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Trade Paper Advertising 



Editor's Note 



The following paper on the subject of Trade Paper Advertising and Its I'ossibilities. was delivered at the recent 

 Chicago meeting of the Lumber Sales Managers* Association, by Herlx'rt K. Sumner of the Sumner Lumber Com- 

 pany. New York. N. Y. Mr. Sumner has made a special study "of trade paper advertising, and his "copy" is re- 

 garded as the best that has ever been handled in connection with the scientific exploitation of lumber. Mr. Sum- 

 ner's analysis and deductions of the possibilities of trade 

 everyone interested in the marketing of this product. 



Tour conimitteo luts been kiud enough to 

 give me a little time to talk on the subject of 

 publicity and advertising in connection with 

 the lumber business. 



Generally defined, advertising means selling 

 through publicity. There are two divisions of 

 tlie subject and advertisements are either re- 

 minding or informing. The reminding adver- 

 tisement is nothing more than the name of the 

 firm and the list of products. The informing 

 advertisement is one that gives all the informa- 

 tion and presents it in a way that insures that 

 it will attract attention, create interest, then 

 iesire and finally closes in such a way as to 

 mpel the reader to take some action in regard 

 b it. These are the functions of a selling ad- 

 yertisement, which, in turn, is nothing more 

 •Jian salesmanship in print. 



As one of the leading advertising men of 

 oday expresses it, "The effectiveness of an 

 advertisement increases in the ratio that it con- 

 eys definite information and interprets that 

 nformation in terms of the consumer's in- 

 erest. ' ' 



That expres.sion represents the new idea of 

 .idvertising. The old idea of advertising was simply to put the nnrne 

 if the product and some such phrase as "Best in the World," "None 

 ike it," "Universally endorsed" and so on. But the new advert ise- 

 lents give all reasonable information and put it right uji to the 

 eader to know the facts and then to decide for himself. 



You will observe that the latter style is the evolution of general 

 business experience and the one most likely to remain. And you 

 (Vill observe that the old way is giving way to the new way under the 

 pressure of competition because the new way sells more goods. 



Of all the fields of advertising, that of trade-paper is the most 

 undeveloped. A great many manufacturers in all lines today are 

 beginning to realize that they have been wasting the space that they 

 luive been carrying for years — in other words, tliey thought by put- 

 ting their name and the name of their product in the center of white 

 space, that it would bring tliein results. Vou know the result of this 

 — it never has paid and never will. This is true of the lumber papers 

 more so than any other. Who is to blame for this condition? Cer- 

 tainly not the papers themselves, for they have talked "change of 

 copy" ever since they solicited advertising. In fact, the lumber 

 trade X'apers today, with one or two excejitions. are nothing more 

 than trade-directories. 



The chief fault witlj kiuilier ailvertisemcnts is tliat fliey do iu)l 

 give the essential information. One manufacturer asserts that lie 

 has fine quartered oak. The buyer who reads that advertisement, 

 unless of course he has had stock from the advertiser, has to guess 

 why it is fine and generally doesn't take time to do it, but places 

 his inquiries for prices with people who give the information. I,um- 

 ber advertisements should give the buyer such information as he wouhl 

 receive if he came to the manufacturer's headquarters to buy. 



Suppose John Jones & Co., of MemjJiis, Tenn., have an unusually 

 wide run of quartered oak to sell. Their name and the word quar- 

 tered oak in a quarter-page will not sell it or even create inquiries. 

 But su|)jiose they take a quarter page and head it "Unusually wide 

 run of Quartered Oak ' ' and go on to say that liere is .'5(1,0(10 feet 

 of 1 inch Is and 2s (Quartered White Oak band-sawn, good plump 

 thickness, over a year dry; that it contains at lea.st 1.5% to 20% 



HEUBERl E. SUMNER, NEW YORK. X. Y 



newspaper advertising should be read and analyzed by 



of 10 inch and up wide and fuUv 40 per cent; 

 of 14 feet and 16 feet. That it is real white- 

 oak cut from choice logs and contains nicely 

 figured stock, yet the price was no more than- 

 for ordinary run, don 't yoa. suppose any 

 buyer interested in quartered oak would be 

 impelied, by the closing of that ad that there 

 was only 50,000 feet of this stock for salt* 

 •tnd to wire at our expense if interested, to- 

 get in touch with John Jones & Co.? 



That is the kind of advertising that is going 

 to get results. Have you ever stopped to think- 

 of the economic side of trade-paper advertis- 

 ing? Take one of our hardwood papers for 

 instance: Its circulation is 12,000 copies. It 

 reaches principally the furniture manufacturers, 

 trim mills and hardwood lumber buyers iu- 

 general. Strike off 50 per cent of that circu- 

 lation, allowing this amount for people not 

 interested and advertisements not seen. la 

 other words, let us suppose that the advertise- 

 ment is only read by 6,000 people. A quarter 

 jiage for twenty-four issues will cost aliout $275- 

 ])er year. That space if used in the right way 

 will create interest ami sales for you. Now the 

 otlier side of the question. 



Do you know what it would cost to write a letter or put a stock- 

 sheet before 6,000 people every two weeks for a year? It total* 

 yearly $3,000, not counting the cost of paper, envelopes, stenographers 

 or printers' time and minor expenses. In other words, nearly twolvt* 

 times the cost of advertising. 



Tlie same story you put in a letter or the stock that you offer 

 witli description can be put in a quarter page of a good trade jiajier. 

 Vuu can reach any trade you want by chosing the paper going ti» 

 that class of trade. 



A certain manufacturer of quartered oak caiMC out with some very 

 good advertisements of his products awliile ago and ran these ads 

 for quite a time. The ads were good and sliould have brought ro- 

 stilts, but he overlooked one important factor. He used papers thai 

 went almost entirely to lumber producers with hardly a consumer or 

 re-manufacturer on the circulation list. Had he stopjied to con- 

 sider into whose hands these papers went, he would have saved cou- 

 sidcrable money and time. As my topic covers general publicity, there 

 are one or two more jioints I want to bring out. 



Manufacturers are generally neglectful of a most imporlaut 

 branch of advertising. The editors of trade-paper publications arw 

 usually glad to publish items of real interest to their readers anci 

 especially ones that describe new methods of manufacture, I inuj 

 saving devices, and so on. It is rarely that the advertiser prejiares 

 just the kinil of items or instructive articles that an editor wants. 

 Xinety-nine advertisers out of a huiulred seem to think that the item 

 of the "pulf" style, full of ccunplimeiits to themselves or their 

 products, is the only kind worth getting into print. The result is 

 that the editors are Hooded with copy and requests for free reading 

 notices most of which are such thinly veiled -self praising advertiso- 

 mcuts that a concientious editor hesitates to publish them and tliu 

 reader feels that he has been tricked w Inn lie reads one. 1 dim l 

 mean to say that tin advertisement in reading-notice style is not 

 effective. Such advertisements are effective; but they should not 

 be masqueraded as news items nor should they be made to take the 

 place of the real news item or instructive article. The reading 



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