The Woman’s Home Companion paid the government just $583 for carrying that portion of the magazine on which these 75 advertisements were printed.
Any advertising man can point to hundreds of “mail-order firms” like the above. These firms can trace directly to their magazine advertising, every year, purchases of millions of dollars’ worth of the stamps that make big profits for the postoffice.
It is even more surprising to learn the enormous postage bills caused by an entirely different class of magazine advertisers--the “general publicity,” or “national” advertisers--who wish the reader to ask for their fine soaps, or mattresses, or silks, or stationery at his local store. These firms do not depend on direct replies, yet they receive so many that thousands of dollars are spent for stamps per year in scores of cases--even per month in many.
EVEN THE “GENERAL” OR “PUBLICITY” MAGAZINE ADVERTISING CREATES ENORMOUS STAMP SALES.
A moderate-priced shoe is sold through a number of retail stores in different cities. The manufacturers advertise in magazines for national “publicity,” to bring buyers into these stores. Incidentally they mention their department to fill orders by mail. Thus an enormous correspondence has been built up, of which the average annual increase alone during the last three years has involved 264,000 first-class letters--a minimum postage of $5,280. This is simply one yearly addition to the company’s already first-class business, of which it writes that “all but a nominal percentage” has been “induced by our magazine advertisements.”
More than $15,000 was spent for postage by a mattress manufacturer last year, “following up” inquiries received from his magazine advertising, though it is designed to create a demand for the mattress at local furniture stores.
This $15,000 is over and above his steady correspondence with dealers, etc., which was built up in the first place by magazine advertising.
One of the many recent “contests” conducted by magazine advertisers was that of a stationery company. Theirs is also “publicity,” not mail-order advertising. It is designed to create a demand for their paper over the stationery store counters. But their “contest” awhile ago, announced exclusively in the magazines, brought 59,000 replies, which, with follow-up, etc., averaged 12 cents first-class postage--a total of $7,080 in one month.