'"« -V c~tx HOW TO JUDGE AN ADVERTISING AGENCY Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2011 witin funding from Duke University Libraries littp://www.arcliive.org/details/liowtojudgeadvertOOjlicr POINTS ON MERCHANDISING ADVERTISED PRODUCTS THROUGH DEPARTMENT STORES This booklet, published by the J. H. Cross Company, and representative of its research work in the department store field, has been highly praised by such stores as Marshall Field & Company; Wm. Filene's Sons Com- pany; Strawbridge & Clothier; Abraham & Straus and others. Many of the lead- ing national advertisers have commended it very highly. MERCHANDISING ADVERTISED PRODUCTS THROUGH DRUG STORES A similar booklet, which deals with the merchandising of products salable through the drug jobber and drug store. Leading jobbers, representative retailers and some prominent advertisers of drug products tes- tify to its exceptional worth. It presents a clear and terse picture of the present status of merchandising in the field dealt with. Copies of either or both of the above mentioned books will be supplied without charge to business men who are interested in them. Write to the J. H. Cross Com- pany, 214 South Twelfth Street, Phila- delphia, Pa. HOW TO JUDGE AN ADVERTISING AGENCY a H. CROSS COMPANY General Advertising Agency 214 SOUTH TWELFTH STREET PHILADELPHIA COPYRIGHT • 1920 • BY J. H. CROSS CO. [2] HOW TO JUDGE AN ADVERTISING AGENCY The President of a firm which spends several hundreds of thou- sands of dollars a year for adver- tising, which we prepare and place, said recently, at the end of a con- ference upon one of his products: "I used to think that all this talk handed out by advertising agency representatives was bunk, — and a lot of it is, because I have placed business through two other adver- tising agents and I have tried plac- ing it direct, but I never made much progress until I employed the J. H. Cross Company six years ago. I feel now that I could have saved a good deal of money, be- sides having my business further [3] along if I had met you five years sooner. In the interest of good advertising there should be some way whereby a business man can cheek up advertising agents and determine with greater accuracy the one best adapted to serving him." We told him that there are a great many advertising agents in this country, many of whom are trying earnestly to serve their cU- ents efficiently, but that since ad- vertising agency service has devel- oped into such a many-sided, com- plex work, it is difficult to get just the right combination of ability to make an efficient organization. We discussed the matter for some time, during which we gave this client much information regarding adver- tising agencies, and he finally in- sisted that if we would publish just what we had told him, it would be [4] of great assistance to many manu- facturers. This booklet is the re- sult. WHAT IS ADVERTISING AGENCY SERVICE? Many times we are asked this question by business men who have not watched closely, nor experi- enced at first hand, the service of a modern advertising agency. Our answer necessarily must be an analysis of w^hat should he the functions of every advertising agency — and of what are the func- tions of the J. H. Cross Company. Thirty or forty years ago the advertising agent was little more than a space broker. He placed and sometimes wrote the copy, but he contributed nothing to selling strategy. Even today some agen- cies still pursue this elementary method. As advertising developed, agen- [5] cies found that their standing was bettered by abihty to make the space they handled more produc- tive. As merchandising, and its logi- cal employment of advertising, has become more and more complex, the leading advertising agents have developed distinct services which are not obtainable from any other source available to the average manufacturer intent upon a single product or line of products. In brief, the competent adver- tising agent of today must possess sales generalship. As the skilled physician keeps pace with medical progress, so the advertising agent must keep pace with the art of sell- ing. As the physician deals with each case in the light of his own and other physicians' experience with hundreds of other cases, so the com- petent advertising agent gives each [6] client the benefit of his own and his acquired knowledge drawn from the whole wide field of sell- ing. By an accident of phraseol- ogy his name is linked entirely with advertising, but his function ex- tends far beyond the mere prep- aration of the "copy" which event- ually reaches the public, and ends only with the accomplishment of a definite sales purpose. Were all space-carrying pubhcations and other advertising media abolished, the advertising agent's function of advising regarding sales would remain. LIMITATIONS OF ADVERTISING AGENCY SERVICE There is no magic about adver- tising agency service. Few adver- tising agents know, or ever can learn, the individual business of a client as well as the client himself knows it. [7] On the other hand, few manufac- turers can have the agency's first- hand contact with hundreds of dif- ferent selling methods, or develop the agency's corresponding breadth of vision. The very intensity of a manufacturer's specialization leaves him too little time to study and profit by the successful meth- ods of other manufacturers. If positions were reversed, this broad, general knowledge of the adver- tising agent would be out of place. The manufacturer needs his in- tensive specialization to further his business. The advertising agent needs his broad, general knowledge of selling. The joint efforts of a competent manufacturer and an equally competent advertising agent accomplish the purpose of combining a high degree of spe- ciaUzation in the manufacturer's chosen field with a broad under- [8] standing of the most modern sell- ing methods. FUNDAMENTALS OF ADVERTISING AGENCY SERVICE Let us now attempt to describe the service a capable advertising agent will render to a typical client : 1, He will add thorough gen- eral knowledge of selling methods and markets to his client's specific knowledge of his individual market and product. 2, He will recognize when data at hand are insufficient for basing accurate conclusions, and will know how to supplement these data by original investigations and trade research among dealers or consumer^, 3, He will recommend suitable means of securing distribution, of handling salesmen, of winning [9] dealers' co-operation, of coimter- acting or stopping unfair compe- tition, of stabilizing and broaden- ing consurner demand, of condens- ing unwieldy lines, of improving packages, etc. 4. He will know, or know how to find out, whether the time, the season, the market conditions, the dealers' attitude, all are favorable for the start of an advertising cam- paign, 5. He will suggest new markets, new uses of the product by con- sumers, and new products and ways of merchandising them, if such changes are necessary, 6. He will know with great eoc- actness the merits of various media in relation to a given product; the value of various styles of copy, characters of art work, sizes of gpace, and lines of reasoning. 7. He will know the proper cost [10] of the most suitable art work, the plates and all other material en- tering into the preparation of ad- vertising copy, 8. He will know the lowest pos- sible cost of space in magazines, newspapers, billboards, car cards, trade-papers, or whatever media are to be used for the campaign. He will be in a position to buy this space at as favorable prices as any- one can obtain, 9, He will prepare in his own organization a complete recom- mendation as to advertising media to be used, together with illustra- tions, copy, plates, and finally, fin- ished advertisements, including catalogs, trade literature, and other printed matter incidental to the most effective use of the adver- ti£ng by the manufacturer's sales organization, [11] 10, He will forward copy to the media selected and after its ap- pearance will ''check" the maga- zines, newspapers, and trade pub- lications, seeing that the space paid for i^ delivered, that the advertise- ments are inserted in schedule order, that they are given good position in the publication and that they are well printed. 11, He will render to his client carefully itemized monthly hills, showing exactly what moneys have been expended. Any advertising agency that falls short of this service is not a modern agency, and is not deliver- ing the type of service which is most successful today. Any manu- facturer who pays an advertising agency for service which does not comprehend all of the fundamen- tals here outlined is paying for more than he gets. [12] ADVERTISING AGENCY SERVICE IS PERSONAL Like the practice of medicine, advertising agency service is per- sonal. An advertising agent must have learned his business by years of experience in advertising, else he gets his knowledge at the ex- pense of his clients. He must be able to reason correctly from par- ticular *cases to a principle, and from the principle to another case. He must know his limitations, as expressed in terms of his own ex- perience and that of his organiza- tion, and forbear to seek business which he cannot handle to the ad- vertiser's best interest. Although personal thought, ef- fort and contact play an enor- mously important part in really efficient advertising agency serv- ice, it is, nevertheless, true that organization is almost equally im- [13] portant. The advertising agent who attempts to combine in his own person all of the ramifications of modern agency service is as ineffi- cient and as undesirable from the manufacturer's viewpoint as the agent who, because of his own lack of experience, attempts merely to operate an advertising agency on a cut-and-dried plan by hiring oth- ers to do all the work. At the head of every advertis- ing agency that gives modern service in this country will be found a man of ripe business ex- perience, supplemented by thor- ough general knowledge of the best advertising agency practice and organization. Such a man has the knowledge to select and the power to attract men whose indi- vidual experience will reinforce his own. [ 14 ] WHEN ADVERTISING AGENCY SERVICE WILL BE MOST EFFECTIVE 1, Whe7i the agency possesses the entire confidence of the adver- tiser. 