Eager Beaver

Articles In This Section:

· Eager Beaver

· Weight of advertising

· Merchandising and advertising

· Spending money for advertising

· What does advertising reflect

· Two lessons in advertising

1. eager beaver: What is your definition of advertising voice of experience: Advertising is the most economical means of informing people of the merits and desirability of a product or service. This embraces all the various media, i.e., newspapers, magazines, radio, T-V, direct mail, car cards, billboards, sky-writing, ad infinitum. The judgment of what is economical is naturally based on following ratios of costs and results.

2. eager beaver: Why do we have national advertising? voice of experience: National advertising exists because there is competition. If there were no choice of products or if the government owned all properties and products, then there would be no need for advertising since choice would be eliminated. Indeed, it isn't strange that one-candidate elections occur in countries where advertising is either nonexistent or relatively unimportant. Where choice exists, you will find a free economy and a free people and national advertising.

3. eager beaver: How do you gauge your advertising vis-a-vis competition: voice of experience: Usually the most enviable position is to be sufficiently well budgeted to permit "out-spending" your competition. If you are "out-spending" your competition, it presupposes that you have already proven the success of the pulling power of your campaign and have established a formula that provides satisfactory results. This matter of "out-spending" your competition may sound like the cart-before-the-horse, but actually, it is good, simple logic in view of the other factors that make "out-spending" possible.

4. eager beaver: What is one of the first factors of importance in successful promotion? voice of experience : I consider that products, especially their performance, constitute the first item of importance. The product has "got to-be-good." It must deliver as promised. Be sure and test this factor!

5. eager beaver: Do you place important emphasis on packaging? voice of experience: Decidedly I do. The package and container are very important collateral factors. Indeed, we have had experience with products such as Ban, the deodorant, in which I believe the container and its packaging became its most effective selling point. In the matter of packaging, I would say: test! test! test!

6. eager beaver: How important do you consider the copy idea to be in advertising? voice of experience: To my mind it is undoubtedly the outstanding, essential factor in successful advertising. Since everybody recognizes this, there have grown up many forms of research surveys to probe for the best copy idea. These include motivation research, which was unknown until recently. This type of research is employed a number of ways. The one with which I am personally acquainted is the one conducted by Alfred Politz. He and his firm went further than anyone in getting to the button of real motivation and its influence on sales. By a clever use of selected samples, by employing an unusual technique in interviews and many other factors, he feels his technique discloses the real motives and not merely impressions. People will honestly tell what they intend, to do until their subconscious directs the actions that actually contradict their own predictions. For example, if I were being interviewed on the basis of Politz research I might say that next April I am planning to purchase a Buick automobile. To the best of my knowledge that is the truth when I make that response. On the other hand, factors such as the neighborhood where I live, my own personality, age, economic status, conditions of the national economy, etc., may convince the interviewer that when the "chips are down," I probably will end up buying a Ford or some other lower priced car. It's a search for the absolute and not the "relative" truth, as applied to my motivation.