Thus it is with all business. As supervision and territory are added, expenses increase faster than returns. Even volume ultimately reaches a limit. There comes a point when the amount of ad ditional expense required is exactly equal to the re turn that will be received. This is the point of di minishing returns. Beyond this point it is unprofita ble to proceed. If it were not for this law, the fact that an advertising expenditure of $1,500,000 brought the Procter and Gamble Company $83,000,000 worth of business, might persuade the company to spend $3,000,000 or $6,000,000 in advertising the coming year on the theory that the increased expenditure would bring $166,000,000 or $332,000,000 worth of business.
Every advertising campaign has before it a point of diminishing returns. It is farther away in some businesses than in others. When there is a strong ele ment of "repeat" in an article, the point of diminish ing returns may be far in the future. It is much nearer if a product is such that only one sale can be made to each customer.
Indications that a business is approaching the point of diminishing returns may be found in the steady rise of the cost per inquiry and the steady rise of the cost per sale. The day when increased expenditure will not bring adequate returns may be postponed in some cases. The field of operations may be extended, or new products may be added which will carry pres tige already established and which can be sold with out much additional sales expense. But if progress continues, the point of diminishing returns is bound to be reached sooner or later in every business. That in creased expenditure for advertising cannot continually bring increased returns is no indictment of the power of advertising. It is a fundamental law of nature.
11. Cumulative effect of second of the two laws of advertising that we are considering has a direct bearing on the necessity of coordinating all the parts of an advertising campaign. It rests on two laws of human nature. The first says : "At tention and interest cannot be maintained except mo mentarily on a stimulus that remains absolutely the same." There must be something new and changing about it. The reader can, of course, voluntarily force his attention for a brief period on an advertisement, but such attention cannot be continued long unless the object reveals some suggestion or idea that is of new interest to him.
The other law states: "Attention and interest can not be maintained on a stimulus which is absolutely without meaning—a stimulus of which the reader has had no previous cognizance." WTe must have some link with a past experience by which we can compare a present experience, or we immediately lose interest.
Everything that holds our attention and interest must have two elements—an element of the old and an element of the new—an element of repetition and an element of novelty. The most engrossing and in teresting experiences new experiences in old sur roundings or old expeences in new surroundings. If the experiences and surroundings are both new we lose interest, just as we tire if the experiences and surroundings are both old and have become common place to us. Our continued interest in any object depends partly on our familiarity and association with that object, and these in turn depend on repeated con tact with it.
It is the same with advertisements as with anything else that claims our attention. WTe welcome the ad vertisements of Ivory Soap and Cream of Wheat as old friends. No two of them are quite le same, and vet there is something about every one that causes ready recognition and that induces growing interest and good-will. The advertiser should strive to make the reader regard his advertisements as lie regards his friends. We expect a friend always to have the same color of hair, the same features, the same height and the same mannerisms. These things remain constant, but other things about him change. He does not al ways wear the same clothing. He does not always talk about the same things. If he is 'a friend worth having, he is likely to bring to you some new idea every time you meet him. Each contact with him develops a better understanding. If his ideas are always good, his manner always pleasant, his sincerity always evident, each meeting will add to your respect for him; and the more you respect him, the more willing you will be to act on his suggestions. So it is with adver tisements. Their success depends largely on their persistence, on the readiness with which the reader recognizes them, and on the amount of respect that he is made to feel for the advertiser and the adver tiser's goods.