These reports are of value to the retailer as well as to the manufacturer. A New Orleans druggist may be congratulating himself on a ten per cent in crease in sales. If the average increase for druggists in his city is twenty-one per cent, he may find it ad visable to take steps to bring his business up to the average.
5. Unifying the advertising cam paign is deserving of the name only when all parts of it work together for a common end, and when they are so related that there is no conflict, no lack of har mony, but simply a smoothly running piece of sales machinery with a definite function and a definite place for each cog and each wheel. Advertising has suf fered in the past because of the failure to give a com mon characteristic to all the publicity of a given ad vertiser, and because of a lack of appreciation of the fact that advertising and sales must be closely co ordinated if there is to be maximum efficiency and minimum waste. The careful advertiser gives his at tention to four problems in coordination. (1) He sees to it that all his advertising has an individuality that binds the whole together into a single effective sales weapon. (2) He makes sure that his sales men believe in his advertising and that they work with it instead of against it. (3) He shows dealers (if he sells thru dealers) how to tie up their own store display and their own newspaper advertising to his efforts to bring consumers into their stores. (4) He organizes his own factory and office so as to insure that every member of his organization per sonifies the spirit and policy of his publicity. The first of these problems in coordinating the parts of the campaign was considered in detail in Chapter V.
6. "Selling" the advertising to the salesmen.— Many salesmen do not understand the purpose and the methods of advertising. Sometimes they suspect that the increasing importance of advertising means the decreasing importance of the salesman. It is necessary, therefore, for the advertiser to be sure that his salesmen not only understand the function of ad vertising in general, but also that they are fully in sympathy with the purposes of his own publicity.
This attitude of some salesmen toward advertising is not unnatural. In the past, the advertising man has not been a part of the sales organization; he fre quently made his plans without consulting the sales department. Under this illogical arrangement the salesmen often were not told of the advertising plans in advance; they did not know what advertising was to be (lone until they saw the advertisements them selves or until dealers called attention to them. Nat urally the salesmen resented being left out of the plans; their lack of knowledge of the activities of the house reflected adversely on them and on their em ployer. The modern executive avoids these unfor tunate conditions, either by putting personal sales manship and advertising under the supervision of the same man, or by insisting that all advertising plans be worked out in cooperation with the sales depart ment, and by taking steps to see that the salesmen are told about the advertising, that they believe in it and use it in every possible way to increase their sales.
Advertising is "sold" to salesmen in a variety of ways. At sales conventions it is customary to have the advertising manager explain in detail the plans of the coming season, to answer questions, and to ob tain the enthusiastic cooperation of the salesmen. House organs are often used to tell the men about the advertising, to explain the purpose of it and to show them how the salesmen can make the most of Some advertisers go so far as to explain in detail to salesmen, thru the house organ, the reasons why the different advertising mediums are used.
The most common method of keeping the salesmen in touch with the advertising is to send copies of ad vertisements to the men in the field for their own in formation, and also to help them in explaining the campaign to dealers.
The tactful advertising manager is often able to ask advice from salesmen, and to retain their interest and cooperation by showing them the reasons for his con elusions, even if he finds it necessary to reject their suggestions.
7. "Selling" the advertising to dealers.—When goods are distributed thru dealers, there is bound to be waste in the advertising unless dealers are familiar with it and use it in every possible way to increase the sale of the advertiser's goods. It was pointed out in Chapter XVI that the dealer's cooperation cannot be expected unless the advertised goods are of good quality and carry a satisfactory profit for him. If these conditions are fulfilled, then efforts should be made to tie up the dealer and the advertising in such a way that one will supplement the other. Dealers should be informed of the advertising that is to ap pear. This information may come either by mail or thru the salesmen. Salesmen often carry portfolios showing future advertisements, schedules of mediums, circulation of mediums by states and by towns, and other information designed to interest the dealer in the campaign and to enable him to coordinate his sales efforts with the local and national advertis ing of the manufacturer. Then, just before any ad vertisement is to appear, the dealer receives a reminder from the manufacturer. In this way the dealer can arrange to make a display of the goods to take ad vantage of the advertising, or he can advertise under his own name, in the papers or by signs in his win dow, that he is the distributer for the advertised goods. Another method of linking up the dealer and the national advertising is to furnish the dealer with cuts that are similar to the ones used in the manufac turer's advertising.