16. Advertising of small investigation of the businesses of over 1,500 retail stores, some of which are consistent advertisers and some of which do not advertise at all, shows the following average percentage of gross sales spent for advertising in the following different classes of retail establishments : It must be remembered that this is only an average, and that many of the stores listed spend nothing at all for advertising, thus bringing the charge down.
17. Dividing the retailer's appropriation among de departments of a retail store re quire more advertising than others. Some depart ments are used as leaders, and are expected to show only a very small profit. The advertising of the commodities in these departments helps to sell those of other departments. A department store adver tising manager in dividing his appropriation often attempts to give different percentages of his gross ap propriation to each department, the division of the ap propriation depending on the relative importance of the departments. The following list gives by de partments the percentage of gross sales spent for ad vertising in twenty of the leading department stores of the United States. The total expenditure for the period amounted to two and one-half per cent of gross sales. The figures represent the percentage of gross
sales of each department which were expended di rectly for advertising to sell the goods of these depart ments plus a general overhead charge of six per cent. The list is reprinted from Printers' Ink (July 6, 1916).
18. Apportioning the appropriation.—The na tional advertiser in apportioning his appropriation has a much more difficult problem than that of the re tailer. The question has often been asked, "How much should be apportioned to general publicity and how much to dealer advertising?" The amounts ap portioned vary, from the Cream of Wheat Company, which spends one hundred per cent in general pub licity, to Sears, Roebuck & Company which spends practically all of its appropriation direct thru the mails. The advertising department of the Cream of Wheat Company, which is said to spend over $500, 000 annually, consists of one man, Colonel Emery Mapes himself. The advertising department of Sears, Roebuck & Company consists of 1,300 people. No general rules can be given in regard to the divi sion of appropriations, but the following figures may be of interest: