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 too 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promises rescinded.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 makers 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 stores. The
prospects who go there to get 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, inquirers 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 inquirers 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 the coupon. Point out to each that many of his
customers are bound to present that coupon. Each coupon means a cash
sale at full profit. No average dealer will let those 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 attained 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
inquirers 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 may be vastly cheaper.

Sending stocks on consignment to retailers is not widely favored. Many
dealers resent it. Collections are difficult. And unbusiness-like
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.

John Martin

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