ADVERTISING 



handling all the manifold requirements and 

 growing details of advertising. Such organiza- 

 tions are now called general advertising agen- 

 cies, because they deal in the space of all the 

 recognized channels of advertising dissemina- 

 tion. 



Advertising agencies which represent par- 

 ticular publications or other forms of advertis- 

 ing space are called special agencies. Thus the 

 advertising representative of a newspaper, 

 magazine or any outdoor form of advertising 

 is called a special advertising agent. The gen- 

 eral advertising agent, instead of trying to 

 promote the use of a particular publication, 

 advises the advertiser as to the purchase of 

 space in a variety of mediums with a view to 

 the best results from the advertising. 



Advertisers Classified. In the profession 

 advertisers are classified as local and general. 

 In the latter class are those who advertise in 

 more than one city. General advertisers who 

 sell and deliver goods direct to the consumer 

 are called mail-order houses. Their style and 

 method of advertising is called mail-order ad- 

 vertising. The largest individual merchandising 

 concern on the American continent and prob- 

 ably in the world is that of a mail-order firm 

 in Chicago. 



Mail-Order Houses and Advertising. A large 

 percentage of general advertising appearing in 

 magazines is done by mail-order houses. Some 

 magazines are known as mail-order magazines. 

 Their circulation is in smaller towns and on the 

 farms. Mail-order advertising is not confined 

 to these publications, however, but runs in all 

 magazines. Newspapers in the smaller cities 

 and towns as a rule refuse to publish mail-order 

 advertising because it is in competition with 

 local merchants. 



Mail-order advertising is of two kinds ; it seeks 

 (a) to induce the reader to buy upon read- 

 ing the advertisement, and (b) to induce the 

 reader to write for more information. The 

 two kinds are sometimes combined in the same 

 advertisement, with a view to obtaining direct 

 sales from some readers and inquiries from 

 others. 



The answer to the inquiry is called a "follow- 

 up." It usually consists of a catalogue, if the 

 advertiser has many articles to sell, and a 

 1 otter and an order blank. If the advertiser 

 has few articles to sell, a booklet or circular 

 takes the place of the catalogue. 



Inquiries to a mail-order firm have a deter- 

 mined value, depending upon the character of 

 the business. When one has inquired by mail 



ADVERTISING 



and makes a purchase, ho is listed as a cus- 

 tomer. The names on the list of customers 

 take on a higher value. The value of such 

 :i list often exceeds a million dollars. One 

 mail-order firm puts a value of $30,000,000 on 

 its good will and lists of names. 



General Advertising. The general advertising 

 of goods to be sold to consumers through 

 dealers is called publicity advertising. Adver- 

 tising in newspapers is classified as local or 

 foreign. By foreign is meant advertising of a 

 firm using newspapers in several or many 

 cities, or that of a firm whose place of business 

 is in another city. 



Direct advertising is the sending of the adver- 

 tisement by mail to a list of persons, or by mes- 

 senger to homes or places of business in a 

 certain area. The advertisement in this case is 

 called a mailing , piece. The giving of samples 

 of goods, usually grocery articles, is a method 

 employed to introduce new brands. It is some- 

 times done extensively with crews of men 

 going from house to house. 



Outdoor advertising includes painted bulle- 

 tins, painted walls, billboards, electric signs, 

 also metal signs, cloth banners, and cardboard 

 signs to be tacked up, and several lesser forms. 



Outdoor Advertising. Painting and billpost- 

 ing have become large industries, combining 

 plants in the different cities for handling these 

 forms of advertising. Electric signs are usually- 

 handled by the painted sign industry. The 

 volume of advertising in paint, posting and 

 electric signs in 1916 was about $10,000,000. 



Some of the outdoor signs in favored loca- 

 tions in the large cities are sold to the adver- 

 tiser for as much as $700 per month for a single 

 painted sign and $2,500 per month for a single 

 electric sign. Cards in street cars form another 

 branch of considerable advertising. 



Cost of Advertising. The price of advertis- 

 ing is based on the quantity of circulation of 

 the newspaper or magazine in which it appears, 

 for its value depends upon the number of per- 

 sons to whose notice it is brought. In large 

 newspapers and all magazines the basis of 

 calculation is what is called an agate line, one 

 column in length. The word agate is the 

 name of a type so small that fourteen lines of 

 it in depth occupy one inch of column space. 

 In large newspapers the rate is about one-tenth 

 of a cent per agate line for each thousand of 

 circulation; a circulation of 100,000 copies 

 would therefore justify a rate of ten cents per 

 line, or $1.40 per inch, each insertion. In 

 papers of smaller circulation the rate per line 



