Effectiveness of Advertising

August 5

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Connecticut Courant (August 5, 1776).

“Old books he can metamorphose into new.”

When Nathaniel Patten, a bookseller, bookbinder, and stationer, “opened shop under the Printing-Office in Hartford” in the summer of 1776, he placed an advertisement in the Connecticut Courant.  He described himself as a “BOOK-BINDER and STATIONER from BOSTON” even though he had been pursuing those trades in Norwich, Connecticut, for more than two years.  He may have believed that prospective customers considered a bookbinder from Boston more qualified than one from Norwich.  He stated that he had been “regularly bred” to bookbinding; in other words, he received training as a youth, perhaps as an apprentice and perhaps in Boston.  That prompted Patten to confidently proclaim that he could “bind, gild, and letter books in as splendid a manner as if done in London.”  Consumers may have considered a bookbinder from Boston more likely to possess such skills than a bookbinder from Norwich.

Patten sought to dazzle prospective customers with a description of what he could do to their books when entrusted to him for new bindings.  “Old books,” he declared, “he can metamorphose into new.”  Yet that promise held only as long as the books remained on shelves to impress those who saw them, but not necessarily upon closer examination.  The bookbinder clarified that “the difference will not be perceptible to those who do not open them.”  Patten encouraged readers to judge a book by its cover … and by its binding and by the gilded edges of its pages.  Appearances mattered, at least according to the bookbinder seeking customers after arriving in a new town.

Patten had some experience making both appeals.  The copy in the first paragraph of his advertisement in the Connecticut Courant replicated copy from the advertisement in which he introduced himself to residents of Norwich and nearby towns in the Connecticut Journal two years earlier, suggesting that Patten clipped the notice from the newspaper or retained his correspondence with the printer.  He apparently considered the appeals effective since he deployed them again.  Artisans often touted their training and skill.  Patten merely adopted a popular marketing strategy when he did so.  His claim about transforming old books, however, was not one that other bookbinders used.  Patten seemingly devised it on his own when deciding the best way to market his services.

August 4

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago this week?

Pennsylvania Ledger (August 3, 1776).

“For the benefit of others I desire that you may make my case public, that those being imposed upon and labouring under the same complaint may know where to apply for a cure.”

Testimonials worked!  Anthony Yeldall must have thought so because the apothecary repeatedly included testimonials from grateful patients in his newspaper advertisements.  Perhaps some patients mentioned testimonials they read in his advertisements when they consulted him “at his Medicinal ware house” in Philadelphia, prompting him to publish more testimonials.  The testimonials often accounted for much more space than any copy that Yeldall wrote himself.  His advertisement in the August 3, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Ledger, for instance, consisted of five paragraphs.  The last four were testimonials that his patients stated that they wanted published “[f]or the benefit of others.”  It was one thing for the apothecary to claim that his “Abilities are well known through most parts of the United Colonies,” but the testimonials demonstrated that was indeed the case.  Joseph Spenser, “Grocer in Second-street,” Benjamin Wilson, “Elizabeth-town, New-Jersey,” Christopher Hughes, “Bedminster-township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania,” and William Bell, “Vincent township, Chester County, Pennsylvania,” each praised the treatment that “DOCTOR YELDALL” provided.

Those testimonials had some common features that suggest Yeldall may have worked with his patients in composing their testimonials or they may have used testimonials that appeared in previous advertisements as models.  Three of the testimonials began with “For the benefit of others” and a request “that my case may be made public” (or some close variation of that phrase).  Hughes expressed similar sentiments but deviated from the formulaic language used by the others: “being desirous that they may reap the same benefit that I have done, I desire that you may make my case public.”  Each testimonial made clear that Yeldall published success stories at the behest of patients he returned to good health.  They did not make their way into print solely due to the self-interest of an apothecary seeking more patients.  Each also told a frustrating story about seeking medical care from physicians and surgeons whose assistance proved ineffective before turning to Yeldall for treatments that returned them to full health.  Spenser, for instance, “applied to several able Physicians in the city, but could find no relief” for a pain that cause him to lose the use of his arm.  He then turned to Yeldall, “who in a short time removed the pain, restored the use of my arm, and I now follow my business.”

