The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-02-14
No Man, He Says, Can Hope for Great
Success Nowadays Unless He
Makes His Business known.
ADVERTISING DRAWS TRADE
NEWSPAPERS THE BEST MEANS OF
REACHING THE PUBLIC.
Popular misconceptions of the Func-
tiOn of the Agent-HOw Money
Can he Thrown Away.

livered a lecture at the University OF Chi
caao, this afternoon, on the commercial
value of advertising. Mr.. Mahin said, in
part:
This is an age of advertising. Within the
memory of older men the ambitious youth
was urged To enter the church. the army.
the law or the sciences. To engage in trade
was 10 lower social tone. Now, business IS
generally recognized as a world dominating
science. 1t is becoming more intricate and
complex, requiring the highest grade OF IN
Commerce in its elemental form is little
more than the hewing OF wood, the carry
ing of water and trading In the simple
things necessary to sustain a low order or
physical life. 1t is only when it advances
TO graphing with the great wheat crop OF
the Northwest, the vast yield of cotton of
the South and the products of many mines
and factories that il begins 10 demand and
give substantial rewards for the highest
grade of brain power to organize equip
ment, devise ways and means 10 execute
The problems of production and distri-
button, the elimination OF waste and fam
inc, the gathering together of the products
of the world and setting them in order for.
the easy access of mankind present abund-
ant opportunity for the highest quality OF
/ brains. Commerce in gathering and dis
tributing, satisfied with ordinary profit and
passively awaiting the result of the capri
cious tastes of mankind still leaves much
TO be desired by the mind that has real
creative power.
In doing this, commerce requires the
wonderful new power which the mere trad
er never possessed. That power with its
skill, thought, resources and judgment,
virile energy, largeness of mental growth
! force that accomplishes things, is called
advertising.
| influencing the minds of people. 1t is max
/ ing others think you desire. 1t means
/ utilizing all those forces which produce i'm
pressions and crystalline opinions. 1t Is the
/ creating of prestige-that quality which
causes others to accept a statement with
out question.
advertising rests on the supremacy Of
! commerce. 1t requires stable business con-
ditions for its existence and development.
! 1t is, therefore, a higher form of mental
activity than the successful exercise of or
/ binary commercial transactions because it
| goes farther, in demanding not only the
| power 10 successfully cope with COM
/ mercial problems, but an added ability to
| influence the human mind Advertising will
| produce active desire where none, or, at
/ least, only that of a latent kind existed be-
fore Advertising, by employing the power,
/ full mental forces which psychologists call
| suggestion, create well-defined habits
| among the people which an alert COM
4 mercial mind Will utilize to build up and
\ foster a business.
WHAT ADVERTISING Is.
"a thoroughly equipped advertising man
must, then, know something of the funda
mental conditions which underlie com
merce. For instanc6, credit being an essen
tial feature of commerce, rests upon abso-
] Lutte integrity and a rigid adherence to we'll
defined principles. Advertising also without
the fundamental principles which are nee
essary to commerce is no more advertising
/ than is love the mawkish sentiment which
! some novels depict the love which POUNDS
] and maintains homes and where the wife
and mother are cherished objects.
There are people who call the displaying
/ Of words in newspapers advertising. Such
individuals would be apt to consider the
| clerk who mechanically hands out a cake
| of soap to a customer a merchant.
! advertising is not the spending of mon
\ ey in magazine, newspaper, street car or
outdoor space. but the accomplishment of
| a definite purpose, which is the influencing
! of human minds and actions. The many
/ complex conditions which enter into the
/ practical execution of plans for advertising
! can only be briefly discussed within our
/ time limit. Two sharp distinctions, however,
/ appear when we attempt to consider as to
whether article may be prodtabiy adj
vertised or not
1T is in exploiting and selling articles of
/ every day use TO the average family that
! modern methods of advertising have
| reached the highest development. An able
statistician claims that Of the 100000 fam
| lilies in the United States but 5 per cent
| have incomes exceeding 5000 a year, count
| ing both the proceeds of invested capital
and the earnings of the entire. family.
| When thought is given to the number of
articles that can be bought only by families
having an income of $1,000 and we remem-
! Der that only per cent. of the population
represents possible purchasers, the problem
of the advertiser is to spend the money
that he has appropriated that he will reach
as nearly as possible only the class TO
! which his goods will appeal. In such case
a magazine Of national circulation might
| have less waste circulation than a local
| paper reaching the masses. The statistician
| we have referred to claims that over one
| third of all the American families live on
less than $500 year and that over one
half live on less than $500 annually: Thus
! it is plain that an article which sells just
| as freely I'm the family of small means as
| in that of larger runs less danger of being
| exploited in publications where there would
| be waste. 1t may also explain why the
| largest successes in advertising are in those
| things of small retail value which are in
reach ofehe masses. Desire may be created
for the ownership of an automobile in the
! mind of a man with family Of six chill
dren who has less than $500 annually TO
live on, but that desire is not likely TO
| make the advertising spent to create it in
his mind very profitable to the advertiser.
on the other hand. a shoe-shining OUTFIT
might bring good returns in a publication
read by people of small incomes which
| would most likely result in absolute failure
| if offered to the readers of magazines like
Harper's and Century.
PLAYING THE GAME"
advertising is too frequently viewed SUI
perfcially. Very few men who are known
as advertising men have ever gone deeper
IMAM 10 note certain phenomena ana Dlllluig
assert that history will repeat itself An
analysis of cause and effect, conditions and
/ the character of the forces engaged in
| changing them is seldom attempted. These
men are gamblers in every sense of the
word. and they speak of advertising effort
as playing the game.
VERY few publishers understand the val
ne of the advertising space that they pro-
duce. 1t is pitiful to see the ignorance
shown on this subject Too many fail 10
see the professional side of the subject
| and they view the space merchandise TO
| be sold 10 whOmsOeVcr comes at whatever
| price the market will permit. Some advance
/ so far as 10 say they will make a fixed
| price in order to produce stability of value
| and let the matter rest there. A very few
| study out the possibilities OF service that
! they are able to render others and by sys-
tematic effort develop and maintain an ad-
! vertising constituency harmonious to
! the policy of the publication that the adj
! vertisements become OF great value TO the
| readers because they adapted to their
| tastes requirements and conditions. Adver-
| Using is not material substance. IL Is serV-
/ ice To be sure space is sold in magazines.
| newspapers. street cars and on billbOards.
| but the true advertiser and advertising
! man never forgets that the space is sub
servient to the service TO be rendered. Ideas
| are paramount. The purpose OF the effort
| should be clear and definite and kept con-
| stantly In mind during the planning and eX-
| ecution OF the details by which il is TO be
are only tools the master workman uses 10
I an idea. The finished result the