WHOLESALE OR TRADE most usual media for advertising to and for a particular trade are the trade paper; circulars, booklets, catalogues, &c. Such advertising may be described as the application through the medium of printer's ink of the same principles as those adopted by the actual travelling salesman. A general cam paign to the trade should therefore be based upon the general selling plan of the advertiser. It is a subject which requires the closest atten tion at headquarters, as it is generally the forerunner of special corre spondence and follow-up matter designed to treat the resultant inquiries. In a measure printer's ink is a much cheaper method of selling goods than the actual salesman, although of course it cannot go so far. The methods of all travelling salesmen are generally very similar—that is to say, they call upon the retailers, show samples of the ,goods, explain merits and selling points, name the price, and endeavour to sell a line there and then. It is a truism that all buyers are negative. No matter whether a retailer or trader really desires to purchase $.1 line of goods or not, immediately he is ap proached by a salesman he will invariably find some objection to purchasing, acting on the idea that if he raises objections the salesman will, in his endeavour to make a sale, offer better terms. The actual travelling sales man being present in person with his goods is enabled to meet the objections of the trader to his proposition, to overcome them, and to obtain an order on the spot. Advertising through the medium of printer's ink cannot of course anticipate and meet all these objections, but the main selling points may be stated with a prominence and clearness sufficient to influence the buyer's interest on behalf of the goods advertised. Whilst, of course, this class of advertising directly creates sales to a degree profitable in accordance with the proposition, the main work is the creation of interest and inquiries, which are dealt with from headquarters by special correspon dence. As we have already stated, advertising by printer's ink is cheaper than employing the actual salesman. It would be almost impossible to maintain a staff of travelling salesmen who could call regularly on every retailer in a certain trade classification. Take the grocery trade classifica tion, for instance. There are upwards of 80,000 grocers in the United Kingdom. Obviously the expense of maintaining an actual travelling stair to make a regular monthly call on all these 80,000 grocers would be some thing enormous. It is necessary, therefore, to find a substitute for the travelling salesman, and trade advertising, both in trade papers and by circulars, fulfils this want. Good striking circulars can be run off in hundred thousand lots, and can be posted out to the trade for a halfpenny. It will be seen, therefore, that in a measure a manufacturer can make 80,000 calls at a limited expense, though each individual call made by a piece of printed matter is not so effective as the actual call made by the salesman.
Advertising to the trade is very frequently indeed the forerunner of a general advertising campaign—that is, the manufacturers and merchants who desire to obtain a wider market for their goods generally start by adver tising for a period to the trade alone, the object being to obtain as wide as possible a distribution of their goods before they start advertising to the public.
As an instance take an hypothetical case of a manufacturer of a new metal polish. This metal polish is, at the moment, absolutely unknown to the trade ; they do not know anything whatever about it, its quality, its price, or even the existence of its manufacturer. Before the manufacturer can undertake profitable advertising to any large extent it is absolutely necessary that the whole of the trade should know that the metal polish exists. Of course it would be possible to acquaint people of the fact that it exists by a tremendous press and poster advertising campaign which would cause the general public, to ask for the metal polish at the stores, and would eventually acquaint the trader with the fact that such a polish existed, but it would be a very wasteful and slow method. A wise manufacturer, there fore, uses the trade press to announce the coming of the new metal polish, and in addition probably circularises every grocer in the kingdom once a week for six weeks. At the end of this period the whole of the trade will know of the existence of the polish, and will be in a position to meet more readily the demands of the public should they come along. Apart from this, the limited travelling staff which the manufacturer maintains will meet a readier response when travelling in the interest of the new polish, because the trade are already cognisant of its existence. They know what the manu facturer's plans are, they know the price of the polish and all about it. In other words this trade advertising would fertilise the field in advance for the travellers who were to follow on the ground later on and seek orders, quite apart from creating in itself a number of orders which would be sent through the post direct to the manufacturer. From this it will be seen that advertising to the trade is a very necessary initial element in any manufacturer's plan. In fact it is absolutely indispensable—that is, if the maximum results are expected from any given definite expenditure. There is a tendency at times for manufacturers to ignore the trade to a certain extent. It is thought that the press advertising alone is sufficient to create a demand and stock the trade up. This, however, is unwise and unsound. Advertising to time trade has a very real, a very important position in a manufacturer's plan, and it cannot be organised too carefully or done too wisely. Any manufacturer, whether selling an advertised article or an un advertised article, can test the truth of this very easily indeed. Select, for instance, two towns such as Birmingham and Leeds. We will assume that each of these towns is being covered by four or five travellers who make regular calls throughout the district of which they are the respective centres. Send the Birmingham grocers circulars every week for six weeks, and do not send any circulars to the Leeds grocers. At the end of six weeks it will be seen whether the sales in time Birmingham district have increased sufficiently to warrant the expenditure. This is an experiment that any manufacturer might well make at very little cost indeed, and the result will in all pro bability justify an extension of the practice to other territories, and maks for a very profitable increase in the turnover at a comparatively small expenditure.