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Another dentifrice maker spends much money to make converts
to the tooth brush. The object is commendable, but altruistic. The
new business he creates is shared by his rivals. He is wondering why his sales increase is in no way commensurate with his expenditure.
An advertiser at one time spent much money to educate people to
the use of oatmeal. The results were too small to discover. All people know of oatmeal. As a food for children it has age-old fame. Doctors have advised it for many generations. People who don't serve oatmeal are therefore difficult to start. Perhaps their objections are insurmountable. Anyway, the cost proved to be beyond all possible return.
There are many advertisers who know facts like these and
concede them. They would not think of devoting a whole campaign
to any such impossible object. Yet they devote a share of their space to that object. That is only the same folly on a smaller scale. It is not good business.
No one orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase
the consumption of those fruits. The cost might be a thousand times his share of the returns. But thousands of growers combined have done it on those and many other lines. There lies one of the great possibilities of advertising development. The general consumption of scores of foods can be profitably increased. But it must be done on wide co-operation.
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