Yeldall certainly considered testimonials effective when he decided on his marketing strategy.  He would not have continued to publish them (and invest so much in the space required for each testimonial) if he did believe that they yielded a return on his investment in placing them in the public prints.  He likely appreciated that testimonials helped build trust with patients before they even consulted him for “advice and medicines.”

June 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (June 25, 1776).

“SPRUCE BEER made in Chesnut-street … Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”

Was advertising in early American newspapers effective?  Robert Appleby apparently thought so.  At the end of June 1776, he invested in placing an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Evening Post that he previously published in March.  “SPRUCE BEER made in Chestnut-street,” he announced.  For the convenience of his customers, “Cags [or kegs] as small as five gallons are sent to any part of the city at sixpence per gallon” or three shillings for a dozen bottles of spruce beer.  That was not the only product that Appleby stocked.  “At the same place may be had,” de declared, “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER, [and] Philadelphia bottled BEER and CYDER, by the grose or dozen.”  He was one of several tavernkeepers and other purveyors of beer in Philadelphia who promoted Hare’s Best American Draught Porter.  Other than patent medicines, Robert Hare’s porter was one of the first products recognized by a brand name.  Appleby also promised quality: “None will be sent out but what is exceeding fine.”

Appleby deployed the same copy in both advertisements, but this was not a case of the type remaining set and inserting it once again.  The new iteration of his advertisement had a different format.  The use of capital letters for “SPRUCE BEER,” “PORTER,” “BEER,” and “CYDER” remained the same and the first two lines broke at the same point, but the remainder of lines did not.  The compositor may have referred to a clipping of the previous advertisement when setting the type for the new one.  In addition, this version removed the date, “March 19,” and featured a variant spelling of the advertiser’s name, “APPELBY” rather than “APPLEBY.”  Sometimes type for advertisements remained set and undisturbed in printing offices for weeks, but that was not the case for Appleby’s advertisement.  The differences make clear that the compositor set the type for the same advertising copy a second time.  Appleby seemingly had confidence that his notice worked the first time and merited inserting in the Pennsylvania Evening Post once again.

June 8

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

Who was the subject of an advertisement in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Freeman’s Journal (June 8, 1776).

“A likely healthy NEGRO MAN … Enquire of the printer. 3 5”

Benjamin Dearborn published the third issue of the Freeman’s Journal on June 8, 1776.  Among the various advertisements that appeared in that issue, one announced, “TO BE SOLD, (for want of employ) A likely healthy NEGRO MAN, aged about twenty five, and understands farming business well.”  For interested parties who wanted to know more, the notice instructed them to “Enquire of the printer” at his printing office in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The previous issue of the Freeman’s Journal featured an advertisement in which Samuel Hall described Seneca, an enslaved man who liberated himself by running away from his enslaver on May 29, and offered a reward for his capture and return.  In the course of the first three issues, Dearborn went from proclaiming “the most sacred rights of a free people” in an address to readers to encouraging the surveillance of Black men in a notice placed for the purpose of capturing a fugitive from slavery to actively participating in the slave trade as a broker and proxy for an anonymous advertiser.

Notations in both advertisements suggests that each met with success.  Hall’s advertisement concerning Seneca concluded with “2–4,” a notation intended for the compositor who set type rather than for readers.  It indicated that Hall’s advertisement should appear in issue “No. 2” through issue “No. 4.”  However, Hall’s advertisement did not run in any subsequent issue, suggesting that Seneca had been captured and returned and, in turn, the notice withdrawn.  The anonymous “enquire of the printer” advertisement concluded with a similar notation, “3 5.”  It first appeared in issue “No. 3” and should have appeared in the next two issues as well.  It did not run the following week, but a note from the printer promised that “Advertisements &c. omitted, will be in our next.”  The advertisement did indeed appear in issue “No. 5” the following week, with the notation revised to “3 6” to allow for the week it did not run.  That meant that it should have appeared in the third (June 8), fifth (June 22) and sixth (June 29) issues of the Freeman’s Journal.  The advertisement did not run again, suggesting that someone had indeed enquired of the printer and completed the transaction.  Dearborn commenced advertising the “Books so much admired, entitled COMMON SENSE,” the most influential political pamphlet advocating for the colonies to declare independence, on June 22, the last issue that carried the advertisement offering the enslaved man for sale.  Dearborn deployed the power of the press to promote the liberty of some Americans while restricting the liberty of others.

