Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1905-07-06
A LARGE SPACE
Impresses Customers Favorably
and Creates Good
Impression.
PROFITABLE ADVERTISING
How to Scure and Maintain Pres.
tige in Trade.


to sell in Mineral Point and
surrounding country, where
the Iowa County Democrat
goes into the homes of nearly
all the people:
A Wisconsin professor instituted
an inquiry into this matter some time
ago and figured ont the relative value
of large and small advertisements.
There Is no need to describe the
method he followed except to say that
it was exhaustive, and his conclusions
seem to be justified. He found that
one page advertisement was not twice
the value of a half page advertise
ment, as might be imagined, but TWEEN
ty-Rve times the value; that half
page was fifteen times the value of a
quarter page, and a ten line agate an
noucement, in comparison even with
quarter page advertisement, was not
to be mentioned at all.
1t Is interesting to discover why this
is so, for it would appear that half
page advertisement is big enough to
be read quite as easily as page
advertisement and affords room for
whatever statement of fact the mer-
chant or manufactures desires to
bring to public attention.
The secret seems to lie in the pres
tige acquired by the use of larger
space, The public is impressionable.
If the common mind can be made to
think in certain way or direction it
may be said to be impressed with the
idea conveyed. Once so impressed the
public Is likely to act In accordance
with that idea. The public moves as
u crowd, Is swayed by what may be
called the intelligence Of the crowd as
distinguished from the intelligence of
the Individual. How otherwise may
we account for the phenomenon
exhibited when people put themselves
to actual discomfort In order to pur-
chase where there Is great crowd
when goods OF equal quality and the
same price may be had elsewhere, in
places that are not crowded? A GER
tain dealer obtains vogue and be-
comes the fashion. People talk OF his
establishment, Of his goods and OF
the throng of purchasers, and this
adds to his trade.
TO get people to center their thought
on himself and the trade which he Of
fers Is the chief ambition of the deal
err, and for this he studies the effect of
judicious advertising. He discovers
that II he can make n display that will
hare the stamp of large cost to him
self he will most easily impress the
public with his worth. The public
must be made to think that he has
something of value for them, because
he pays large sums of money to bring
1t to the public's notice. To this end
he seeks the costliest medium he can
find He recognizes that page ad-
vertisement in II paper that is known
to charge high rate for Its space will
give the public more vivid impress
sion'.of the cost TO him than half
page-a very much more vivid i'm
pages he will magnify the effect in
still greater proportion. He can gain
prestige in this way that is not OBJ
tainable In any other way. Wanna
maker Is popularity supposed to have
made his name and fortune by the
clever way In which he wrote his adj
vertisements, he being the first to
adopt certain attractive style. But
the true explanation Of his success is
that he led all competitors in the size
OF his advertisements and the appar-
ent reckless disregard OF expense in
seeking display in the highest priced
newspapers in Philadelphia.
Prestige, however, is tickle thing
hard to gain aud hard to maintain,
The merchant or manufactures must
continue his leadership as an adver-
tiser or he will surely drop from the
public mind 1t has been demonstrat-
ed time and again that few proprie'
tary articles can be so firmly estab
lished as to need no longer the aid Of
advertising. Some manufacturers
have assumed that they were so
placed that their goods would be their
own advertisement, only to discover
that prestige diminished the moment
the effort to sustain 1t ceased A
noted manufacturer advertises by
means of II picture OF himself, His
advertisement is familiar thing in
every newspaper in the land. His bill
for advertising must be enormous.