How to advertise, a guide to designing, laying out, and composing advertisements

Front matter

Mill liirhiiiih'i;-,:;-:.;-^-: ■

BOOKS BY GEORGE FRENCH

Printing in Relation to Graphic Art

II \r

Vsval form f o r «-n 3 m

Zmti^ordski

ELJ

5vo5^ical«

Kolopur y^

X 5

Brick \rons iOiOi

Showing a few of the many forms of the Svastica, that interesting art symbol which is thought by some to have been the first attempt to express thought by other Vieans than speech or gesture; found in the remains or historyjof every people that have ever lived on the earth, and as an important fundamental in all art of all ages.

X PREFATORY

there seems to have as yet arisen no definite body of guiding principles that have either been tested or otherwise vouched for, which receive general credence or are very influential in general practice.

That there are such principles, adapted from graphic art, optics, and psychology, and that they are simpje and easily mastered, and effective in practice, is what I try to show in this book.

It must all the time be kept in mind that it is the physical advertisement we are considering, and nothing else. Those major units of the advertisement made up of the general campaign, the study of the goods, the preparation of the copy, etc., are not considered. The illustrations are to be taken as used to illustrate some point or points that are thought to be consequential in the optical attention value of the advertisement. Those advertisements that are shown as models are to be regarded so only as to their looks. If what is said about some of the examples shown seems like undeserved criticism, it is pleaded that nothing more is meant than that, in the opinion of the author, good advertisements sometimes may be better.

Cordial thanks are due designers and advertisers for consent to use examples of their work, sometimes for the purpose of pointing out alleged defects, as well as sometimes to emphasize excellencies; and in particular to the Mergenthaler Linotype Company,

PREFATORY xi

whose typographic expert, Mr. H. Frank Smith, arranged the pages of type specimens and the display of the typical specimen advertisement in Chapter 16; and Mr. Frank H. Clark, of the Eclipse Electrotype and Engraving Company, Cleveland, for the specimen plates showing the different kinds of engravings advertisers may use.

Contents

PAGE

Prefatory vii

CHAPTER

Chapter I

4 DVERTISING is for the purpose of selling /-% goods, selling service, or persuading people to take specified action.

It is justified, as an economic proposition, to the extent it is successful in selling goods or service, or influencing those who read it to act as desired.

Several elements of the advertisement contribute directly to its success or failure. In this book it is proposed to treat only one of those major elements — its physical make-up.

The psychological path along which an advertisement travels toward the accomplishment of its mission may be indicated by noting that its first step is its physical appeal to the eye of the reader. Then its chief attractive feature, as the "catch line," the illustration, some decorative feature, or some pronounced feature that is most prominent because of its form, its size, or the sentiment it expresses, gets into the mind through the eye and arouses interest or curiosity . This leads to a reading of the text — or, it should be said, to the beginning of the reading of the text.

s

Each of these elements is dependent upon that one which comes before it in the natural order of observation. Thus the eye is caught by the general physical character of the advertisement only if the periodical in which it is printed is of such interest to the reader that he turns its pages. In turning the pages of a periodical the eye is attracted to certain advertisements by their excellencies of form; and this is the second step toward the buying impulse that the reader takes. Or it may be more explicit to say that it is, so far as the advertisement itself is concerned, the first step. The preceding step is prompted by the medium in which the advertisement appears. This first step is almost an unconscious attraction. The first consciousness of the advertisement is experienced by the reader when he notes the catch line, and is invited to seek some definite advantage by reading the text. Then if the text is well written, and the thing advertised is of interest to the reader, the argument gets into his mind. The final fate of the appeal made in the advertisement rests with this text argument. But the state of mind with which the reader takes in the argument is largely dependent upon the preceding steps it has taken — the initial attraction of the advertisement as a whole, and the secondary, though more powerful, attraction of the bit of lure exercised by the catch line or the illustration.

It is seen that the first thing about the advertisem

Great attractive value, leading directly to the article to be sold.

ment to attract the attention of those who read the medium in which it is printed is its picture quaHty.

Occasionally there comes to the front a shortsighted, pessimistic person with a tale that some large proportion of the money spent in ^advertising is wasted. It is a text that is rolled unctuously under the tongue of the pessimist, and the person who professes not to believe in advertising. The embarrassing consideration in such cases is that the contention is true — or partially true. It is an acknowledged fact that there is much money wasted in advertising. There is no disposition to ^beg this question. It may be pleaded in extenuation that there is much money wasted in all phases of selling. The traveling salesman goes to many towns in which he sells no goods, wasting the money it cost him to make the visits. But even this fact is not cited in justification.