March 25

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury (March 25, 1776).

“Work in the jewellery way … all sorts of silver-smiths work.”

By the time that Charles Oliver Bruff, a goldsmith and jeweler, placed his advertisement in the March 25, 1776, edition of the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury he was a veteran advertiser with at least a decade of experience running notices in the public prints in New York.  While little direct evidence about the effectiveness of advertising in early America exists, the fact that Bruff repeatedly invested in marketing suggests that he believed that it worked and considered it worth the investment.  Indeed, his latest advertisement consisted of two advertisements.  The copy for the first one ran as its own notice in the Constitutional Gazette more than six months earlier.  As the first anniversary of the battles at Lexington and Concord approached, Bruff once again offered swords to “Those GENTLEMEN who are forming themselves into COMPANIES in defence of their LIBERTIES.”

Bruff may have considered advertising effective because he did more than merely announce that he had goods for sale.  Instead, he carefully crafted appeals to consumers, encouraging them to purchase his wares.  As he targeted prospective customers “forming themselves into COMPANIES,” for instance, he adorned them with likenesses of British politicians who advocated for the American colonies and corresponding mottoes, including “[William] Pitt’s head, Magna Charta and Freedom” and “[John]Wilkes’s head[,] Wilkes and Liberty.”  He also underscored that the words he stocked were “made in America, all manufactured by said BRUFF.”  When nonimportation agreements became one of the primary strategies for practicing politics, Bruff and other entrepreneurs marketed goods produced in the colonies.

The goldsmith and jeweler also deployed visual images to promote his business.  He advised readers that he kept shop “At the sign of the Tea Pot, Tankard, and Earring,” but they likely noticed the woodcut that adorned his advertisement before anything else.  It featured several of the items available at his shop, including a handheld looking glass with an ornate handle and frame, a ring, a buckle, and an earring.  The image also included an elaborate coat of arms.  A shield decorated with two silver balls, a chevron, and a fish was in the center.  A hand grasping a sheaf of wheat appeared above the shield.  Ribbons cascaded over the side, giving way to leaves and flowers.  The ornate woodcut corresponded to an appeal that Bruff made in the second of those advertisements combined into a single lengthy advertisement: “He engraves all sorts of arms, crests, cyphers, heads, and fancies in the neatest manner.”  For good measure, he reminded prospective customers that he also engraved “all emblems of liberty” on jewelry and other items.

In addition to his “work in the jewellery way” and “silver-smiths work,” Bruff provided other services to entice customers into his shop.  He cleaned watches, installed new glass, and made other repairs at reasonable prices and even “works hair in springs, birds, figures, cyphers, crests and cupid fancies” and “plaits hair in the neatest manner.”  Bruff made his advertisements worth the investment by developing a variety of appeals to consumers and promising an array of goods and services to encourage them to visit his shop.

January 31

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Constitutional Gazette (January 31, 1776).

“BEST Geneva, made and distilled from rye.”

Advertisements for consumer goods and services crowded the pages of early American newspaper.  Did they work?  Unfortunately, that question is difficult to answer.  The advertisements reveal what kinds of marketing appeals merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and other entrepreneurs thought would resonate with consumers and influence them to make purchases, but they rarely indicated how readers responded.

That so many entrepreneurs advertised and that they invested in advertising regularly suggests that they believed that they received a sufficient return on their investment to make the expense worth it.  Consider John Felthausen and his advertisement for “BEST Geneva [or Jenever, a type of gin], made and distilled from rye,” in the January 31, 1776, edition of the Constitutional Gazette.  That was not the first time that Felthausen placed that advertisement.  Three months earlier, he ran an advertisement with nearly identical copy in the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  If Felthausen believed that previous advertisement had not yielded results, would he have run it again in another newspaper a few months later?

That new advertisement had nearly identical copy, though the compositor for the Constitutional Gazette made very different decisions about the format than the compositor for the New-York Gazette and Weekly Mercury.  Felthausen may have even clipped the advertisement from one newspaper and delivered it to the printing office for the other, making marks on it to indicate copy he wished to update.  Those revisions amounted to adding a sentence at the end: “He has also different sorts of best cordials for sale, wholesale and retail.”  He retained his appeal to “every friend to this country” to “encourage” or support his business, “especially at those times when we ought to give preferment to our own manufactures.”  The distiller apparently believed that his previous advertisement met with sufficient success to merit repeating it to hawk both his “BEST Geneva” and additional products not previously included.

