Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-11
MAN PREFERS
ADS IN NEWSPAPERS
"BETTER THAN MAGAZINES
SAYS MANAGER
Less Expense and Results Are Better,
Declares E. lie Roy Pelletier
of Ford Motor Company
of Detroit

E. Leroy Pelletier, advertising mana
ger of the Ford Motor company OF De-
troit. had the following to say to the
Minneapolis Tribune regarding the value
of advertising in daily newspapers;
..It is generally considered that the Ford
company is one of the heaviest advertls-
ers in the automobile business. which
arises from the fact that the name OF
Ford is probably better known than that
of anv other automobile manufacturer in
the world. being equally well known in
Europe and America. II has been said,
say automobile in any group, some one
will say Ford.
Expends Less Money
Now. as a matter of fact, the tord
Motor company expends less money per
annum in advertising than do any OF us
larger competitors. Figures are not in
teresting, but when 1 state that we will
market in the twelve months beginning
SeDtember l last 10000 runabouts and 1000
six-cylinder cars, representing cash
valuation of over $3.50 900, and that our
advertising outlay for the same time is
very little over one-thrd that of other
makers who market less than one-halt
that amount of machines, it will be seen
aside from a small space in list OF
about ten weeklies, our campaign has
been exclusively daily newspaper one.
The monthly magazines we have not
touched at all.
1.-THE logic upon which we based our be-
lief in the daily newspaper for our par
ticular business was as follows:
1--WE market over so per cent of our
product within the territory which is COW
,I,,y-
papers issued in the fifteen principal
cities of the United States. A vast
amount of outlying territory, for which
we would have to pay in magazine cam
paign we would be unable to handle be-
cause of the fact that there are no agents
there to close the deal after an inquiry
has been received. We believe that all
progressive people and all persons who
are able to afford an automobile read the
large city dailies. The results from our
campaign have proven that they do. We
are able to write an ad today which will
meet the present conditions, the ad is
published tomorrow, and the next day
we are able to trace sales directly to
that ad. I might cite hundreds of cases
in which this is true
Principal Drawbacks
zone of the principal drawbacks to the
magazine ad, aside from the fact that it
has a blunderbuss way of covering terri
tory which is of no value, is that we
must write the advertisements at least
month ahead of the date on which the
reader will see it. Also we cannot pos
sibly forecast weather and other condi-
tions which have a very marked effect
on our business. For instance, in any
former year April has been the big
month. Had we been conducting a mag
azine campaign we should have done
most of our advertising in the months of
January, February and March-and ex-
perience teaches us that most of it would
have been wasted. The season was back
ward, we had rainy spring and bad
roads, and while such conditions prevail
people do not think optimistically on the
automobile question.
with a newspaper campaign one is
able to meet conditions as they arise; to
meet them on the minute, and to get re-
suits that are instant and tangible
While inclement weather prevailed we
cut down our advertising space, but as
soon as the sun came out we came for
ward with announcements that we could
make immediate deliveries and the re-
sponse was all that could have been de-
sired.
No Snap in Monthly Ads
IT do not know what the experience of
other advertisement writer's may be, but
for myself 1 find it difficult in fact, i'm
possible, to write an ad that has any
snap or ginger or vitality in it, and which
is not to be published for a month or
more. In the very nature of things one
cannot introduce any live topic to excite
interest, no current phrase or event can
be used to attract attention or clinch
an argument, and we have found these
good tools of our craft In the very ma
ture of things the magazine advertise
ment which is to be published some time
in the future, can deal only in trite gem
eralities, and forcefulness can be OBJ
tanned only by using some striking illus
tration or design, which after all is irrel-
evant.
1.-THE newspaper ad on the other hand,
is newsy, like the other matter in the
paper; it pertains to the moment, and
gets to the customer Just at the moment
when he is in the frame of mind to de-
eide which make of car he will buy.
after alI,' concluded Mr.. Pelletier,
"the only test of an advertising cam
paign or any other endeavor is Did 1t
produce results?' Inasmuch as the Ford
expenditure has been less and it's out
put greater and the entire product is now
practically disposed of, 1 believe we can
say that the Ford policy has emphatically
made good"
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