"GETTING THE ORDER" COPY 1. Purpose and scope.—Copy which is intended to sell goods. direct to the consumer, without the help_ of any other marketing agency, is known as "getting the order" copy.
Not all products can be successfully advertised by direct mail order copy. This type of advertisement is usually confined to medium priced products, and to articles of personal consumption whose nature is easily explained. Little copy is employed, since the prod uct is sufficiently well known to have an existing de mand.
Usually a fitting illustration is used in combination with a suggestive headline to attract attention. Then follows a paragraph designed to inspire a wish for the article, the descriptiv' e matter, the offer and the address. The whole advertisement is crowded with information.
2. Typical preparation for a mail-order campaign involves more than the mere writing of copy for magazines and newspapers. It includes the preparation of catalogs, folders and a proper follow-up system.
To overcome the prestige of the local store having a personal contact with customers, a favorable loca tion, counter and window displays, is the supreme test of mail-order copy. It must, with the same words, awaken the impulse to buy and create confi dence. It must tell an interesting and plausible story connected with the product that will bring enough orders to prove profitable.
A single word in the advertisement of a mail-or der campaign may affect the results favorably or unfavorably. To no one is the subject of word values. of more importance than to the man writing mail order copy. "Increase your salary," proved to be twice as effective as "increase your income," and the word "rider" before the stereotyped phrase "agents wanted" turned the latter from a formal, unproduc tive insertion into a business-building advertisement. for the Mead Cycle Company.
It is sometimes assumed that mail-order copy must be "snappy" and "smart" in order to be productive. But experience has demonstrated that this is not the case. The many successes of the past prove the ef ficacy of appeals in plain tales unadorned. The
copy must, however, combine human interest with clear description.
Occasionally mail-order advertisers use a simple form of copy, year after year, without any change whatever. The Press Company's copy "Print Your Own Cards" is an example of a successful advertise ment of this kind.
Maher and Grosh Company's advertising, as an ex ample, has changed but little in ten years or more. This company uses two-inch, double column adver tisements, and the quality of the offer is varied to suit the medium. The • farmer is offered a substantial knife at a low price; the business man is solicited to buy a high-grade penknife, prices being quoted in each case. Not only are Maher and Grosh adver tisements simple, but it has been possible to use the same catalog, practically unchanged, for a number of years, thus cutting advertising expense to a mini ., mum.
• 3. Mail-order advertising.—The high commercial value of mail-order advertising as a means of building business is seen in the growth of many con cerns from obscure beginnings to an assured posi tion.
.• In the simplest form of mail-order merchandising there is frequently some manufacturing done, but the business usually places the stress upon selling, pre ferring to buy what it sells, rather than to manufac ture.
In a large mail-order business a predetermined market is supplemented by quantity buying. The entire output of factories is purchased; surplus stocks are bought at bargain prices. Goods bought at a low price cut down the advertising expenditure pro portionately, so that the amount of periodical adver tising these houses do is really not at all proportion- • ate to their volume of business.
Extensive periodical advertising has been done away with by the "giants." But houses without the prestige of age and size must still advertise heavily.
Their problem of getting names, preparing lists, di verting business, adding to the prestige of the house and impressing the lines upon which they specialize on the public's mind, is considerably greater than that of the big and successful houses.