_An advertising trade-mark is a great barrier to imitation and
substitution._
The first essential of a successful posting campaign is to have a good
poster. A bad design will spoil the most alluring campaign ever outlined.
A figure is always attractive in a poster, because it carries with it
a more-than-ordinary element of human interest. As an example of the
comparative pulling powers of illustrations I have understood that the
news-stand sales of the Saturday Evening Post are appreciably larger when
they have on their front cover the picture of an attractive woman than
when the design is more general and of less heart interest. If you have
a trade-mark for your product that trade-mark should _always_ appear in
your poster. It may be the central figure of the poster or it may be
introduced incidentally, but it should be there in sufficiently prominent
form to be noticed, for it is the constant repetition of a trade-mark
that makes it valuable. Such world-wide characters as The Gold Dust
Twins, The old Quaker of Quaker Oats, the little Uneeda Biscuit boy, the
old darkey of Cream of Wheat and the Victor Talking Machine Dog would
never have been worth the millions of dollars at which their owners prize
them but for the fact that they have been ding-donged into the public day
after day and month after month and year after year in the magazines, in
the street cars, in the newspapers and on the bill-boards. I have heard
well-known advertisers remark that they did not believe in reproducing
one figure constantly in an advertisement, because the public would come
to recognize it, say “Oh, that is so-and-so’s advertisement” and pay no
attention to the story told in the wording. I believe this to be the
greatest fallacy ever advanced, and to my way of thinking, an advertiser
could have no better advertisement than one in which appears a trade-mark
which the public instantly recognizes and comments upon. You can ring the
changes on the design, the color of the background or the arrangement,
even if your trade-mark is a set one not susceptible of changes in itself.
Where you have no trade-mark, my advice would be to get one.
It is also a pretty safe rule to introduce the package itself in each
poster, where the latter is not closely identified with the trade-mark.
To familiarize the public with your package means instant recognition
when they see it on the dealer’s shelf, counter or floor space.
If possible, have your poster made by a poster artist, and not by a
designer of newspaper or magazine advertisements. The proper handling and
harmony of colors, as well as that broad poster-carrying effect can only
be fully realized by the artist who has specialized in that field.
The poster should be judged from a distance, and should be made for
carrying effect rather than close view. People do not stand close to a
poster; it is read from a distance and should be made to be perfectly
clear and readable thirty to forty feet away.
The poster will not carry a detailed story. An illustration of a figure,
a picture of the product itself, the name of the product, a catch phrase
or a single line of argument is about all the ordinary poster will stand.
I do not agree, however, with the contention that argument cannot be
given on a poster. On a series of posters a whole story can be told,
because one argument can be driven home on each poster. The “reason
why” feature of advertising can be applied to posting by the use of
this method, and in the development of posting in the coming years the
tendency to limit the copy for a poster to merely the name and trade-mark
will be over-ruled.
Break up your type matter, having a portion appear above the design,
another portion below or at the sides. This will relieve monotony, and
make it easier for the eye to read what you have to say.
Avoid defacing the design of your poster by carrying lettering across any
portion of it.
A poor poster is an abomination. Get the best that money will buy. The
cost of posting is in the neighborhood of ten times the cost of the
paper; hence a few cents more in the cost per poster is insignificant if
it represents the difference between first-class and mediocre.
Have your poster attractive—in order to catch the eye and rivet the
attention.
Have some element of reason and argument in your poster—in order to
create the desire to buy.
_Tell the truth in your advertising—not because honesty is the
best policy, but because it is the only policy in successful
business._