The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1915-11-12
BANK ADVERTISING
ADVISES SAVING MONEY
And Therefore Differs From
Ordinary Advertising.

And Therefore Differs From
Ordinary Advertising.
In recent article Chas. H. Wood
ruff, advertising manager of the
Heard National Bank, Jacksonville,
gives the following interesting ideas
concerning bank advertising:
Bank advertising is different from
any other advertising in the world. In
the ordinary run of business, house
advertises its goods and the appeal Is
to the buying public. That is where
the difference comes in. Banks don't
ask you to spend money. They ask
you to save it, and they pay you mon
ey for doing it.
! 1t was only about three years ago
that the Heard National bank of Jack
sonville began business. 1t began In
small way. 1t didn't make any
splurge. Its growth was as natural
as a boys. The business was here,
and the personnel of the institution
was such that it was able to hold
the business it got. The publicity
given in those days was of kind that
let the people of Florida know that
Jacksonville had a new bank and that
j. j. Heard sat at the head of the ia
bic.
Florida people had heard of J. J.
Heard before, and they had confidence
in him. And so the business grew
1t grew the first year to a $1,000,000
business. The second year it in
creased another million dollars. The
third year it increased another million
Today this young bank is one of the
four big banks of the state and it is
housed in its own fifteen-story build
ing at Laura and Forsyth streets.
And this in a period of only three
years.
In early American banking, banks
pulled business on the reputation of
the institution, and the personal ac-
ouaintance of it's officers and the way
they were liked. 1t has been only
comparatively recently that banks
have used newspaper space to any
great extent, but it is already the
big and generally recognized third
factor in the getting of new business.
For the past few years, bank ad-
vertising has been concentrated for
the most part on the savings account.
The result is that not only more peo-
pie have savings accounts now than
they ever have had before, but there is
such bid from the banks for this
class of business that the advertising
! has begun to take on the aspect of an
educational movement for the encour-
agement of thrift which is national
in its scope. 1t seems almost like a
paradox, but the more the people who
save, the better are business conditions
generally.
The day is gone when there is any
argument as to whether advertising
pays or not. 1t does pay, and it pays
big, but that is a long ways from
saying that all advertising always
pays. It's just question of wheth-
er the advertiser is paying for his ad-
vertising or his advertising is pay
ing him.
Advertising that encourages any
thing that improves conditions pays
from a philanthropic standpoint at
least, and in the case of the savings
account, the returns are in many in
stances direct. 1t wasn't so long age
that thrift was looked upon as some
thing akin to stinginess. Nowadays
people know that thrift is good man
agement, the prime requisite of which
is good sense It's another bit of
public opinion that was changed by
newspaper advertising Our adver-
Using of course is for the purpose of
getting new business and to encour-
age our own patrons to get the saw
ing habit, but if someone occasionally
reads one of our little ten-inch ads,
gets its message and opens an account
with some other institution, we
couldn't say the ad didn't pay. For,
everyone who is prosperous there is
another who is just that much better
prospect for the example. And the
more people who have bank accounts
the more there are who will have. And
any good institution with good man.
agement will always get its share OF
the business in the long run.
For the calendar quarter ending o.
tober /, the banks of Jacksonville paid
out S65, 700 interest, and most of it
went to Jacksonville people. The big
exception, we believe, was on the com
paratively small sum of $4,000 which
the Heard National bank has on de
post from Detroit, Mich, and which
found its way to Jacksonville on ac-
count of the attractiveness of the fou"
per cent quarterly compounded inter
est rate paid by Florida banks.
People are opening up savings &C
counts in Jacksonville every day. Just
how many start because of tn
Using the banks are doing, nobody
knows. But what we do know is this;
If man or a woman makes con-
nection with us because they know
someone in the bank and therefore feel
that thew would be more at home with
US, or if they are sent to us by one
of our friends, we credit that business
to the officers.
But if that man or that woman is q
stranger who Gust happens" into our
place, we give the credit to newspa-
per advertising.
And bank advertising pays.