Printers' Ink, October 12, 1898 (Vol. 25, No. 2)
A weekly issue of the New York journal for advertisers published by Geo. P. Rowell & Co., filed for "Magazine Advertising", a one-page paid advertisement in which Charles Austin Bates sells his own services.
What it is
A weekly issue of the New York journal for advertisers published by Geo. P. Rowell & Co., filed for "Magazine Advertising", a one-page paid advertisement in which Charles Austin Bates sells his own services. He claims most magazine advertisers could cut spending 15 to 30 per cent and get better results with the right media, the right copy, proper follow-up of inquiries and use of the ads with dealers. He prints a letter telling a prospect that his problem is management, not style, and offers a written plan for 25 to 100 dollars. Bates also signs the Department of Criticism, which praises a New York Telephone Company circular for extension sets. Other pieces: Charles Love Benjamin on Puerto Rico as a market after the war, a readers' poll on the best advertisers (Gold Dust, Regal Shoe, Quaker Oats, Lydia Pinkham), and a note on the booklet replacing the circular.
Why read it now
The ad is the lesson: Bates sells by diagnosis. He names the waste, lists its causes, prints a frank letter to a prospect, and sells a paid plan as the first step. Consultancies still sell this way. The causes he lists also hold. Budgets spread thin across too many titles buy small spaces, and eye-tracking studies by Pieters and Wedel found that larger ads draw more attention. Inquiries left unanswered are lost sales, and studies of online leads find that slow follow-up sharply cuts the chance of a sale. Telling the trade about a campaign is still basic channel work. Benjamin's case for floating soap in Puerto Rico, where clothes were washed in streams, is an early lesson in fitting the product to how people live before entering a market. What has dated: the 15 to 30 per cent saving has no evidence behind it, the readers' poll is opinion, and Bates, like much of the issue, is selling. Use: when pitching a client, name the specific leak, its likely size and one paid first step, as Bates does.
Passages worth keeping
Most of the magazine advertising that is done fails to reach its best effectiveness, because it lacks proper attention, because it is spread out too thin over a large number of publications, because inquiries are not properly handled
يرجع بيتس ضعف الإعلان في المجلات إلى قلة المتابعة، وتوزيع الميزانية على مطبوعات كثيرة، وإهمال الطلبات التي تصل من القراء.
It is not the style of your advertising that I object to so much as it is the management.
المشكلة في رأيه ليست في أسلوب الكتابة، بل في إدارة الحملة: أين تُنشر، وبأي مساحة، وكيف تُتابَع.
Say exactly what you want to have the people know. Say it in the plainest English you can command.
قل ما تريد أن يعرفه الناس بدقة، وبأبسط لغة تملكها، فالمعيار أن يفهمك القارئ لا أن تعجبه جملتك.
What we desire will attract our attention.
الإعلان يلفت انتباه من يريد المنتج أصلًا، فالرغبة الموجودة تسبق الانتباه.
The last telephone put in must bring a good deal more profit than the next to the last one, and very much more profit than the first.
في الخدمات ذات التكلفة الثابتة يكون كل مشترك جديد أربح من الذي قبله، ولهذا تستحق هذه الأعمال أن تعلن.
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
If this library is useful, leave an email
We send new patterns, ads, and notes when we add them. Name and phone are optional.
You are on the list
We will write when we add more library material.