Chapter 82
Another form of theater publicity is that of the advertising slide--stereopticon views thrown upon the screen between feature pictures. Many packers find these are effective for cultivating the dealer, it being customary to show the brand name, together with that of the local distributer.
_Advertising for Retailers_
When retailers a.n.a.lyze the people to whom they sell coffee, they usually find three types. First, there is the woman who thinks she is an expert judge of coffee, but who is unable to find anything to suit her cultivated taste. Then there is the new housewife, possibly a bride of a few months, who knows very little about coffee, but wants to find a good blend that both she and her husband will like. The third is the most acceptable cla.s.s, the satisfied people who have found coffee that delights them, day after day.
[Ill.u.s.tration: HOW COFFEE IS ADVERTISED TO THE TRADE
Left to right, good examples of green coffee publicity--center, well-arranged package-coffee copy]
W. Harry Longe, a Texas retailer, has prepared the following "ready made" copy appeals for the three cla.s.ses. To "Mrs.
Know-it-all-about-Coffee," this style has been found effective:
IMPROVE THE COFFEE AND YOU IMPROVE THE MEAL
The corner of the table that holds the coffee urn is the balancing point of your dinner. If the coffee is a "little off" for some reason or other--probably it's the coffee's own fault--things don't seem as good as they might; but when it is "up to taste" the meal is a pleasure from start to finish. If the "balancing point" is giving you trouble, let ANY BLEND Coffee properly regulate it for you. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
For the good lady who is anxious to find a suitable blend of coffee, and who desires information, this is a good appeal:
A SUCCESSFUL SELECTION
Of the coffee that goes into the every-morning cup will arrive on the day when ANY BLEND is first purchased. Many homes have been without such a success now for a long time, but, of course, they didn't know of ANY BLEND--and even now it is hard to really know ANY BLEND till you try it. That is why we seem to insist that you ask for an introduction by ordering a pound.
ANY BLEND TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
Taking both cla.s.ses and dealing with them alike:
"BLENDED TO BALANCE"
Is a good descriptive phrase of ANY BLEND coffee, for care is taken in the preparation that the strength does not overpower the flavor.
The aim of the blender is to get an acceptable and delightful drinking quality. He has been more than successful, as you will see when you try ANY BLEND, 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
The satisfied cla.s.s, of course, is not averse to making a change, and it is well, occasionally, for the dealer to let his own satisfied customers know he still believes in his goods. The argument might take this form:
A SERVICE THAT SAVES
Is the serving of ANY BLEND, when coffee is desired. ANY BLEND saves many things. It saves worry, for it is always uniform in flavor and strength. It saves time, for when you order ANY BLEND we grind it just as fine or just as coa.r.s.e as your percolator or pot demands. ANY BLEND also saves expense, because there is no waste, as you know just how much to use, every time, to make a certain number of cups. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
Again, possible new customers may listen to this appeal:
TO PROVE YOUR APPROVAL
Of ANY BLEND coffee, you are asked to try just one pound. We know you will like it, for it is blended and roasted and ground as an exceptional coffee should be, with the care that a good coffee demands. Prove to yourself that you approve of this method of preparing coffee. 35 cents, three pounds for $1.
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
In some households the cook is permitted to do the ordering, and usually the cook does not read the daily papers with an eye for coffee ads. To reach this individual through her mistress:
CAN YOU NAME YOUR COFFEE?
Or is it one of those many unknown brands that comes from the store at the order of your cook? Let the cook do the ordering, for you are lucky if you have one you can rely upon, but tell her you prefer ANY
ANY TEA & COFFEE COMPANY
_Advertising by Government Propaganda_
Advertising coffee by government propaganda has been indulged in with more or less success by the British government in behalf of certain of its colonial possessions; by the French and the Dutch; by Porto Rico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Brazil. The markets most cultivated have been Italy, France, England, Russia, j.a.pan, and the United States.
Great Britain began the development of coffee cultivation in its colonies in 1730. Parliament first reduced the inland duties. In many ways it has since sought to encourage British-grown coffee, building up a favoritism for it that is still reflected in Mincing Lane quotations.
The Netherlands government did the same thing for Java and Sumatra; and France rendered a similar service to her own colonies.
Since Porto Rico became a part of the United States, several attempts have been made by the island government and the planters to popularize Porto Rico coffee in the United States. Scott Truxtun opened a government agency in New York in 1905. Acting upon the counsel and advice of the author, he prosecuted for several years a vigorous campaign in behalf of the Porto Rico Planters' Protective a.s.sociation.
The method followed for coffee was to appoint official brokers, and to certify the genuineness of the product. Owing to insufficient funds and the number of different products for which publicity was sought, the coffee campaign was only moderately successful.
