MAKING ADVERTISING PAY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20037, 8 September 1939, Page 3

MAKING ADVERTISING PAY

Af)VICE TO BUSINESSMEN “PRESS PUP,LICITV BEST” SYDNEY, August 18. “About 00 per cent of the business of real estate agents originates in advertising, and newspaper publicity is the best paying medium,’’ said Mr. Noel Griffith, publicity manager for the Rural Bank, in an address to members of the Real Estate Institute at a luncheon at the Hotel Carlton.' Mr. Griffith said that real estate agents in their advertising should understate rather than, overstate the selling points of the property advertised. This could best be done by a careful choice of words and the avoidance of hackneyed words or phrases. The object of advertising shouid be primarily to arouse the attention of the potential purchaser; then to sustain his interest and stimulate his desire for the property, all with the object of bringing action in the signing of the contract. Classified advertising formed a valuable means of publicity, which should be more largely availed of. He suggested that the property should be concisely and accurately described, and, where possible, the price should be stated. Agents would detract from the selling power of a classified or other advertisement if they represented a property as being in the £IBOO class, when they were prepared to sell for £ISOO. Without the price being stated, purchasers prepared to pay £I4OO to £ISOO would be , turned away. Strength in advertising often lay in under-statement rather than in overstatement.