August 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Constitutional Gazette (August 26, 1775).

“He proposes to continue his business of pickling oysters and lobsters.”

John Anderson’s effort to solicit advertisements in the August 23, 1775, edition of the Constitutional Gazette yielded results.  When he published the next issue three days later, the final page carried four advertisements.  The printer was responsible for two of them, one for a pamphlet, “Defensive War in a Just Cause Sinless,” and the other for “All sorts of Blanks used in this Province,” children’s books, and “New Pamphlets.”  Another advertisement hawked “JOYCE’s Grand American Balsam,” a patent medicine sometimes advertised in other newspapers.  Customers could acquire the medicine and directions from “Mrs. Joyce, at Brookland Ferry” and from “Messrs. Anderson, Gaine, and Rivington, Printers in New-York.”  Although Edward Joyce’s widow or the other two printers may have played a role in placing the advertisement, Anderson certainly had a hand in publishing it.

One advertisement, however, had not connection to the printer of the Constitutional Gazette.  Abraham Delanoy placed a notice “to inform his customers, and the public in general, THAT … he proposes to continue his business of pickling oysters and lobsters; and also puts up fired oysters so as to keep a long time even in a hot climate.”  His advertisement featured a woodcut depicting a lobster trap and an oyster cage, accounting for half the space and attracting attention in a newspaper that did not have any other visual images.  That woodcut previously accompanied Delanoy’s advertisement in Rivington’s New-York Gazetteer.  He either retrieved it from another printing office to deliver to Anderson or carefully stored it in anticipation of using it again.  Delanoy also replicated much of the copy from that previous advertisement. The similarities suggest that he either copied directly from it, making minor revisions as he went, or indicated changes directly on a clipping of the advertisement.  Some readers likely recognized Delanoy’s advertisement, but this time it generated revenue for John Anderson and the Constitutional Gazette.  The printer must have been pleased that Delanoy set an example for others to advertise in this new publication.

November 9

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Journal (November 9, 1774).

“Dr. Hill’s own direction is wrapped about each bottle.”

In the fall of 1774, William Young and his associates offered consumers exclusive access to “Dr. Hill’s AMERICAN BALSAM.”  According to an advertisement in the November 9 edition of the Pennsylvania Journal, this patent medicine “is an infallible, innocent, sure and effectual” cure for “coughs, colds, [and] swimming in the head” as well as a “very admirable remedy for children in the whooping cough, and in most all their disorders.”  Young implied that such recommendations may not have been necessary since the “virtue and goodness” of the medicine “are now so well known in America,” yet figured that trumpeting the efficacy of Dr. Hill’s American Balsam would aid in convincing consumers not yet familiar with this product.

As a means of guarding the reputation of this medicine and “to prevent counterfeiting,” a limited number of local agents stocked and sold this medicine.  Young made it available in Kingsess (or Kingsessing), just outside of Philadelphia.  William Sitgreaves, a merchant in Philadelphia, Christoper Sower, a printer in Germantown, and Ludwig Lauman, a merchant in Lancaster, each sold it as well.  Young also distributed Dr. Hill’s American Balsam to Michael Hoffman, a shopkeeper in New York, to sell there.  He had relied on that method for some time, having placed similar advertisement in May and October 1772.  Unlike some popular patent medicines widely stocked by apothecaries, merchants, shopkeepers, printers, booksellers, and other retailers throughout the colonies, only a select few carried Dr. Hill’s American Balsam.  The medicine came with “Dr. Hill’s own direction … wrapped about each bottle” to instruct patients how to use it to relieve or even cure “the most painful rheumatism, cholic, consumption,” and other maladies.  Such packaging represented another layer of marketing for this product, continuing to promote it to customers after they purchased it and took it home.

Young apparently considered these various strategies effective given that he invested in them on several occasions.  His marketing of Dr. Hill’s American Balsam incorporated the same elements in November 1774 that he deployed two and a half years earlier in May 1772.  That does not demonstrate the impact those methods had on consumers yet does suggest that Young considered them successful enough to repeat when he advertised once again.

April 26

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Supplement to the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal (April 26, 1774).

“For further particulars, enquire of JACOB VALK.”

