THE ADVERTISING AGENCY 1. What an advertising agency is.—In the broad est use of the term, an advertising agency is an organ ization of merchandising and advertising experts who assist business houses in planning and carrying out advertising and sales campaigns. The advertising agent is a professional man. He resembles a physi cian in that his training and experience enable him to diagnose business troubles and to prescribe remedial measures. He resembles a lawyer in that he outlines a plan of campaign for his client and then pleads his client's case before the court of the people. His or ganization is a store-house of information regarding the pulling power of different advertising mediums, different copy, and different merchandising methods; he is expected to have all advertising principles and practices at his finger tips, and, after careful study, to be able to prescribe for any set of conditions the marketing methods that will bring the best results.
2. What an advertising agency agencies differ greatly in their activities. Sonic do many things; some do only a few. Some concern themselves with all phases of a client's marketing problems; others confine their efforts to advertising alone. An agency that is completely organized to give advice regarding all phases of the distribution of a client's products and to handle as many details of his entire sales campaign as he may wish to leave to the agency, ordinarily is equipped to do the following things : First, the agency makes a careful study of the thing to be sold—its quality, as determined both by technical and by practical tests, the conditions under which it is manufactured, the sources of raw material, plant ca pacity, labor supply and costs of production; the capi tal of the business and the amount that can properly be invested in selling activity; the trade name and the trade-mark, with suggestions for changes if changes are desirable; the package, with particular reference to advertising value and to convenience in handling; and the selling points. It then makes an equally careful study of the market and the nature of the demand, finding out who the people are toward whom the sales effort should be directed, where they live, how they live, when they buy, how they buy, how much they will buy and from whom they buy, with an intensive in vestigation of competition in all its phases. Next the
agency studies the sales channels used by its client or that might be used by him, basing its recommendations on complete knowledge of the relations among manu facturers, jobbers, retailers and other middlemen, and determining for each particular product the best chan nels of trade from manufacturer to consumer. Fol lowing this the agency turns its attention to the price at which the product is to be sold and the sales policies to be followed—including such problems as credit, dis counts, price maintenance, guarantees and service.
After all this preliminary investigation and study, the completely equipped agency will, if the client wishes, aid in the organization or reorganization of the sales force, giving advice and active help in all the many problems of sales management. Coincident with this, the agency studies the copy problems of the advertiser, and writes, or assists in writing, the ad vertisements, obtains illustrations for them, attends to having the finished advertisements electrotyped, selects the mediums to be used, sends the copy or the electrotyped plates to the periodicals selected, makes arrangements for all out-door and street-car advertis ing and checks the advertisements as they appear. Then come the important problems of coordinating the advertising with the work of the salesmen, or get ting distribution among dealers and inducing them to cooperate in the campaign. This last problem in volves the preparation of all sorts of dealer helps— store signs, window displays, circulars, novelties, etc. The agency will also prepare direct advertising both to dealers and consumers, in the form of catalogs, house organs, sales letters, mailing cards and other kinds of direct sales helps. Finally, the agency either keeps careful records of the results of all the sales producing activity, or it advises and helps the client in keeping such records.