The entire edition was turned over in November to John Wanamaker and the advertising continued under the name of the Wanamaker Book Club. The books were conspicu ously displayed in the store, and an easy payment plan of purchase was inaugurated. The results were immediately apparent, and the profits arrived on schedule. During the first twenty days of April, the sales aggregated five-elevenths of the total sales during the entire campaign. In other words, out of a total sale of some forty thousand sets, nearly half were sold during the last twenty days. Of course there is nothing to prove that the results would not have come if the course originally followed had been adhered to, but the probabilities are strongly against it. What made the differ ence between success and probable failure was the disposition to find out what was really the matter.
4. Adapting campaign to local conditions.—An ad vertising and selling plan seldom has to be changed entirely after it has once been undertaken. Often, however, it must be adjusted in some minor way to meet changed conditions. Usually the adjustment involves added sales activity at some points and re arranged plans for local advertising at other points. The general plans for an advertising and sales cam paign may be justified by the general business condi tions in the country, and yet the varying conditions in different localities may make necessary a rapid shift in some of the attempts to link up national ad vertising with intensive work on dealers and consum ers in individual towns.
There are many sources of information for the ad vertiser who wants to keep in close touch with local business conditions to the end that he may spend his money in the places where it is most needed and where it will do the most good. Chief reliance is or dinarily placed on the reports of salesmen. If sales men are trained observers, valuable information can be obtained from them about the business of the mer chants in the towns they visit. Such information should be carefully weighed, however ; some salesmen are inclined to report conditions poor, as an excuse for small sales, or because in their own line things are generally slow, when other lines are not affected.
The commercial agencies can be of great help in picturing business in different sections of the country. The advertiser who tries to get inquiries or to make sales by mail can often ascertain condi tions in different localities by comparing returns from these advertisements, place by place and month by month.
One of the most interesting attempts to aid the ad vertiser to adapt his campaign to local conditions was inaugurated some years ago by the Research Com mittee of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World. Every year during one of the winter months the members of the committee visit representative dealers in the principal lines in all the leading market ing centers and obtain from their books records of the sales, collections, net profits and stocks carried for the month during which the investigation is conducted and also for the same month of the preceding year. From these figures maps are prepared showing the trend of trade in the more important business centers of the country.
On the following pages two of these maps are shown. They represent the conditions in the drug trade, as reported by the Associated Advertising Clubs in January, 1916. The first map shows per centages of increase or decrease in sales by drug stores for a month, compared with sales in the same month of the previous year. The second one shows similar percentages of increase or decrease in the average stocks carried by drug stores. These maps can be used by the advertiser in various ways. For in stance, the druggists of Buffalo report an increase in sales of thirty per cent, but with a ten per cent decrease in stocks. Such a 'situation ought to provide an opportunity for intensive dealer work in Buffalo, to induce the druggists there to increase their stocks. Or if Valley City, North Dakota, shows a decrease of five per cent in sales and an increase of the same percentage in stocks, the time seems to be ripe there for a special drive on consumers to relieve the congested condition of the stocks. The individual advertiser, of course, before taking action on the basis of these reports, must compare his own sales records with the local figures. I f his own sales to druggists in a certain city have largely increased during the year, he can conclude that his business in that city is in a satisfactory condition even tho the general stocks in the city may be reported as being low. If a city shows a substantial increase in sales, and his own sales to dealers have fallen off, he should consider the advisability of a strong local dealer or consumer cam paign, regardless of the general conditions of stocks.