This Advertising Business
Roy S. Durstine, secretary and treasurer of Barton, Durstine & Osborn and a past president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, collects 33 short essays, many first printed in Printers' Ink, Scribner's, Liberty and other magazines.
What it is
Roy S. Durstine, secretary and treasurer of Barton, Durstine & Osborn and a past president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, collects 33 short essays, many first printed in Printers' Ink, Scribner's, Liberty and other magazines. The opening chapter answers the layman's question with one worked case: a radio maker who builds costly machinery because advertising lets him tell many people at once, so advertising is a link in the chain to volume and lower cost. Later chapters warn about a manufacturer who bought national magazine space before his product was in stores, argue that shoppers buy by trusted brand names, condemn paid testimonials, mock slogans and copy by famous humorists, defend agency work as a creative service paid by the 15 per cent commission, question circulation claims built on 250 home visits, and answer Chase and Schlink's Your Money's Worth. The last chapter covers radio.
Why read it now
The strongest idea is distribution before advertising: the maker who bought national space before stores stocked his product paid for demand he could not meet. Ehrenberg-Bass researchers now call this physical availability and rank it with mental availability. His attack on paid testimonials came long before today's disclosure rules, such as the US FTC endorsement guides and Saudi Arabia's Mawthooq licence for paid social media advertisers. His rule that a slogan must carry the product name is backed by brand-linkage studies, which keep finding ads remembered but credited to the wrong brand. His line that the best advertising calls no attention to itself has not held: Binet and Field's analysis of the IPA databank finds that emotional campaigns people talk about are the most effective. The better version is that attention should land on the brand, not the trick. Dated: his picture of women as home purchasing agents, the fixed 15 per cent commission, a stock chart offered as proof, and a racist caricature opening Chapter XV. Use: before entering a new region or channel, confirm the product can be bought there.
Passages worth keeping
Advertising is a link in the chain. Its job is to let a lot of people know the news all at once, to quicken the whole proceeding, and make possible the big production that leads to lower cost.
الإعلان حلقة في سلسلة الإنتاج والبيع، وظيفته أن يوصل الخبر إلى كثيرين في وقت واحد، فيسمح بإنتاج كبير يخفض التكلفة.
Anything which discredits all advertising ought to be eliminated. Paid testimonials certainly discredit legitimate testimonials.
الشهادة المدفوعة تضر بالثقة في الإعلان كله، وتفقد الشهادات الصادقة قيمتها، ولذلك يجب التخلص منها.
Advertising planned to sell the man paying the bill will rarely sell the public which buys the goods.
الإعلان المصمم لإرضاء صاحب الميزانية نادرًا ما يقنع الجمهور الذي يشتري المنتج فعلًا.
Moreover, a good slogan should contain the name of the product. That's the only way to make sure that people won't remember your slogan and forget your product.
الشعار الجيد يحمل اسم المنتج، وإلا تذكّر الناس العبارة ونسوا صاحبها.
To-day the buyer wants to know not merely "How many?" but "Who are they?"
مشتري المساحة الإعلانية لم يعد يكتفي بعدد القراء، بل يريد أن يعرف من هم وهل يناسبون منتجه.
What it teaches best
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