Advertisers and advertising men keenly realize that there is too much money spent for advertising that does not get results. They are concerned that it is so, and they are more concerned to discover the causes of the waste and apply a remedy.

It is evident that if the eyes of readers are not attracted to an advertisement agreeably enough to cause them to pause while they take in the picture presented, the appeal of the catch line and the argument of the text will not be realized, and the advertisement is in danger of being passed by without notice.

It is plain that the initial power of the advertisement to win that notice which will guarantee their chance to the elements intended to arouse the purchasing desire lies in the general appearance of the advertisement. If it is to attract attention it must appeal to the eye as a picture appeals.

This fact has been realized by advertisers, and some very clever attempts to utilize it have been made. Most of them have been abandoned, because it was not thoroughly understood that as a picture the advertisement does not sell the goods it advertises.

Since the day of reliance upon the picture advertisement has passed, it may be proper to remark that the theory of the power of the picture was not followed to its obvious conclusion. When Ivory soap used to depend upon a fine picture and the slogan ''It Floats,'' when the Packard automobile relied upon a good engraving of the car and "Ask the Man Who Owns One," and when the picture was all there was to advertisements like those now used for Cream of Wheat, there was nothing to catch the first pleasurable impression of the reader and carry it onward to fix the buying impulse in the mind. The advertisements started the mind in the right direction, but did not take advantage of the start and lead on to the selling argument. It was too much to ask the reader to follow the agreeable start toward the merchandise with steps that involved definite and not at all obvious labor. How was a man to "Ask the man who owns one" if he did not happen to know a man who owned one? And even if he did know such a man, why should he take the trouble to hunt him up and ask him? It was not long before this advertiser discovered that his own advertisements must supply all that the man who owned one could say, and more also. The time came when the soap people found that it did not pay simply to call attention to the fact that their soap floated, after having won attention by a pretty picture.

This class of advertising has been found unprofitable because the advertisement did not itself follow up the advantage the pictures won, and offer the argument as soon as the attractive element opened the mind for its reception. It was found that in advertising it is not safe to leave anything to the reader. It is necessary to give him facilities for making up his mind at the time his attention is secured. Not only has it been found expedient to make the whole argument for the goods but to provide, in the form of the coupon, means for the instant recording of the order. While there are men who would read a Packard advertisement and go about hunting for the man who owns one to get needful information, there are not enough of them. And it was a frail reed that they were asked to lean upon. The men who own cars are not salesmen, and but one in a hundred, or more would be able to answer the questions of the seeker after knowledge.

Such excursions into the improbable as these have made advertising ineffective. They did not even lead the horse to the water. They intimated that somewhere there was water, but they did not locate it, nor did they guarantee its sufficiency or quality. They were excellent examples of attraction and suggestion, but they did not assert anything, or make an argument, without which it is almost as useless to present an attractive advertisement as it is to make a good argument in an unattractive advertisement.

The physical advertisement, properly made, takes its place in the life of people with other forms of art; and all forms of art depend for their force and influence upon their faithful relation to nature and life. They have been gradually evolved from nature, and have been as gradually related to the necessities of human life. When an artist insists upon cutting his canvas exactly in accord with his theory as to dimensions, he does so because those dimensions have come to be regarded as right. They have become agreeable to the trained eye through generations of trial. The painter knows too much to go counter to the education of the centuries. It is only the careless and uninformed advertiser who ventures to do so. Our eyes have been trained to accept certain forms, hues, combinations. Not only have they been thus trained, they have been developed physically to accommodate themselves to the forms and colors, and the use of the forms and colors, that have become standardized in art.

Thus it is not to trained artistic taste that we cater when we make advertising as painters make pictures, so far as fundamentals are concerned, but to the natural powers and limitations of the physical eye, as well as to the natural habits and qualities of the mind, which also have been acquired through ages of acquisition and adaptation. We attempt to fit the advertisement to the reader, as his tailor fits a suit, or his hatter a hat.

