THE PURPOSE OF THE CAMPAIGN 1. The struggle of business.—The word campaign signifies careful planning and careful coordinating of effort. Its significance in war and in business is the same. The advertising campaign includes every thing done by an advertiser to promote sales thru publicity, all planned in advance, and every part of the campaign is designed to fit into the other parts so that there will be no conflicting effort, no friction —simply a smoothly running machine directed to ward the goal of increased sales.
2. The campaign, a modern idea of uniting all the advertising of an organization into a strongly centered campaign is one of the latest developments of modern business. Thirty years ago an advertisement was an advertisement. It was thought of as nothing more than a brief announce ment, on paper. Advertisements were seldom changed. There was seldom a single underlying thought drawing together all parts of the publicity of a business. Today we find remarkable examples of unity. While there is more variation in copy and more change in advertisements than there used to be, the same purpose and the same ideas run thru all the publicity of an advertiser. We find advertisers creating an atmosphere around themselves and their goods which is the same in each advertising medium.
A typical example is that of Cluett, Peabody and Company, manufacturer of Arrow Collars and Arrow Shirts. The style of lettering used for the words "Arrow Collars" is the same in all advertisements. There is a similarity in the style of illustrations and in the tone of the copy. This is noticeable whether the advertisement appears in a magazine, on a street car card, or on a window display. The same illustra tions are used in different forms, sometimes with a group of figures and sometimes with a single figure, in street-car cards, posters, window cards, and in every one of the other varied forms of advertising which the company uses. There is a unity of im pression, a unity of purpose. Each advertisement supports its fellows. Each is a part of a complete campaign.
3. Objects of campaigns.—While thirty years ago most advertising was thought of merely as general publicity, today every advertising campaign is backed by a definite purpose for the accomplishment of a specific object. 'We have begun to know why we
advertise. Some campaigns are purely educational; others are purely competitive.
Occasionally we find a campaign which seems to have no close relation to the promotion of the busi ness of the advertiser. The Farm, Journal of Phil adelphia takes space in the Saturday Evening Post not to advertise the Farm Journal but to advertise a bird club to prevent the destruction of American song birds. The practical man asks: "What does the Farm Journal get out of it?" The Farm Journal gets a valuable list of possible subscribers and a cer tain amount of prestige thru being associated with a worthy enterprise.
A manufacturer of tarred roofing conducts an ad vertising campaign for the sale of bird houses at cost, and one asks "What does this manufacturer of roof ing obtain by such advertising? While he obtains the same sort of prestige secured by the Farm Journal in its bird club advertising, he also has the satisfac tion of knowing that he is sampling his roofing, from which the bird boxes are made, to all the individuals purchasing these boxes.
The Bethlehem Steel Company takes space in newspapers not to advertise steel but in an appeal to the citizens of this country for what the company considers fair play in the matter of the government owning munition plants. Wall Street advertises to explain what its business is. In all these cases a specific object animated the campaign, altbo at first that object may seem to have little to do with the business of the advertiser.
In these days it is not enough to advertise just for the purpose of selling goods. The merchandising plan which is the foundation of the advertising must first be carefully studied. This will determine the purpose of the campaign. The principal object of the new concern may be to obtain distribution. The object of the old, well-established concern may be either to secure more dealer cooperation or to create more consumer demand. An advertising campaign without a purpose is like a ship without a destination.