2, When the agency organiza- tion is large enough to maintain highly sj^ecialized copy, art and mechanical departments, 3, When it is so old in experi- ence as to have accumulated much knowledge as to the relative values of media, sizes of space, art and copy treatments, cost of covering markets, etc, 4, When its inemhers, in addi- tion to a high degree of specializa- tion in their individual functions within the agency organization, have also accumulated selling knowledge covering widely diver- sified lines, 5, When the agency is not too much occupied with large accounts [15] to give plenty of time and study to a new^ smaller account, 6, When the agency, as judged by any one of its individual mem- bers or by its membership as a whole, measured up to the best standards of American business, 7, When the agency has the financial stability to command the full respect of publications and other media with which it is author- ized to do business, 8, When the total volume of business of the agency and its rela- tions with clients are so thoroughly developed that the agency has com- plete freedom from domination by space sellers, 9, When the agency hag in its copy, art and service departments men who have made special study of an advertiser's particular field. With reference to the last para- graph, however, please note that [16] the handling of directly competi- tive accounts is not to be recom- mended, no matter what the suc- cess of the agency in a given field may be. THE ADVERTISING AGENCY OF BIASED JUDGMENT Any man can hang out a shingle and call himself an advertising agent. There are probably about 2,000 so-called "advertising agents" of all classes in the United States; an advertising directory hsts 1,161 advertising agents in the United States and Canada in 1919. In 1918 the same directory listed 1,144; of these, 91 went out of business during 1919 and 108 new agencies entered the field. The figures of mortality alone will prove to any common-sense busi- ness man the irresponsibility of some so-called "advertising [17] agents," as well as their justly slight claim upon his attention. Of t h e 1,161 "advertising agents" now in business, the Amer- ican Newspaper Publishers' Asso- ciation (which is the official news- paper publishers' organization for the administering of business with advertising agents) recognizes only 363. About the same number of ad- vertising agents are recognized by the Periodical Publishers' Associa- tion, but the agents recognized by the American Newspaper Publish- ers' Association are not necessarily recognized by the Periodical Pub- lishers' Association, and vice versa. Still further reduction in the number of advertising agents of the highest standing is made by the membership extended by the American Association of Adver- tising Agencies, which in January, [18] 1919, included only 117 leading agents. It is evident, therefore, that the number of advertising agents who are really equipped so as to be entirely free from bias in one direction or another is quite small. For instance, only agents who are members of a subsidiary organiza- tion of the American Association of Advertising Agencies are able to handle billboard and painted sign advertising so as to obtain the best possible prices for their clients. Other agencies are able to buy such space only at higher rates, ac- counted for by smaller commis- sions. Many agencies are wholly unable to do business with the in- terests controlling the outdoor ad- vertising of the United States. Similarly, some advertising agen- cies are recognized by newspapers, but are not recognized by maga- [19] zines; others are recognized by some magazines, but not by others, and so on. The advertiser who does busi- ness with an agency equipped to handle only newspaper business, magazine business, or only a part of either, obviously accepts either biased advice or complete lack of knowledge concerning some classes of media by which the agency is unrecognized and with which it has transacted no business. One of the banes of the whole advertising agency business is the tendency of uninformed advertisers to place on the same plane all those who call themselves "advertising agents," only a comparatively small num- ber of whom are really in a posi- tion to deliver the service which they claim to be able to render. The J. H. Cross Company is a fully-recognized, national adverti^- [20] ing agency which, for more than sice years, has been doing a large volume of business with all the leading advertising media. We are recognized by the Peri- odical Publishers' Association and by the Curtis Publishing Com- pany, the two divisions of the mag- azine field. We are recognized by the Amer- ican Newspaper Publishers'" Asso- ciation, which is the national or- ganization of newspapers. We are recognized by the Agri- cultural Publishers" Association — the organization of farm paper publishers. We are members of the Ameri- can Association of Advertising Agencies. We are members of the Audit Bureau of Circulation, We are members of the National Outdoor Advertising Bureau, [21] through which we are enabled to handle painted sign and billboard advertising all over the United States. There is no form of recognition which the J. H. Cross Company lacks ; therefore, we may claim with entire justice that we are free from any necessity for bias in favor of one form of publicity as contrasted with another, and are in a position to advise regarding advertising media with only the advertiser's best interest in mind. Advertisers should invariably question all advertising agents who solicit their attention as to the com- pleteness of recognition. The ad- vertising agent who lacks recogni- tion by any one of the great organ- izations enumerated above should instantly be eliminated on the just ground that his judgment cannot be free from bias toward those [22] forms of advertising by which he is recognized. Perhaps the best general guar- antee of an advertising agency's worth is membership in the Ameri- can Association