And in doing this we do not lose sight of the fact that not all classes of people have the same grade of ability to appreciate art; and this leads us into a most interesting field of inquiry. It is a capital fault of much advertising that it is made to make its major appeal to its creators. The advertising builder is too apt to make something that appeals to himself, instead of making a study of the particular people he wishes to win. It is a fault of the careful advertiser, who believes that he is considering the people he desires for customers, that he does not realize the processes of civilization, and thus avoid at once

Tke quick Biscuit flour for delicious biscuits* ^u only kave to add milk or water

10<J and 15 <^ Packaiges

An excellent example of the skilled application of the three essentials for an advertisement—attraction, suggestion, assertion— and each in its proper place and relation. There are the toothsome biscuits, a most attractive feature; the makings of those biscuits, and the reason for the making of the biscuits. The plate of biscuits is shown to be a most desirable item in the menu for breakfast or tea. The package suggests how easily they may be had. The few words of text specifies how little there is for the cook to do, and how small is the expense. The assembling of these units is so nearly right as to produce a very pleasing picture.

too much and too little strictness in his devotion to psychologic principles.

It is well for the advertiser to remember that in its evolution from whatever may have been its original state mankind does not all advance together. As there was a so-called Stone Age, in the dim recesses of history, so also there are now great numbers of people who have scarcely left that shadowy condition; and they do not dwell in the fastnesses of primitive Africa, but right here among us. Their conception of art has not advanced from that of the people who originated the first art symbol. Every epoch in the history of the race is present with us to-day.

This is as true with respect to morals as in art. We speak of truth in advertising, and we are talking to a proportion of people who know nothing about ethics except as the truth may affect their material welfare.

There are plenty of people among us now whose idea of God is the idea of the ancient Hebrew family that had a god for its own use, who was expected to watch over the family fortunes and confound all of its rivals or enemies.

In every manifestation of life we are with people of all the stages of civilization. We are told that certain mountaineers in the South, who have no education, and whose fathers and grandfathers had i none, preserve with great fidelity the English speech of the time of Samuel Johnson.

Therefore, if we were to plan to advertise to those mountaineers who have brought with them into this twentieth century the idiomatic language of the seventeenth, or early eighteenth, century we could not expect to win them if we employed the language and methods that are comparatively new even to ourselves. We would have to pitch our advertising key in harmony with their lives. And advertising as we do to the great conglomerate, ranging from the Stone Age to the present, we have got to consider the average of whatever class we desire to reach. This fact makes it necessary for us to employ none but the simpler of the fundamentals of art which go to the making of advertisements that will have power to attract the normal average, neither artistic nor otherwise.

We need to study to use a minimum of art in our advertisements, and to use that minimum in a manner that will not arouse even a suspicion of its presence, as art. '' What," said a great printer to the writer, some fifteen years ago, "has art got to do with printing?" It was a very hard question to answer then. It is easier, though not easy, to answer now. And whatever art has to do with printing it has exactly the same to do with advertising — with the physical advertisement as it appears in newspapers,

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periodicals, street cars, subways, on billboards, as printed matter, and in all other fashions. As art, art has nothing whatever to do with printing, or with advertising. Printing and advertising are art, as truly and as legitimately as the painting, the statue, the engraving; as music, landscape gardening, or architecture are art. All arts have the same underlying principles, and those principles underlie printing and advertising likewise. Advertising shares with other art the avenues of approach to the human mind.

The radical difference between those arts that are known as fine art and advertising is very great, very fundamental, especially in practice. In advertising it is our effort to use as little of art as possible — only as much as is necessary to get favorable attention to the practical business message we have to give to readers. In painting, for example, the artist must make use of all the principles of art that in any way apply to his work, in their absolute integrity. He hopes to attract only the cultured few, and for no ulterior purposes. He wants to give them the enjoyment flowing from expressed art in its highest development. It is a matter of indifference to him whether ten or ten thousand people look upon his work. It is all the same to him. He has expressed himself, and he is his only competent critic. In advertising it is art for the sake of the dollar. Art is the lure of the advertisement. But it is a most potent lure.

That advertisement in which violence is done to the primal principles of art is in some degree a failure. It repels instead of attracting. (

Students of advertising have come to think that there are four primary qualities in advertising, the cultivation of which would result in the elimination of much of the ineJBSciency that is now charged against it. These are: art, optics, ethics, and psychology. The contention is that a thorough understanding of these four branches of science, and the careful application of the results of that study in the practice of advertising, would result in advertising with a much greater percentage of eflSciency.

In this study of the physical advertisement we have to do chiefly with art and optics. It is, however, impossible to ignore ethics and psychology, as the physical form of the advertisement contributes strongly to its truthfulness or to its falsity, as also the new science of psychology teaches much of the greatest value to the man who designs the advertisement. These four are vitally operative in all the stages and elements of the advertisement — in the copy as well as in the form. In fact, the advertisement in its every part must be a well-knit piece of cooperative and synchronized eflFort. The copy should affect the form, and the form the copy.

