Page:Oregon Exchanges volume 5.pdf/284

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OREGON EXCHANGES
April, 1923

advertisers who are using it. The advertiser with an appropriation set aside for advertising will make a definite plan and carry it out, while the one who is using the "hit and miss" method will continue to hit and miss, and usually he misses even though he hits. Altogether too much ammunition is wasted in this way, and I believe you will agree with me when I say that unless the budget system is used, the merchant will let his personal feelings enter into his actions in advertising. If he feels good, he's ready to write a page, and not for any other reason than that he feels like writing. Not because it would be good business; not because he wants to force out any special lot of goods, nor is it even due to the need for raising money. He merely feels like writing. Of course, this is a nice pickup for the ambitious advertising man, but how is he going to feel each day for the next two weeks when he gets repeated turn-downs because this same fellow has a bilious attack, or the weather is too cloudy, or it's too dark and gloomy, or any other old excuse he might give because he shot his whole week's appropriation in one ad and he guesses he will wait a few days—which might mean a month?


BUDGET MAKES FOR CARE

On the other hand the budget man is grinding away from day to day. His ideas are definitely formed, he has so much money to spend and is spending it. The more budget systems you can get to working in your city the better it will be for both the advertiser and the newspaper. It does away with the "hit and miss" method and is assurance of copy regularly, and usually this kind of an advertiser gets his copy out on time. He is willing to meet the printer half way, and in most cases realizes that it takes time to produce a good ad. You will find him particular about the way his ad is set. He will not stand for waste space. He must make every inch of space count and he is entitled to your hearty cooperation.

Space is paid for on an inch or a line basis. This is a method adopted by the publisher to get pay for the service. In reality, the advertiser is buying circulation, for without the circulation of his message the space will buy him nothing. He pays for this circulation in proportion to the size of his story. Sometimes it requires a page. Is it fair to him to misrepresent the size of your circulation?

It is a question in some territories whether the field is handled by the advertising man or the field handles him. To be successful you must win every argument pertaining to advertising. To lose even a minor argument weakens the cause and is a starter toward forming the opinion of the advertiser that you don't know your business. Do not get the impression that it is my method to bulldoze or even try to put anything over on the advertiser- In the first place, argument should be avoided wherever possible, but if you are making an honest effort to prove the contention which you know to be founded on facts—win your argument. Your future dealings with this man depend upon not only your method of handling the question but upon convincing him you are right.


GOOD TEMPER ALWAYS

By all means never lose your temper; handle your argument in an honest and truthful manner. Smile when you feel like swearing. If you must take it out on something, wait until you get to the office and take it out on the office cat.

The facts given in this paper are as I see them today, after summing up of some seventeen years of advertising experiences in this one field in Eugene. Eugene is an advertising town, as I have said before. There are few merchants who are not sold on newspaper advertising. This fact is partly due to salesmanship but in the main to the results that accrue from advertising. I do not feel that I have accomplished any more than