Printers' Ink, January 2, 1913 (Vol. 82, No. 1)
The first 1913 issue of the New York advertising weekly.
What it is
The first 1913 issue of the New York advertising weekly. The cover is an N. W. Ayer & Son ad telling a manufacturer in a crowded line that his problem is production, not advertising. The lead article, by E. T. Welch of the Welch Grape Juice Company, describes soda-fountain clerks serving other juice with the label hidden, and the firm's answer: ads for special uses (for invalids, on grapefruit, in punch) placed before nurses, physicians and men, which evened out seasonal sales and made substitution costly for dealers. Other pieces: Charles C. Rosewater arguing that publishers really manufacture advertising space; the government's price-maintenance suit against Kellogg; H. I. Wildenberg of Larkin on form-letter enclosures; Edward S. Rogers on brand habit; Valspar varnish's water test; Gilbert P. Farrar on narrow-column layout; and a letter reporting that six readers of a murder story all missed the half-page ad beside it.
Why read it now
Rogers's essay is the part to read. His claim that repeat buying of everyday brands runs on habit, not fresh reasoning, and that an easily recognised mark is what lets the habit form, is close to what modern research on habits and distinctive brand assets finds. Welch's tactic holds too: tying the brand to specific uses and occasions widens demand and gives shoppers a reason to insist on the name, which is today's thinking about category entry points. The letter on position is an early attention test: a prime spot beside gripping news did not mean the ad was seen, a finding that eye-tracking and viewability data repeat. Rosewater's point that publishers sell attention, not paper, describes today's platforms. What has dated: the legal fight over fixed resale prices, and Farrar's "golden center" theory of where the eye lands, which he rests on authority, not measurement. Use: list three specific occasions for your product and build one ad around each, and check that your pack or logo can be recognised at a glance.
Passages worth keeping
The solution of the problem is not a question of advertising, it is a question of production.
بعض مشكلات النمو لا يحلها الإعلان، بل زيادة الإنتاج والاستعداد للاستمرار في السوق.
Six persons were questioned. They all had read the murder news, and were acquainted with the details set forth in the paper. Not one of them had seen the advertisement, or at least not one remembered having seen it
الموقع المميز بجانب خبر مثير لا يضمن رؤية الإعلان، فقد ينشغل القارئ بالخبر وينسى كل ما حوله.
he is manufacturing, not periodicals or newspapers, but manufacturing advertising space.
الناشر لا يربح من بيع الصحيفة بل من بيع المساحة الإعلانية، فالقارئ وانتباهه هما السلعة الحقيقية.
I would never attempt to make it appear something other than it is.
الرسالة الموحدة لا تحتاج إلى التظاهر بأنها شخصية، فإن كانت رسالتها نافعة فهي تستحق القراءة كما هي.
it is habit more than anything else that makes us buy particular brands of the things we use every day.
الناس يعيدون شراء العلامة نفسها في المنتجات اليومية بدافع العادة أكثر من التفكير والمقارنة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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