Scientific Advertising
By Claude C. Hopkins
Chapter
14 - Getting
Distribution Most
advertisers
are confronted with the problem of getting
distribution.
National advertising is unthinkable without that. A venture cannot be
profitable if nine in ten of the converts fail to find the goods.To
force dealers to stock by bringing repeated demands may be enormously
expensive. To cover the country with a selling force is usually
impossible. To get dealers to stock an unknown line on promise of
advertising is not easy. They have seen to many efforts fail, too
many promises rescinded.
We
cannot discuss all plans for getting distribution. There are scores
of ways employed, according to the enterprise. Some start by
soliciting direct sales - mail orders - until the volume of demand
forces dealers to supply. Some get into touch with prospects by a
sample or other offer, then refer them to certain dealers who are
stocked.
Some
well-known lines can get a large percentage of dealers to stock in
advance under guarantee of sale. Some consign goods to jobbers so
dealers can easily order. Some name certain dealers in their ads
until dealers in general stock.The problems in this line are
numberless. The successful
methods are many. But most of them apply
to lines too few to be worthy of discussion in a book like this.
We
shall deal here with articles of wide appeal and repeated sales, like
foods or proprietary articles. We usually start with local
advertising, even though magazine advertising is best adapted to the
article. We get our distribution town by town, then change to
national advertising.Sometimes we name the dealers who are stocked.
As others stock, we add their names. When a local campaign is
proposed, naming certain dealers, the average dealer wants to be
included. It is often possible to get most of them by offering to
name them in the first few ads.
Whether
you advertise few or many dealers, the others will stock in very
short order if the advertising is successful. Then the trade is
referred to all dealers. The sample plans dealt with in the previous
chapter aid quick distribution. They often pay for themselves in this
way alone.
If
the samples are distributed locally, the coupon names the store. The
prospects who go there to get the samples know that those stores are
supplied, if a nearer dealer is not. Thus little trade is lost. When
sample inquiries come to the advertiser, inquiries are referred to
certain dealers at the start. Enough demand is centered there to
force those dealers to supply it.
Sometimes
most stores are supplied with samples, but on the requirement of a
certain purchase. You supply a dozen samples with a dozen packages,
for instance. Then inquiries for samples are referred to all stores.
This quickly forces general distribution. Dealers don''t like to have
their customers go to competitors even for a sample.
Where
a coupon is used, good at any store for a full-size package, the
problem of distribution becomes simple. Mail to dealers proofs of the
ad which will contain a coupon. Point out to each that many of his
customers are bound to present that coupon. Each coupon represents a
cash sale at full profit. No average dealer will let those coupon
customers go elsewhere.
Such
a free-package offer often pays for itself in this way. It forms the
cheapest way of getting general distribution. Some of the most
successful advertisers have done this in a national way. They have
inserted coupon ads in magazines, each coupon good at any store for a
full-size package. A proof of the ad is sent to dealers in advance,
with a list of the magazines to be used, and their circulation.
In
this way, in one week sometimes, makers attain a reasonable national
distribution. And the coupon ad, when it appears, completes it. Here
again the free packages cost less than other ways of forcing
distribution. And they start thousands of users besides. Palmolive
Soap and Puffed Grains are among the products which attain their
distribution in that way.
Half
the circulation of a newspaper may go to outside towns. That half may
be wasted if you offer a sample at local stores. Say in your coupon
that outside people should write you for a sample. When they write,
do not mail the sample. Send the samples to a local store, and refer
inquiries to that store. Mailing a sample may make a convert who
cannot be supplied. But the store which supplies the sample will
usually supply demand. In these ways, many advertisers get national
distribution without employing a single salesman. They get it
immediately. And they get it at far lower cost than by any other
method. There are advertisers who, in starting, send every dealer a
few packages as a gift. That is better, perhaps, than losing
customers created. But it is very expensive. Those free packages must
be sold by advertising. Figure their cost at your selling price, and
you will see that you are paying a high cost per dealer. A salesman
might sell these small stocks at a lower cost. And other methods
might be vastly cheaper.
Sending
stocks on consignment to retailers is not widely favored. Many
dealers resent it. Collections are difficult. And non-businesslike
methods do not win dealer respect.
The
plans advocated here are the best plans yet discovered for the lines
to which they apply. Other lines require different methods. The
ramifications are too many to discuss in a book like this.
But
don''t start advertising without distribution. Don''t get distribution
by methods too expensive. Or by slow, old-fashioned methods. The loss
of time may cost you enormously in sales. And it may enable energetic
rivals to get ahead of you. Go to men who know by countless
experiences the best plan to apply to your line.