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•^ Profitable Lumber Advertising 





GENERAL POINTS FOR ADVERTISERS 



Editors' Note 



This is the sixth and last of a series of articles on how to write lumber advertisements, the first being a gen- 

 eral article on the subject, the second on "Writing Copy," the third on "Points About Writing Copy," the fourth on 

 "Borders, Headings and Layouts," and the fifth on "Mediums." 



In the foregoing articles, the first principles of advertising have 

 been given, and from them can be built up a thorough knowledge 

 of the game. Bemember, you can get no new ideas of merchandising 

 in the lumber business — you must get your ideas from other lines 

 of trade and make them applicable. The reading of such magazines 

 as Printer's Ink or Advertising & Selling (they are virtually the 

 trade-papers of the advertising world) will materially assist you, 

 for they contain the latest sales-schemes of every kind of business. 

 You will see that nearly every one tells the other about his plans 

 and schemes. They also tell of the results the scheme brings. 

 Lumbermen would condemn that policy immediately; but men in 

 the advertising world know the plans and when a scheme fails, it is 

 easy to see why it failed. They analyze the scheme and are careful 

 not to make any mistakes in a like proposition. Thus the trade 

 in general is benefited and it tends to ever increase the efficiency 

 of advertising. There are less and less campaign failures. By reading 

 the two papers mentioned above, you can get more ideas of Hhe 

 advertising game in six months than you could get in other ways 

 in a life-study, except by taking a course in the subject. 



The sales manager or his assistant should be the one to take 

 up the advertising end of the business. Salesmen should have reprints 

 of all advertisements, a number of each, for distribution to interested 

 parties. They can be used at times instead of cards. Eeprints 

 should be attached to every sales-letter that goes out of the office. 

 A notation, however, should always be in the corner, such as ' ' Ee- 

 printed from Hardwood Eecord, Mar. 10th, 1913." That calls 

 attention to the fact that you are a constant advertiser in that paper, 

 and the buyer will look for your new advertisements. Give the paper 

 instructions, when you send in your final O.K. 'd proof, to send you 

 an electrotype of the advertisement after it has been run. The 

 re-prints can be had at little cost. 



Advertising and salesmanship go hand in hand — one helps the 

 other, but advertising helps at every turn. Therefore, the salesmen, 

 the scouts of business, should make suggestions direct to the manager 

 of advertising. For instance, if one salesman finds that the oak 

 his firm has been shipping from its special oak mill takes a bettor 

 and more even "fume" than any other oak the customer has ever 

 bought, it makes a fine selling point. The manager of advertising 

 can work it in to advantage. The question of fuming lumber is a 

 vital one to the manufacturer of furniture and when that class of 

 people can get oak that takes the ammonia easily, it is interested 

 immediately. A saving in time is also evident — efficiency can be 

 brought in. Yet, if a lumberman sat in his office and tried to think 

 up these points he could never get any new ones. It 's the boys on 

 the job that see and hear these things and they are the ones to 

 turn them in to the advertising man. Of course, the general selling 

 points as to width, lengths, dryness, etc., can and must be found 

 out at the mill end so that shipments will come along as represented. 

 Points such as plump thickness, unusually old stock, special widths, 

 fine figure, hard texture (in some woods like ash) and so on, are 

 points that, for some lines of business, are telling ones for securing 

 business, or at least, in creating inquiries that will eventually result 

 in orders. 



The power of suggestion cannot be over-estimated in this connection 

 or, in fact, with advertising in general. If a man suggests a thing 

 to us and puts it in such a way that it seems the only natural thing 

 to do, we unconsciously do it. Suggestion has moved ub to do it. 

 Suggestion, however, must be made to do it naturally. For instance, 

 a man is buying a certain grade for a specific purpose. Perhaps 

 the car of the next lower grade on hand, on account of its high 

 percentage of cutting, will meet the same requirements or will cut to 

 nearly the same percentage, and yet it can be put in at the lower 

 grade price. Here is a good sales or advertising argument. A like 



—34b— 



argument, on the other hand, would be a grade with a particularly 

 high percentage of cutting (say ninety per cent) ; a proportionately 

 high price can be had for it. The point is — deal in facts, not 

 generalities. 



Service is probably one of the best selling points, especially so 

 today, where stock is badly broken at the mill end. Competition 

 on the selling end is growing keener everj' day — it is much more 

 so than on the buying end. One good thing that competition does, 

 where price is the same all around, is that it calls for the best there 

 is in salesmen to sell against each other, and it soon shows up the 

 man who is on his job. The same thing applies in advertising. Take 

 any two men handling the same product at the same price. Watch 

 them dig up new selling points and hammer away at it in their 

 advertising. Service will be one of the distinguishing factors. In 

 lumber advertising, some good points that can be brought up are: 

 Care in loading, facts about the character and texture of the stock, 

 points about finishing, etc. Service should always be made the strong- 

 est point. One lumber manufacturer on the Ohio river used to put in 

 one of his advertisements "We can ship on one day's notice." That 

 is one of the best selling points that could be had and yet that 

 manufacturer never made any point of it at all. He bad the 

 facilities for carrying it out, but he didn 't ' ' hanmier it home ' ' to 

 the buyers enough. He could build up a large business and a 

 reputation on that point alone, liut like many other lumbermen 

 he was not alive to opportunity. 



Co-operation between the sales and advertising departments of a 

 business means successful campaigns. Few in other liues of business 

 are successful as far as the office of the concern is concerned. Most 

 of the advertising men are at war with the sales managers — each 

 claims that his part of the work has brought the business and 

 therefore should be individually credited. There is too little co- 

 operation here and that is why some of the campaigns are not as 

 successful as the}- might be. W'hen a salesman feels that someone 

 else is "hogging" the credit in the office, he cannot put his best 

 energies into his work, and as a conseiiuence he does not feel like 

 doing something that is not appreciated. In the smaller concerns this is 

 eliminated, for the two jobs are combined in one — the sales manager 

 also has charge of the advertising. This man has endless oppor- 

 tunities at his command but his work should be done under the 

 most perfect conditions so that he can give the best that is in 

 him. And, he should be let alone. 



Yes, and while we are on that subject, — when a man is employed 

 who has studied the game and knows his job — both the advertising 

 and sales part of it — he is in better position to write and plan his 

 work than any other member of the concern. Some things he writes 

 may not look or seem right to you, but remember: the writing of 

 advertisements is a peculiar proposition and you have put that man 

 in charge because you believe he can make good. Let him alone, 

 except to make suggestions. If you keep commanding him to do 

 this or that, he is held down and can't get good results. If he 'a 

 working for you and you 're paying him a decent salary, he has your 

 interests at heart, hasn't he? Well then, let him write his copy 

 as he thinks best. Too many really good advertisements have been 

 weakened, and in most cases spoiled as far as their "pulling qualities" 

 were concerned, by the heads of concerns iwho knew absolutely 

 nothing about this science, who just "wanted to have something 

 to say to show their authority." This is a grave mistake. 



Study of conditions in the several lines of business to which one 

 caters reveals many points which can be made useful in both the 

 advertising and sales departments. A furniture manufacturer can 

 tell you something to advantage about your stock for his business 

 that you would never know of otherwise. That is why the salesmen 

 should be taken into confidence with both the sales and advertising 



