PERIODICAL ADVERTISING
When the question of periodical advertising is taken up, the most important of all publicity fields is entered. From the country weekly, through the entire list of city dailies, scientific and literary weeklies and monthlies, popular magazines, class magazines, and trade papers for every vocation, religious papers, and reviews, periodicals can be selected which will reach any class or cover any territory. With the thousands of publications to select from, the advertising manager needs to know which ones will best reach the people he wants to reach; what papers have the largest circulations; which are most popular among a given class or in a certain territory. He must be posted on rates and discounts, that he may cover his territory economically. And added to this, he must have a perfect checking system, that he may know to a certainty what returns each and every publication is bringing him. Such a system may show him, for example, that the magazine with a circulation of a million and an advertising rate of $5.00 a line, brings orders at a less cost than another in which he is paying but $2.00 a line—or vice versâ. Perhaps the cost in both is within the amount he is prepared to pay, but he must know what it costs, that he may know where to increase and where to curtail the appropriations.
Rate Cards. Supposing the business to have been just started, or one that has done no advertising—and this is the most satisfactory premise from which to work, in laying out a general system for the department—among the first duties of the advertising manager will be to secure information about mediums, and the chief source of information will be the publications themselves, as they will respond promptly to requests for rate cards.
If the advertising manager gets rate cards from a hundred publications, he will find probably forty or fifty different shapes, sizes, and styles. Several spasmodic attempts have been made to induce publishers to adopt a uniform size for rate cards, with but little success. In the effort to produce something striking, the convenience of the advertiser is very likely to be overlooked. One publisher will use a 3"×5" card—the most convenient size; another, in order to better display the artistic ideas of his own copy department, uses a card 6"×9"; a book of rules is issued by another; the result is a miscellaneous collection that does not fit any size of file made.
To insure uniformity in their files, advertising agencies have been obliged to design rate sheets or cards which they send to the publisher to be filled in. Some large advertisers now follow the same plan, requesting publishers to enter rates on special forms.
But whether or not he uses a special form, every advertiser should have his own file of rate cards—even if the information is written on a blank card. The special information needed is shown in Fig. 12. This can be on a card, or if preferred, a sheet to be filed in a loose-lea binder can be used. The cards or sheets should be indexed alphabetically, under the names of the publications.
Fig. 12. Index Card for a Record of Advertising Rates
If full and satisfactory information is not obtained from the publishers, it is well to supplement it with information from an advertising agency. The successful agency, through observation on behalf of a number of clients, usually has more dependable information about a given publication than can be obtained by any one advertiser.
All sources of information should be made use of; if the article advertised is sold to the trade, much valuable information can be secured from local dealers. In planning a daily paper campaign for a certain commodity, a letter was sent to each dealer contiguous to each city asking what morning and evening papers had the largest sale in his town; at what hour each was received; and the general trend of local political sentiment. This brought a gratifying response, and helped in the selection of papers which covered, not only the cities, but the small towns. Another advertiser secured some very satisfactory reports from his traveling salesmen, relative to the value of local papers in which he contemplated advertising.
Advertising Contracts. Contracts for advertising are usually made once a year, in advance. Most publishers of magazines and newspapers grant certain space discounts, based on the space used within one year, and in many cases, to secure these discounts, contracts must be made in advance. Some trade paper publishers allow space discounts, others maintain flat rates, all of which must be considered in making contracts.
Practically all magazines, most newspapers, and some trade papers, allow special discounts or commissions to advertising agencies—though in the case of newspapers, in many cities, this discount applies only to foreign advertising, or that originating outside of the city of publication.
An increasing number of advertisers are placing contracts for space through the agencies, and relying largely on the advice of the agency in the selection of mediums. Since the business of the largest and most successful advertisers is placed through the agencies, it would seem to be a safe rule to follow. But because an agency handles the orders, the shrewd advertising manager will not relax in his watchfulness of his employer's interests. He will maintain just as complete a rate file, and watch the bills as closely as though dealing direct with publishers.
The experienced advertiser plans his campaigns well in advance, making annual appropriations for all advertising. This enables the advertising manager to select mediums, determine the amount to be used in each class, and prepare suitable copy for the different publications.
