Printers' Ink, December 17, 1925 (Volume 133, Number 12)
The December 17, 1925 issue of Printers' Ink, the New York weekly for advertisers.
What it is
The December 17, 1925 issue of Printers' Ink, the New York weekly for advertisers. The feature is Stanley Resor's address to Harvard Business School graduates, "How Changes in Distribution Affect the Practice of Advertising." The J. Walter Thompson president shows chain stores (60 per cent of New York grocery trade), direct selling to retailers and hand-to-mouth buying shortening distribution, so advertising now does the old salesman's work. He describes a reader who screens out most ads, warns owners against judging copy by their own interest in the product, and sets out agency method: field investigators, one chosen human appeal, and "Murder your darlings" in copy. Also: Richard Surrey on advertising people cannot believe; Campbell Soup's budget set as a fixed share of last year's sales; Gaylord preparing for consumer advertising; a ten-letter collection series; drug trade price cutting; Banco de Boston in Argentina; and the editorial "Santa Claus Is Dead."
Why read it now
Resor's picture of the buyer holds up. His reader who barely notices most ads and pays attention only when in the market matches modern findings that only a small share of category buyers are ready to buy at any moment, and his closing line, that advertising works through constant, reiterated effort, is what Ehrenberg-Bass and IPA research say about continuous presence. His warning that owners judge ads by their own interest in the product is still the most common failure in client approvals. Surrey's essay supplies the other half: repetition builds trust only when readers believe the claim. Dated: Resor's confidence, visible in his boast of Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins professors on staff, that research and statistics can engineer persuasion, and his almost passive consumer. Campbell's rule of budgeting from last year's sales is now seen as backward-looking; current guidance sets spend against share of voice and growth targets. Use: before approving an ad, have someone outside the company read it aloud and mark every line they would doubt.
Passages worth keeping
Of the great mass of advertising, the average reader is only dimly conscious. Only when he is an actual prospect is he actively interested.
القارئ لا يكاد يشعر بأغلب الإعلانات، ولا يهتم بإعلان إلا حين يكون مشتريًا محتملًا فعلًا.
In reality, of course, the public, like the manufacturers, is interested in itself and its own needs.
اهتمام صاحب المصنع بمنتجه لا ينتقل إلى الجمهور تلقائيًا، فالجمهور يهتم بنفسه وحاجاته.
An advertisement has to seek not for cleverness but for effectiveness of appeal.
هدف الإعلان أن يؤثر في القارئ، لا أن يُظهر ذكاء كاتبه.
The work of advertising, as of all education, is the presentation of ideas. And success in this can be achieved only by constant, reiterated effort.
الإعلان نوع من التعليم يعرض أفكارًا، ولا ينجح إلا بالاستمرار والتكرار.
But it isn’t good business, Surrey, to say anything in an advertisement that anyone can doubt
صاحب العمل يرى أن أي عبارة قد يشك فيها القارئ تضر التجارة، حتى لو كان الكاتب يراها صادقة.
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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