of Advertising Agencies. Such membership im- phes not only reasonable financial strength, dependable business prin- ciples, willingness to live up to high standards of service and pos- session of sufficient organization to serve a broad advertising field, but also, in practically all cases, insures the possession of the other forms of recognition outlined above. THE READY-MADE PLAN AGENCY Some advertising agents seem to be cursed with a feeling that they have nothing left to learn in adver- tising. The representative of an agency of this type feels entirely justified in glibly outlining an ad- [23] vertising plan or policy as the re- sult of a fifteen-minute interview. If such quick work as this is im- possible in a given case, this type of agency will often submit a writ- ten plan, together with complete copy, without any further study of the advertiser's problems. Since advertising plans and ac- tual advertisements are the visible and tangible product of an adver- tising agent's service, it is quite natural for the average advertiser to want some such evidence that his selection of a given agency is cor- rect. Nevertheless, an advertising agency is really in a position to submit a complete plan and fin- ished copy only after detailed study of the advertiser's individual business. General knowledge of a given advertiser's industry is not sufficient; the individual adver- tiser's position in his industry must [24] be known, together with confiden- tial facts relating to the progress of the business — such facts as few business men are disposed to give out broadcast. Our position, therefore, is that no advertising agency is ever in a position to submit concrete recom- mendations and finished copy until it is in possession of all the confi- dential facts about the advertiser's business which have bearing upon the situation; until it has made whatever trade or consumer inves- tigations are necessary (and these sometimes cost considerable sums) ; and until it has established a com- plete basis of confidence with the advertiser, comparable with the re- lationship existing between a client and his attorney. The glib, ready - made - plan agency is unreliable and unsafe. If by good luck it makes a few [25] successes, its trail is, nevertheless, strewn with costly failures. We are always ready to submit evidence as to the fitness of our service to any advertiser who will accept a confidential relationship with us as a preliminary requisite, and who will then agree to pay a fair fee for the work which a plan and finished copy cost. Such an arrangement need not make it un- avoidable that the advertiser place his advertising with us if he fails to agree with our findings. THE CUT-RATE AGENCY It has been estimated by most competent advertising agencies that, of the 15 per cent (average) of any appropriation allowed the advertising agent, it costs the real service agency about 11 percent to deliver the service. This leaves 4 per cent as the agent's profit. This [26] is certainly small enough, espe- cially when the element of finan- cial risk is taken into considera- tion. There are other advertising agents, however, who do not main- tain service departments at all; who, if they have a so-called "serv- ice department," man it with indi- viduals of low average ability, and who often stay in business only a brief time, and during their stay accomplish little more than their own financial ruin and the demoral- ization of the advertising policies of the advertisers whose business they handle. These advertising agencies frequently offer cut rates. To begin with, the offering of a cut in rate is a dishonest procedure which is absolutely contrary to the agreement which every advertis- ing agent makes with advertising media. The advertising agent who [27] offers a cut rate breaks his word with the pubhshers. Assuredly it is quite difficult to believe that, having broken an agreement with one set of business interests, he will keep it with another — the ad- vertiser. In the second place, it has been demonstrated that a competent ad- vertising agency cannot be main- tained on a lower rate of commis- sion than an average 15 per cent. The advertiser who appreciates the value of doing business year after year with the same advertising agency, in order that his advertis- ing advisers may grow up together with his business, never pays any attention to an offer of a cut in rate. The advertising agency which offers a cut in rate, or consents to such an arrangement, simply real- [28] izes that its service is inferior and not worth the right price. THE SPELLBINDING AGENCY It sometimes happens that the promise department of an adver- tising agency is about three- fourths of the agency's entire per- sonnel, and, consequently, the pro- duction and performance depart- ments find themselves confronted with impossible tasks. One example of this type of ad- vertising agent is the man who, having worked on the classified columns of a newspaper, feels that he has learned all there is to be learned about advertising; he, therefore, calls himself an adver- tising agent and, in one way or another, persuades the unwary to entrust him with their business. This type of advertising agent de- stroys the confidence of advertis- [29] ers, and does the whole advertising agency business a great injustice. Another type of the spellbind- ing agency is the one which em- ploys "solicitors" as distinguished from "service men." "Solicitors," as