RETAIL ADVERTISING: Disadvantages.—With the growing success of large advertisers, particularly advertisers who direct stores or mail-order campaigns, the smaller trader has of late given a great deal of attention to the problem of local advertising. Many advertising experts look over local journals and pick out the announcements of traders in that dis trict, and say how badly this work is done. The man who is accustomed to the making of capable or efficient advertising can point to ways and means which will at once improve this advertising out of all knowledge. In passing such criticism he is not slow to express the opinion that the local trader does not know much about advertising as it is applied to-day, and has given but scanty attention to its study. This is a somewhat obvious and easy criticism to make, but an examination of the facts does not quite justify it, although in many cases the substance of the suggestion is true. Many retail traders who take space regularly in their local journals have not only studied the advertising problem very acutely, but they are convinced of the necessity of reform and would welcome some means of securing it. The fact that they are sympathetic to the newer methods, which are unques tionably better, does not enable them to improve their advertising. They quite realise that it is bad, but despite their knowledge of what is wrong with their work, they are largely cramped and limited by technical con siderations.
It is all very well for the advejtising, expert working in and around Fleet Street and the Strand to point to the way local advertising might be improved, but the matter is not so simple as such an advertising expert is inclined to think. The man in Fleet Street and the Strand, working on behalf of wealthy corporations, can do very much as he pleases technically in putting out his advertising. He is in direct touch not only with the news paper, but with a little army of workers who enable him to do almost better than he would he able to do with the assistance of the average daily paper's up-to-date plant. Ile has the artist at command, and can get a drawing done on the very (lay he gives the instruction ; he can call in t he block maker and have his drawing processed by the evening of the next day, explaining his needs personally to the representative of the firm ; he can employ men who have not only studied the work of compiling advertising announcements, but have also considered the very important question of displaying the matter when it is written. He can get from such experts the best kind of assistance, and when he has that assistance he can see that his juices are carried out. Should the display involve a special script type or a drawing, he can have it designed and the necessary electros made in a very short space of time. If the newspaper to which his copy is sent does not give him the setting he desires, he Can place the work in the hands of a printer who has spe,ialised artistic advertising display, explain his needs, and get the right setting without any waste of time. And in this connection all the time he is in close touch with all the people who can give him assistance and can explain his needs verbally, which is an advantage which cannot be too greatly appreciated.
Working in the smaller towns, away from the centre of the printing trade, the advertiser, no matter how keenly alive he is to new ideas, has none of these advantages, or if he has any of them he has not all. He may employ the expert to make his copy and give hint a striking display, and one would think that he has arrived at a pretty satisfactory position when he has (lone this. But his troubles are only He will find that the small newspaper will return his copy set in a way quite different from the lay-out he has supplied, and if he raises the question he will be told that the news paper has not the necessary types. If the newspaper happens to have the
types, and most of the big newspapers carry a fairly resourceful list of the latest fonts, he will still find his settings unsatisfactory, chiefly because many newspapers do not want to go to the trouble and the expense necessary to changing copy each insertion, and setting up matter which presents problems owing to the originality of its display. To a man in an isolated town these difficulties are very real and are intensified by the fact that advertising is only one part of his interests, and side by side with its consideration he is harassed by dozens of business problems from his various departments. If the advertiser is not content with good writing and bold setting, and would desire to illustrate his announcements as his greater competitors from the outside illustrate theirs, he is in a still more difficult position. Men accus tomed to work for the illustrated press largely gravitate to town or the great cities, and the advertiser who has an idea for an apt illustration has not the man to his command to carry this out. Again, if he secures this advantage he has to send his drawings some distance away before they can be processed and put into practical use in his What can be done to minimise these troubles on the part of the keen advertiser who is in an out-of-the-way town ? Much might be done by a careful study of his available resources. Advertising writers and designers of display are nowadays quite plentiful, and most traders can find the original service necessary for a practical consideration. The technical side of the production is the point where his difficulties seriously begin. A care ful study of the newspaper will show that, even in cases where good types are not plentiful, a fairly useful line of types will be carried. It should be remembered that the man who sends a lay-out asking for certain types which are popular in advertising display is often told by the printer that these types are not in hand and is given a setting which is largely at the discretion of the master printer. This is not so conclusive an obstacle as it looks, when it is first brought up. There are certain types fashionable amongst leading advertisers which change from time to time, but for the rough-and-ready work of local advertising they are by no means indispen sable. It is possible by going over the paper itself and noting the types used that a sufficient choice both in size and in effective contrast can be found in the out-of-date office. If the fashionable type is not in vogue, then another which is actually in use will do if it relatively produces the same effect. It would be necessary in that case for the advertiser to under stand what is available and to be in a position to ask for the types which he wishes to use, and to point out to the printer or publisher that are there for his use when his instructions are not followed. It should be remembered that a paper which puts obstacles in the way of its advertisers will not be renowned for the strength of its setting of display advertise ments, so that the man who gives the work thought and skill is in compe tition with men who are limited to the same technical resources. A great improvement in the type-setting of local advertising would he made by any advertiser who studied his resources and made a point of asking for what he wanted typographically. On the top of this, it would be worth getting into personal contact with some man in the department of the newspaper, who would no doubt give him many useful hints in the possibilities of that par ticular office. It is not so much that the newspapers do not want to give assistance--they have frequently allowed the work to become a matter of routine, and no special thought is given to any particular problem of setting.