HINTS ON ADVERTISING

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1747, 30 August 1905, Page 64

HINTS ON ADVERTISING

In the ‘"Advertising World," Mr George King, managing director of the “Sphere and "Tatler” Limited, gives some shrewd hints on advertising and its possibilities. He has a right to speak, for with an expenditure of <£20,000 he put the ‘"Sphere" at once in the front rank of weekly newspapers, and with £IO,OOO spent judiciously in two or three weeks sold between seventy and eighty thousand of the first number of the ""Tatler. what Mr King mainly clamours for is the need of efficiency. In almost any department of trade there are splendid results to be attained by good avertising. The country is rich; it has money to spend, and wants to spend it: ""But the advertising must be judicious, and the article must be good. The man, too, who intends to be a successful advertiser must apply himself. You cannot run a successful advertising business and play golf three days a week. We have had to pay, and are paying, heavily because so many of our Army officers had not taken their profession seriously. Whether they will do so in the future, or whether, as is probable, society influence will be too strong, remains to be seen, but certain it is that the man who wants to build up or largely increase a business cannot give three days a week to soli or other pleasures. He must apply himself in grim earnest.” HOW TO BEGIN. Hesitating advertisers may say: ""But how am I to know what capital is necessary? How may I compete with the colossal houses whom advertising has long since so thoroughly established ? Mr King believes this problem not to be a difficult one: "‘We will assume that you are a furniture dealer. To begin with, your whole stock must be good; it must be at least equal in quality to that of other people in the same line of business. You will then design some one or two articles of your own —an easy chair, perhaps, a table a bedstead, a bureau. You must be sure that there is something novel as well as tasteful about such design. Let your margin of profit he moderate, and allot a certain sum to advertising these articles during, say, twelve months. Do not waver and stop your expenditure if after six months there is no apparent result. How much money have I seen wasted by such vacillation!" Mr King’s point is that if you are the lucky producer of a useful novelty you will not require to spend a great sum at first to make it known. On the other hand, if you propose to introduce an already much-advertised article, you must be prepared to spend enormous sums. WATCH THE PAPERS. A& to results from individual papers, here is an instructive anecdote: "‘The late Mr John Maple once replied to a question of mine as to what publication or form of advertisement had paid him best by saying: "As far as I can trace, nothing in particular has paid me but/ he added, "I have built up this great concern by advertising. Had I made a point that I should see results from each individual paper in which I advertised sufficient to justify my continuing I should have ceased advertising altogether. As it is I used my judgment, and backed my judgment, and you see the result.’" ■ . . , ]Vf y j£ino*' 3 general advic© is to watcii the papers for several weeks, see which advertisements are most telling, and ascertain if they are issued by agents, and not "'only issued, but in every sense "‘manipulated/’ Then the advertiser should place himself in the hands of some one such cap-

able firm; he should not make it a competitive affair: You had better pay .£IOO for £IOO worth of advertising well done than £IOO less 10 per cent, for the same advertising badly done. Large agencies with the experience of years can give information which the tradesman would . hardly ever acquire himself. And they can also secure the best rates obtainable from the newspapers.