In choosing an advertising agent, the advertiser would do well to bear in mind that no kudos is attached to handling an account at a cut rate, since the agent thereby admits tacitly that he makes no claim to any particular advertising ability, and bases his claim to patronage on the return of commission only.
The service agent takes a hand in the selling problem, right after the finishing of a manufactured article. He advises in everything that has to do with placing the manufactured goods into the hands of the ultimate consumer—the general public; and it is in the preliminary discussions and conferences with the advertiser that the service agent renders the major part of his services. Before any expenditure is entered into at all, the whole ground requires looking over very carefully ; and the plan of campaign suggested either by the advertiser or by the agent requires careful discus sion and alteration until it is finally acceptable and looks reasonably probable to be successful. Such an agent as we are now referring to spends all his time in solving similar problems to the particular one he may be considering in this initial stage. He has to think of various markets, the various means of promoting sales, and is continually solving small minor difficulties through out the length and breadth of the country in all sorts of different trade classifications.
His knowledge, therefore, is of a very general and comprehensive char acter. He is enabled to draw upon his experience and point out the weak ness of this or that method, and suggest ways and means by which certain weak points in the plan may be strengthened. This preliminary work is of a most exhaustive character and frequently takes considerable time. In the case of a large tweed manufacturer advertising his product for the first time the investigation of the market beforehand took nearly eighteen months, from the time the problem was first taken in hand until the press advertising ultimately appeared. Some advertisers are impatient of such a delay but to make success sure it is always advisable that the ground be thoroughly looked into and a plan be mapped out before advertising starts. When advertising has once started, the service agent advises all along the line. If difficulties crop up, he confers with his client and aids in their solution. In short he is retained as the professional adviser of the advertiser. The
interest of the advertiser and the success of his own organisation are bound up in the success of his clients.
The Advertising matter how complete a service an advertising agent renders to his client, it is practically impossible for him to personally advise upon every minute detail in connection with the cam paign. The necessity, therefore, has arisen that firms who spend a large amount of money in advertising employ an advertising specialist who is generally termed the advertising manager. His work is one that calls for a very high degree of ability, soundness of judgment, and quickness of decision. Ile deals with the inner details of the advertising, more especially with regard to the trade ; or, if correspondence with the public is entered into, with the proper administration of that department. He is also in control of the "follow-up" system, if one is in use in connection with the campaign, and in short, with all the many and intricate details which occur at head offices, and which the advertising agent cannot possibly see to him self. The morning's correspondence, for instance, generally calls for a number of decisions or alterations to be made in the details of the adver tising plan. Hundreds of retailers write for this or that or the other, and only an advertising man can answer them and deal with their correspondence correctly. When the public write in great numbers to an advertiser their correspondence must be dealt with from an advertising standpoint. Then again there is the production of the various literature which the advertiser issues from time to time in the shape of booklets, folders, form letters, &c., and all the general detail work which appertains to the selling department of an advertiser's business. In short, advertising is becoming so closely bound up with the whole machinery of selling, that the advertising manager stnd the sales manager are frequently one and the same person, because thu duties of two such positions are so closely allied. The sales manager, who interviews the travellers and deals with the trade generally, is in a better position to deal with small matters appertaining to advertising and vice versa. Therefore, it is of frequent occurrence that both these positions are merged into one.