In estimating the yearly demand for your product it is important to determine whether, and how soon. a satisfied customer should come back for more. Is your product of such a nature that but one sale can be made to a customer in the customer's lifetime; or will that customer buy once a year, once a month or once each week? Unless you had carefully studied your problem in advance, you might get well under way in your advertising and suddenly discover that you had sold every person in your market who cared to buy, and that to sell more you would be compelled to wait for a new generation. It often costs more than the selling price to gain the confidence of a customer. The profit in most businesses is in the reorder. The business which finds itself in the position of having a new market of already-convinced cus tomers every six months has a great advantage over the one that must wait a year or longer for repeat orders.
9. Turning a single demand into a repeat demand. —It is often possible thru a little ingenuity to change a one-time seller into an active repeater. We can all remember the razors our fathers used to prize. They not only lasted a lifetime but were known to improve with age. The razor your father prized the most was the sacred one that you, as a boy, were never allowed to touch—only to look at with wonder and admira tion. It had been your grandfather's razor. You were told that some day it would be yours. The cutlery business was then centered around Sheffield, England. It was said to be very profitable. The population of the world increased so fast the demand for razors seemed always to be growing. It prob ably never occurred to the steel barons of Sheffield that anyone could tell them anything about the razor business. Yet along came a Yankee who separated the blade from the stock, called the attention of the world to the time it was wasting every morning in stropping, and, instead of selling a razor at $2.50 or $3 which would last for generations, he succeeded in securing $5 on each first sale and a dollar for the new blades every six months or so thereafter for the • rest of the lives of the men who responded to his cleverness.
There are fortunes still awaiting the men who are clever enough to increase the element of "repeat" in any business.
While in the case of some articles of high price, such as machinery for manufacturing establishments, a business can be conducted profitably without any appreciable element of "repeat," an article of low price and of constant consumption, such as food or clothing, could seldom be successfully marketed if it is found not to be a steady repeater.
10. Testing "repeat" in advertis ers have developed ingenious ways to test the element of "repeat" in a product before extensive advertising is undertaken. A manufacturer of collars recently went into the business of making handkerchiefs. Without any advertising the salesmen in selected territories were instructed to give away a certain num ber of the new handkerchiefs at business men's clubs and other gatherings. The number of original sam ples distributed was recorded for each district, and the resulting sales were carefully tabulated. As this was done in all parts of the country, an interesting average of the primary element of "repeat" was ob tained.
Another way to test the "repeat" of an article is to get a list of purchasers with dates of purchase and to send them a letter with a stamped return card asking if they are still using the article, and how many times, to the best of their memory, they have re ordered.
Altho some things can be made to repeat by educa tional advertising, others are stubborn non-repeat ers, and the advertising campaign must be carefully planned with that fact in mind. Some manufactur ers believe that their products possess the element of "repeat," only to find, after tests have been made, that the articles are regarded by the public as mere novelties, which will not be purchased twice by the same customer.
11. The family of products.—Some advertisers find that the taste of the public for their particular class of products is so changeable that they are forced to take advantage of the element of "repeat" thru what is known as "the family of products" idea. After a reputation for one product has been estab lished, it is easier to create a demand for another product under the same family name than to com mence from the beginning and attempt to establish a demand for an entirely new product and make a reputation for it. For example, Quaker Oats, Quaker Puffed Rice and Quaker Puffed Wheat form a well-known family of products. The manu facturer of a group of products of common character istics bound together by a common name can offset the lack of "repeat" in the individual members of his line by the demand he can create for others. One of the arguments for the Rubberset shaving brush is that it will last almost a lifetime. Yet, after a reputation had been established for this method of making brushes, the manufacturer made many of his satisfied customers come hack again, not for shaving brushes, but for tooth brushes and other brushes of his make.