the term is commonly used by advertising men, are salesmen em- ployed exclusively for the purpose of selling an advertising agency's service to advertisers. They as- sume no responsibility for the suc- cess or failure of a campaign ; they are in a position to promise any- thing that will land an order; they have, as a rule, no constructive knowledge of advertising. The men who represent this agency in preliminary negotiations are the same men who represent it after relationship is established with an advertiser. Each account we handle is under the general di- rection of a single individual, or [30] "service man," who has at his com- mand all the resources of our or- ganization. Our service men are selected for their all-'round com- petence as advertising men. They are assigned to accounts in accord- ance with their special fitness to handle a given type of business with the greatest success. Sometimes the spellbinding de- partment of an agency is plausible enough to explain away tempo- rarily the lack of success, but in most cases connection with this type of advertising agency is thor- oughly unsatisfactory to the adver- tiser. Pay no attention to the rec- ommendations of the man who is an out-and-out "solicitor" for his agency. The chances are about nine to one against his having had any real advertising experience. On the other hand, do not expect such glowing promises of achieve- [31] ment from the man who represents an advertising agency where his own abihty must play a large part in making a success. He knows the limitations of advertising; he generally is not a "star" salesman; he has a conscience, and so has his agency. THE "PUT-IT-OVER" ADVERTISING AGENCY This type of advertising agency often is the employer of the simon- pure agency "solicitor." It is by no means so careful in the expendi- ture of its clients' money as it would be of its own. It frequently rushes into general advertising the client who should spend months or even years in preparatory advertis- ing through trade or technical pub- lications; it makes no really sound investigations of trade conditions; it is interested only in one thing — collecting commissions from space used. [32] j A carefully worked out plan of advertising at a cost of only a few thousand dollars, properly mer- chandised, has been known to ac- complish a great deal more for the advertiser than another campaign costing two or three times as much. The plan decides the appropriation quite as much as the appropriation affects the plan. Every recommendation coming from the J. H. Cross Company as to the expenditure of money in advertising has the sanction of the heads of the agency. This sanction is based upon our conviction that the advertiser is in a position to realize upon the sales powder generated. Such conclusions are reached not only through careful discussion with the advertiser, but also through the w^ork of our Re- search Department. This depart- ment is equipped to deliver infor- [33] mation as to the condition of mar- kets, the extent and activity of competition, the value of the prod- uct as contrasted with competing products, the attitude of the trade and many other vital factors en- tering into the success of an adver- tising campaign. A great many advertising agencies make no attempt to main- tain research departments. Others which do make such work a part of their business camouflage it a good deal. Our Research Depart- ment is thoroughly practical and not at all pompous. We have no way of forecasting the future by cutting the commercial cards or otherwise performing magic. Nevertheless, we can tell any ad- vertiser the general conditions in his field, and for our clients we keep close touch with the progress of their advertising campaigns, [34] even to the point of sending our own men out to travel with their salesmen, making intensive local investigations of market condi- tions. One great difference between the kind of Research Department we maintain and some others is that we are not dependent upon figures supplied by publishers. While we do utilize such figures to some extent, we also check for our- selves the advertising expenditures of competitors, and we subscribe to a great many of the statistical services from which the publishers themselves obtain their informa- tion. THE "GOOD FELLOW" AGENCY Many advertisers, unaware of the real importance of the right agency connection, regard all ad- vertising agents alike. Knowing one whom they consider a "good [35] fellow," they give him their ac- counts, feeling that "we might as well let him make the commission." Only the advertiser who does not yet understand the tremendous value of competent advertising agency service can possibly enter- tain this view. In most cases, se- lecting an advertising agent on the sole basis of personal liking is sev- eral times as dangerous as loaning a man money because he can tell a good "Ford" story. No good busi- ness man selects his attorney purely on a basis of personal lik- ing; nor should he so select his ad- vertising agent. The older an advertiser becomes, the more carefully he scrutinizes advertising agencies before select- ing one to serve him. THE ONE-MAN AGENCY A leading publisher recently said [36] that no one man is sufficiently ver- satile to render satisfactory agency service. No single individual can be at once the best sales adviser, the wisest plan maker, the shrewdest space buyer, the most convincing copy writer, the most accurate