28 DECEMBER 1934, Page 5

THE TECHNIQUE OF ADVERTISING

NO one at this time of day is disposed to reproach the Government because it has decided to embark on an intensive campaign of propaganda—which is another name for advertising. On the contrary, its supporters would have every reason for reproaching it if- it failed to use every reputable means for informing the world about its achievement and its programme. Publicity is indispensable to Governments ; and it is of course indispensable to every enterprise which depends on the goodwill, co-operation or patronage of large numbers of • persons. An influx of tourists into this country is needed to balance our foreign trade, and a "Come to Britain " movement is rightly organized to let the world know about' the attractions of our island. No charity can hope to draw in the necessary sub- scriptions unless it advertises its needs to a generous public. No large-scale business can maintain its sales unless it . spends money freely in letting consumers know what it has' to offer. And not only at home, but also abroad. The Prince of Wales is indefatigable in reminding British traders that if they mean to recapture foreign markets they must use more enterprise in sending out salesmen and in advertising to foreigners the merits of their products.

It is no reflection on advertising as such that it is capable of being abused. There are certain abuses, no doubt, to which it particularly lends itself. Those who have inferior articles to sell are prone to resort to deception when they advertise them ; but the fault in that ease lies rather in the making of inferior articles than in the advertisement which announces them. It lends itself also to folly. There are those who have serviceable goods to sell who must needs attribute to ;them merits which they do not possess. This, in the main, is bad advertising, since it raises expectations which are not satisfied, and in the long run will do more harm to the salesman than good. There is also definitely pernicious advertising, as in the case of certain spurious medicines which are more likely to injure than improve the health of the credulous persons who con- sume them.

But to acknowledge that there is much mischievous and foolish advertising' is in no way a reproach to adver- tising as such.: Indeed, it is now generally admitted that it constitutes a necessary link in the chain of pro- duction, distribution and consumption which constitute the economic activities of the world. The larger the public and the more complex the economic organism of society, the more necessary does effective advertising become. It is needed not only in the case of mass- produced goods, in respect of which it is obviously necessary that there should be an organized advertisement service to inform the community where and how it can buy this or that kind of commodity. But it is needed also in the case of rarer and highly specialized articles, for the vendors of these have to find. a. means of intro- ducing them to just those individuals scattered about the country who would desire and buy them if they knew of their existence. One technique is needed for advertising articles of common consumption ; another technique for advertising those which appeal to the few. And the latter is further divided ; for the salesman will have to distinguish between prospective purchasers who are just rich, purchasers who are primarily fastidious, and purchasers who are both rich and fastidious. The art of advertising is not a simple matter of counting up heads or equating values with figures of circulation. It is a matter of distinguishing the right heads, and acting in awareness of the fact that a thousand of one kind are worth a hundred thousand of another.

Though advertising in one form or another has always existed in this country, and became an enormous factor in business in the nineteenth century, it is only since the War that British business people have treated it as seriously, or nearly as seriously, as the Americans have always done since they first became a great commercial nation. That is to say, it is only recently that it has been generally realized that advertising is not an extraneous element in the economic life of the country, but that it performs a function as precise and as necessary as that which is performed by manufacturers, transporters, wholesale distributors and retail distributors. Properly conceived, it is the Intelligence Department of business, the communications branch by means of which it is possible to make all the other branches function, addressing itself, through the appropriate journal, hoarding or leaflet to the minds of ultimate consumers. If badly done trade suffers. If well done, trade improves. A successful business, therefore, demands a highly developed technique of advertising resting on a scientific basis.

Bat in spite of the fact that advertising has become a specialized profession using the brains of thousands of skilled men, it is still the case that a great part,' perhaps the greater part, of the advertising in this country is done in a happy-go-lucky, hit or miss manner. Conven- tions die hard. Superstitions prevail. Many novelties are accepted with insufficient examination. Although it has been pointed out by some of the most experienced' persons in the advertising profession that a large part of the " national " advertising in the popular Press is sheer waste, owing to the methods by which circulations are artificially forced up, national advertisers are still attracted to those journals by the sheer magnitude of circulation figures. Though of course broad distinctions are drawn between popular advertising, class advertising, and trade advertising, these distinctions are often made with very little discrimination.

For the purposes of any given salesman the value of a publicity medium is not the number of persons who see or read his notice, but the number of possible customers who see or read it. Each of these is a unit of value to him. The rest are surplusage, for which he will have to pay heavily if he chooses his medium carelessly. If you pay for a placard on a hoarding which will be seen by a million people, you will have bought very nearly a million effective publicity units when you are advertising cheap cigarettes or digestive foods ; but if you are adver- tising cigars, which are smoked only by 1,000 out of the million, you have paid for 999,000 publicity units which are of no value. If you advertised a 28 days' cruise in a journal bought by 2,000,000 people of whom only 25,000 get as much as 28 days holiday in a year, you have secured no more publicity value than you would have received in a journal bought by 25,000 people all of whom enjoy the privilege of an annual monthly holiday. These are only examples of the kind of question tn which the skilful advertiser pays attention, which are neglected by unskilful advertisers who are too readily attracted by very large figures. If it should be objected that it is obviously to the advantage of a serious weekly journal, which has many fastidious readers, to point out facts such as these, we should not deny it for a moment ; it is to be desired on all grounds that the readers of such a journal should understand its position and realize how, if they are so disposed, they can assist it, 'notably by mentioning its name when corresponding regarding advertisements in its columns. There should be a recognized co-operation between a paper, its readers and its advertisers. The fact that scientific methods of advertising, which are necessary to sound business, will also promote the prosperity of serious journals and increase their power to serve their readers, is something to be emphasized rather than concealed. The improve- ment of advertising is important for the business of the country and will tend to strengthen the best journalism. For both reasons it is incumbent on serious journals to point out those aspects of the question to which attention is rarely drawn in other sections of the Press.