so strictly educational in tone as that. In fact, nearly all bank copy is devoted wholly or partially to pointing out the dvantages of banking with a particular institution. Each bank is frankly competing with other banks for business, and it seems to me that a bank which does not advertise is at a marked disadvantage in competing with banks that do -but let us look into this.

When a person decides to open a bank account, he will generally be drawn into some particular institution by one or more of the following influences: Proximity of the bank to his home or place of business; the physical appearance of the building and banking quarters; acquaintanceship with officers or employees of the bank; the recommendation of a friend; the general standing of the bank; personal solicitation by someone connected with the bank; and advertising. In this list, advertising is properly placed last and is likewise properly connected with the prior-named influences by the conjunction "and," because, in addition to its own definite effect, advertising backs up and strengthens every other influence that is working for new business. We may admit, without prejudice to the value of advertising, that as a rule a prospective

patron would be more directly influenced by the recommendation of a friend, or by acquaintanceship within the bank, than by any advertising the bank, itself, might do Yet, even this rule is not without its excep tions, for the printed word exerts a power over the minds of some people that no spoken word ever can.

But the principal advantage of advertis ing over other methods of attracting banking business to a particular institution lies in the feasibility it offers of presenting the bank's message to a great number of people of all classes during their leisure periods, and at a lower cost per person than is possible by any other means. The banker who will consider the list I have given of influences which attract new busi ness to the particular institution, supple menting this list as his own experience in dicates, will discover, beyond all question that the non-advertising bank must fail to get the proverbial look-in at a great vol ume of business which naturally goes where advertising cordially beckons.

In conclusion, let me say that bankers should not be pessimists. When a banker in this advertising age refuses to advertise, he is refusing to turn on the light.

HOW TO PLAN AN ADVER

TISING CAMPAIGN

W. R. SNODGRASS

Publicity and New Business Manager Fidelity National Bank and Trust Company, Kansas City, Mo.

In his address before the Financial Advertisers' Association on "ow to Plan an Advertising Campaign," Mr. W. R. Snodgrass mapped out a campaign for banks and trust companies on the principles of a military campaign. First, there is a servey of the organization, its services, the fie prospects, number and status of residents, competition, etc. Following analysis the subject of appropriation should be considered. The speaker then portrayed a specific campaign and described the various methods and mediums employed. Mr. Snodgrass said in part:

"Most of us will walk four blocks to patronize the store at which we get a smile with our merchandise, and will pass up the store two blocks away where we may purchase the same goods at the same price and receive nothing with them but grouchy treatment. How very important, then, is the right kind of a foundation to a bank, dealer

in personality. Foundation work may be classified in two sections: 1, Inside and its publicity; and 2, Outside publicity.

"Under the first we may place: A house organ with the proper editorial policy; a lunch room around the tables of which the family may gather in friendly fashion each day; good treatment of employees, pension and profit-sharing plans; contests of various sorts, for suggestions, correctness of work, account securing, etc. And by the way, one of the best advertisements a bank can have is to have its employees out talking the bank in a contest for the securing of business, and furthermore, they are going to think more about the treatment of business over the counter, when they are out after it themselves. A club, well organized, is a splendid means of increasing the family, or friendly spirit and under it may be conducted various activities with their appointed committees in charge, as social and entertainment, athletics of all sorts, mutual help and benefit, educational, mutual savings and thrift. Another big help is the forum idea.

"To cash in as it were on this family spirit with our customers, we work through some of the activities named, through quan

tities of personal letters, through lobby announcement cards, cards in customers' statements, through Tellers' Tip sheets, our publicity, etc., all very carefully handled, however, that the wrong note may not be struck. The main idea is to let this spirit of courtesy, friendliness and service, aroused and maintained by and through these efforts, find its own expression over the counters.

"To sum up very briefly, one cannot get something for nothing in advertising nor elsewhere and to secure best results, thorough study, analysis, constant follow-up, consistent plan, continuity, good foundation, personality, human interest, common sense and dollars must all be combined in a united effort. When this is done, results are sure to satisfy."

VARIOUS MEDIA FOR BANK AND TRUST COMPANY

ADVERTISING

One of the most instructive features of the first day's session of the Financial Advertisers' Association Convention was the symposium of addresses by expert authorities on the various practical mediums used in bank and trust company advertising, followed by intimate discussion.

Newspapers as Advertising Mediums. Leonard R. Brooks, publicity manager of the Chicago Daily News discussed newspapers and said in part:

"Financial advertisers should use news-papers for identically the same reasons that department stores use them," he said, "and they cannot get along without them. Both have merchandise to sell. Both require the interest and attention of the largest pos. sible market. But to sell his merchandise as department stores sell their merchandise through newspaper advertising, the 'financial advertiser must use the newspaper with the same understanding of its merchandising value that has been the foundation stone of department store success.

"For finance is merchandise. Whether it is bonds, banking facilities, trust functions, stocks, mortgages-whatever its nature, finance is merchandise in exactly the same sense that calico is merchandise, and it can be sold to a vast and constantly increasing market in identically the same manner that calico is sold or that shoes are sold or that automobiles are sold or that any one of a thousand service functions are sold."

