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EVENING LEDCJEB PHILADBL1HIA, FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1915
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Certain Philadelphia industries cannot be profit
ably advertised to the consumer. That is agreed.
Certain other Philadelphia industries which
could be advertised still face many difficulties.
Every year, however, some product heretofore
considered impossible to advertise is added to the
list of successfully advertised articles.
In the story of one of these perhaps lies inspi
ration for some Philadelphia manufacturer who
believes that advertising, while it may be efficacious
for other kinds of business, would not do for his
business.
On August 8, 1914 note particularly that this
was just one week after the outbreak of the war
which is supposed to have had so disastrous an
effect on business there appeared in The Saturday
Evening Post a two-page advertisement for a cer
tain make of iron.
Not a novelty or spectacular commodity.
Not an article that is put up in packages.
Not an article that is sold over the counter in
retail stores.
Not even an article that can be bought direct
by the consumer.
But a raw product, a staple in use for hundreds
""'of years, never advertised before, made by many
mills and sold to many manufacturers who make
it into sheet metal products, which are in turn sold
to hardware dealers, metal workers, and others, and
then finally sold to the public. -
If ever a thing must have looked hard to ad
vertise when the idea was first suggested, it must
have been iron.
But ever since August, 1914, the American
Rolling Mill Company, of Middletown, Ohio an
$8,000,000 concern has been advertising Armco
Iron in a number of leading national periodicals, as
well as in farm papers, trade papers and a few
newspapers.
In a considerably shprter period than is usually
required, the campaign has proved a success. At
the end of six months Printers' Ink, in giving an
account of the campaign, says: "Whether the field
was ready for advertising such a product, whether
the advertising was unusually good, or whatever
the reason, the fact is that sales have been decidedly
larger since the advertising began to run than in
the corresponding period of the previous year, and
that the sentiment of the whole field is changing
from indifference or mild interest to active curiosity
and orders.
"Distributors who were buying Armco sheet
metal and Armco products before the inauguration
of the advertising campaign have been moved to a
lively co-operation. And this attitude has naturally
reacted on the salesmen. 'You have no idea how
the advertising has helped me one of them wrote
back to the office after his first trip out with the
new literature. 'One stove manufacturer I wanted
to see had always turned me down before. I took
one of my cards and wrote on it: "It's important
this time." I had something else than iron to talk
about, and I sold him.' "
How the advertising was done, how it was
made interesting to the general public, how the uses
of Armco iron were explained, how it was made
clear just how the consumer could be sure of getting
Armco iron, how the distributors were made enthus
iastic for the campaign, how tags were worked out
to be attached to products made of Armco iron
these are interesting but relatively unimportant
details.
"In 1756," says the United States Census,
"Pennsylvania "was spoken of as the most advanced
of all the American colonies in regard to its iron
works, and since that statement it has been prom
inent among the States in the iron and steel in
dustry." Philadelphia, by the census of 1909, was
producing more than $11,000,000 worth of goods
under the heading of iron and steel, steel works
and rolling mills, and employing 5248 men in the
industry. If any of Philadelphia's iron and steel
manufacturers are interested in further details of
the Armco advertising, they can readily obtain them.
A greater lesson of the campaign, however, is
for many other Philadelphia manufacturers in
various lines who are making raw products that
are remanufactured or "unadvertisable staples"
or goods that must pass through many hands to
reach the consumer in a different form from that
in which they leave Philadelphia.
Another great lesson is that the American
Rolling Mill Company is only one of several manu
facturers licensed to make iron by the special proc
ess which they have made the talking point of
their campaign, a process which is said to make
iron 99.84 pure. Any one of the licensees could
have done it. Armco is drawing away from its
competition by adding one selling feature that the
others do not possess national advertising and
thus insuring the future hold on the market.
Take it all in all, if you have sufficient energy,
persistence and courage you can apply the force of
advertising successfully to most of the so-called
"unadvertisable" products.
The first step in finding out how, is to get into
touch with a skilled advertising organization.
The Ladies' Home Journal The Saturday Evening Post The Country Gentleman
The Curtis Publishing Company, Independence Square, Philadelphia
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