Omaha daily bee., 1922-02-06
The Banker and
Advertising
- By GUY EMERSON
Vice President National Bank of Commerce. New York

Keen business men are not going to spend sums
aggregatng billion dollars year. year after year,
unless those expenditures produce profits IL must be
obvious then that in the last analysis the advertising
advice which the business man wants is the advice
which will biud and maintain his sales or his good WILL
The ability to give such advice is second to none IN
business Importance II is akin to the sense OF profits
the instinct for which either exists or does not
exist in an individual business man. The advertising
man who has this sense would doubtless succeed in al
most any line of business But the great copy writer
is an artist rather than business man. Being artist
he will regard his work plane above the traf
fickngs and compromises of trade He would not be
great copy writer if he felt the primary urge to make
five dollars grow where only one. grew before. But
such man, when he is wise, does not try to run an
advertising agency. He finds business man, one with
vision, to be sure but primarily business man; he
makes him president and general managers takes for
himself a big, quiet corner otfee-and writes copy.
This is not materialistic viewpoint. 1t is simply
suggestion that in building up better understanding
between advertising men and their customers the bus-
men and bankers advertising must more and more
talk the language of business The tools of advertising
the printed word and the picture related in their
highest development not to the world of business but
to the world of art The writer and the artist speak
ing generally, of temperament widely different
from that of the correspondngy successful men in the
world of business. Now, how can the result be pro-
duced where the writer and artist may have the greatest
freedom for creative work. WHILE at the time the
head of the great manufacturing concern, who is only
casual authority on the use OF words or on the poss
advertising plan in terms which he thoroughly
derstand? The obvious answer would seem to be:
Have good business man, who has grasped the funda
mentas of advertising but who talks the language of
business in charge of the agency and the primary
contact with the manufacturer or other advertiser.
If the leaders of advertising will first be doubly
sure that their service is ntrnscaly sound; if they will
make sure that the basis on which it is handled is al
ways such as to inspire the confidence and respect of
the business community-then they will have ncreas
satisfied cuStOmeTS-fhe
advertisement that advertising hope to have On
this basis they build standing commensurate with
the Importance of advertising to sound business develop
ment, and commensurate also with it's broader signf
canoe in the modern world great potential cvlzing
force.
From the foregoing the question as to what the
banker thinks of advertising may be to extent
duced to its elements 1t is obvious that if the question
has short answer it that few bankers have had
sion to give much thought to the detail OF the advertising
business In the majority of the business executive
stands between the banker and the advertising
AS to the future the increasingly high standing of the
better agencies, and the who head them, will lead
to that fuller contact and understanding between ad-
vertising men and business executives, and to
limited extent between advertising and bankers,
which is the basis of business confidence. In the deve
opment of this relationship the ultimate test which ad-
verising must meet of the business intelligence
of the service rendered.
Unquestionably advertising has an important future
Many business men believe that the ultimate tendency
of modern saesmanship is toward operations large
SCALE that the great sales of the future will
be based upon volume and wide distribution. If this is
rue the test of success will be honest product manu-
factured with the highest efficiency and economy and
marketed widely on small margin of profit. Adver-
tsng will be powerful factor in this development.
Such distribution cannot be lastingy built by spectacu
lar advertising methods. To be successful the adver-
sing must be laid out with much vision must be as
carefully planned and economically executed as all
other parts of a selling campaign.
The forward-ooking banker will be glad to see the
advertising specialist take his proper place in the world
of sounder business which hope will replace the
sashing and wasteful periods of the past. But the
bankers attitude while important will not be the
trolling influence in advertising progress. The pre-
dominant relationship will always be that of the adver
tsing to the business executive And, more fun
damenal STILL the business of advertising will not pro-
gress or decline because business bankers or
any other group, prefer to smile frown upon it. Its
prosperity the will depend first, upon the
basic proproducing Importance of advertising de-
termined by the nexorable operation of economic laws
and, second, upon the downright human ability and
integrity with which advertising build upon the
basic opportunity which is presented to them.