Nobody has tried more different kinds Of
advertising than we have" said Mr.. Chambers
of the firm of Rogers. Peet & Co. few days
ago, 'or tried the different kinds more thor
oughly, but we have settled down now to regu-
lar newspaper advertising and believe that,
for permanent 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 moth
ing by assignees, SO we decided to give a
Waterbury watch with every twelve dollars
worth OF goods purchased. We advertised the
watches wound and SET To wind them fast
worked like q sewing machine that would do
the winding and We kept several boys at work
winding and setting them. Before we quit we
had given away 10000 OF the watches.
But nothing euer pays US bike a'e ordinary
newspaper ddUerti sing. The fact is, there has
come to be a class Of advertisement 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 to get up
an advertisement that will do it. The day Of
So-and-Sos for clothing 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 inquiries we rate the success or failure of
an advertisement can guarantee to bring q
thousand people to our stores any day by the
insertion of an advertisement of some spe-
cialty.
''We were the first firm to introduce the use
OF outline cuts in newspapers. An Englishman
who has done caricaturing on the other side,
oH-hand sketches as part OF the entertainment
of show of some sort, and had come to this
country, first brought the matter to our atten-
ton, and we tried few Of the cuts as an expe-
riment. They succeeded SO well that we made
them q regular feature. After a while the
papers themselves caught ON to 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 expensive, because, besides
| the cost OF them, the papers charge double
poor economy, however. The cuts were worth
much more than they cost as an advertisement,
and we shall 60 back to them.
Another thing about advertising Of late
| years Is the gradual increase In the truthful
ness OF it. People are learning that it doesn't
pay to lie in an advertisement any better than
1t does anywhere else. The theory that "a
suckers born every minute and he's Just az
likely to come in here as anywhere else won't
do for permanent thing. think that there
has been d noticeable improvement in this re-
spect lately, and that business men are rapidly
learning that honesty is the best policy in an
advertisement as we'll as outside Of it.
| "A curious thing is the difference there 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 sub
| ject and to be written as tersely as possible.
Men read advertisements ON the jump; they
never deliberately sit down to go through the
advertisements in paper. For the women, on
the contrary, you can put in as much detail as
you please; once a 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 Sunday paper. If you make it
! big enought to be seen in one of those enor-
nous sheets it will be too long to be read by a
man. An ordinary advertisement such as would
attract him in weekday paper Is buried in
| the SUNDAY editions