This question of the preparation of copy for series of ads applies especially to national campaigns and local advertising of a general publicity nature. The advertising manager of a department store is obliged to prepare newspaper copy daily, and at best can plan his copy not more than two or three days in advance. In a national campaign in which advertising is for direct returns, copy must be tried out and its character changed frequently. This does not mean that, in any case, the same copy should be run indefinitely; it should be changed in practically every issue. While following the general style adopted for the house, there should be something new in every issue—something that will attract and cause the reader to look for the ad each month.
Fig. 13. Schedule of Monthly Insertions in Periodicals
When the amount of the appropriation has been decided, a schedule of the mediums to be used should be made. This schedule should include the space to be used in each publication. Indeed, the schedule of mediums and space that it is desired to use, often determines the appropriation. For a general publicity campaign, this schedule can be made absolute, but when the advertising is for direct returns, it should be elastic. Mediums which do not pay after a fair trial, should be dropped, and there should be room in the schedule for mediums not at first included. Changed conditions may make it advisable to add a medium which previously has been unprofitable.
Fig. 14. Order Blank Used for Ordering Insertions of Advertising Copy
The advertiser who advertises for direct inquiries or orders, usually finds it necessary to revise his schedule monthly, basing each schedule on previous results. That he may act intelligently, he must have an exact record of past results. A convenient form for the monthly schedule is shown in Fig. 13, which is printed on a sheet punched for filing in a loose-leaf binder.
Previous results from each publication on each class of goods is shown in respect to inquires, amount of sales, and cost of the advertising. In the three columns at the right of the space for each ad, cost of each, and total cost are shown.
Separate sheets are used for popular magazines, trade papers, and newspapers. When copy has been sent, the sheets are placed in a loose-leaf binder, the full schedule for each month being in one place where it can be readily referred to.
Orders for Insertion. When an agency is employed, the agency usually sends copy and orders for insertion to the publisher; though some advertisers prefer to send copy direct, leaving the agency to send orders for insertion. It usually happens, too, that some orders are sent direct instead of through the agency. One large advertiser follows the practice of sending orders direct to those publishers who do not allow agency commissions, all others going through the agency.
If orders are to be sent direct, a special advertising order blank should be provided. This order should specify to the last detail the conditions of the order. A blank, which is self-explanatory, is shown in Fig. 14. The order is made in duplicate and the copy is filed under the name of the publication.
Checking Returns. A necessity to the advertising department is an efficient system of checking and recording returns from advertising. Without a checking system on which he can depend, the advertising manager is spending his employer's money blindly—he does not know what he is getting for it.
The first requirement in devising a system is a method of keying ads, that inquiries or orders may be identified and credited to the proper mediums. Keying systems there are without number—to describe all of them would require a book the size of this one—but those most commonly used are adaptations in one form or another, of the idea of changing the address.
Fig. 15. Card Used for a Record of Inquiries from a Given Publication
One of the oldest methods is to use a department number or letter in the address, changing the number in each publication in which the ad appears—the address in one would be Dept. A; in another, Dept. B. This method is used successfully by some advertisers, but it has its objections. Most people realize that no concern is so large that an inquiry will not reach the proper department. If, for example, an inquiry in response to a beef extract ad, addressed to Swift & Co., failed to reach the beef extract department, it would indicate a very lax system of handling correspondence.
Changing street numbers, room numbers, or postoffice box numbers, is another common method of keying. This can be operated successfully by notifying the local postal authorities that all mail is to be delivered at one number, regardless of the address.
An adaptation of the number key, which can be used to advantage for a small number of publications, is a combination of numbers representing publications and dates. First, the publications are numbered, these numbers being used as the first part of the address. To the publication number is added the number of the month or week of publication. To illustrate:
Suppose that the Technical World is No. 5 on the list and the ad is run in October. The key number would be 510—5 standing for the publication and 10 for the month. All replies with that address would be credited to the Technical World for October.
In using this system it is necessary to use some figure—usually 0—for a repeater to avoid confusion; No. 112 might mean publication No. 1, month No. 12, or publication No. 11, month No. 2. By adding a naught after the publication No., confusion is avoided—1102 would mean No. 11, 2nd month, 10012 would indicate No. 10, 12th month. The system can be further varied by using N., S., E., and W., or by substituting Ave. for St. or vice versâ.
