An Idea That Saved a Business An Idea That Saved a Business An Idea That Saved a Business By Leonard Dreyfuss Privately printed for The United Advertising Corporation 1918 Copyright 1918 by United Advertising Corporation /? The Idea THE General Manager of a large Department Store sat in his study one night, puff- ing away at a big black cigar, with a real worried expression upon his face. Things were not right down at the Store. Two months previous he had accepted the position as General Manager, and it had been gradu- ally dawning upon him that he was waging a losing fight. The Store had an equipment and over- head based upon a total annual business of seven million dollars and was barely doing four. For days he had been review- ing his Organization; the activi- ties of his competitors, the possi- bilities of the City itself, the op- portunities for the elimination of expense that might serve to re- duce the over-head. It was a brain racking circle of thoughts and fig- ures that seemed to lead nowhere but back to the starting point. Sitting in his Study he tried his best to find a solution of the ever- increasing problem. Musing upon the situation aloud he said, "boiled down to a single sentence the problem seems to be this — how am I going to get the greatest amount of money in the short- est possible time?" The next thought was "to whom shall I look as an example of how that can be accomplished — who gets the greatest amount of money in the shortest possible time?" Sud- denly he sat up as the thought struck him forcibly — "why, it's the Circus that in the shortest space of time produces the great- est result." He couldn't shake the idea and the next morning he had deter- mined that he would seek out the General Manager of the largest Circus Company traveling the Country and ask him to what it was they attributed their success. The General Manager was a man who, like most true Execu- tives, acts on impulse, and he made up his mind that he would take the first train to where the Circus was showing and talk with its General Manager. Fortunately the Circus was then located in a City about one hun- dred miles distant, and the Gen- eral Manager made the trip. In conference with the Circus man the next day he told him what he had in mind. "You folks," he said, "it seems to me, more than any other business, get the greatest amount of money in the shortest possible time — how do you do it?" The Circus man laughed. "It is more simple than you think," he said. "We simply are most careful students of advertising; we plan and place our advertising so that ALL THE PEOPLE know when we shall arrive and how long we shall stay. We have found that some people read the newspapers, a great number; and some ride in Street Cars, quite a few; but that ALL PEOPLE who can come to our Circus use the great outdoors. Therefore, we spend eighty per cent, of the money we have for advertising, outdoors. By the use of outdoor publicity we get our greatest 'punch/ The Poster offers a use of color and size that dominates, and the eye cannot escape it. Then we so build our copy that 'he who runs is compelled to read/ We are specialists in evolving compelling copy — we are psychologists who have accurately gauged the pub- lic's mind. We cater to the great masses, rich and poor alike. We must understand humanity in its entirety. So we use the Poster and painted signs — we tell our message in color and size and we reiterate it on every Highway and Byway until you cannot escape the message of the Circus and its ap- peal." The two men talked for a num- ber of hours, and finally the Gen- eral Manager said, "if your plan is a success for the Circus, why not for some other business? Is there any particular reason why your method can only be success- ful for a Circus Company ?" "No," said the Circus man, "I think the method itself is sound and would, to a large degree, prove efficient for mostly any bus- iness, if as carefully planned as ours." The General Manager of the large Department Store, riding back to his City, thought over all that the Circus man had told him, and this one thought persisted in his mind — "Why not for the De- partment Store?" Next day he laid plans for an Outdoor Advertising Campaign. He called in his Advertising Man- ager and a Representative of the Outdoor Advertising Company of his City, and said to them, "I want to place outdoor advertise- ments so that, no matter where you stand on any widely traveled avenue in this City at any point of circulation, you will be greeted by a dominant reminder of our Store. I am going to make this Institu- tion synonymous with shopping. I am going to so constantly reiter- ate that message, and I intend to do it in so attractive a way and with such compelling copy that the public will be unconsciously at- 10 tracted to us in larger numbers than ever before. I am going to inaugurate within such changes as will make OURS the finest place to shop, rendering unques- tionable service and having a 'come again' atmosphere about it; and I will look to the outdoor ad- vertising that we will do to help build for us this prestige that, to my mind, is so necessary for an Institution such as ours." The General Manager was an enthusiast not given to half meas- ures — on e of those leaders of men who act instinctively and is nine- tenths right. He said to the Advertising Manager, "I have set a figure of 11 twenty thousand dollars as my limit for this Outdoor Campaign, and I want you to buy the most dominant Outdoor Display that was ever planned in this City. I want to go over every bit of the copy with you before it is finally executed, and I want the copy changed every month with a com- plete re-arrangement of both color scheme and message. I want to make, as I stated before, our In- stitution synonymous with shop- ping/' Seven years have gone by, and the General Manager is Presi- dent of his Company, which is now doing some twelve million dollars' worth of business yearly. 12 No, the increase of eight mil- lion dollars in their business is not due entirely to this wonderful Outdoor Campaign that was put forth. The untiring energy of the General Manager, his far-sight- edness and ability in re-organizing his Institution, have all gone to make this Department Store the wonderful business it is. It is sig- nificant that today his Company is still spending eighteen thousand dollars per year for Outdoor Ad- vertising. The General Manager said to me the other day, "I believe in our Outdoor Advertising because I have proven its value. It tells my message to all the people: To 13 the Foreigners and the Illiterates who cannot read the newspapers and have money to spend, and who can absorb a simple message told to them pictorially and in large size and color — to the school girl who is the mother of tomor- row, and to the busy man who rides in his motor car to and from his factory and glances only oc- casionally at his newspaper. "Mind you I hold no brief for Outdoor Advertising alone — I am a consistant user of newspaper space, probably the largest in this City today, but I attribute the first growth and stimulus of our business to the wide-spreading use I made of Outdoor Publicity." 11 "I do not believe that a De- partment Store can be success- fully advertised by Outdoor Ad- vertising alone, any more than I believe it can be most successfully advertised by newspaper advertis- ing alone. I believe that a De- partment Store is best served by a judicious combination of both." This General Manager, as I said before, is President of his In- stitution today, one of the wisest men in the Department Store field in America. And the best part of this Story is that it is absolutely true and was told to the writer almost as set down. 15 NOTE Our organization has the advantage of a merchandising experience covering a period of 40 years. We have served cli- ents who have grown from infant indus- try to corporations doing fifty million dollars or more per year. We have carefully collected and com- piled sales and advertising data, a great deal of which is applicable to all business. We have a sane, workable plan we should like to present to you. United Advertising Corporation. United Advertising Corporation Samuel Pratt . . . President Leonard Dreyfuss . . Vice-President Alfred V. Van Beuren, Secretary -Treasurer Specializing in Outdoor Advertising Throughout the United States and Canada Executive Offices one west 34th street at fifth avenue New York City Operating and Affiliated Companies Newark Poster Advertising Co. Newark, N. J. Newark Sign Co. Newark, N. J. New Haven Poster Advertising Co., New Haven, Conn. New Haven Sign Co. New Haven, Conn. Bridgeport Outdoor Advertising Co., Bridgeport, Conn. Van Beuren & N. Y. Bill Posting Co., New York, N. Y. American Posting Service, Chicago, IlL Dallas Poster Advertising Co. Dallas, Tex. Edwards Co. Waco, Tex. Consolidated Bill Posting Co. Louisville, Ky. Printed by The Price & Lee Co., of N. The Art Press Newark, New Jersey