ADVERTISING.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVIII, Issue 292, 7 November 1928, Page 8

ADVERTISING.

LESSONS FROM AMERICA,

Analysing advertising conditions in America, Mr F. W. Doidgo, formerly of the literary staff of the Auckland “Star” and now a director of the London “Daily Express,” writes to the Sydney Newspaper News: Think of the volume of advertising carried in American papers 1 In London, for instance, there are only three evening newspapers, possessing a total net sale of 2,000,000 copies daily, and carrying between them a combined total of 120 columns of advertising. -In New York there are six evening newspapers, with a total net sale of 1,600,000 copies, and between them they carry anything up to 1000 columns of advertising daily. How is it done?

The answer partly lies, of course, in the fact that the United States is the wealthiest country in the world. 1 The people have money to spend. The national income has risen from an average of 320 dollars ,in 1914 to an average of 770 dollars in 1926. Translated into purchasing power, this means an increase of 40 per cent. Then the advertising profession has been truly clever in building up its business. The newspapers have a slogan which has become accepted as a fundamental truth. “Merchandising is news” is the creed they preach. Everybody believes it. And the advertiser is discriminating. I have quoted advertising figures above for the New York evening papers. The bulk of that advertising is carried by the three evening newspapers with admittedly the smallest circulations. I should liko to quote a statement made at the Detroit Convention by. Mr Guy C. Smith, of the great firm of Libby McNeil and Libby, of Chicago. Ho declared in the course of an address before the Convention.

“I believe in quality rather than quantity. Not how large is the circulation of an advertising medium, but to what class of people does the paper go, is coming to bo the guiding rule for advertisers in the* United States.”

Personally, I believe that colossal as is the sum now spent in advertising in America, the business is only in its infancy. And in England lam confident we are going to havo just .the same experience. Advertising with us is still only a trend. But to-morrow it will become a tide. Leaders of industry must realise here, as they havo done in America, that it is a fallacy, to. think that if they make good articles, sales will take care of themselves.

There is an old belief that competition is the life of trade. America teaches us this is sheer nonsense. Advertising is the life of trade. Feeding hungry markets was once our problem. Those days have gone. But America has shown us howe it is possible to ensure that sales outstrip production. Advertising does it I