When readers are requested to ask for catalogs or other printed matter, the numbers by which these are known to the reader can be used for the key—as bulletin A, bulletin B, etc.
For either direct inquiries or orders one of the most popular and satisfactory keying systems is to use a coupon, indicating the publication and month in the coupon—T W 11 printed in small type in the coupon would mean Technical World for November.
Fig. 16. Reverse of Checking Card Used for a Record of Sales
A coupon to be filled in offers the reader a convenient means of answering the ad, and this has a tendency to induce a larger number of replies. Few people will fail to use the coupon or the address given. A certain very large advertiser, who uses the coupon, states that less than one per cent of his replies are without means of identification; either the coupon is used or the name of the magazine is mentioned.
To make their checking systems as nearly perfect as possible, some advertisers write to all readers who fail to use the key, requesting them to state where the ad was seen. Some enclose a postal for the reply, others enclose a printed slip, on which the magazines used are listed, to be checked and returned.
A reasonable expense is justified to find out where replies do come from, for it is as much to the advertiser's interest to continue the use of all profitable mediums as to drop the unprofitable ones. Many of the most successful advertisers, however, consider it safe to distribute unidentified replies pro rata, basing the distribution on the number of keyed replies—that is, if 30 per cent of all keyed replies can be traced to the Technical World, that magazine will be credited with 30 per cent of all unidentified replies.
When the mail is opened all replies should be sorted by key numbers, inquiries and orders separated. Then the total number of inquiries, and number and amount of orders from each publication should be ascertained and credited.
For recording credits a form, similar to the one shown in Fig. 15, should be used. This may be on a card or in loose leaf. A card is used for each ad, in each publication—that is, if there are seven insertions in the Technical World in one year, seven record cards will be used—one for each insertion. These cards or sheets are to be filed under the names of the publications.
On the back of the card the form shown in Fig. 16, is printed. This provides for a daily record of sales resulting from the inquiries recorded on the face, or from the ad if it calls for direct orders. These forms supply all necessary data for a complete statistical record for each publication. Too much time would be required to look through all of these cards every time information is desired about a given publication; a more condensed record of total results should be provided.
Fig. 17. Combined Record of Insertions, Costs, and Sales
All of the information of practical value can be combined with a record of insertions on the form shown in Fig. 17, using a sheet for each publication. The record includes the date of order, space, subject, copy No., cut No., dates of insertion, checking, and proofreading, the date and amount of bill, and the number, amount, and average cost of sales. The record of sales should be entered monthly from the detail record.
Fig. 18. Daily Record of Sales of Advertised Goods in a Retail Store
These sheets are filed in a loose-leaf binder, indexed alphabetically under the names of the publications. One sheet will accommodate the full yearly schedule for a monthly or weekly publication.
Retail Advertising Returns. To check returns from retail advertising is quite a different problem from checking returns from keyed ads in monthly magazines. There are no keys, and no mail inquiries to be traced. But a record of general results is very desirable, and it is possible to obtain records which will, at least, indicate the increase in sales due to advertising.
Results of retail advertising must be measured by comparison; if a department store advertises handkerchiefs as a leader for Tuesday, all handkerchief sales for that day would not be due to the advertising, but it is legitimate to credit advertising with any increase over normal sales. If correct sales records are kept, it will be possible to tell the exact amount of handkerchief sales for that and every other day in the year.
Fig. 19. Detailed Record of the Shipment of Street Car Cards
A close check on returns can also be obtained by requiring each sales person to put a distinguishing mark of some kind on sales for advertised articles. Proofs of the day's ads, showing the articles advertised in the department, should be mounted on cards and hung in each department, that the sales person may know when advertised goods are sold. If made large enough, the card can be ruled for a tally of sales, and each sale of advertised goods tallied.
A CORNER IN THE SALES ROOM AT THE CLINTON ST., CHICAGO, PLANT OF THE WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY
There should be an office record showing the results of advertising for each department. In comparing these records sales alone cannot be used, for the weather, and unusual events calculated to increase the crowds in town, must be considered. To-day's sales of an advertised article, with unfavorable weather conditions, probably will not equal the sales of the same article one year ago, which was circus day. If daily records, similar to that provided in the form shown in Fig. 18, are kept, they will soon become very valuable to the advertising department of any retail store.
Fig. 20. Record of Street Car Contract and Net Costs