Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1924-06-21
$375,OO0,O 900 for
Advertising

me HdtAOtAoA dANCA ISNAS
that is, the manufacturers, job
bers and wholesalers-of the
United States will spend $685.
100000 for advertisements this
year.
For every dollar so expend-
ed sales viii result amounting to
$4,000. In other words, the
appropriation for advertising
this year by national advertis-
ers will produce $37,500,00
600 in sales-thirty-seven bill
lions, mind you.
These figures were secured
from James O'Shaughnessy, sec
rotary of the American Associa-
ito nof Advertising Agencies,
and they are not sguess-work.
The agency and the advertiser
KNOW what the returns are.
They keep the strictest record
in every community.
These figures were given by
B, G. Forbes, one of Americas
leading financial writers, who
asks. DO these figures suggest
that progressive business con-
Germs are downhearted2"
To Mr.. Forbes, Secretary
O'Shaughnessy said:
"This is significant volume
because it is sales practically as
sured by the fact of advertis-
ing. Sales of advertised prod
ucts are sufficiently forced to
be depenndably expected.
Now that advertising has
been put back of so large per-
centage of the commerce of the
country there is less opportunity
for commercial depression.
Nationally advertised goods
are produced and sold more eco
nomlcally and more certainly at
profit and more likely to sell
again as consumption requires.
1t is seen, therefore, that in fore
casting the business conditions
of the country, the advertised
part of the business is so inn
portant that it must be taken in
to account.
Advertising and commercial
success almost always go hand
in hand in these modern days.
When I was a boy in Scotland,
the only shoe polish we knew
anything about was Ray & Mar
tins. 1t was advertised every
where. Every country store car
ried it. The firm did huge
business and made an enormous
amount of money.
"Alas, last year came this ca
bic dispatch from London:
Day & Martin, the famous
shoe polish firm, are selling our
because, as the managing direc-
tor says, We didn't keep up our
Advertising
1T was with their backing
that Sam Weller polished Mr.
Pickwick's White Hart Hotel.
Dickens partially for the farm
arose out of his aversion to a
rival firm. In his early days he
had to paste labels on their pots
of polish and received such a
small wage thai he never for
gave his employers.
References TO Day & Martins
polish are to be found in the
works of Carlyle. George Eliot,
Tom Hood and Bret Harte.
In former years the company
advertised as extensively per-
haps, as any other concern in
the country"
But that is only one side of the
picture. What happens to the
firm that stops its advertising?
Again we quote from MIR. For
bes. who says:
From Homer J. Buckley, the
noted advertising authority of
Chicago, l recently obtained this
Illuminating record;
"a group of retail stores in
Chicago conducted a test of the
turnover of a widely advertised
product in comparison with one
only slightly advertised. This test
covered a period of nine months
and its purpose was to establish
a consumers preference, with the
sales clerks maintaining an abso-
lutely neutral attitude.
'The articles chosen for the
test were Aunt Jemima's pam
cake flour, which is heavily adj
vertised, and three other brands
of pancake flour which are
slightly advertised. All brands
were given equal prominence on
the stores shelves. They were
placed side by side. So far as
the stores themselves were con-
cerned, no one brand was push
ed beyond another in any man
ner. The clerks simply waited
for the customers to indicate
their preference and then tab
uIated the results. Here they are
for the group of stores cover
ing the nine-month period:
a Cases Per
$50 Sold. Cent
Aunt Jemima Flour .-.735 72%
Slightly advertised,
No. ......--...-.....--...-.l5O 10