Jacob Valk established a brokerage office in Charleston in the early 1770s.  In his newspaper advertisements, he advised, “Lands, Houses, and Negroes, Bought and sold at private Sale, upon the usual Commission.”  If the pages of the public prints provide any guidance, many colonizers availed themselves of his services, entrusting the broker to conduct business on their behalf.  His name became a familiar sight as he placed advertisement after advertisement for his clients.

Consider the supplement that accompanied the April 26 edition of the South-Carolina Gazette and Country Journal.  Valk purchased an entire column on the third page, running fourteen advertisements.  Some offered tracts of land for sale, while others included houses and other buildings along with land.  Two of them announced sales of enslaved people, one indicating “SEVERAL NEGROES” without giving further details and the other describing “two very valuable Negro Shoe-makers.”  Valk sought buyers for “A Small Sloop” and a pettiaugre (or canoe).  In each instance, he invoked a familiar refrain: “For further Particulars, enquire of JACOB VALK.”  He also assisted executors of estates in calling on those who had unfinished business to settle accounts, inviting them to his office “where the Particulars of that Estate now lay ready for their Perusal.”  Four days earlier, Valk purchased a similar amount of space to run many of the same advertisements in the South-Carolina and American General Gazette.

The broker must have factored the cost of advertising into the “usual Commission” that he received for his services, especially considering that he was one of the best customers for the printing offices in Charleston.  That he continuously placed newspaper advertisement testifies to his confidence in their general effectiveness, though not every notice may have achieved the desired results.  Running so many simultaneously allowed him to distribute the risk and rewards of advertising.  Even if some advertisements did not attract buyers, sellers, or associates seeking to settle accounts, others apparently did.  When considered collectively, Valk came out ahead on what he invested in advertising.  His individual clients, however, would not have had the same experience had they gone it alone.  If they paid Valk on commission following a transaction he facilitated, then they paid only for successful advertisements without losing money on notices that did not produce the intended results.

March 19

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Providence Gazette (March 19, 1774).

“… and many other Articles, as cheap as usual.”

Were advertisements in early American newspapers effective?  Did they work?  Did readers become consumers because advertisements incited demand?  Did consumers select where they would shop because of the advertisements they encountered in the public prints.  There are no easy answers to those questions.

What can be asserted with more certainty is that many merchants, shopkeepers, artisans, and others who provided goods and services considered advertising worth the investment, so much so that they placed advertisements for years.  Consider Nicholas Tillinghast and William Holroyd of Providence.  As spring approached in 1774, they once again took to the pages of the Providence Gazette, this time promoting an assortment of “GARDEN SEEDS” as well as a “Variety of English and West India GOODS.”  Perhaps seeing James Green’s advertisement for similar merchandise in the March 5 edition prompted them to insert their own notice in the next edition for fear of losing former and prospective customers to a competitor.

By that time, Tillinghast and Holroyd had been advertising in the Providence Gazette for years.  The Adverts 250 Projecthas not featured every advertisement that they published, but it has examined several of them.  On November 24, 1770, the partners announced that they “newly opened the Shop … at the Sign of the Elephant … where they have to sell a Variety of Articles.”  A year later, they once again hawked “a Variety of well assorted GOODS,” noting that they stocked too many items “to be particularly mentioned in an Advertisement.”  On May 16, 1772, they asserted that they sold a “Variety [of] ARTICLES … at as cheap a Rate as any Goods, of the same Quality, can be purchased in this Town.”  They did not merely announce that they had merchandise for sale.  Instead, Tillinghast and Holroyd repeatedly underscored that they offered choices to consumers and sometimes used prices to encourage prospective customers to choose their store over others.  They did so once again in August 1773 when they directed “their old Customers and the Public” to a new shop “which they have built.”  Their inventory consisted of “English Piece Goods, and Hard Ware of various Sorts, West-India Goods, Groceries and Wines of several Sorts.”  The partners resorted to a familiar refrain: “the Particulars of which would be tedious to enumerate in an Advertisement.”  Instead, they “can be better recounted to any who shall be pleased to make personal Application.”  Tillinghast and Holroyd promised attentive customer service.

Did advertising work?  Tillinghast and Holroyd thought that it worked well enough to justify placing yet another notice in the Providence Gazette in March 1774.  If they suspected that advertising did not yield a return on their investment, would they have continued doing so?