The Washington times., 1912-06-02
IN LOCAL FINANCIAL CIRCLES
By I. A. FLEMING.

The attention of the reader once at
tracted; he should not be disappointed /
good old msn-to-man fashion. like Won ~ /
really ,,y meant Il; Talk in words he can |
Understand, ,,,n. not In a language which 4
fens tais NOT notninE stIEf.d to ahimIIs,n hosy
W course allowance should be made I
Tor the class of people to which the al.
- aodressed, but in any circumstances,
Must Use Judgment.
However good the copy and thu
medium the whole may be wasted tf
not properly placed. In the case Of
newspaper advertising, how many
times you see fine, logical appeais
to the workingman to start a savings
account, IL only with one dollar, placed,
IN the most Illogical place to reach that
Of reasoning could persuade the banker
that his working man would even glance
at the page bearing his ad, a page cone
,alnlng rows OF market quotations,
Shs other teennicsi bsnn al financial articles. and
Select the page bearing the news
most likely to interest the readers you
may wish to reich. Use, the tinaDciai
page for readers Of financial news, but.
cont expect your future customer to
turn to q certain page for the sole pur-
pose OF reading. your ad. We may,
houses which usually place their ads
with fine judgment. - p
What is known as human interest,
advertising has proven most effective
Tor banks exploiting the advantage Of,
the savings habits. BY human interest
advertising is meant using a form OF
copy In which both the illustration ana
text depict the actualities Of daily Iifeo
sympathies.
Institutions have frequently been cri--
ticised for featuring the somber side or
life's struggle and for suggesting the
possibility of future misfortunes. The,
results from such appeals stand as con-r
elusive evidence that something out Of
the ordinary is necessary in bringing
many people to the point of Immediate
action. =. ~ III
Must Always Be Alert. .,3s
when a man is prosperous 1t is hard
to make him realize that conditions maya
change at any moment. but the striking.
true-to-life ad. often arouses his de-a
termination to. act. A single picture oet
the result of thoughtlessness in others4
is sufficient to start him in building 81
safeguard against the hardships experIss
enced by those who have failed to save
Too much praise cannot be given
those institutions whose savings departto
ments have conducted vigorous camS
paigns Of education in saving. and the
American people have advanced as a.
nation because of their efforts. ~
Persistence in advertising is neces.s
sary to get the desired results. No bank
can hope to attain these results by
spasmodic efforts. It must keep conl-
tinuously, everlastingly at 1t, not spend-s
Ing $500 this month and then dropping
Far better spend 800 in each of those
months. II your appropriation permits,
make the public. in spite of itself. know
your name and what you offer: A.
reader may not think this or that bank.
will ever be of interest to him, but let
the necessity or wish to use the servic&
of bank arise, and the persistent adj
vertiser will get" him nine out of TEN
times. Why? Because stored away SUBJ
consciously in his memory are the nan,a
and offerings of that bank, and wheris
the necessity for banks service arises
Immediately there flashes across hid.
tractive ads. which he reads in spite ofl
himself. n
=. Hard To Gauge. ~ "a
Financial advertising is harder tol
key than almost any other class. as
the nature of the product permits mo-
bargain sales, and the advertiser who
expects instant returns from his ads
is almost certainly doomed to disap.
pointment. 1t takes weeks, monthss
sometimes years, to get them coming
right. but, once started, only absolute
discontinuance of advertising can stop
them. For just in proportion as II Is
hard to get the public interested to the
point of acting on your suggestion, so
is 1t hard to make that public forget
you The accumulative effects of adj
vertising are truly wonderful. From
campaign of persistent advertising re-
turns continue to come in for many
months after 1t has been discontinued.
"Fiancial advertising is in its in
fancy. It's hardly begun. Many de- /
partments Of banking containing much
human interest material remain prac-s
tically untouched by the advertiser 'ss
pen. AS these are exploited, the pub
lie will be educated to avail itself Of;
services of which it is at present
ignorant. Z
Let US keep our ads at a high
standard, free from exaggeration, in-
structve and full Of interest to thes
readers, for while actuated in a large
| measure by selfish wish for gain, ours
Is work of education which should
be turned to immense benefit to the pub 4
lic."