fflpfjBWPWBHIWBWH I Hi WPWIHI I" 1 1 iiyTSgS
EVENING IEDQER-PHILADELPHIA. TUESDAY, MABOH 16, 1915.
An Advertising Idea from Darkest Africa
S
m
cm
In England a large proportion of all the coal
tar produced is burned up as some form of fuel.
In America 95 per cent is used in valuable
manufactures. One way, at least, in which the New
World is less wasteful than the Old.
In one of these valuable uses of coal tar there is
a story that takes us into darkest Africa, that gives
us an inspiring glance at the persistence of men and
a hint of the romance of business. .
A certain firm manufactured coal tar products.
They had seen great industries made greater by
advertising. They thought there must be some way
in which they could employ this force, but try as
they might, they could not see just how. So they
called in an advertising man.
He asked how coal tar was used.
"One thing," they said, "is for making tar and
gravel roofs the kind of roof you had on the ell
back home."
These roofs, he found, are made with coal tar
pitch and felt. They cannot be bought ready to lay
like prepared roofings, but must be laid "on the job"
by a local builder or roofer. Right there was dis
closed one reason why this firm ought to be in touch
with the public through advertising.
There was no accepted standard method for
laying roofs. You can lay a poor roof that will look
and act all right until after the weather has had a
chance at it. The result was that, either through
skimping or through mere lack of skill, many roofs
did not last very well.
This had two bad effects :
First, owners of houses and buildings did not
get as good roofs as they should.
Second, good roofing materials were not being
used as freely as they should be, which hurt business.
The advertising man packed his bag and took
the train for the West. During the next two months
he interviewed about 500 builders, architects, deal
ers and workmen. He came back with no recom
mendation. It looked hopeless to advertise some
thing that could not be sold all ready for use, but
which must be mixed with other ingredients and
spread out on top of a building by a third party.
Soon after, this advertising man was taken ill
with a malarial fever. After he had tried all sorts
of remedies without success, a doctor gave him a
certain prescription. It was filled at a drug store
round the corner, and it cured him. Being of an in
quiring mind, he asked what was in the prescription.
The doctor said :
"When Henry M. Stanley went into Africa to
find Livingstone, his men were attacked right
and left by fevers. The physician in the party,
whose job was to fight these fevers, was a Dr.
Warburg. By experiment after experiment,
under the pressure of necessity, he finally
worked out a certain specific, made up of a
number of standard drugs. After he had re
turned to civilization he did what the ethics
of his profession demanded. He gave his
secret freely to the world. It was accepted by
medical science, and is today published in
various standard works of medicine, and is
known by Warburg's name. Any doctor can
write it, and any druggist can compound it.
That's what cured you."
That night the long sought-for idea flashed on
the advertising man.
"Why," he asked himself, "shouldn't there be a
recognized prescription for tar and gravel roofs,
which any owner or architect can specify and any
roofer can carry out, buying his materials from any
builder? With the right specification honestly fol
lowed, roofs would be laid right."
lie took the plan to the manufacturers. They
consulted engineers and architects. The best
methods and proportions of materials were set down
in black and white. And, with some hesitation,
they began to advertise. What they decided to ad
vertise was not their own materials, but a method,
a specification for laying roofs. Their own firm was
so large that they could afford to promote the whole
coal tar industry, and let competitors reap a share
of the advantage.
The first advertising was done in trade and
technical papers, to reach architects and engineers,
and in The Saturday Evening Post and one other
general medium, to reach consumers. Circulars
and other mail matter were also sent to architects
and builders.
Scientific and progressive men are quick to
adopt a plan based on scientific methods. They
tried the specification, and, finding that- it produced
better and longer-lasting roofs, used it again and
again. And the layman was gradually educated to
ask for that kind of roof on his construction.
The increase in the demand for the goods was
so noticeable that methods were worked out for
advertising other uses of coal tar, one by one. To
day that same firm is investing in advertising to the
extent of twenty times its original appropriation,
and is getting its money's worth.
Let us see, then, what national advertising ac
complished in this instance:
First, it corrected a condition in an industry
which was suffering because of the misuse of its
product.
Second, it found a way to make sure that own
ers of buildings should get good tar and gravel roofs
instead of poor ones.
Third, it greatly increased the use, for an
economical and beneficial purpose, of a product
which in England, for example, is generally burned
up as fuel.
Does not this show how advertising can be of
true economic service to
(1) the business man
(2) the consumer, and
(3) the whole American public?
The ladies' Home Journal The Saturday Evening Post The Country Gentleman
THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY, INDEPENDENCE SQUARE, PHILADELPHIA
I
j9i
i
!
.M'l
ii
A
i.yiii
I
m
I,,,,,,., . ; '" ' """" "MW i
mm