San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-05-26
CUMULATIVE ADVERTISING.
BY Henry III. Cole.

The more advertising you do, the
more power what you do do has.
Roughly but forcible stated, that
is what it means. But not all.
1t means more.
1t is retroactive. Tho more adver-
Using you do, the more power what
you have done has.
The first inser ton of an advertise
ment in medium makes but little
impression.
The second insertion makes deep
or impression than the first, and also
helps to deepen the impression of the
first.
The third insertion goes still deeper
and also helps the two before it.
And 30 on, ad infinitum.
Iwell remember, in boyhood days,
the advertisement of an insurance
agent. 1t always occupied the
same place in the county paper. 1t
always remained the same; revised
yearly, perhaps. to drop out the name
of a company represented or add
new one.
Poor advertising. according to mod
ern usage.
Yet it did it's work. Each insertion
of the advertisement had but little
power in>itself, but it was helped by
all that had gone before, and helped
in return each previous and each sub.
sequent insertion.
Thus, the constant reader of the pa
per learned effectually the business
and the name of the agent and knew
where to go in time of need.
remember another advertiser who
always occupied certain corner of
the weekly paper. The corner was
well used, the matter being changed
weekly. 1t was always read; just as
much as the local column.
Constant dropping wears away
stone," has been quoted more than
once lately as applying TO persistent
advertising. The quotation Is hard
ly enough. In this illustration each
drop has only it's own power. In ad
vertising each drop not only has its
own power, but takes from, without
subtraction, and adds to. without
loss to itself, the power ofevery other
drop.
Illustrations might be multiplied
without number. ~
Take Plum's Soap.
How much of their present power
In the advertising line would his
announcements, eloquent though
they be, have, II it were not for the
long line of similar announcement s
and artistic illustrations that have
gone before? And the power of the
earlier are constantly increased by
the later.
And Butchers Cocoa.
His capped and aproned maid,
"fair, fat aud (almost forty" would
scarce draw glance from any eye,
but that her dear figure has grown as
familiar to us as that OF our own
mothers.
Or Bishops Bicycles.
His men and women, gaily coasting
down hill, and always fresh and
happy, would gain no more attention
than any other pleasing sketch, and
have no more meaning, were 1t not
that we have seen them yearly grow
ing more and more beautiful, until we
recognize them wherever we see them
and doff our hats to their progenitor
Is there no hope for the new adver.
tiseI?
Certainly.
All advertising must have begin.
ming.
But once begun there need be no
end until the end of time is reach
ed.
And each day, each week, each
month adds it's power, until the adj
vertlser begins to reap the benefit in
ever increasing ratio.
. But let the growth be checked, and
the power soon ceases to accumulate
This rule holds just as good for the
waning as it does for the waxing.
And the advertiser who hopes to
still do business on his past reputa.
ton soon realizes his mistake.
He is lost to sight and memory.