Building Business: An Illustrated Manual for Aggressive Business Men
A 500-page manual published in Boston and partly paid for by advertisements bound between its chapters, which Fowler admits he took for the profit.
What it is
A 500-page manual published in Boston and partly paid for by advertisements bound between its chapters, which Fowler admits he took for the profit. It opens with blunt axioms (advertising must be made to pay; if it does not pay, it is misdirected), then gives advice for 95 retail trades. A survey of 177 national advertisers ranks media: high-grade magazines score highest, medium-grade family magazines lowest, and most prefer a steady monthly ad to one twice the size every other month. Later chapters argue for continuous advertising, for advertising in the dull summer season, for writing to women as the main buyers, for honesty over fake bargain sales, and against hand-bills sent unasked. The rest covers printing, engraving, lithography, calendars, type specimens, signs, window displays and proofreading, closing with short essays by advertisers such as Albert A. Pope and W. L. Douglas.
Why read it now
Fowler's core claims have aged better than his prose. Continuity over bursts matches modern evidence: Ehrenberg-Bass work on brands that go dark shows sales slipping year after year once advertising stops, and his dull-season chapter is backed by recession studies from McGraw-Hill in the 1980s and the IPA in 2008. His rule that a catalogue sent on request is read while one sent unasked is binned is the logic of opt-in lists and lead magnets. The honesty chapter, where ten stores shouting the same bargain all lose, reads well against the constant discounting of Gulf retail seasons such as White Friday. The survey of 177 advertisers is early media research, though self-reported. What has dated: the exact count of six insertions before an ad works, the claim that ads weigh twenty times more with women than with men, his distrust of any fixed style (later evidence favours consistent brand assets), and a loud, repetitive tone. Use: before cutting an off-season budget, compare slow-month sales in a year you advertised with a year you stopped.
Passages worth keeping
Advertising, like everything else, must be made to pay.
الإعلان لا يربح من تلقاء نفسه، بل يحتاج إلى إدارة وعناية مثل أي قسم آخر في الشركة.
The sixth appearance of the advertisement is liable to be felt in the store where the goods are for sale. Then, and then only, does advertising begin to tell.
الإعلان الجديد لا يظهر أثره في المبيعات من أول مرة، بل بعد تكرار متواصل، ومن يتوقف مبكرًا يضيّع ما أنفقه.
A style which will raise garden seeds might bury pianos.
الأسلوب الذي ينجح مع منتج قد يقتل منتجًا آخر، فلا توجد قاعدة واحدة تصلح لكل الإعلانات.
The man who writes or calls for a catalogue or circular will read it, when he will throw into the waste basket the same thing sent to him unrequested.
من يطلب الكتالوج بنفسه يقرؤه، ومن يصله دون طلب يرميه، ولذلك مهمة الإعلان أن يدفع الناس إلى الطلب.
One regular customer is worth more than three transient customers.
العميل الدائم أثمن من عدة عملاء عابرين، والخداع في الإعلان قد يجلب العابرين لكنه يخسر الدائمين.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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