Many things are possible in advertising
which are too costly to attempt. That is another reason why every project and
method should be weighed and determined by a known scale of cost and result.
Changing peoples habits is very expensive. A project which involves that must
be seriously considered. To sell shaving soap to the peasants of Russia one
would first need to change their beard wearing habits. The cost would be
excessive. Yet countless advertisers try to do things almost as impossible. Just
because questions are not ably considered, and results are traced but unknown.
For instance, the advertiser of a dentifrice may spend much space and money
to educate people to brush their teeth. Tests which we know of have indicated
that the cost of such converts may run from $20 to $25 each. Not only because of
the difficulty, but because much of the advertising goes to people already
converted.
Such a cost, of course, is unthinkable. One might not in a lifetime get it
back in sales. The maker who learned these facts by tests make no attempt to
educate people to the tooth brush habit. What cannot be done on a large scale
profitably can not be done on a small scale. So not one line in any ad is
devoted to this object. This maker, who is constantly guided in everything by
keying every ad, has made remarkable success.
Another dentifrice maker spends much money to make converts to the tooth
brush. The object is commendable, but altruistic. The new business he creates is
shared by his rivals. He is wondering why his sales increase is in no way
commensurate with his expenditure.
An advertiser at one time spent much money to educate people to the use of
oatmeal. The results were too small to discover. All people know of oatmeal. As
a food for children it has age-old fame. Doctors have advised it for many
generations. People who don't serve oatmeal are therefore difficult to start.
Perhaps their objections are insurmountable. Anyway, the cost proved to be
beyond all possible return.
There are many advertisers who know facts like these and concede them. They
would not think of devoting a whole campaign to any such impossible object. Yet
they devote a share of their space to that object. That is only the same folly
on a smaller scale. It is not good business.
No one orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase the
consumption of those fruits. The cost might be a thousand times his share of the
returns. But thousands of growers combined have done it on those and many other
lines. There lies one of the great possibilities of advertising development. The
general consumption of scores of foods can be profitably increased. But it must
be done on wide co-operation.
No advertiser could afford to educate people on vitamins or germicides. Such
things are done by authorities, through countless columns of unpaid-for space.
But great successes have been made by going to people already educated and
satisfying their created wants.
It is a very shrewd thing to watch the development of a popular trend, the
creation of new desires. Then at the right time offer to satisfy those desires.
That was done on yeast's, for instance, and on numerous antiseptics. It can
every year be done on new things which some popular fashion or widespread
influence is brought into vogue. But it is a very different thing to create that
fashion, taste or influence for all in your field to share.
There are some things we know of which might possibly be sold to half the
homes in the country. A Dakin-fluid germicide, for instance. But the consumption
would be very small. A small bottle might last for years. Customers might cost
$1.50 each. And the revenue per customer might not in ten years repay the cost
of getting. Mail order sales on single articles, however popular, rarely cost
less that $42.50 each. It is reasonable to suppose that sales made through
dealers on like articles will cost approximately as much. Those facts must be
considered on any one-sale article. Possibly one user will win others. But
traced returns as in mail order advertising would prohibit much advertising
which is now being done.
Costly mistakes are made by blindly following some ill-conceived idea. An
article, for instance, may have many uses, one of which is to prevent disease.
Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be. People will do
much to cure trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it. This
has been proved my many disappointments.
One may spend much money in arguing prevention when the same money spent on
another claim would bring many times the sales. A heading which asserts one
claim may bring ten times the results of a heading which asserted another. An
advertiser may go far astray unless he finds out.
A tooth paste may tend to prevent decay. It may also beautify teeth. Tests
will probably find that the latter appeal is many times as strong as the former.
The most successful tooth paste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his
headlines. Tests have proved them unappealing. Other advertisers in this line
center on those troubles. That is often because results are not known and
compared.
A soap may tend to cure eczema. It may at the same time improve complexion.
The eczema claim may appeal to one in a hundred while the beauty claims would
appeal to nearly all. To even mention the eczema claims might destroy the beauty
claims.
A man has a relief for asthma. It has done so much for him he considers it a
great advertising possibility. We have no statistics on this subject. We do not
know the percentage of people who suffer from asthma. A canvass might show it to
be one in a hundred. If so, he would need to cover a hundred useless readers to
reach one he wants. His cost of result might be twenty times as high as on
another article which appeals to one in five. That excessive cost would probably
mean disaster. For reasons like these every new advertiser should seek for wise
advice. No one with the interests of advertising at heart will advise any
dubious venture.
Some claims not popular enough to feature in the main are still popular
enough to consider. They influence a certain number of people - say one-fourth
of your possible customers. Such claims may be featured to advantage in a
certain percentage of headlines. It should probably be included in every
advertisement. But those are not things to guess at. They should be decided by
actual knowledge, usually by traced returns.
This chapter, like every chapter, points out a very important reason for
knowing your results. Scientific advertising is impossible without that. So is
safe advertising. So is maximum profit.
Groping in the dark in this field has probably cost enough money to pay the
national debt. That is what has filled the advertising graveyards. That is what
has discouraged thousands who could profit in this field. And the dawn of
knowledge is what is bringing a new day in the advertising world.
Table of Contents
Chapter Eleven