ART OF ADVERTISING

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 75, Issue 6442, 5 November 1947, Page 6

ART OF ADVERTISING

-MANY PHASES DISCUSSED ADDRESS TO ROTARY CLUB The guest speaker at last night’s meeting of the Te Awamutu Rotary Club was Mr A. G. Warburton, who gave a most interesting address on advertising. The speaker was introduced by the President, Mr V. A. De Coek. Mr Warburton said there was no need to define what advertising was. It was the spreading of information in varying degrees. The English manufacturer devoted much time to research to ascertain the potential market of this country. That was the key to his advertising campaign. Having done that he made an allocation and chose his means of advertising, which he backed with the qualities of service and supply. The English advertiser was not unlike the manufacturers in New Zealand for the latter also set his allocation of advertising, and he backed it with supplies and agency services. His advertising was tied up with local agencies and services. The advertising campaign varied in accordance with the type of goods that was being sold. Naturally a campaign for the selling of cars differed from that of a campaign of selling household goods. In planning an advertising campaign a good deal of research preceded it. Mr Warburton instanced a case in which six months was spent in research which involved the question of ascertaining the quota of the year’s business, where his potential markets were, the areas in which there were good supplies of the commodities he had to .offer, and other areas in which he could expand his sales. Every business man would be •wise in setting an advertising campaign on a basis or estimate of his output. Such might be as low as a half per cent or as high as 5 per cent. The campaign could then follow the same course in planning for potential trade. In that relation they came up against various forms of adeertising, old and new. There was screen advertising, household circulars and various other forms. There was a lot of money wasted in socalled advertising. It was a necessary feature of any merchandising enterprise. Mr Warburton recalled a local case that he was associated with some years ago. A business man had a small shop in which he sold fruit. The man came to consult the speaker, and the latter advised a small advertisement of, say, two inches, but the prospective advertiser wanted a double column advertisement. The speaker said he wondered where his ratio of advertising costs compared with his turnover and he soon found out. The space contained recipes of how- to use fruit in an a) petising manner, and soon all the Judies were using his recipes. The advertiser created in the minds of the ladies the impression that he was an expert. Before embarking on that advertising the man’s trade remained steady but by advertising he sold his goods before he got them from the source of his supply. Mr Warburton instanced the case of a watchmaker who advertised on a hoarding at the Railway Station, but he doubted if any railway passenger would break his journey to purchase a watch. That form was not the function of hoarding advertising. A wise advertiser set aside a certain amount on contract advertising and he regulated it according to the season of the year, and the results should prove well worth while. The whole basis of advertising lay in three things, information and the spread of that information; the appearance of the shop which should be clean and attractive; and thirdly, honesty in advertising, and with those three points in mind was goodwill. Getting back to the question of advertising, there were some who thought advertising to be costly, but really it was not so. An extensive output was obtained by swelling the turnover, and by increasing the output the unit costs became more widely spread. The speaker then touched on one phase that recently had come to his notice. It was not for him to discuss the various forms of advertising; each had its proper sphere, but there were times when people thoughtlessly used the wrong types of advertising. A local business man had approached the speaker and said that an outside firm offered to provide a bus time table free of cost. The jobbing foreman gave the cost of printing the time-tables at £4 12s fid. There were ten advertising spaces on the card which cost the individual advertiser £5 each, so that they could see the profit made by the originators of the scheme. His suggestion was that some local organisation could set up a similar form of advertising and apply the difference between the cost of the printing and the amount received to some needed public amenity such as the greatly needed Rest Room. By doing so they would prevent the £5O walking out and keep it in the town. ■Mr Warburton then offered to answer any questions that might be put to him. Mr Reilly asked the speaker if he' knew whether there was any increase of interest shown by potential customers in goods extensively advertised in a city paper with a large circulation. Mr Warburton said that if the question referred to mail order houses, a widely circulated paper would give a coverage, but that would be offset by many other forms. If the advertising referred to over the counter sales it would have a different bearing. The people living in various areas preferred the local media of advertising as against media circulating throughout the whole province. Those people looked for what he termed table talk as well as world news. It gave the advertiser’s commodity a local flavour. The question would have to be looked at from many angles. Mi- L. G. Armstrong referred to the question of community advertising. He had, both in New Zealand and in England, seen that form of advertising, mentioning Stratford on Avon (Shakespeare’s birthplace) and Rotorua, where the historic attractions of those towns were “sold” so to speak. Te Awamutu also had a historic background, and Mr Armstrong suggested that they be featured in an advertis-

ing campaign. Mr Warburton stated that what Mr Armstrong said was very apt and true. Such places were in the same position as the manufacturer who planned his campaign. Te Awamutu had a wealth of historic association on which to work. Community advertising in Te Awamutu could be amplified with very good results. Dr J. B. W. Roberton thanked the speaker, remarking that doubtless there were other subjects more dear to the heart of the speaker and on which he would have liked to speak. Mr Warburton agreed with the Doctor in regards the latter’s contention that there were other subjects he would liked to have spoken. The thanks of those present were accompanied by a hearty round of applause.