4. The time an advertising cam paign ordinarily is planned for a year, it should be ex tended over a sufficient length of time to enable the advertiser reasonably to expect the result desired. Too many advertisers become discouraged just when they are on the point of succeeding.
An advertising agent was asked once how long he thought it would be necessary to test the advantages of advertising for a particular product. Before an swering he asked the advertiser, "How often does the same consumer buy your class of products?" He was told the consumer reordered every three to six months. He pointed out to the prospective client that if he advertised continuously for six months and secured all the business in his market, he would then just have a chance to catch each buyer on his next order. In other words, if each buyer were fully convinced by the advertising, six months would only allow each one an opportunity to purchase once. The advertising campaign was started on the six months' basis. At the end of four months the ad vertiser became discouraged. The agent reminded his client of his estimate, and asked the privilege of sending a letter to a selected list of the advertiser's prospects. With this letter the agent sent a return postal, on which one of the questions asked was, "How often do you order a product of this kind?" The return postals showed that, while the shortest time was three months, the longest was three years, and the average was eleven and one-quarter months. Other questions asked on the card were: "In what quantities do you order?" and "If you were ordering today, what brand would you specify?" The an swers to these two questions indicated a volume of business that would have been equal to a 150 per cent increase in the advertiser's annual business if the buyers had been in a position to order at that time. Yet the advertiser was ready to admit that his ad vertising campaign was a failure. He had not given the advertising time to show results.
5. Effect of the campaign on the advertiser.— When a manufacturer decides seriously to undertake a planned advertising campaign, he immediately changes from the position of letting himself be sold advertising to the position of buying advertising.
Undoubtedly the greatest waste in advertising today is indiscriminate purchasing of space and of materials. In many businesses those items of expense which can not rightly be charged to production or distribution are charged to the advertising department. This de partment has to bear the burden, for example, of donations and charity which have no direct relation to advertising, but are charged to it because the adver tising account is elastic. When one lays out an ad vertising campaign, he plans all expenditures, and nothing can creep in that does not definitely bear on his purpose. A campaign is something tangible. The advertiser planning a campaign begins to weigh values. He begins to establish a policy. He sends his order for advertisements in certain mediums un solicited, because, from the data he has before him, he feels that these mediums will bring him the greatest return on the money invested.
A certain manufacturer spent $40,000 a year in advertising without any definitely planned campaign. One of the items was $5,000 for flange signs. The reason he spent $5,000 was because the price in five thousand lots brought the sign down to one dollar each, while, if he had purchased in one thousand lots, the signs would have cost two dollars each. Altho the signs have been in the manufacturer's possession for over three years, his salesmen have not as yet been able to find five thousand dealers who will use them. Five hundred signs could have been purchased for $1,250, thus saving the manufacturer $3,750. Such examples of waste are often found among concerns having no definitely outlined advertising campaigns.
When a manufacturer outlines and attempts to conduct an advertising campaign, he knows exactly where and when he is spending his money. He keeps accurate record of the returns. He begins to have greater faith in advertising as the returns materalize.
He begins to see bigger possibilities in his business. He learns to plan ahead. The concern which defi nitely lays out and carries forward an advertising campaign has made its first step toward advertising success. The day of profit in hit-or-miss advertising has gone. Without the campaign there is little chance for success.