The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-01-12

AN EXPERT TALKS OF THE CUMULA-
TIVE FORCE OF ADVERTISING,
And Argues Convincingly as to the
Rewards That Are Sure to Follow
Advertising I'm Newspapers.

1t Is my rare good fortune to know a
young poet. After consuming gallons of ink
on reams Of paper he got poem accepted
by one of the magazines, and the i'm
portance OF that young man was past all
bounds. He thought that everybody would
stop on Broadway to look at him and say.
There goes the poet" He expected il he
attended the opera that the orchestra would
stop and the whole assemblage arise en-
rnasse and shout and wave handkerchiefs
at his coming, and that the leaders Of the
-Four Hundred would fight another
tooth and nail for the honor of his pres
ence at their functions. And when the
world wagged on just the same and no one
stared at him, and his old friends nodded
in the old, easy, familiar way, entirely un-
awestruck, the young man almost expired
of disappointment. There are good many
advertisers like the young poet. They put
one advertisement in the paper and they
expect the whole world to scramble pell-
NELL, heels-over-head to their store, and IL
it doesn't and business goes on about as
usual they cry out against advertising as
altogether useless and wasteful and a
deceit and deluson.
Now. If the young poet keeps on writing
verses and the magazines keep on printing
them. sooner or later people will begin to
look at him in the street and point him
out at the opera. Each poem added to
those that have preceded it will be just one
more little boost toward the fame that he
covets; not one poem, but the cumulative
effect of good many will do the work
This cumulative principle runs all through
life. It's preaching good sermon Sunday
after Sunday that makes a preacher ia
<txD~-
that brings the doctor to a place where he
can charge all you've got for looking you
few minutes. Rudyard Kipling was
splashing ink three or four years before
people woke up to the fact that he wrote
stories. And think of the thousands Of
jokes the Hon. Tom Reed must have
cracked before he got the reputation of
being great American wit. It's this eter-
nal pegging away that does the business
this keeping everlastingly at it.
VALUE OF PERSISTENCY.
In nothing does this principle apply with
greater force than in advertising. In moth
ing else, does occasional. intermittent. spor-
adic effort count for so little; in nothing else
does an unceasing persistence count for so
much. The whole gist Of the matter is
this-the other fellow is always advertising.
and you must do the same or be left in the
rear. If you could only get your competitors
to pair off with you as they do In the Sem
ate you might take things easier, but bust
ness men in 1896 are not inclined to pair off.
They believe in making the pace fsy brisk
as they can, and the devil take the hinder
most.
Persistent advertising does not always
necessarily mean advertising every day. OF
course, some advertising, to be successful,
must appear as regularly as the sun rises.
The aggressive retailer for instance ought
to have something new to offer the public
six days In the week; and he will let the
public know it seven days In the week
Every-other-day advertising will not serve
his purpose at ALL But if you are selling
the same thing day after day, piano. or
sewing machine, or a spring bed. 1t is not
necessary to keep at the public three hun
dred and sixty-five times year. Announce.
ments two or three times week will serve
very well. But no sort of advertising should
be done at such long intervals that the
effect OF one ad. is lost before the next
appears. Cumulative advertising is like a
chain, each ad. is a link in it. II your
links are so far apart that they don't meet,
there's no very great amount of pull in
your chain. Or, to put 1t another way,
your advertising should be like the shingles
on the roof. To keep the rain out your
shingles must overlap. If they are laid
an inch apart you are liable TO get wet
Your advertising should overlap; then, in
stead of disjointed pieces you have a solid
and continuous whole, and that's effective
advertising.
Laying this stress the cumulative force
Of connected advertising does not imply that
no single advertisement should be expected
to pay its own way; for, the contrary
In any established business, each individual
advertisement ought generally to pay its
own way. II a retailer spends 500 on
certain day in laying his offerings before the
public, he ought certainly to get his money
back in the increased profits of the next
day. If he doesn't there is certainly some
thing wrong, either in the nature OF his of
ferings or in the character of their an
nouncement. But If man is trying to in
troduce some new thing to public attention.
a new clothes wringer, carpet sweeper, dys-
pepsia cure, or what not he must expect
to put in lot of hard, solid missionary
work; ne must keep digging away till the
public is forced to stop and listen.
DELAYED PROFITS
But even IN an established business an ad-
yertisement may be very profitable invest
ment and yet not bring back immediately
every dollar that 1t costs. Too many adj
vertisers look simply at the immediate re-
suits Of an advertising outlay. And If the
thousand dollars they put out on Sunday
don't bring back an extra fifteen hundred
dollars Monday they think the game isn't
worth the powder. They don't take into
consideration the several thousand women
who come to their store in response
TO their advertisement. and who may not
| have been specially tempted by those par
ticuiar bargains. but who seized the oppor-
tunty to take good look about the store.
and located a lot of things that they after
wards came back and bought. And, then.
there's that other large body OF women,
who read the advertisement through and re-
GREETED so much that they hadn't the money
just now or the time to take advantage of
your bargains. but who made dozen DIFF
ferent clippings for future reference. And
then, an advertisement, no matter where
it's printed has much longer life than most
people imagine If you put your advertise
ment in paper which has fifty thousand
circulation. some of those fifty thousand
| copies will turn UP fifty years from now,
and every advertisement has potential