A manufacturer recently spent $5,000 in one month in a carefully planned localized campaign. When the campaign was being planned, the advertising agent asked about the sales force, and was told that the manufacturer had six salesmen familiar with the trade and constantly at work. The advertis ing manager reported that he had carefully outlined the campaign to the salesmen and that each under stood his part.
Before the campaign was a week old the agent be came alarmed at the meager sales. On investigation, he found the sales force of six had dwindled to two, that the salesmen were working on a flat commission basis, and that, instead of being well-trained, efficient men, they were what might be called transient sales men. The public was being familiarized with the product, but no one was selling the dealers. Two let ters had been sent to dealers, but no response had been received. What was to be done? Money was being spent at the rate of $200 a day to raise the plums, yet there was no one to pick them. Nearly 2,000 dealers had to be sold at once, altho the agent had been led to believe they had all been seen before the cam paign commenced. In desperation the agent, step ping in and assuming charge of the selling as well as the advertising, put a corps of girls at telephones and instructed them to call up the 2,000 dealers. This was a desperate and almost unheard-of way of at tempting to obtain distribution ; but, as there was no time then to train new salesmen, as the girls' voices were more pleasant and less expensive than the men's, and as the girls could be trained for telephone solici tations in short order, it seemed the only way to save the day. The results were better than was thought possible. The advertising had been so effective that a mere mention of the proposition to the dealers se cured more than a twenty per cent response. If this could be done by girls over the telephone, it is reason able to suppose that three or four times the number of orders would have been secured by a sufficiently large and well-trained force of salesmen, and this result could have been obtained readily had the sales depart ment cooperated with the advertising department.
10. Obtaining information in the While some advertising managers depend entirely on the sales department and on conferences with sales men for their knowledge of the attitude of consumers and dealers, it is becoming more and more customary for advertising managers to travel thru typical ter ritories and obtain first-hand information about con ditions with which they must be familiar if they are to do their work properly. The advertising manager,
to get a clear grasp of conditions, sometimes finds it advisable to slip away for awhile from his office and do detective work. He may go out and represent himself as a salesman in order to get a clear idea of the arguments and excuses for not buying which con stantly confront the salesman. He may ask of the dealer the privilege of going behind the counter and selling to customers, that he may obtain a clearer idea of the attitude of the typical consumer.
11. The advertising department and the advertis ing the next chapter we are to discuss the functions of the advertising agency and its relation to the advertising department of its clients, but it is proper here to mention the much-discussed problem of the advisability of doing without an advertising de partment entirely when an agency's services are used. Business men often ask the question, "If I can get an advertising agency to write and place my adver tising, and if the services of the agency are paid for by the publisher, why do I need an advertising manager or an advertising department ?" A large na tional advertiser spending in excess of a million dol lars a year and employing about seventy-five people in his advertising department, turned this department over, a few years ago, to his advertising agency. While the department was conducted on the premises of the manufacturer, the employes were all hired, paid and supervised by the advertising agent. The plan was given a fair test. It was found impracticable. The advertising agent lost the account, and the adver tiser found that it was necessary to re-establish an advertising department responsible to him and not responsible to the agent.
As we have already shown in this chapter, an ad vertising department must have definite, concrete functions of its own. It must be constantly in touch with the sales force. It must be responsible for the records and the detail of following up inquiries. It must prepare literature for dealers and for consumers. It must be a distinct and definite working cog in the machinery of the business itself. 'No matter how im portant the services of the advertising agency may be, an advertiser cannot expect to take full advantage, of those services without people in his own organiza tion to do the many things for his business that an out sider, even when he is well informed and eager to serve, cannot be expected to do so well.