How to make more money from co-op

by Robert D. Wilcox

When you advertise, you typically use omnibus ads, ads which feature products of many suppliers. You then decide how to charge each supplier for his share of the ad. There's a right way to do that, and a wrong way.

I recently visited with six of our largest customers and found to my surprise that every one of them was doing it the wrong way, giving away co-op in huge chunks. Because they were billed by the newspaper in lines or column inches, they were trying to figure the supplier's share in those same units. Then they could multiply that by their line rate (or inch rate) and get his share in dollars. All very logical, but a disaster in practice. For two reasons:

(1) Nobody, but nobody, can accurately prorate space in either column inches or agate lines. Each is entirely too unwieldy a measure to work with.

(2) Even when you correctly measure the space that way, you don't assign a share of the headline and logotype. You wind up only with a measure of the space literally occupied by the supplier's product.

There's a simple way of measuring, though, that is easier, faster, more accurate, and which does automatically assign a prorated share of headline and logotype. Here's how it works.

First, throw away that printer's rule in agate lines. Get out your regular ruler in inches. Then follow these simple steps:

(1) Measure the width of a given supplier's portion of the ad (the part of the ad that advertises his products). Similarly, measure the depth, and multiply the width by the depth to get the square inches. In all measurements, for convenience round only to the nearest quarter inch.

(2) In the same way, measure the width and depth of the entire product portion. Make sure you include nothing but space that advertises products. Eliminate general headlines, store name, anything for which the products in the ad should each be

Story at a Glance

Correct measuring of co.op ad. vertising can make money for you. .accurate measuring plus pro-rating of headline follows simple formula. . .free form available to help you get started.

paying a prorata share. Multiply the width by its depth to get the square inches in the entire product portion.

(3) Divide I by 2 to get the supplier's percentage of the product space.

(4) Multiply the cost of the entire ad by that percentage. That automatically determines his cost of the space occupied by his products, plus his prorata share of all non-product copy.

One of the largest chains on the East Coast adopted this method recently. They found that it cut in half the time they used to spend figuring claims. And they also found that only two of their hundreds of suppliers declined to pay prorata share of nonproduct copy.

If you would like a form for easily making this computation, with stepby-step instructions for completing the form, just drop a line, and I'll be happy to send it to you.

It's one thing to decide not to spend co-op dollars that are offered to you. But, once you've spent the money to do the advertising, you sure want to claim everything you can. This is one easy way to make sure you do.

(If you would like the form offered, contsct the author at Armstrong World Industries, Inc., P.O. Box 3a01, Lancaster, Pa. 17604-ed.)

Big Trading Firm's New Entry

Plateau Forest Products. Inc. is the name selected for a new trading firm in Albuquerque, N.M., set to open in early April. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Forest City Trading, Portland, Or., which in turn is owned by Forest City Enterprises, Cleveland, Oh.

The president of the new firm is Wayne Mosby, Steve Kline is sales manager. Mosby previously had worked for Cascade Empire in Portland, one of eleven sister companies, including Plateau, owned by Forest City Trading. The others are Western International Forest Products, American International Forest Products, Buckeye Pacific, Olympic Industries, Tampa International Forest Products, Birmingham International Forest Products, Richmond International Forest Products. Seaboard International Forest Products and Viking Forest Products.

Marketing plans call for Plateau Forest Products to sell a full range of forest products, with some emphasis on Southwest, inland species and SPF, targeting industrial and dealer customers. Sales will be to the entire country, concentrating on Southwestern and Southeastern areas.

B-C May Buy Publishers Paper

Boise Cascade has acknowledged that it is "discussing the possible purchase of the newsprint and forest products sections" of the Times Mirror Company, which includes Publishers Forest Products, based in Lake Oswego, (Portland) Oregon.

Last fall, Times Mirror, the Los Angeles, Ca.,-based publishing giant, hired Morgan-Stanley Co., New York, to find a buyer for its Publishers Paper Co. subsidiary.

While the Times-Mirror had a record profit in 1984, it suffered a $14 million write off due to its Oregon City, Or., paper plant plus other losses incurred in federal timber contract buy-backs. It is expected that any sale of the unit would include a long term agreement to assure a continuing supply of newsprint for Times-Mirror's chain of newspapers.

No possible sale price for the units has been made public at this point in the negotiations.

Our quatitg tumber co:n be toilored to gour exact specfico'trons: rougt\ S2S or S4S, green" rrir drted or kitn dried We can shtp bg truck antd tro:iler or bg rail.

HAR0W00D plywood and timber trade with Indonesia was discussed (left to right) by the lndonesian Minister of Trade Rachmat Saleh, Jim Summerlin, vice president of Region 2, International Hardwood Products Association, and Roy Polatchek, member ol the IHPA board and executive c0uncil, during a recent meeting in Los Angeles, Ca. No decision was forthcoming on the Indonesian Wood Panel Association's (Apkindo) proposed C and F mandatory purchasing beginning the second quarter of 1985. Further discussions were scheduled to take place at the IHPA convention in Palm Springs, Ca., Feb. 25-March 1.