5. Color as a means of is nothing so quickly recognized by the normal eye as color. A manufacturer of a line of toilet prepara tions uses the same color scheme for the packages of all his products, and he reproduces these colors wher ever possible in his advertising. Manufacturers of automobiles in the beginning of the industry at tempted to use this method of identification. The White automobile was painted. white. In bygone days an advertising campaign for a bicycle was based on the slogan, "Look for the yellow fellow." With certain products, the use of color is impossible. With others it is objectionable to the consumer. This was found to be the case in automobiles when very bright colors were used. While, today, colors are still used to identify certain makes of cars, the colors have gen erally been greatly subdued. Taxi-cab companies, however, have used bright yellows, greens and reds to give individuality to their vehicles.
There was a time when department stores wrapped their packages in bright colors, and advertised the fact. People objected to being used as walking ad vertisements, and this method of identification has been discontinued to a large extent. The use of colors, however, is worthy of consideration in any ad vertising campaign because color is probably the most striking and at the same time the most simple method of identification. Possibly the advertising of Sun shine Biscuits could be made more effective if the packages were a bright sunshine yellow.
6. Methods of identifying the advertising.—It is not enough to give to the product or its package an identity so that the consumer can easily recognize the article and ask for it by name. The advertising of the product should also have an individuality—it should possess a certain distinctiveness that binds the whole campaign together and which helps to give a cumulative effect to everything that is done by the ad vertiser to influence the mind of the consumer. Wherever possible there should be a family resem blance between the advertising and the product. For instance, if a trade character, such as the Dutch woman of Old Dutch Cleanser, appears on the pack age, it should appear too in the advertising; or if dis tinctive colors are used on the label—the red and white of Campbell's soups, for example—they should be used as often as possible in those forms of adver tising that permit the use of color.
In the case of some articles it is not possible to link up closely the appearance of the advertising, but this does not deprive the advertiser of the opportunity to give individuality to his publicity. He has many ways of binding all his advertising together. Indi viduality in advertising, of course, should not mean monotony. It is entirely possible to maintain a
family resemblance without making all advertisements alike. An often unattainable ideal is expressed by one advertiser: "Let there always be in each tisement something which is the same and something which is new." The Cream of Wheat Company uses its famous negro chef in all its advertising. The reader can immediately identify a Cream of Wheat advertisement by this figure, altho each advertisement shows the negro in a new position. The negro chef and the name, Cream of 'Wheat, are the pivot of all the manufacturer's publicity.
Advertisers use many different ways to make their advertising distinctive and immediately identifiable. Among them are the following: .
1. The name 2. The trade-mark 3. A typical character 4. A slogan 5. Borders 6. Backgrounds 7. Styles of type faces 8. Styles of type composition 9. Technique of illustrations 10. Style of copy 11. Uniform proportions 12. Color 13. Position in the publication.
7. Names and trade-marks.—The repetition of the trade-mark or the name of the article or of the manu facturer in all advertisements is too common a method of identification to need illustration. Altho the sub ject of names and trade-marks is fully discussed in the Text on "Advertising Principles," it is well here to warn the advertiser of the necessity of simplicity. Many advertisers make the mistake of expecting the reader to remember too much. A simple name should be chosen, and yet a satisfactory simple name is exceedingly hard to find. All the common names have been preempted long ago. There are over 10,000 registered names for brands of flour alone. There are said to be nearly 200 Star brands of one kind or another on the market today. There are over 180 Standards, over 50 0. K.'s and 44 Twentieth Centuries. From the standpoint of registration as well as from the standpoint of distinction, it is often advantageous to choose a proper name, a fanciful name, or a name having its derivative in another lan guage, such as Kodak, Phonograph, Crisco and Crex. Uneeda is in a class by itself ; and any combination of letters to sound like words, even if it can be regis tered, seems to be considered by the general public as an attempt at imitation of Uneeda. In the South, when the negroes wish to purchase Takhoma bis cuits, they often say, "Gimme dat Uneeda biscuit in d' red package." A fanciful or new name, on the other hand, strikes the public so unfamiliarly as to require a distinct ef fort to remember and pronounce it. Some of the best names are those which film other associations have be come familiar, and are not exactly descriptive but may at least be called relevant.