HOW MANY DOLLARS FOR ADVERTISING.
By Albert Wesley Frey '20. New York:Ronald Press, 1955. 164 pp. $4.50.
This small volume can, and should, save many executives headaches and money. The accumulated experience of many who have studied this problem of getting the most for the optimum expenditure is here brought together in one summary, and the "marketing-program" method explains how to arrive at the best (compromising ideals and practical limiting factors) solution for small and large advertisers alike.
Chapters 1-2-3 summarize current practice and the failures to approach the ideal of a logical approach to balancing expenditures against profit-and-loss, and briefly describe the basic methods of measuring advertising effectiveness with all their possibilities for error. Readers will welcome the examples of setting appropriations by specific companies. This first half of the book (82 pages) would be a time-saver for anyone trying to come to grips with his problem, but the more basic value is packed into Chapter 4 which describes the "marketing-program approach." Briefly, this is a research-oriented co-operative effort where all the top executives of a company analyze "every bit of information relevant to deciding how the most profitable marketing impact can be made." "Their analysis is supposed to indicate whether advertising should be used, how it should be used, and in what amount." A bit of thought will show that the battle could be both bitter and confusing to define the word relevant above. The discussion here, however, is very specific: steps in such a program are spelled out (pp. 95-96) and an elaborate check-list is outlined to indicate what specific information might be needed; then, to clinch it at the level of actual appropriation, a five-point "suggested practical procedure for program approach" is sketched.
So tar, this is a clear-cut matter; chapter 5, however, is a needed acknowledgement of the implications ("other aspects") of the appropriation problem and should not be skipped. What happens when the product is new in the field? What is the relation to national income, and are we spending enough (1929-1954) to do an adequate selling job in our changing economy? What happens to expenditure in the fluctuating business cycle? How should one work out plans for cooperative advertising, both "horizontal" (by a group of manufacturers) and "vertical" (sharing by manufacturers, distributors, and retailers)? This chapter is stimulating; it is a starting point and not the end - and that is, in effect, the importance of the contribution of this excellent guide.
