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diff --git a/77052-0.txt b/77052-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a9ef8e --- /dev/null +++ b/77052-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,255 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77052 *** + + + + + + + An Idea + That Saved a Business + + + + + An Idea + That Saved a Business + + _By_ + Leonard Dreyfuss + + Privately printed for + The United Advertising Corporation + 1918 + + + + + _Copyright 1918 + by + United Advertising Corporation_ + + + + +The Idea + + +The General Manager of a large Department Store sat in his study +one night, puffing away at a big black cigar, with a real worried +expression upon his face. Things were not right down at the Store. + +Two months previous he had accepted the position as General Manager, +and it had been gradually dawning upon him that he was waging a losing +fight. The Store had an equipment and over-head based upon a total +annual business of seven million dollars and was barely doing four. + +For days he had been reviewing his Organization; the activities of his +competitors, the possibilities of the City itself, the opportunities +for the elimination of expense that might serve to reduce the +over-head. It was a brain racking circle of thoughts and figures that +seemed to lead nowhere but back to the starting point. + +Sitting in his Study he tried his best to find a solution of the +ever-increasing problem. Musing upon the situation aloud he said, +“boiled down to a single sentence the problem seems to be this--how am +I going to get the greatest amount of money in the shortest possible +time?” The next thought was “to whom shall I look as an example of how +that can be accomplished--who gets the greatest amount of money in the +shortest possible time?” Suddenly he sat up as the thought struck him +forcibly--“why, it’s the Circus that in the shortest space of time +produces the greatest result.” + +He couldn’t shake the idea and the next morning he had determined that +he would seek out the General Manager of the largest Circus Company +traveling the Country and ask him to what it was they attributed their +success. + +The General Manager was a man who, like most true Executives, acts on +impulse, and he made up his mind that he would take the first train to +where the Circus was showing and talk with its General Manager. + +Fortunately the Circus was then located in a City about one hundred +miles distant, and the General Manager made the trip. + +In conference with the Circus man the next day he told him what he had +in mind. “You folks,” he said, “it seems to me, more than any other +business, get the greatest amount of money in the shortest possible +time--how do you do it?” + +The Circus man laughed. “It is more simple than you think,” he said. +“We simply are most careful students of advertising; we plan and place +our advertising so that ALL THE PEOPLE know when we shall arrive +and how long we shall stay. We have found that some people read the +newspapers, a great number; and some ride in Street Cars, quite a +few; but that ALL PEOPLE who can come to our Circus use the great +outdoors. Therefore, we spend eighty per cent. of the money we have +for advertising, outdoors. By the use of outdoor publicity we get our +greatest ‘punch.’ The Poster offers a use of color and size that +dominates, and the eye cannot escape it. Then we so build our copy that +‘he who runs is compelled to read.’ We are specialists in evolving +compelling copy--we are psychologists who have accurately gauged the +public’s mind. We cater to the great masses, rich and poor alike. We +must understand humanity in its entirety. So we use the Poster and +painted signs--we tell our message in color and size and we reiterate +it on every Highway and Byway until you cannot escape the message of +the Circus and its appeal.” + +The two men talked for a number of hours, and finally the General +Manager said, “if your plan is a success for the Circus, why not for +some other business? Is there any particular reason why your method can +only be successful for a Circus Company?” + +“No,” said the Circus man, “I think the method itself is sound and +would, to a large degree, prove efficient for mostly any business, if +as carefully planned as ours.” + +The General Manager of the large Department Store, riding back to his +City, thought over all that the Circus man had told him, and this one +thought persisted in his mind--“Why not for the Department Store?” + +Next day he laid plans for an Outdoor Advertising Campaign. He called +in his Advertising Manager and a Representative of the Outdoor +Advertising Company of his City, and said to them, “I want to place +outdoor advertisements so that, no matter where you stand on any widely +traveled avenue in this City at any point of circulation, you will be +greeted by a dominant reminder of our Store. I