The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1905-12-01
Planning a" Advertising Cam
. paisn.

| The first thing to do is to figure
out how much money is to be spent
in the advertising campaign. This
is quite a matter of individual
judgment-no one should be az
we'll posted on this as the advertiser
himself, for he knows best the re-
sources at this command.
However, some talk of percent
ages may not be out Of place.
The average American retailer
spends three percent Ct his gross
receipts in advertising. have
known cases where five, six, seven
and sometimes as high as ten per
cent was spent, but Of course these
are extreme cases, such as opening a
new store, a new line of goods, or
where it was essential to make an
extra good and strong impression
upon the public. True, some retail
stores seem to get along fairly well
with a one per cent expenditure,
but the most successful seem to be-
long to tho three per cent class.
During an interview with one of
tho worlds leading circus ad-
vertiers he told me that from thirty
five to forty per cent of til 70 gross
receipts were spent in advertising.
In other words, if the circus took
in 800 per day about 1000 of
lit went back, into advertising.
Which is quite a tidy daily sum
when you come to think of it. I
believe there are some patent medi-
cine and general advertisers, who
regularly spend this percentage
at any rate, very nearly it-and it
must pay them for they seem to ad-
vertise with cheerful regularity and
iberality.
But to get back to my first pro-
position. The merchant or bust
ness man about to enter upon an
advertising campaign, has a better
knowledge of and is better judge
of his resources than any one else.
Therefore he should have pretty
clear idea of the specified sum he is
about to spend.
The next point is to consider
mediums and methods. At this
stage Of the game he will do we'll if
he considers the method of expert
enced advertisers. In mediums
alone there are many leaks; IN
methods there are many ways of
wasting money, and at all stages Of
the game foresight is far b tier than
hindsight. Knowledge p;id for
with hard cash in the school of ex-
perience is too dearly bought;
knowledge paid for by the expert
ences of others is better and the
best source of information at the
opening of campaign is likely to
come from the advertising man
who has helped to engineer several.
For the retailer there is no
medium 80 Sensible and satisfactory
as his local paper. 1t constantly
circulates among the people he
wishes to reach; it is clean, dignitied
and effective is a medium to carry
his advertising message. 1t should
20 down Number One" on his list.
For the mail order or general ad-
vertiser it too is excellent, for with
out it the section it covers can
scracely Ike said to be advertised in.
Magazine, street car, bill posting
the various forms of outdoor adver-
Using are good in their ways-in a
future article I may touch more
specifically upon them-but the
head and front should be the local
paper in the section desired to be
reached. Make no mistake upon
this point!
Find out what the space costs in
your local papers. Do not go into
a cheap paper because the advertis-
ling rates sound ''cheap." When
you come to figure up and compare
what you get out of one of these
cheap papers with a good paper
having fair rates, you may present.
~ conclude that the ''cheap" rates
are not so cheap after all-in fact
they are dearer than the other
paper. AS a general proposition
the paper with the circulation and
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