Street Car Advertising. Discussing the subject of street car advertising for banks and trust companies Otto N. Frankfort of the Chicago Elevated Advertising Company said in substance:

"Your art work and the terseness of your copy combined will make for you the best card in the car-the best card in the car of course dominates. There are only a definite number of cards in each car, so then it is now the hope of all car advertising organi zations to select the best advertisers in the country for the cars. Cards in the cars today make up a very picture gallery of the best known advertisers in the United States. Banks are certainly warranted in giving this important medium their closest and most earnest consideration, because color shouts-because we have the circulation-because our mode of advertising is really dignified-and because we do talk in pictures, in colors and with brief selling text."

Outdoor Display Advertising. The use of outdoor display advertising was discussed by H. E. Erickson of the Thomas Cusak Co., of Chicago, who said in part:

"It is interesting to note that of all the various business classifications the greater number of users are the banks of the country. In Chicago, alone, we have contracts with thirty-four banks, ranging from the large banks downtown to the community banks, located in districts away from the center of the city. There are over one hundred banks using outdoor advertising at present in this country. They include the older and more conservative banks, such as the First and Old Detroit National Bank of Detroit, Michigan: the Home Savings & Trust Co. of Cleveland: The Home Savings & Trust Co. of Denver: The Ohio Savings Bank & Trust Co. of Toledo; Mercantile Trust Co. of St. Louis: The Peoples Trust Co. of Kansas City: Continental National Bank of Indianapolis: Louisville National Banking Co. of Louisville, Ky.; TootleLacy Bank of St. Joseph: The Hibernia Bank & Trust Co. of New Orleans."

DRESSING COPY FOR BANK AND TRUST COMPANY ADVERTISING

EVERETT B. CURRIER

Many practical "pointers" were embodied in the talk on "Dressing the Copy" by Everett R. Currier, director department of

typography of the Charles Everett Johnson Co., who said:

"I don't know why it is that bankers should be actually the worst offenders against decently clothed advertising--why they should be so slow in coming to a realization of the power of advertising and of the importance of doing it right. Many of them seem still to be living in the same dead past that said it was wrong to play a fiddle in church. It is not the fiddle but the tune that counts. If your tune is the right selection and well played you will disturb no one's nice sense of ethics, and you might conceivably find your audience increasing.

"I think that the main trouble with the banker's advertising is not so much that he does not believe in advertising, but that he thinks he can do all the planning, writing, designing and correcting himself, with the aid of his printer. He has not yet discovered that the preparation of advertising is a job for the specialist, and that the homemade advertising does not work any better than does the home-made last will and testa. ment, so distasteful to bankers.

"You cannot afford to depart very far from conventionality, but I think it is still easily possible to give your particular advertising the individuality it ought to have. There are many ways of accomplishing this -not so much by selecting a peculiar type face, or by some trick of arrangement, as by a distinctive illustration, or border, or decorative treatment-or especially by a trademark or insignia. The Philadelphia Trust Company's advertisement has achieved this conspicuously and admirably by its use of an unusual border.

"Financial advertising seems to offer a restricted field for illustration as compared to that of the great mass of advertisers with a physical article to sell, such as a washing machine, or a suit of clothes or a new dessert. But there still are countless ways for you to utilize the art of the picture maker to your great advantage. I may suggest: Exterior views of your building; interior view showing departments in operation; portraits of prominent men and historical figures; personifications of Thrift, Prosperity, etc.; scenes of commerce and industry: sentimental pictures indieating contentment, happiness, etc.

"You can be brief. You can be eloquent in the things you do not say. Whatever you can accomplish in the way of brevity of copy and simplicity of design will be clear gain. Much boiling clarifies the pot. We do not live in the spacious days of Rabelais

when discursiveness and prolixity were virtues. As readers we have much more offered us than we can possibly take in-not of essential thought, but of a multiplication of words.

"Clean, orderly typography you must have if you expect your message to be anything better than a part of the general muddiness of newspaper display-if you expect it to shine out. As to what type faces to select, the most I can say is that the plainest are the best. Remember that in publishing your advertising messages you have two things to accomplish; to tell a story and to create an atmosphere.' In the case of bank advertising, the matter of atmosphere' may be the biggest thing you have to play up."

SECOND DAY'S SESSION,
F. A. A.

Proceedings of the second day's session of the Financial Advertisers' Association convention began with an excellent address by E. H. Kittredge, publicity manager of the Old Colony Trust Company of Boston, who described the workings of the "Central File" system in use at his company. (This address appears in another part of this issue of TRUST COMPANIES.) The delegates were also addressed at this session by Hon. Edwin T. Meredith, Secretary of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. H. M. Cottrell, agriculturist of the Arkansas Profitable Farming Bureau spoke on "How the Banker May Help in Developing Agriculture" and Charles A. Otis, of Otis & Co., of Cleveland, who was elected president of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the World, talked on "The Investment Bankers' Opportunity Now and How." Address by Secretary of Agriculture

A big audience greeted Secretary of Agriculture E. T. Meredith when he spoke before the F. A. A. Section on "The Financial Advertisers' Interest in the U. S. Department of Agriculture." He described the Agricultural Department as a service department which deals with an $80,000,000,000 enterprise with a yearly business of $25,000,000,000. The Secretary dwelt upon the important factor of advertising in selling and marketing various farm products and how the department helps to make such advertising efficient. The speaker also referred to the influence of the department in increasing production, establishing new lines of industry, utilizing products that formerly went to waste and developing better markets.