am going to make this +Institution _synonymous_ with _shopping_. I am going to so constantly +reiterate that message, and I intend to do it in so attractive a way +and with such compelling copy that the public will be unconsciously +attracted to us in larger numbers than ever before. I am going to +inaugurate within such changes as will make OURS the finest place +to shop, rendering unquestionable service and having a ‘come again’ +atmosphere about it; and I will look to the outdoor advertising that +we will do to help build for us this prestige that, to my mind, is so +necessary for an Institution such as ours.” + +The General Manager was an enthusiast not given to half measures--one +of those leaders of men who act instinctively and is nine-tenths right. + +He said to the Advertising Manager, “I have set a figure of twenty +thousand dollars as my limit for this Outdoor Campaign, and I want +you to buy the most dominant Outdoor Display that was ever planned in +this City. I want to go over every bit of the copy with you before it +is finally executed, and I want the copy changed every month with a +complete re-arrangement of both color scheme and message. I want to +make, as I stated before, _our Institution synonymous with shopping_.” + +Seven years have gone by, and the General Manager is President of his +Company, which is now doing some twelve million dollars’ worth of +business yearly. + +No, the increase of eight million dollars in their business is not +due entirely to this wonderful Outdoor Campaign that was put forth. +The untiring energy of the General Manager, his far-sightedness and +ability in re-organizing his Institution, have all gone to make this +Department Store the wonderful business it is. It is significant that +today his Company is still spending eighteen thousand dollars per year +for Outdoor Advertising. + +The General Manager said to me the other day, “I believe in our Outdoor +Advertising because I have proven its value. It tells my message _to +all the people_: To the Foreigners and the Illiterates who cannot read +the newspapers and have money to spend, and who can absorb a simple +message told to them, pictorially and in large size and color--to +the _school girl who is the mother of tomorrow_, and to the busy man +who rides in his motor car to and from his factory and glances only +occasionally at his newspaper. + +“Mind you I hold no brief for Outdoor Advertising alone--I am a +consistant user of newspaper space, probably the largest in this City +today, but I attribute the first growth and stimulus of our business to +the wide-spreading use I made of Outdoor Publicity. + +“I do not believe that a Department Store can be successfully +advertised by Outdoor Advertising alone, any more than I believe it +can be most successfully advertised by newspaper advertising alone. +I believe that a Department Store is best served by a judicious +combination of both.” + +This General Manager, as I said before, is President of his Institution +today, one of the wisest men in the Department Store field in America. + + And the best part of this Story is that + it is _absolutely true_ and was told to + the writer almost as set down. + + + + +NOTE + + +Our organization has the advantage of a merchandising experience +covering a period of 40 years. We have served clients who have grown +from infant industry to corporations doing fifty million dollars or +more per year. + +We have carefully collected and compiled sales and advertising data, a +great deal of which is applicable to all business. + +We have a sane, workable plan we should like to present to you. + + +UNITED ADVERTISING CORPORATION. + +[Illustration: _Advertising compels the trend of trade_ + +UNITED ADVERTISING CORPORATION] + + + + +United Advertising Corporation + + Samuel Pratt _President_ + Leonard Dreyfuss _Vice-President_ + Alfred V. Van Beuren, _Secretary-Treasurer_ + + +Specializing in Outdoor Advertising + + _Throughout the United States + and Canada_ + + +Executive Offices + + ONE WEST 34th STREET AT FIFTH AVENUE + New York City + + +Operating and Affiliated Companies + + Newark Poster Advertising Co. _Newark, N. J._ + Newark Sign Co. _Newark, N. J._ + New Haven Poster Advertising Co., _New Haven, Conn._ + New Haven Sign Co. _New Haven, Conn._ + Bridgeport Outdoor Advertising Co., _Bridgeport, Conn._ + Van Beuren & N. Y. Bill Posting Co., _New York, N. Y._ + American Posting Service, _Chicago, Ill._ + Dallas Poster Advertising Co. _Dallas, Tex._ + Edwards Co. _Waco, Tex._ + Consolidated Bill Posting Co. _Louisville, Ky._ + + + + + Printed by + The Price & Lee Co., of N. J. + The Art Press + Newark, New Jersey + + + + +Transcriber’s notes + + +Extraneous closing quotation mark on page 14 removed. All other apparent +punctuation errors remain unchanged. + +Spelling error “consistant” on page 14 left uncorrected. + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77052 *** |