Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
HOW TO ADVERTISE.
Thousands of Dollars Wasted Because
Of Lack of knowledge.
FITS OF ENTERPRISE DON'T PAY.
The Display Must Be Repeated Day Afte1
Day Only Different
A PLAN THAT WOULD BRING RESULTS

+ If some imbecile should me out Of the
unthawed North to preach the business doc
trine OF continuous change of business base,
to advocate the periodical habitual removal
of store or Office from one end Of the city to
another, the business men would take him
gently by the hand, lead him out into ma
ture's solitudes, to leave him there.
Yet this is precisely the logic practiced by
the merchant who advertises for day, for
a week or for a month, to withdraw his ad-
vertisements for the same period or for
longer one. No business man of sense
would dream of closing his store every other
day or week, keeping closed in January and
open in February. No merchant would
think of discharging his best clerks in mid
summer because trade appeared to be
lighter Every merchant knows that beyond
the little effervescence of novelty the longer
a man has been at a stated place the more
voluminous and solid is his business. Change
of location is never made except to meet
necessity. The average merchant would
rather build on the site of his success than
to move away from it, except in those cases
where the growth Of the town demands Local
tive change The same & man, the same @ place
the merchant to build up business worth
having and worth keeping.
THE STEADY ROUNDING DOES IT.
Experience has effectively shown that the
first appearance of any advertisement OF
any advertiser seldom brings more than the
meanest kind of transient trade; the second
appearance generally does nothing more
than to open to the reader excuse for atten-
ton; the third suggests business; the fourth /
suggests more of it; the fifth is liable to i'm
press the reader that 1t may be to his ad-
vantage to consider the article advertised,
or more likely 1t sufficiently impresses him
with it that the memory of it may be re-
called by subsequent advertising. It has
sown the seed, but has not watered 1t. The
sixth appearance of the advertisement is
liable to be felt in the store where the goods
are for sale Then the advertisement begins
to tell. Of course, this refers more to the an
nouncement5 of new advertisers than to
older. ones, but the principle proportion
ately holds good.
The man who expects to get anything
save transient trade from his advertisement
within "A hours from the time his first ad-
vertisement appears simply finds himself
mistaken. If advertising would bring i'm
mediate, definite and solid returns before
printed, I should not believe in advertising
beyond few advertisements OF a transient
kind The strength of advertising is in its
latent power, the value contained within 1t
if one be persistent and consistent
oMITTING FOB DAY IS ExPENsIvA
To take the advertisement out of q paper
is simply to destroy q heavy proportion of
the preliminary education OF the possible
customers who are beginning to revd 1t.
Many an advertiser has seen his advertis-
ing fall to ironed fatness because he stopped
it at q critical period in its life. The first
visit of anyone to q store generally results
in the purchase Of nothing but trif1ing ne
cessities. The first reading Of an advertise
L
reader about as much as do the first notes
of music when the band is struck by light
ming three seconds after the fall of the
baton.
Every-other-day or every-other-week ad-
vertising may have about as much effect as
| has the Furnishing of a child by one blow q
| week until all Of the allotted strikes have
been administered An advertisements in
the paper to-day, out tomorrow, in the
next day, and out the day after that, fur
nishes excuse for not following it at all.
| Many a person sees the Monday advertise
| ment; forgets about 1t; thinks about it
| Tuesday; looks for 1t then; the Monday
| paper is lost; the Tuesday paper does not
contain it; he forgets 1t again: two forget
tings are sufficient. Good, healthy seed has
been sown upon fertile ground to be raked
| out before it has chance to root; even the
heals up; it has to be plowed again; plowtng
| is expensive.
GENERAL Law OF ADVERTISING.
It has been over and over again proven
that continuous advertising is the only kind
of advertising which pays. General law Is
safer to follow than individual opinion. do
not know of a solitary case where intermft-
tent advertising has brought any adequate
return compared with that which comes
from the advertisement which everlastingly
is Dc .lding away at the public day In and day
out, always with something fresh in it, the
business ever in its accustomed place in the
advertising columns.
oncein-a-while advertising pays is simply
backed by the few cases where apparent
fact overshadows accepted principle. Ex-
ceptions prove most rules. Exceptions ex-
ist in this as well as in everything else. A
man may make more money sailing rickety
ship laden with valuable cargo The ship
may survive trip after trip; profit may pile
upon profit; the ship may go down empty;
but no sensible navigator sails q worn-out
vessel. Not what can be made the wrong
way, but what can be made the right way
builds business.
People get as much accustomed to location
in the paper as to location in the store. A
man can no more afford to be out Of the
paper than he can afford to be out of his
store or out of his head.
THE ADVERTISEMENT SHOULD SUGGEST
Many a woman does not know that she
wants more clothespins until the advertise
ment tells her she does. The more ways an
advertisement appeals to her, the more Ike
ly she is to buy the goods advertised. hat
advertisement Of q week, with different
hat billed every day, will put more hats on
heads than will any standing advertisements
of q month.
The conventional advertisements reading:
John Smith q Co.,
HATS,
No. Hat avenue Hatv1le,
occupying an obscure inch In the n6wD-
paper is worth something, but pays q mighty
small dividend on the investment. A man
may see an inch advertisement; he may find
a needle in feather bed if he be located in
that particular part of the bed.
Hats simply mean hats, and have no fnfiu-
ence to bear upon the would-be hat buyer,
even if he should happen to see the adver-
tisement The hat advertisements should |
never be out of the paper, but 1t seldom |
should be allowed to appear over three times |
Rattar annear tMica alike. |