Mortimer Remington, formerly with the J. Walter Thompson Company, a New York advertising agency, was appointed in 1912 commercial agent for the Porto Rico a.s.sociation, composed of island producers and merchants. Some effective advertising in behalf of Porto Rico coffee was done in the metropolitan district, where a number of high-cla.s.s grocers were prevailed upon to stock the product, which was packed under seal of the a.s.sociation. As before, however, the other products handled--including cigars, grape-fruit, pineapples, etc.--handicapped the work on coffee, and the enterprise was abandoned. Subsequent efforts by the Was.h.i.+ngton government to a.s.sist the Porto Ricans in evolving a practical plan to extend their coffee market in the United States came to naught because of too much "politics."
Beginning with the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915, the government of Guatemala started a propaganda for its coffee in the United States; as the European market, which had up till then absorbed seventy-five percent of its product, was closed to it, owing to the World War. E.H. O'Brien, a coffee broker of San Francisco, directed the publicity. Some full pages were used in newspapers, but the main efforts were directed at the coffee-roasting trade. The campaign, so far as it went, was highly successful.
Costa Rica also gave special encouragement to coffee-trade interests that offered to expand the United States market for Costa Rica coffee during the World War.
For many years Colombia has been talking of making propaganda here for its coffee, but thus far nothing of a constructive character has been done.
So Paulo began in 1908 to make propaganda for its coffee by subsidizing companies and individuals in consuming countries to promote consumption of the Brazil product. A contract was entered into between the state of So Paulo and the coffee firms of E. Johnston & Company and Joseph Travers & Son, of London, to exploit Brazil coffee in the United Kingdom. Similar contracts were made with coffee firms in other European countries, notably in Italy and France. The subsidies were for five years and took the form of cash and coffee. The English company was known as the "State of So Paulo (Brazil) Pure Coffee Company, Ltd."
Fifty thousand pounds sterling was granted this enterprise, which roasted and packed a brand known as "Fazenda;" promoted demonstrations at grocers' expositions; and advertised in somewhat limited fas.h.i.+on. The general effect upon the consumption of coffee in England was negligible, however, although at one time some five thousand grocers were said to have stocked the Fazenda brand. A feature of this propaganda was the use of the Tricolator (an American device since better known in the United States) to insure correct making of the beverage, Brazil also made propaganda for its coffee in j.a.pan, in 1915, as part of certain undertakings involving the immigration of j.a.panese laborers to Brazil.
The Comite Francais du Cafe was formed in Paris in July, 1921, to co-operate with Brazil in an enterprise designed to increase the consumption of coffee in France.
The chief fault in most of the coffee propagandas here and abroad has been the doubtful practise of subsidizing particular coffee concerns instead of spending the funds in a manner designed to distribute the benefits among the trade as a whole. This mistake, and local politics in the producing countries, have made for ultimate failure. A notable exception is the latest propaganda for Brazil coffee in the United States, where all the various interests, the the So Paulo government, the growers, exporters, importers, roasters, jobbers, and dealers, have co-operated in a plan of campaign to advertise coffee _per se_, and not to secure special privilege to any individual, house, or group.
_Joint Coffee Trade Publicity Campaign_
Twenty years ago the author began an agitation for co-operative advertising, by the coffee trade. He suggested as a slogan, "Tell the truth about coffee;" and it is gratifying to find that many of his original ideas have been embodied in the present joint coffee trade publicity campaign, now in its fourth year.
[Ill.u.s.tration: THEODORE LANGGAARD DE MENEZES]
The coffee roasters at first were slow to respond to the co-operative advertising suggestion, because in those days compet.i.tion was more unenlightened than now, and therefore more ruthless. It needed organization to bring the trade to a better understanding of the benefits certain to be shared by all when their individual interests were pooled in a common cause. Leaders of the best thought in the trade, however, were quick to realize that only by united effort was it possible to achieve real progress; and when it was suggested that the first step was to organize the roasting trade, the idea took so firm a hold that it only needed some one to start it to bring together in one combination the keenest minds in the business.
The coffee roasters organized their national a.s.sociation in 1911. The author of this work urged that co-operative advertising based upon scientific research should be done by the roasters themselves independently of the growers; but it was found impracticable to unite diverging interests on such an issue, and so the leaders of the movement bent all their energies toward promoting a campaign that would be backed jointly by growers and distributers, since both would receive equal benefit from any resulting increase in consumption. Brazil, the source of nearly three-quarters of the world's coffee, was the logical ally; and an appeal was made to the planters of that country. A party of ten leading United States roasters and importers visited Brazil in 1912 at the invitation of the federal government.
In Brazil, as in the United States, progress resulted from organization.
The planters of the state of So Paulo, who produce more than one-half of all coffee used in the United States, were the first to appreciate the propaganda idea. After their attempts to interest the national government failed, the So Paulo coffee men founded the _Sociedade Promotora da Defesa do cafe_ (Society to Promote the Defense of Coffee), and persuaded their state legislature to pa.s.s a law taxing every bag of coffee s.h.i.+pped from the plantations of that state in a period of four years. This tax, amounting to one hundred reis per bag of 132 pounds, or about two and one-half cents United States money at even exchange rates, is collected by the railroads from the s.h.i.+ppers, and turned over to the _Sociedade_.