Printers' Ink, January 3, 1906 (Vol. 54, No. 1)
The first 1906 issue of Printers' Ink, edited by Charles J. Zingg.
What it is
The first 1906 issue of Printers' Ink, edited by Charles J. Zingg. The cover ad for Indiana's Star League papers puts a circulation claim into verse under an astronomer's telescope. The issue opens with William Cauldwell, former owner of the Sunday Mercury, recalling the personal feuds of Greeley and Bennett. A case on Reiss & Brady's Cresca olive oil explains a "campaign of suggestion": small newspaper ads in French-accented English, no price in the ads, and letters with a Salad Book sent to selected homes. A bank-advertising article argues that thrift is an inexhaustible theme and cites a Chicago trust company that printed saving plans collected from its own depositors. A third case shows Pond's Extract raising sales 80 per cent in 1905 by concentrating newspaper space on the Pacific Coast and attacking substitutes with lab tests of bulk witch hazel. Circulation lists and George Ethridge's art criticism follow.
Why read it now
The three cases still teach. Pond's shows what happens when a brand stops reaching new buyers: sixty years of loose publicity left a product that "population outgrew", which matches Ehrenberg-Bass work on brands that go dark. The fix was more spend, concentrated in one region the budget could cover, plus one sharp difference (standard strength, no wood alcohol) backed by tests of seventy rival samples. Cresca's refusal to lead with price holds for premium goods, and its manager's view that trade won on cheapness does not stay fits later research showing price promotions mostly buy short spikes from existing buyers. The thrift article's method, asking your best customers how they actually do the thing and printing their answers, is the basis of customer-research copy today. What has dated: the dialect ads would read as mockery now, the claims about rival witch hazel are Pond's own, and the circulation figures are unaudited. Use: interview ten loyal customers about their habits and turn each habit into one ad.
Passages worth keeping
A cheap article may attract trade, but it will not hold it. The satisfied customer is the one who sticks.
الرخص قد يجلب المشتري مرة واحدة، لكن الجودة التي ترضيه هي التي تبقيه.
What I mean by a campaign of suggestion is a campaign that suggests a more liberal use of olive oil.
هدف الحملة ليس تعليم الناس كيف يُعصر الزيت، بل دفعهم إلى استعماله أكثر وفي أغراض أوسع.
Dozens of unique plans for regular saving were revealed and printed in the company’s advertising for the benefit of others.
بدل الوعظ عن فضيلة الادخار، جمع البنك طرق الادخار الحقيقية من عملائه ونشرها ليجربها غيرهم.
Population outgrew Pond’s Extract, and the new generations knew it not.
حين يضعف الإعلان يكبر جيل جديد لم يسمع بالمنتج، فتتراجع مبيعاته مهما كانت سمعته القديمة.
Pond’s Extract is witch hazel, but witch hazel isn’t Pond’s Extract.
المنتج ينتمي إلى صنف معروف، ومهمة الإعلان أن يشرح لماذا لا تساوي كل منتجات هذا الصنف هذه العلامة.
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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