Up the line from where I sit, there is a gracious lady who passes out assignments monthly for these Advertising Arguments columns. She asked me to write a piece (that's what we call articles and columns) on "planting seeds that grow later."

 

I have never been a farmer, but I thought about winter wheat, which I have seen beautifying spring and summer with its golden waves growing and reaching all the way to the horizon. Winter wheat is sown in the cool autumn. It germinates, but stops growing and becomes dormant when cold winter comes. In the warmer days of spring, it bursts out of its dormancy to produce the stalks and ears of grain we celebrate when we sing of "amber waves of grain" in our US patriotic song, "America the Beautiful." Its importance was the reason why ears of wheat decorated the reverse side of the Lincoln one-cent coin from 1909 to 1958.

 

Wheat is made into bread and "bread" has become an American vernacular synonym for the money with which we subsist and prosper. Now, how can we relate all this to advertising? First, we must realize that usually only with small retail purchase does first-time advertising produce immediate sales. Choosing to advertise industrial goods and services, while it certainly can produce immediate results, is mostly about choosing to invest in a company's sales future.

 

A startling departure from run-of-the-mill offerings of goods and/or services can, it is true, produce immediate inquiries. But most of the time, most advertisers must count on the slow development of buyer awareness. Building name recognition, establishing a reputation, changing suspects into prospects and ultimately into customers may be compared to the long process of sowing and harvesting winter wheat. Initially, little that is visible may happen. But gradually, things change in a prospective customer's mind and a business relationship can develop.

 

The gradual change in the prospect's mindset may result in a trial order. If handled properly and satisfactorily, the trial order is the seed that could grow into something golden, reaching all the way to the business horizon.

 

Winter wheat growers customarily plant and harvest a second, different crop between the harvest and replanting of the wheat. The sowing and growing cycle of business development, like that of winter wheat, makes a second crop possible in the same business field. Develop advertising that asks for it.