BUSINESS BUILDING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 41, 18 February 1932, Page 8

BUSINESS BUILDING

SECRETS OF PUBLICITY THE USE OF ADVERTISING INSPIRING THE PURCHASER AUCKLAND, Feb. 17. Advertising men and newspaper representatives attending the advertising convention in the Chamber of Commerce hall last evening were treated to a breezy and informative address on “Departmental Store Advertising” by Mr. D. Robertson, assistant-manager of the Farmers’ Trading Company. Mr. Robertson dealt with the psychological aspect of advertising rather than the economic or mathematical side, and expressed his preference for premium advertising, by which the buyer is offered something in addition to his purchase. To-day the greatest problem of the man in charge of a department store was to maintain his volume of sales. If he could do this at a reasonable gross profit all his other problems would solve themselves. It was just as simple and involved as that. The only way was to “boost” sales, and that involved more and better advertising. “Heaven help the man who thinks he can improve his business by cutting out or even cutting down his advertising appropriation; the man who imagines he can run a department store to-day without publicity is heading straight for commercial suicide,” said Mr. Robertson. Value of Originality The speaker said he knew that a good many business men looked down their noses at some of the premium advertising used by his firm, quite ignoring the crowds of shoppers attracted. All this giving of free picture tickets, tram cards, photographs, building sections was considered undignified, but he would rather be the owner of a business that was a live concern than one that was petrified by dignity. Mr. Robertson explained the measures taken by some of the largest and most successful businesses in the world, where the results obtained were an inspiration to the “stunting’’ advertiser. Just as competition had become intense in the pricing of goods because of the difficulty in finding buyers, so had competition become keen in advertising because of the increasing difficulty of attracting customers. Originality in advertising as in every other form of human endeavour counted more than ever before. To-day advertising must have something new, something startling, a dramatic quality it never had before, if it was going to arrest attention and make people spend. Premium Advertising After dealing with the need for getting a full share of the restricted business due to depressed conditions and the various means of advertising • to be employed, the speaker said that in premium advertising they were trenching on something tremendously important to the department store. To his mind it was the most powerful, the most direct and the most persuasive mehod of inducing tho public to buy! Of course, the attraction of a premium depended on its value and the time required to win it. He knew from actual experience the nearer one got to something for nothing the greater the appeal. On the other hand, pricecutting was a poor substitute for good premium advertising as a means of increasing sales. “Let me say something of the cumulative effect of advertising and welldirected publicity,” said Mr. Robertson. “The first night I walked through the brilliantly-lit streets of an American town, with its myrind electric signs scintillating in all shapes anad colours, unconsciously my heart beat a little faster, my step became a little brisker. E felt everything was right with the world and I was in a mood to buv. So with the well-advertised store. People flock to the successful store. The old adage is ever true —nothing succeeds like success. The staff, instead of being dull and listless, sparkle in response to success. The story becomes a parade—a show. You see crowds of people walking about. Yon say to yourself. ‘There is no depression here; things are not so bad as they say,’ The whole atmosphere induces you to buy —and all brought about bv high-grade nublicity. Too manv business men arc imbued with the idea of hanging on until things ret better, when they should be nut tn heat the band.”