THE WAY TO ADVERTISE

Waipa Post, Volume XXIV, Issue 1688, 19 November 1925, Page 6

THE WAY TO ADVERTISE

LONDON EXPERT'S ADVICE A lecture on economy in advertising was given at the Drapers' Summer School at Oxford, England, by Mr C. E. Wiles, merchandise manager of Harrods, Ltd. He said that their great London stores spent widely varied sums in advertising, according to the type and character of the business, and to the sort of customers upon whom they depended. He fancied that 'he should not lead them far astray if he set down these amounts at from about £IOO,OOO a year to ha'.f a million.

Reckoning the advertising outlay in terms of percentage upon the year's trading, it would be safe to estimate that these figures represented from 21 to 5 per 'cent, of the entire turnover.

A recent calculation of the total amount spent in advertising in the newspapers and periodicals in this country revealed a figure cf £32,000000 sterling, and a further sum of £7,000,000 was allocated to poster advertising. It was estimated that the United States spent annually £250,000000 sterling in advertising. Real economy did not start with advertising at all, but with the worthiness of the product to be advertised.

Part of the business of the advertising man was to know the psychology of the public. The failure of secure easily the advertised commodity had been a millstone round the neck of many a campaign. What was the thoroughly excellent product if distribution had not) -been properly effected?

Proper selection of media was another great factor towards economy. They chose their media according to the particular section of the public it was desired to reach. A rough-and-ready way of arriving at a suitable list of media for advertising was furnished by studying the advertisement pages of the various papers, and, having decided upon their list, he thought they should take the largest spaces they could afford, and take them as often and keep them going as long as they could afford it. It was sometimes wasteful to overdo advertising, but it was always wasteful to underdo advertising. If every penny wise were pound foolish it was likely to be in the preparation of the advertiser's message to tlhe public, for if that failed all failed. In their advertisements in the great newspaper they were simply sending out a million or more salesmen to sell for them.