Preface

Profit minded businessmen use advertising because it is a cheaper, quicker, and more convincing way to increase sales than alternate methods. Advertising deals with the presentation of a message particular groups impersonally or through mass media. Although advertising has been referred to as an area in which big business has many advantages, it can be a powerful tool for the small businessman too. Because the same message is presented to the entire membership of certain groups, each detail of advertisement is magnified in importance. One of the basic rule of the effective advertising is to recognize the importance of details.

Since advertising is a message to a group of people, a second principle is to aim your shots. Careful selection of the logical prospects for a particular of advertisement should be one of the first steps in planning. The messages or theme at its form of presentation in copy, illustration, and layout, as well as appropriate media to use, all depend primarily upon the particular groups to be reached by each advertisement.

Before buying a new car, refrigerator, tv, or any other article involving a considerable investment, the average businessman makes some effort to be certain the article is the best obtainable for the price. A great deal of advertising would be much more effective if the same businessman exerted the equal effort to make certain the object of his advertisement is right before promoting it. The third principle is to make it right before advertising.
Probably the greatest single waste in modern advertising results from the careless preparation of many advertisement and champaign. Much current advertising is ineffective. Recognition of this fact has led an increasing number of businessmen to take steps toward testing and measuring the effectiveness of their advertising. Keeping adequate records of all advertisements, including weather and other relevant conditions at the time each is released, and of traceable results is important. Some beauty shop operators make a practice of asking each new customers how she happened to come to the shop. An analys of these results of the basic for planning future advertising increases number of successes and reduces errors.

In certain cases it is possible for the small businessman to pretest advertisements before they are released on a large scale. This may be done by using a less expensive, more easily controlled medium like display, handbills, or direct mail circulars to improve the effectiveness of different elements of the advertisement before completing it in final form to use in such media. Another plan is an adaption of split run testing as used by national advertiser. If the element to be tested is the headline and the other half with another. On the next mailing the heads will be reserved. Results of each mailing will be carefully recorded either by inquiries received or by calls in the store if a retailer is working the test. Comparison will show which headline is the more effective.

Some businessmen seek to set themselves up in the public mind as possessing all virtues. As this difficult to do, the wise business operator stresses one or two at time. Like wise, in presenting merchandise it is easier to convince the prospective buyer that it has the one or two outstanding things he really wants than it is the paragon of all virtues. This is an application of the principle, “Aim your shots”.