bookkeeper and the most painstak- ing administrator of details. Hu- man ability is not so arranged. The kindest judgment of the one-man advertising agency is sim- ply that it is most frequently con- ducted by an ambitious but unin- formed man whose business acumen is impeached by the very fact that he elects so to conduct his business. THE LOP-SIDED AGENCY Sometimes an advertising agen- cy has in its organization one man of exceptional skill in making plans, writing copy or devising [37] illustrations, and no other individ- uals whose competence is estab- lished. Such an agency obviously is lop-sided. Copy, art and plans, all are important, but no single one of these essentials to successful ad- vertising will function efficiently without equal merit in the other two. The well-balanced advertis- ing agency must be able to show absolute dependability in all the phases of its service; unusual abil- ity in any single direction is no guarantee of the proper perform- ance of other duties. The J. H. Cross Company is well balanced. In copy, in art, in space buying, in plan making, in following details, it employs men whose experience covers many years. It neither emphasizes one of these important functions of advertising agency service to the detriment of the others, nor [38] achieves merely a low service standard in all departments. THE BIG AGENCY Advertising agency service is semi-professional, and is, therefore, a somewhat personal service. The sense of personal responsibility, which ought to be felt in advising as to the investment of large sums of money, is largely lost when an agency becomes so very large in number of clients that the princi- pals in the agency are not in touch with each and every account han- dled. It is also as natural as the love of gain that clients who are spend- ing the largest appropriations are the only ones to receive the earnest attention of the best brains of the very large advertising agency. An appropriation of $50,000 is not large, as advertising appropria- [39] tions go, but it generally means as much to the advertiser as a half- million dollar appropriation means to some other firm. Suppose two such accounts are served by one very large advertising agency, and both require quick and careful con- sideration at the same time, what chance has the smaller advertiser? It is our fixed belief that it is no more possible for an advertising agency to increase its total number of clients indefinitely than for a famous surgeon to operate upon all the cases in his field of specializa- tion occurring in a given city. The mere fact that the best advertising agency service involves a great deal of personal attention on the part of the agency heads, automatically imposes the same sort of time limi- tation as is imposed upon a lawyer, a doctor or a dentist. Granting the fact that the limitation is not quite [40] so definite as in the eases of these strictly professional men, it exists, nevertheless, in some measure for the advertising agent. It is signifi- cant that during the past year at least two very large advertising agencies suffered the loss of a great deal of important business — busi- ness which went into the hands of much smaller advertising agencies capable of giving it much closer attention. Practically all the very large agencies (that is, large as to number of clients) lose more accounts in proportion to their total volume of business than the medium-sized agencies. The business of the J. H. Cross Company, while already consider- able, is as yet small as compared with the business volume or num- ber of clients of any one of perhaps twenty advertising agents in the United States. No account execu- [41] tive in our organization today has the burden of caring for such num- bers of chents as each of the ac- count executives in these larger agencies must assume. And, fur- thermore, it is our fixed behef that our own best interest will be served by recognizing our limitations, and by lef using to extend cur list of clients beyond the point where the four or five leading members of our organization can give each client thoroughly satisfactory and thoughtful service. It is the very large advertising agency, too, which most frequently injures itself and the advertising agency business by the employ- ment of the "star solicitor," who is paid a big salary simply to get business, and who does not do a single thing to serve any client he secures. Promises made by such men, as has been pointed out in an [42] earlier paragraph, are made with- out recognition of any personal responsibility for their fulfillment. WHY WE BELIEVE IN THE MODERATE-SIZED ADVERTISING AGENCY When the J. H. Cross Company was a small and a very young ad- vertising agency, it recognized and believed in the rightness of the principle of the moderate-sized ad- vertising agency. It secured its present business, not by misrepre- senting its condition, but by stat- ing its determination to grow to a certain size within a reasonable time. Today it has a total volume of business, and number of clients, of about one-third its ultimate limit. We believe in, and always have believed in the moderate-sized, well-balanced advertising agency with integrity beyond question, and with business volume sufficient [43] to warrant the employment of re- cognized experts in its leading departments. We think that such an advertising agency is in a position to render ideal service to the average general advertiser spending from $10,000 to $500,- 000, because: 1, The agency's personnel pre- sents the required grade of executive, 2, It renders really personal service, 3, It is sufficiently fleooible to make possible a conference of its leading men at ghort notice, 4, It is free from the domination of a few very large accounts, 5, It does not allow any one phase of agency service to over- shadow other equally important phases, even though an account may originally have been attracted [44] to the agency hy reason of eoccel- lence in a certain phase. 