WEIGHING PRESTIGE 1. The meaning of prestige.—In weighing the value of an advertising medium, the advertiser first considers its circulation—the unit cost of reaching each possible purchaser. The careful study of this problem involves all the things discussed in the last chapter. After weighing circulation, the advertiser next asks himself this question: What is the Ares: tige of the medium? Prestige means influence. The prestige of an advertising medium is the influ ence it has on its readers. Its prestige is measured by the confidence of its advertisers. Prestige is im portant to the advertiser because the degree to which readers will be influenced by advertisements appearing in a medium is largely determined by their confidence in it. No two mediums have exactly the same prestige; the advertiser's problem is to pick out those mediums that will have the most influence on the particular class of people that he wishes to reach.
2. Prestige of direct mediums.—The prestige of direct mediums varies in three ways. First, it varies with the kind of the medium. A sealed letter sent out under a two-cent stamp, for instance, ordinarily carries more prestige than an unsealed letter under one-cent postage. Second, the prestige of a direct medium varies with the quality of the medium. An attractive, clean-cut letterhead has more prestige than a slovenly, poorly arranged one. A good ad vertising specialty—a paper - knife, for instance, strong, durable, attractive—has more prestige than one that is badly constructed and obviously cheap. Third, every direct medium shares the prestige of the advertiser who uses it. A form letter from a well known, highly respected business establishment has more prestige than an equally good letter from a house of which the recipient has never heard.
3. Prestige of signs.—Many forms of signs at one time had little prestige. When posters were pasted chiefly on fences, dead walls and everything else except when kept off by a "Post No Bills" notice, many advertisers and many members of the public did not take posters very seriously. Now, however, the bill-posting business has been made a real busi ness. Bill-boards are standardized mediums; they
are placed where a known amount of traffic regularly passes; and the space they occupy is leased and paid for. Posters, too, have improved in character; the advertiser strives now for artistic attractiveness. Posters' art is gradually developing as a branch of art, as well as a branch of advertising. There is still some esthetic objection to all posters, but this atti tude of a small minority is certainly not lessening the influence of billboards. Poster advertising has proved its value to many advertisers. Signs of all kinds are steadily gaining in prestige and in value as advertising mediums.
4. How prestige John Lee Mahin, in his book "Advertising—Selling the Consumer," gives an interesting illustration of the way in which pres tige makes itself felt. He asks you to assume that you are on the mailing list of a bond house, and that you are also a regular reader of a morning paper, a monthly magazine and an illustrated weekly. One morning you receive from the bond house a circular describing a new issue of attractive investment bonds. It happens, that same day, that you see advertise ments of those same bonds in your newspaper, your favorite magazine and your illustrated weekly. As sume that in all cases the advertisements are well pre pared, and each one, regardless of the medium in which it appears, goes far toward influencing you fav orably with respect to the bond issue. Which me dium would have the greatest influence with you? If your purchases from the bond house that sends you the circular have been profitable, the direct adver tising of the circular would probably have the most prestige. If your experiences with that house, how ever, have been unpleasant—if on have been indif ferently served, or if you have been dissatisfied with, your purchases for any reason—the circular will have little influence. The circular would carry little pres tige, also, if you had never heard of the house issu ing it. In both these latter cases, an advertisement carrying the prestige of your favorite newspaper or magazine would probably be more influential than the circular.