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Show " ' - -- - ADVERTISING IN 1920-1921 BY WILLIAM .H. RAjNKIN j President of the William H. Rankin Company, New York and Chicago. I . , 1 Nineteen twenty has tested the flexibility of advertising, and lhe re-OUroe re-OUroe fulness of udvertlsor. It has I been a year of contrasts, of abrupt transitions. Almost overnight the Industrial In-dustrial situation has changed. From under-production Industry' has nwunK to full production the sellers market mar-ket became the buyers' market. But Advertising was ready for the new situation, old Dignified General Publiclt Advertising was Immediately Immediate-ly relieved of his command of the ad-vertislng ad-vertislng aces of America. I Ho was j succeeded hy Marshal Sales (produo- j ing advertising). The public wjis Jump and uncer- . tain Just In the condition to be In-OCUlated In-OCUlated with panic 1,'crm Hut sane 'reason, wise and sincere salesmanship , In advertising steadied tho publt-and publt-and filled It with confidence in the basic Integrity behind business This advertising made the public realise that si onomy did not consist ln NOT BI 1 ING, but in buying With discrimination. discrimi-nation. Advertising during the last few months of radical readjustment has had a wonderful effect In stabilizing .)! business equilibrium which hns bedn so near off icnter. These effects would hae been still greater had more business hou-.-taken advantage of lis able assistance. assist-ance. The wise advOt Users Increased advertising in the newspapers in j cities and towns where business was best during tro. crucial period through which wo have passed. The banks have made a splendid ! record in the way they have handled credits. They are entitled to much credit for the fine line they have I I drawn between wants and needs, be-' ; tween spei ulativc requirements and the necessity for bracing business, while also they, including the federal j reserve institutions, should receive praise for not yielding to clamor They have done much to steady the ship of business and the service they render their customers equals that ofj the most highly developed business bouses. Nbji-AdTcrtJafng Heavies! Among Business I allures. Eighty-four per cent of the 1um-ness, 1um-ness, failures of the past year occurred oc-curred among firms which did not, advertise. This Is the assertion made by llr.ui-street's llr.ui-street's commercial agency, which is as unbiased .ui authority as can be found In the business world today Bradsireet's ooiiiptlcjd Its Informo tlon from statistics, not guesswork- The Importance of advertising as a bualness element must hae been re-, garded as Vital by this great commercial com-mercial agency, else It would not have wasted the time of hundreds of trained men throughout the nation collecting and tabulating this infor-, maiion. Bradatreet's thus points the waj 'o one of the elements of business busi-ness success. The lesion to be learned from the Statistics regarding the advertising 1 merchants is obvious. laverUaliig Outlook for n2i Advertising agencies, The Adver- , thing asKoclutlon. The Audit Bureau of Circulation. Agricultural l'rcss as- ! soclatlon and the American Newspaper News-paper Publishers' association have Hindi great headway in standardizing advertising pructlce, and eliminating chances Of failure and to see that the advertiser receives 100 cents fori every dollar he spends for sp&co, copy, art, advertising service and circulation. cir-culation. As a result, advertising is on a firmer basis toduy than It has ever been. We are approaching normal times The buyers' market Is the normal market. It Is the besl market fur business in the long run. For It mukes necessary the Integrity In mai.urai luring and merchandising W ihout which no business can long endure. i il,-. n.:e duos advertising show its. rca i .v.. --us real necessity is on a' ' i . o ai i.e.. Advertising has proved itself an .. mlc necessity, whose function lsj o-i r rats with real salesmen and lliy ocii goods on a buyers' mar- ket. It is well to advertise at all times b.ith on a sellers' as well as a buy-i , liV market. But It Is most vital to' ; use It most, when it Is needed most. I That time is now. Bankers and big business men t'. Ognite ths value of advertising n i only as a means of greater sab s trlbutlon but as an economh They know that they can mark -securities of a business that ; advertising economic asset than they could a business i lurge which did not possess thi set registered In the minds 0 public. Names of companies wl -i products are respected In the 20,0 000 homes of America hav an that can bo converted into millloi .credit, when necessity arises And, j only through advertising can tl 'redtr asset be acquired on such a j tremendous scale, . Advertising made great head ly during the war because It stood th.-,(nil th.-,(nil made goml iM helping the sale of Dlberty bonds, the Red Ooss, Mir lH-, .r:rft and BmlleagS and all war activities Business men knew such advertising brought Immediate 1 returns, hence they gained confidence and commenced more advertising In their own business, thus advertising was St&ndardlSed, stabilized and promoted pro-moted to rank with hanking ann" other high grade business. Todav .me "f nor leading advertising advertis-ing agency men. Mr a D, Leaker, president of Lord Thomas of Chicago, Chi-cago, la spoken of favorably as our next secretary of commerce, and naturally nat-urally so because our next president Is not only a gnod newspaper publisher, pub-lisher, hut also a first class advertising advertis-ing man Mr barren G Harding. The government Is now 8 regular User of paid advertising and space, lo help even department thai 1 h..uii reach and have the confidence of the n neeefe. recent advertising cam-palgn cam-palgn conducted fot the army reduced the cost of recruiting 70 per cent. Another Instance which goes to pro-.. that advertising reduces tue percent-agC percent-agC cost of selling, and thereny javs Its own way. In 1 12 1 business men will make greater use of this great advertising power than over before, and newspapers, news-papers, the great national as well as local advertising medium, will be used more bv advertisers and advertising adver-tising agency men who know their great saleS making as well as prestige building power. The newspapers, as usual, can do the greatest good by preaching optimism op-timism and a steady diet of hard and faithful work eight hour and mor per duy for salesmen as well as all other workers. That's all the world needs three years of steady hard work, and we win bring back universal uni-versal good times. |