The Advertising Book, 1916
A 600-page compilation that Paul T. Cherington, assistant professor of marketing at the Harvard business school, made for the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World.
What it is
A 600-page compilation that Paul T. Cherington, assistant professor of marketing at the Harvard business school, made for the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. It gathers two years of articles, mostly from Printers' Ink, Advertising and Selling and System, as a record of progress rather than an argument. Part One follows advertising through the distribution system: a 1915 New York circular urging householders to buy in bulk, not in packages, and the replies; retailers such as a clothier in Chariton, Iowa, with a 7,000-name mailing list; dealer helps; and the tension between national brands and department stores, chain stores (over 2,000 chains and 25,000 stores in 1914) and wholesalers with their own labels. Part Two covers analysis, including plotting weekly sales into curves, mediums and flat newspaper rates, audited circulation, direct mail, trademarks and the vigilance work behind advertising codes.
Why read it now
The book is most useful as a record of fights that retail markets keep having. Brand against private label, manufacturer against a big retailer that wants buying power, dealer material that stores throw away when too many brands send it: the same fights now run between Gulf brands, hypermarket chains and delivery apps. Several lessons hold. Judge advertising by sales, not replies: Custer's case of a mail campaign that looked like a failure on inquiries until weekly sales were plotted is still the argument for measuring sales lift rather than clicks. Buy media on audited numbers at one published rate, as the push for audited circulation and flat rates did. A brand name keeps its value only while the product behind it keeps its promise. What has dated: the confidence that branded package goods always cost the consumer less, which the book asserts more than it proves, results reported by the firms themselves, and long quoted articles with little editing. Use: before paying a retailer or an app for trade support, ask what it does for the retailer's own costs and turnover, not only for your shelf display.
Passages worth keeping
The one convincing defence which advertising can make against such attacks is its record of achievement. Upon this alone can it afford to stand.
أقوى رد على من يهاجم الإعلان هو سجل ما حققه فعلًا، ولا شيء غير هذا السجل يصلح أساسًا للدفاع عنه.
The great task of advertising is to help to deliver goods from the producer to the consumer better and with less waste than they can be delivered without this help.
مهمة الإعلان الكبرى أن يوصل السلعة من المنتج إلى المستهلك بطريقة أفضل وبهدر أقل مما لو غاب الإعلان.
His business is solely to increase sales and his work is a failure if he has not done so, even though the correspondence department is working overtime answering the inquiries he has created.
عمل مدير الإعلان أن يرفع المبيعات، فإن لم ترتفع فقد فشل، حتى لو امتلأ المكتب بالاستفسارات التي جلبها.
We have advocated the flat rate for thirty years. We are buying one thing in a newspaper and that is circulation.
الوكالة تدعو منذ ثلاثين عامًا إلى سعر واحد للجميع، لأن ما يشتريه المعلن من الصحيفة شيء واحد هو عدد قرائها.
A trademarked product is like a marked man, it may be easily avoided if the public disapproves of it, and no amount of artificial stimulation of demand will alter this for long at a time.
المنتج صاحب العلامة معروف للجميع، فإذا خيّب الناس تجنبوه بسهولة، ولن ينقذه الإعلان مهما زاد لوقت طويل.
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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