Type gives force to copy or takes force away from it.

Let us not deceive ourselves. We use art in making advertisements because by its use we can make advertisements that bring better results. Upon that hypothesis everything in this book is based. Not art for art's sake, but art for the sake of greater eflSciency in advertising as a trade promoter.

CHAPTER n

THE value of advertising depends very largely upon the person who does it. While there are principles which are very important in the construction of advertisements, there are few that are equally authoritative in the practice of all advertisers. Many very successful advertisers are unable to give the bases of their success — to formulate their creed of work.

Those men who have made the greatest records of success in advertising are those who have given the least consideration to such principles as it has thus far been possible to formulate from records and study and experimentation. One man has won great success through doing that which for another man has brought only flat failure Those in the profession who have been able to define their work and faith through expressed rules and canons have been among those who have been if not distinctly unsuccessful at least not markedly successful.

This is not to be accepted as a settled principle in advertising practice. It is one of the results of the condition of the business as an ordered profession. The successful man, who has relied upon his instinct and ignored the rules and suggestions of those who seek for advertising a scientific basis has been content with the degree of success accorded him through his native ability, and has been inclined to believe that advertising men are indeed born, not made, and that he was born with advertising lore implanted in him.

There is a great degree of truth in the assumption that advertising men are born, if we are to form an ultimate opinion through consideration of things as they are. The objection to this conclusion is that there has as yet been no adequate test of whether or not advertising men can be made; or whether or not the men who manifestly are born to the business might not be very much better advertising men if they were to accept for their use the good the professors of advertising are offering to them. Your born advertising man is apt to be scornful of the proffers of pedagogy, and reject them without testing them. There will assuredly come a day when the man who is persuaded that he is a born advertising man will be willing to put his birthright to the test of pedagogy, and sit at the feet of the men who have delved among the leadings of advertising to relate it to other arts, crafts, professions, and sciences.

But now, in this first half of the twentieth century.

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in existence more than ten years, and are operated as stable departments of the businesses they promote, shows at the head of each some man who has been there a long time and who has become a part of the business. His personality has been grafted on to the business, and merged in it. He is always more salesman than advertiser, and the real work of advertising, as usually understood, is performed by some bright assistant, or assistants. The man who stands for the advertising manager is a selling pioneer. He discovers new fields for selling enterprise, and devises new methods for selling. Advertising is not always an element in his work. Publicity is.

Another class of successful advertising men are able to make successes of different lines of business through the application of their personality to the particular problem in hand. Those alluded to above are not usually able to shift their fields. If they attempt to do so they find conditions so different that they will not yield to the methods they have employed in their successful work, and they often develop failures instead of successes. Those men who are able to flit from success to success are mercurial in their natures. They achieve up to the mark of their peculiar talent, and then they are obliged to move on to fields and pastures green, or endure the pain of seeing their successes degenerate into failures under their hands. They empty themselves, and, having no power to replenish their reservoirs of power, they must perforce seek other spheres where there may be found opportunity for the re-use of their talents.

There are extreme instances of personality in advertising practice. It is found in all branches, but more strikingly developed in agencies. Each large and successful agency is organized in accord

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he is sure to say that he has been turning out successful advertising for so and so many years on his Unes, and that he guesses that his judgment is pretty well founded upon his record.

It is an established custom among a certain class of large advertisers to employ an advertising manager for one or two years, and then change. They do this because they believe that a man works himself out in one or two years, and if he is kept on the advertising he produces will become stale, lacking in "punch" and novelty. There is a measure of truth in this assumption, brutal as it seems in application. Among advertising men, as in every class, there is but a small proportion who may safely chiefly rely upon the inner light. The few who can are in those positions referred to as representing the stable element in advertising practice.

But personality is indeed a very vital element in advertising, even if it may be supported and supplemented by all that science can teach. In a very real sense the advertising man is born, even as the superior man in all lines and departments of selling may be said to be born. The real advertiser is a man who is able to see things, and see the tendencies and connections of things — the man with initiative, with all of his mental eyes wide open all the time. The really good advertising man would be equally good as the head of any selling organization in any line of u goods that he could bring himself to feel a real interest in. In advertising it is personality plus; and it is the plus element of the advertising man that

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