DOES ADVERTISING PAY?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 27 July 1907, Page 4

DOES ADVERTISING PAY?

IOPLVIoX OF A FIRM WHICH HAS i SPENT £3,000,000. Mr r. J. Kari'iiU, the chairman and nutmiging director of Messrs A. and A, Pears, the proprietors of "Pears* Soap." in reply to a query put .to him' tiy a Daily Mail representative, "Does advertising pay?" remarked: "I can only answer that question with an emphaH'affirmative. The fact that advprtlsuv.' pays asserts itself in the colored picture poster* which adorn the street holdings and in the conspicuous announcements which confront the traveller and the newspaper reader e\ervwhere. ! ' Advertising paid, he added, when it was

good advertising—when the artiele advertised was good, when the selected channels for advertising were good, and when the advertising matter was good Complete success could not be obtained when there was any weakness in any of these directions.

Successful advertising dealt with the future. To-day's customers were safe—you had to win over those of to-Morrmv and to get them the advertiser had to get in touch with the needs of to-mc low. tastes and fashions changed and the advertiser had to change with them. An idea that was effective a generation ago was flat, stale, and unprofitable nowadays. He had had some supreme successes. particularly in pictorial and nt» advertising. Sir John 51, - Hals' "Bubbles" painting, which cost £2500, had made a marked and permanent impression; hut from year to year it was presented in a new form. Each season had its own plentiful crop of new posters and new Press advertisements. He found no difficulty in spending as much ns£l':ii - 000 on advertising, and his firm had in all spent not less than £3,000,000. "Brilliant ideas'' arrived by sverv post. Nearly everybody seemed to think he was a born advertiser, and every mother that her boy was the image of tiie boy m "Bubbles.'' An astronomer wantoil to call a new star "Pears' Soap"; so did the owner of a horse entered for the Berbv!

'I have seen," said Mr Bnrratt in conclusion, "advertising advanced from the small, half-hearted practice of a few to a great and useful art, in which all business houses can now whole-heartedly jom. 1 hose who do not advertise are pased by they don t get the business For a long time some of the old houses held buck from advertising, but in recent they have brought themselves into line with modern methods, and have advertised freely and to their great advantage. Those who have still refrained 11-0111 advertising have simply had to iag behind, and in many eases go'under altogether. flood goods and good advertising, and plenty of it—these are among Ihe most important business factors at the present day." Mr Charles W. Post, chairman of the I'ostum Cereal'■ Company, Limited, of Battle Creek, Michigan,' U.S.A.. and of '•tape Ivuts, Limited, in London, has been speaking about the power of advertising, at a dinner of the American Advertising Men's Club. He said that many years ago the newspaper advertiser was looked upon by the public with a certain amount of incredulity. But things are altered nowadays. A salesman who could UIK j to & dozen customera wjih worthy of his credit; luit the salesman who could talk winningly to several thousands of customers * through the newspapers could earn pounds wl|il£ the other was earning pennies. His firm spent £200,001) annually in newspaper advertising. Had it not been for the magnificent machinery of publi-' city supplied by publishers, bis business now_ worth from three and a-half to four millions, would be a very small affair indeed. He could, therefore, never forget the debt he owed to newspapers. A good advertiser would tall; to people in plain terms about what he had to supply, and by continuing such a policy would ultimately lmild up a reputation for his product. Two facts, however, stood out for emphasis. It paid to manufacture articles on strict lines of 111tegrity, courting the investigation of skilled experts. Secondly, the unadvertised article, unknown to the people, might have merit, but it would not sell.