Reel and Slide (Mar-Dec 1918)

20 REEL and SLIDE Suggests Manufacturers Show Clerks How Their Goods Are Made By Camilla Donworth {President, Films of Business Corporation, in an address on Screen Advertising recently made before the Rotary Club of New York) AMERICA has put her shoulder to the wheel with a "Win the War" slogan or trademark. After the war is won we are going to face commercial conditions that will call foi the best that is in us and when people buying goods marked "Made in the U. S. A." read that trademark — the father of all American trademarks — it must mean to them not only goods made in America, but the kind of goods for which they have asked. Individuality — that most precious asset — became a part of everyday business before we realized it. Yet it is amazing how difficult it is to get various businesses to realize that many of the operations used in making their various commodities are enthralling, inspiring, and would be business getters if consumers could see them. The trademark that has become a slogan — and it isn't valuable until it has — is the most prized asset of the manufacturer selling goods under it. And a trademark does not have to be registered as a trademark to be one. It may be the name of the company driven home so that when one thinks of something to be purchased the name of the company selling that commodity or service will flash into the mind. The things that we see remain in our memories much more distinctly and recur to our mental vision more frequently than the things we meet via the written or the spoken word. I shall never forget the morning that I was called on deck to see Gibraltar. There we were looking up at that wonderful old rock, but I missed something. Of course, you all know what I missed — the name of an insurance company. I had so often seen that company advertised with the strength of old Gib that when the actual physical fort came to view I expected to see the painted letters. The Behind-the-Counter Salesman When a manufacturer applies a trademark to the article he makes he does so because he believes in his merchandise and wants to guarantee it. Does the consumer need to remember where he bought a trademarked article? No, because the trademark itself is his protection — right through the jobber and the retailer — and he feels that personal contact; subconsciously if you will, but feels it, nevertheless. Methods of making are decided upon; the trademark is given and now for making that trademark a tangible selling asset. The advertising manager gets busy with copy for newspapers, magazines, trade papers; he makes his plans for billboard and other outdoor display. I want to stop right now and remind you of the many times that you have been, at the mercy of a behind-thecounter salesman. "Would this great army of salesmen be so indifferent to their work, so inclined to be ashamed of working in shops, so lackadaisical in their methods of handling customers if they knew the "romance" of merchandise? Here is an avenue that the manufacturer has neglected. For these people are interested in life; they want to know what the other fellow does and how he does it. They don't know that sheep are fleeced, yarn is spun and articles that they sell over the counter are only the finished product. Most of these people have had very little education, so far as going to school is concerned, but think how they would boost if the manufacturer would take them into his confidence. No merchant can afford to send his selling organization to school where they would listen to long, dry talks, and, even if he felt such education would be an investment from his point of view, the salesman would not be willing. On the other hand, if the manufacturer would provide a motion picture actually showing how his commodity is made, giving through the picture enough of the history of that commodity to hold, entertain and instruct, he would not talk over the heads of his audience, nor would he commit that most unpardonable sin of patronizing. After the salesmen had seen how the commodity was made, don't you think goods bearing that particular trademark would be what they would offer their customers? I hate the word "shop girl" just as much as the girl in thestore. These girls would welcome a point of intelligent contact between themselves and their customers, and where they had been privileged to actually see the goods made they could and would impart a considerable amount of this knowledge to the customer. When an advertising manager writes copy, revises it, submits it to the powers higher up for maltreatment, gets it finally O. K.'d and sees it in cold print, he is all through and ready for the next piece of copy. One of the pitfalls of selling the industrial motion picture has been the attempt on the part of the people selling these pictures to get the advertising man to see this medium and treat it as he has been in the habit of seeing and treating printed copy. "What Is Your Circulation?" Unimportant _ "What is your circulation?" is the first question that an advertising manager wants answered when he is considering copy for a periodical. He has become so accustomed to asking that question that he says to the man trying to sell him a motion picture, "What distribution can you guarantee?" Really this is not the correct mental attitude. Industrial motion pictures are not a by-product of play-pictures. They open up, on the contrary, a hitherto unknown field and appeal to the imagination. It is not a question of how many people will see my picture, but where can I show this picture to promote sales? The distributing of industrial motion pictures promiscuously through theaters does not sell merchandise in proportion to the money expended. Take the same amount of money, time, energy and add intelligence to reaching selected audiences and you create a demand in the minds of consumers of your own commodity for your goods ; and where you can show the pictures of how you do things to the people actually, physically selling those goods to the consumer, you attach to yourself the strongest army of boosters possible to obtain. The motion picture is really the party frock in the advertising wardrobe, and, as such, to be worn on state occasions and for the benefit of people actually and' vitally interested. I want to leave just this last thought with you — pictures need no translation. Through the eye we all speak the same language, and our modern American methods are new, interesting and often amazing to the foreigner. This point is well worth considering right now, when we are getting ready to meet post-war conditions. The American manufacturer furnishes all kinds of selling helps to his dealers, whether they be domestic or foreign, and the motion picture is capable of showing the slothful dealer just how the more up-to-date man, handling the same goods in a different territory, uses the window displays, "silent salesmen," posters and various other helps from the factory. Only Two Cents Per Man Actual Cost Now of Showing Films in War Camps By William C. Freeman {In the New York Evening Mail) THE Community Motion Picture Bureau is now the accredited representative of all the Ally Y. M. C. A.'s and is furnishing moving picture shows that the men of every Ally nationality indorse unequivocally and enthusiastically. The pictures are selected with the greatest care and judgment, and always with the idea of giving the soldiers the greatest pleasure, as well as acquainting them with the characteristics and achievements of the several nations represented in the Ally army. The pictures are serving the dual purpose of entertainment and education. And when the war ends the Ally nations will know more about each other than they ever did and they will be closer together, largely because the moving picture has stepped in as a great educational force. Is it advertising? It certainly is, and of a very high type. Can't you see how advertising men with vision fit in with the work being done by the Community Bureau? There is nothing like pictures to make lasting impressions on the mind. And then when each picture carries with it a brief, carefully worded description, printed in big display letters, the effect is very powerful. What do you suppose it costs to supply the men at the front with moving picture shows? You would answer offhand, "a very large sum." Well, it does not cost a large sum, based on the unit charge. It costs — including everything — men, materials, cameras, picture machines, automobiles, losses by shell fire and submarines, etc., only 2 cents per man per show. That is to say — if a show is put on in every spot where soldiers are gathered — the cost is 2 cents per man only. The aggregate cost represents, of course, a large investment, because pictures are shown to millions of men — not once, but very frequently. But even if 10,000,000 men should all see a movie show six times a week, the equivalent of 60,000,000 at one show, the cost would be $1,200,000. America would not balk at spending $1,200,000 every week to give the boys these great treats, for they really and truly are wonderful treats to them. A price of a 2-cent postage stamp is not very much to invest to give a soldier an evening of happiness. •1