Pushing your business

Аннотация

Introduction.

ADVERTISING, once looked upon by some business men as

an expense, is now quite generally regarded in its proper

light as an investment.

The primary purpose of most advertising is to increase business.

Some advertising is done with other objects in view, but in most

cases now-a-days every dollar spent in advertising is expected to

come back, sooner or later, bringing many others with it.

Advertising is by no means a fixed science. There are no set

rules the observance of which will insure success to the advertiser.

But experience is a good teacher, and it need not all be your

own experience. In the past few years there has been a wonderful

advance in advertising knowledge and progress has been made in

the facilities for the preparation and distribution of advertising

matter to such an extent that advertising means much more than it

did even a decade ago.

The fundamental principles involved in financial advertising

do not differ from those of advertising in general. However, there

are some things in financial publicity that require special emphasis.

Hence this book.

All advertising should be confidence inspiring, but, more than

any other class of advertising, that of financial or investment institutions

must have this quality.

When a man turns over his money to the care of another and in

return gets for the time being nothing more tangible than a promise

to return it with interest at some future time, he needs the strongest

kind of assurance concerning the integrity and business ability of

the men who make such a proposition to him.

A good deal has been said about the necessity for dignity in

financial advertising. It is right, there should be dignity, and the

chief reason is because that helps to inspire confidence.

At the same time the advertising must not be so dignified that

it lacks in human interest, persuasiveness and the power of conviction.

In short, the problem is how to combine the right amount of

dignity with the requisite "pulling power."

It is to help solve this problem that this book has been written

and is placed in the hands of those upon whom falls the responsibility

of promoting the business of financial and investment institutions

by advertising.

The value of advertising is not to be measured only by the

direct returns from advertisements.

Honest, continuous advertising and making good on promises

helps to create for advertisers good will an asset of intangible

but very real value.

There are many other things that go to create and maintain

prestige or good will for a business, but the right kind of advertising

is the principal means to that end.

While it cannot be measured by the yard stick nor expressed in

dollars and cents, good will has an acknowledged value. A recent

court decision placed a valuation of ,000,000 upon the trademark

of a certain very large advertiser. A considerable expenditure for

general advertising, continued over a period of years, gave that

trademark its great value.

It will work just the same in your business if you are a persistent

advertiser and everybody connected with your institution

uses his best efforts to carry out the promises of courteous and considerate

treatment made in the advertising. All employes must

Lave a proper conception of the importance of each customer’s

good will and a sincere desire to gain it.

There is such a thing as the cumulative effect of continuous advertising.

The first time a person reads your advertisement he

may not be in a position to act favorably upon the suggestion you

make. In fact, he may not be ready for months, but if you have

kept your name before the public and used your advertising space

to good advantage by filling it with interesting, informing, convincing

copy, frequently changed, you have held that man’s attention

and when he is prepared to do as you suggest you are very likely to

get his business.

There is a secondary advertising of much value that comes to the

regular and steady advertiser. It arises from the daily talk of the

community when the name of your institution or company has become

a household word through persistent publicity. When you

have reached a point where the people take up your advertising and

voluntarily help to make your business better known, you are fortunate

indeed.

It is the hope of the author that in setting down in this book

some of the results of wide experience and observation in the field

of financial advertising from the standpoint of advertiser, agent

and publisher he has done something which will prove of lasting

value to others in this field.

T. D. MACGREGOR.

NEW YORK, March, 1908.