The morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1899-1930, 1908-08-18

IlnOSt ulISStly lHIOuSH tlS HSdiuHl ~
the eye, some OF the ear some by tn,
other senses, 1t has become gener
ally recognized that the understand
ing OF the minds OF possible custom
ers is quite as important as the dis
towering of the best methods OF pre-,
senting the goods, preparing the copy
iselecting media, and placing the ad.
lvertisement. A few advertising wri.
tiers, OF course, have an instinct that
Heads them without thinking about the
lmatter to follow correst psychologi
Ical practices, but DR., SCOTS writings
Ihave undoubtedly served as guidance
to hundreds who have needed it.
| The laboratory work has gone right
on since the publication OF the book
several years ago, Students in North
western University have since been
subjected to all sorts of interesting
Experiments, with view to finding
just how people are affected by the
advertisements they see. Not long
ago, ior instance, forty OF them were
handed copies OF the current issue of
a leading magazine which they were
asked to look through but not TO stop
| to read and poetry or long articles.
Some students, it was noticed, imme-
diately began to read the advertise
Iments, some the table contents, some
the reading matter. At the end OF
ten minutes they were surprised by
being asked to lay down the maya
zine and write out all they could re-
member about advertisements they
had noticed The same tests, invol-
wing just such skimmihg OF the mag
azine as people do in reading room,
were tried elsewhere with about 500
persons, mostly between the ages of
ten and thirty.
What DR. Scott was after in this in
vestigation was to get line on the
attention value OF large and small
spaces, for a chaper in his new book,
The Psychology OF Advertising"
which will be published very shortly.
On tabulating the results he found
that the larger advertisements had the
call very decidedly over the smaller
ones. That is to say, full page was
on the average more than twice as
good as half page; half page more
than twice as good as quarter page.
Many similar studies have been
made recently, to such an extent that
people around Chicago have become
suspicious when handed magazine
and told to read it. Student obser-
vers have prowled among the public
reading rooms, taking notes as to the
time spent by readers on the literary
features and on the advertising pa
ges. The mortality rate among adj
vertisers has ben determined by 60
ing over files OF the principal maya
zines for many years back. 1t has
been found that the morgue is fuller
of those whose habit has been to
make small space than OF those who
have believed in a generous allow
ance. 1t appears that although the
number of advertisers in the case OF
some OF the leading magazines has
actually decreased since 1890 the
amount OF space contained in the ad-
sertising pages has largely increased.
One of DR.. SCOTS recent under
akings which has excited large local
and which contains sugges
ions valuable to newspaper publish
,rs, appeared in series of questions
for the purpose OF discover
ng the reasons why people take the
laily papers. a list was compiled OF
1000 OF the most prominent business
md professional men OF Chicago from
whom about 1900 replies were secur-
ID. 1t was found that practically all
cad at least one daily paper, 40 per
:ent. read two papers, p per cent
hree papers, 10 per cent four papers,
per cent five papers, 2 per cent six
papers 8 per cent all eight Of the En-
,lish press Of the city. A question as
0 the favorite features Of the papers
howed the various news departments
n long lead as proved by the tab
llation: Local news, l7.8 per cent;
political news, 1873; financial news,
l.3; foreign news, IL; ethical tone
broadly considercd) 81; sporting
lews, So; cartoons, 4.3; special ar
icles, 49,; music, 1888; book reviews,
"a; arrangement, Ia; society notes,
a; drama, IL; art, g; advertise
nents, IA; storiettes, l3; weather, i;
lumor, .05. From such figures DR..
scott concludes that Chicago news
papers, like those in most American
titles, are valued primarily for the
lews.
While the studies carried on at the
psychological laboratory in North
western tend to discourage the bust
less man from laundering use Of ad-
,ertising space they certainly make
lin feel that by adhering to the fun
lamental principles Of psychology,
which are in reality very simple and