IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE.

Waikato Times, Volume 107, Issue 17972, 18 March 1930, Page 10

IT PAYS TO ADVERTISE.

REVIVAL in industry. I j SOME STARTLING FIGURES. I More and more, new business am ! trading records are becoming availabli ; 0 provide proof beyond doubt tha It pays to advertise,” says the Lon i ( | OII Daily Mail. These records shov conclusively that vigorously handlec | advertising campaigns have maintainei | business organisations dn the forefron j of their particular fields, and how col[active campaigns have speeditj brought hack to vigour entire indus- | tries which were-suffering decline, j One example Is the British fishing i industry. It was languishing under c i burden "of difficulties, when, on March | 1, 1929, the trawler owners launched an “ Eat More Fish ” campaign. This ! was a collective propaganda effort i directed through the national Press to j educate the public upon the value and j convenience of well-cooked fish as an item of diet. By the end of September—just seven months after the beginning of I ihc campaign—the demand throughI out the country for fish has been inj creased by 27,000 tons, compared with ; [he corresponding period of the year ! before. This increase represented in 'hard cash an additional £750,000 to ■he fishing industry of Britain. Romantic Progress. The romantic progress of a representative unit of the British gas industry is spread over a greater period than the meteoric recovery of (the fishing trade. Up till 1913 the gas industry did not advertise. The consumption of gas by private and industrial users year by year up to this point increased by an amount which was negligible for an industry of this type. Then in 1914 the gas industry began to be attacked by new and intense competition from oilier more recently developed form of lighting and heating.

The British Commercial Gas Association then launched a collective advertising campaign in the national Press, telling the public of the advantages of gas for lighting and heating. The campaign c-ontinued until last year. The result has been that during these subsequent years the gas industry has thus been able, in spite of the intense competition, to maintain a steadily progressive development and to secure a substantially greater consumption of gas among both private and industrial users. Remarkable Results. The remarkable results obtained by Messrs Arthur Guinnes, Son, and Co., Ltd., is another notable testimony to the policy of vigorous and continuous advertising adopted by this wellknown firm. The case of Buy British Cars is another concrete example of the tonic effect of a bold advertising policy in the national Press. It as only comparatively recently that the motor industry extended its advertising—at one time restricted to specified periodicals —to the pages of the daily Press. In 1927 the importation into England of foreign cars was 19,219. In 1928 this total had been reduced to 15,520, while in the eleven months ended November 1929 it had further fallen to 11,867. I In view, therefore, of the vastly in- | creased number of cars put upon Brit- ! ish roads each year it is not difficult I to draw a right and proper conclusion. ! Production Doubled, The manner in which national advertising can assist an individual firm producing goods not, perhaps, of ! direct interest to the public, is another j example of the power of the leading j newspapers. Take the case of build- j rs’ rooting tiles —certainly not a sub- j ject over which the average reader of ! a newspaper might he expected to go I Into raptures. hi September 1928 the Staffordshire firm of G. 11. Downing, Lid., producing 1.2'50,000 Acme roofing liles per week, launched a well-designed advertising campaign. By' June 1929 the weekly output had risen to 2,000,0‘00 ; tlies, and by September 1929 was ; practically double the figure for Sep- I tember 1928. j This enormous increase made per- | •manent employment for many more ! workers and necessitated the erection j of no fewer than 28 new kiln- -