6, It does not promise the impos- sible, because it has no intention of expanding itsf list of clients indefi- nitely, and therefore wishes to add only those clients who promise to become real advertisers, 7, It is carefully departmental ized so as to insure efficient work, and yet is not overloaded with red tape. 8, It is large enough to keep itself aloof from fads and ismsl and other whims that may happen temporarily to loom up big on the advertising horizon, 9, Having a self-imposed limit upon the number of clients it can serve, it is dependent for growth upon making advertising more and more profitable to the clients it accepts, [45] 10, It recognizes the fact that more successes are developed by hardy conscientious work than by a happy inspiration on copy. The J. H. Cross Company can answer every one of the qualifica- tions given above to the thorough satisfaction of any advertiser who may be interested in its service. There are eight men in our organ- ization, who individually and col- lectively, are responsible for the creative work of the agency; each one of these men has spent from five to sixteen years in really important creative work in adver- tising; each one has been selected because his record in a given phase of the work is more than usually impressive. We regard the business connec- tion between a client and his adver- tising agency as confidential. Every worth-while business has [46] more or less information peculiar to its line, which it is only sane business to keep more or less secret. We see no more reason for telling the public about the details of your advertising than your lawyer would have in spreading broadcast the news of your legal activities. We do not take competing accounts because we beheve that it is impossible to serve two competi- tors equally well, and maintain proper relations with either one of the two. And, while our business is not yet so large as we wish it to be, nor so large as it fairly promises to be in the near future, the quality of our service is as near 100 per cent, perfect as very thorough experi- ence and detailed knowledge can make it. A manufacturer in any one of a number of lines of busi- ness might spend $100,000 before [47] learning as much about advertising his product as we could tell him before spending a single cent; and our knowledge is at his disposal for the asking. WHAT CLIENTS SAY One of our clients, who has been with us for a comparatively short time, and who is a very successful manufacturer, as well as being one of the largest in his line, while in our offices recently, made the state- ment that if he were starting in business over again, the first thing he would do after selecting his partners would be to choose an advertising agency, because, al- though he might not have an opportunity to advertise for some time after the connection was made, yet he found that the advertising agency would save him time, trouble and money by advice as to [48] the best methods of merchandising his hne. More than 85 per cent of our present total volume of business has been developed entirely by us; that is, the firms contributing this percentage of our total volume were either non-advertisers or markedly unsuccessful advertisers prior to their connection with us. Although our business has in- creased twelve-fold in the six years we have been in business, we have only three times as many clients as we had six years ago. In other words, our business has come through making advertising profit- able to such clients as came to us without much urging, rather than by getting a host of clients through the most intensive sort of solicit- ing. Quite possibly, a more aggres- sive policy of soliciting advertisers would have brought us more busi- [49] ness. We have been content to grow more or less slowly, feeling that this is the safer way. Occasionally we are compli- mented by our clients, and perhaps it will not be inopportune to repro- duce here some of the more recent letters of this kind. One client writes: *'It may be of interest to you to know that, since our connection with your company, we have been getting better returns for our money spent in advertising than we have ever had from any other source. Your service has also saved us much time, work and worry. We have been advertising for over a quarter of a century, during which time we contracted with the newspapers direct and also through several advertising agen- cies." Another client writes: [50] "We are glad to testify to the careful attention which you have given our national advertising for the past five years. As you know, we have no one in our organization whose sole duty is the superintend- ence of our advertising, and your agency has, therefore, combined in a much greater measure than is usual the work of both an adver- tising manager and an agency. "We know that there are agen- cies which refuse to take accounts whose advertising appropriations are less than $50,000. We know that other agencies which accept accounts smaller than this give them to the care of the weaker service men, or fail in other ways to care for them, as every advertiser naturally wants his advertising cared for. We are appreciative of the fact that we have been given all the time, thought and attention we [51] could possibly desire from the prin- cipals in your business. In short, we feel that our selection of your agency at the time we adopted national advertising was fortunate for us, and we are thoroughly satis- fied with the way our advertising has been conducted in the past and with the plans for the future." Still a n o t h e r advertiser of importance writes: "I am more than pleased with the re s u 1 1 s obtained through national advertising since you have been handling our account. When we first started with you, our appropriation for advertising was extremely small. We attribute our success to the judicious use you made of this small appropriation. I like the broad view you take of the situation. You are truly national in scope. The goal you set is a spur to the whole organiza- [52] tion of any business. It is a pleasure to work with such logical, sound thinkers and doers as you have shown yourselves to be." Still another client, not included among those quoted above, spent $80,000 through two different advertising agencies before making a connection with us. His sales were very unsatisfactory. We advised an expenditure of only a few hundred dollars monthly to begin, because we felt that there was an element of time in the estab- lishment of his product, which no amount of money could break down very fast. This client came to us six years ago. Today his appropriation is several hundreds of thousands of dollars yearly; his product is nationally known; his business is quite large and very profitable. This is a typical case, [53] illustrating the way our business has been built. THE ONE GREAT ESSENTIAL- CONFIDENCE The relationship which must be maintained between an advertiser and an advertising agency, differs in many essential respects from any other relationship in business. It combines some of the confiden- tial relationships which an attor- ney must maintain, with a great many of the more common business relationships. The one great essential to suc- cess on both sides, however, is mutual confidence. The advertiser must have confidence in the integ- rity, business judgment and pro- fessional skill of his advertising agent. The advertising agent must be able to feel that the advertiser respects the position occupied in [54] modern advertising by the adver- tising agent. There are advertising agents in whom no manufacturer is justified in reposing confidence. They are probably no more numerous than are insincere and unworthy manu- facturers. But they do exist. Similarly, there are manufac- turers who, because of congenital inability to see any one's side of a business proposition except their own, are unprofitable clients for any advertising agency. The development of the mutu- ally agreeable relationship which exists between the J. H. Cross Company and its present clients is largely based upon the character of the individuals composing our organization, as related to the character and needs of the busi- nesses we serve. There are places where we fit into a business better [55] than any other agency we know of ; there are places where we do not fit in at all. It has been our good fortune, generally, in the past, to discover our inaptitude in a given relationship a good deal quicker than most prospective clients dis- cover it. Hence it is never the lot of a business man who calls us into consultation with a view to a possible relationship to expose him- self to too-persistent or disagree- able solicitation. And we are always glad to lay all our abilities and achievements clearly before any manufacturer, without expense or obligation on his part, and with full appreciation of the fact that only the clearest mutual understanding of the situa- tion will benefit either of us. Every advertiser contemplating an agency connection will safe- guard himself against possible dis- [56] appointment by judging every agency he considers according to these points: 1, Integrity of the personnel of the agency, 2, Length of time the agency or individuah composing it have been in agency work. 3, Completeness of recognition, (See page 17.) Jh. Experience of the agency in handling a commodity of similar character. 5, Size of agency. 6, What selling or merchandis- ing plans has the agency originated for its clients as opposed to busi- ness which is merely ''placed"? 7, What experience in selling have the agency members had? 8, Does the agency take com- peting accounts? 9, Do the agency's clients show healthy growth as advertiser^? [57] 10, Do the agency representa- tives show merchandising knowl- edge or are they merely ''solici- tors''? 11. Has the agency one or more very large accounts which domi- nate it, and which might make it difficult for a new advertiser to se- cure full measure of attention? 12, Is the agency well organ- ized? Has it experts in charge of plans, copy, art, space buying, preparation of trade lierature? 13. If your field is difficult, has the agency any men who know merchandising conditions in that field? H. Considering that agency service is no stronger than the in- dividual delivering it, would the heads of the agency or members of the firm handle your account? [58]