Trade papers form a classification by themselves, and need no sub division, since they are all constituted and edited to appeal to the particular trade which they represent. There is not a trade classification in the country that does not have its own trade paper, so that the advertiser is enabled, if he uses the general press, to dovetail his advertising to the general public with his advertising to the trade. (Advertising to the trade is dealt with in a separate article.) There are besides many hundreds of miscellaneous papers reflecting no particular character at all, which always receive a certain amount of advertis mg patronage, and which continue to exist although there is no apparent reason why they should do so. Such papers, however, are not worth very great consideration, and may be left out of any advertising campaign with out the slightest danger to its probable success. Indeed the advertiser would do well to carefully avoid such hybrid publications, and should make careful inquiries regarding circulation before using their columns.
From the character of the various classifications referred to above it will be seen that the advertiser has some data upon which to choose the mediums which should carry his advertisements. Whilst, of course, there must be waste circulation, inasmuch as some readers will not see the advertisements, the advertiser need not waste circulation to the extent of placing announce ments of his wares before people who are not in a position to buy them. A motor advertiser knows that if his announcement is in The Standard it is in the right quarter, whilst if he put it into Answers he would know it would be in the wrong quarter. This is true of all classifications. Whatever the grade of the public to whom the advertiser appeals, there are newspapers, and many of them, which appeal most particularly, and sometimes exclusively, to that grade of people.
With this knowledge at his disposal, backed up by the experience of the advertising expert, he can choose with intelligence such papers as are likely to reduce waste circulation to a minimum.
Copy.—Advertising space is valueless in itself. Its real value depends upon the copy which occupies it. Copy is therefore one of the most im portant considerations for the advertiser. By copy is meant the whole of the advertisement, including the letterpress matter and the picture, if any. There is no one generally recognised good style of copy. No advertising man can choose one style of copy and apply that to every proposition in which he is interested and make it successful, nor is it possible to indicate a style of copy and assert with truth or wisdom that that is bad copy always. Good copy for one advertising proposition may be bad copy for another, and as to .judging whether this is so, it is simply a matter of applying the ordinary rules of common sense, and considering each proposition, the market it has to exploit, and the conditions surrounding it separately.
But it is fairly safe to assume that all advertising copy is a play one way or another on human emotion. It may appeal in the crudest manner possible or in a most delicate and subtle manner, but it makes some sort of appeal. All copy creates an impression on the beholder of some kind or another. The impression may be so fleeting as to only impress the name of the article for an infinitesimal fraction of a second, or it may impress the beholder so strongly as to convert that beholder into an immediate purchaser of the goods advertised. Again it may impress the beholder in such a manner that he or she would register a resolution then and there never to purchase those goods advertised. Copy can do any one of these things to any degree. The success of any copy depends upon the degree and strength of the impression created or appeal made. There is no doubt whatever that copy or printed matter of all kinds does create impressions and makes appeals varying in strength and character. For instance, you receive a printed form of invitation to a dinner. It is printed from old fashioned type, on very cheap cardboard, badly displayed, in bad ink. You regard it as an invitation to dinner, and accept or otherwise as the feeling takes you. You receive another invitation to a dinner of similar importance; this is also a printed form, but it is engraved from a steel plate and has an appearance of general excellence. You accept or refuse this invitation in accordance with what your desire may be, but this particular card impresses you for a moment as being correct in form and in keeping with the invitation it carries. You regard it for a trifle longer space of time than you regarded the first one. You receive a third invitation to a third dinner of equal importance. This invitation is personally addressed to you in all probability from one of your acquaintances. Possibly there is a sentence which has some other significance besides the dinner, calling to your mind a meeting of a pleasant nature some time ago. This third invitation creates a distinct impression upon you. You regard it as more important than the other invitations. The invitation form remains in your memory longer. All three invitations are sent out with the same object, that of inviting you to a dinner. The impression created in each one is totally different. This illustration is a slight one, and may not be considered eloquent by itself; but it must be remembered advertisements are creating millions of impressions every moment, everywhere, and it is the cumulative effect of these impressions which makes for the degree of success ultimately attained. Impression may be so strong that it will become a conviction to the extent desired by the advertiser. If copy can convince it has clone its work, but here again it is a question of degree of conviction, even if the stage of conviction is ever reached.