Writing Business Letters

PART IV--THE DRESS OF A BUSINESS LETTER

CHAPTER 12

Making Letterheads and Envelopes DISTINCTIVE

The dress of a business letter reflects the character and the standing of a house no less than the dress of its personal representative. The quality of the paper, the kind of printing or engraving, the mechanical make-up--all these things contribute to the IMPRESSION a letter makes upon the recipient even BEFORE THE MESSAGE IS READ. Many letters come to nothing because their dress is unattractive, cheap, slovenly; and so progressive business men are learning to select their stationery with care to insure for it both tone and dignity. The kind of paper to select--the size, the tint and the quality--is described and explained in the following chapter.

The first impression created by a business letter is based upon its outward appearance--upon its mechanical make-up, the quality of its paper, the grade of its printing or engraving; upon the superficial qualities that are apparent at a glance.

The externals do not necessarily reflect the quality of the message within the letter. But the experienced business man, who is trained to make his estimate quickly, gets an impression of some kind--good, bad or indifferent--of every letter that comes before him, even before a word of that letter is read.

In other words, the general appearance of the letter is the first appeal that it makes to the average man. The nearer that appearance conforms to the appearance of the letters from reputable concerns with which he is familiar, the more favorably he is impressed with it. The farther its appearance departs from the established and approved standards, the more forcibly will that letter force itself upon his attention. But whether the recipient is favorably or unfavorably impressed by this prominence depends upon the skill and ingenuity with which the letter is made up mechanically.

Generally speaking, business correspondence paper may be classified as follows:

First: The conventional stationery, that conforms to the established rules and the principal variation of which is in the quality of its paper and printing.

Second: The individualistic stationery, that departs from the usual styles and is good to the extent that it meets the unusual requirements for which it is designed.

Third: The eccentric stationery, which is usually merely a fanciful violation of the conventions for the purpose of being conspicuous.

Of these three types of business stationery, the first is essentially practical and sane; the second is forceful if it does not violate the fundamental rules of color and design, and if it has a peculiarly apt application; while the third is almost invariably in as poor taste as eccentricity in dress.

The first consideration in the preparation of business stationery is the paper, or "stock."

The quality of this "stock," like the quality of material of a suit of clothes, largely determines the taste, if not the resources of the owner. Important messages may be written on cheap stationery; big men with big plans are sometimes clad in shoddy garments. But ninety-nine out of a hundred are not, and the hundredth man, who does not conform to the accepted order of things, is taking an unnecessary business risk of being wrongly classified. After a man has delivered his message, the quality of his clothes is not an important item. After a letter has been read, the quality of its paper is insignificant. But as the man is seen before he is heard, and the letter before it is read, it is good business to make both dress and stationery conform to approved styles.

For instance, the average financial institution, such as a bank or trust company, takes every precaution to create an impression of strength and security. The heavy architecture of its building, the massive steel bars, its uniformed attendants the richness of its furnishings, all tend to insure a sense of reliability. Does it use cheap stationery? On the contrary, it uses rich, heavy bond. The quality of its paper conforms to the dignity and wealth of the institution; indeed, so long has the public been trained to expect good letter paper from such concerns that it would be apt to mistrust, perhaps unconsciously, the house that resorted to cheap grades of stationery which is almost invariably associated with cheap concerns or with mere form letters issued in large quantities.

Stationery should be representative of the business from which it comes. The impression created by a well-dressed man, as well as of a well-dressed letter, is seldom analyzed; the first glance is generally sufficient to establish that impression. A letter soliciting an investment of money, if printed on cheap stock, may create such a tawdry impression as to be discarded instantly by the average business man, although the letter may come from an entirely reliable house and contain an excellent business proposition on good, substantial paper. For this reason, the letter that departs from the usual standards must assume unnecessary risks of being thrown away unread.

To discriminate at a glance between important and inconsequential business letters, is what most men have been trained to do. It is not exaggeration to claim that the success of many business letters often depends upon the paper. The difference between the letter of an obscure country merchant or lawyer, and that of his well-known correspondent in the city, lies often in its mechanical appearance. The one, who is not trained to observe what he considers trifling items, uses paper that is cheap and easily available; the other, experienced in the details that tend to increase the dignity of the house, selects his stationery with care from a wider assortment. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the two letters may be identified at a distance. The message of one letter may be just as important as the other; but one is properly and the other is improperly "clothed."

What the firm thinks about business stationery is not so important as what the recipients think. Do not buy good stock because it pleases the "house," but because it influences the man to whom the house writes. First impressions are usually strongest and the first impression produced by a letter comes from the paper upon which it is written.

Some men seem to feel superior to creating a good impression. They do not want to stoop so low as to go to the best hotel. They will not buy a hat or an umbrella that can help them get business. Their general idea is to bang their way into the market and succeed in their shirt sleeves, as it were, and on the strength of the goods. Of course, if a man has time to succeed in his shirt sleeves, there is no objection to it. The idea of having as one's address the best hotel, or in writing one's business on the best paper, is not that a man could not succeed in his shirt sleeves, if he set out to, but that he has not time. He gets little things out of the way and proceeds to business.

The quality of the paper must be largely influenced by the purpose, as well as by the quantity of the letters to be written. A firm that sends out hundreds of thousands of form letters to sell a small retail article in the rural districts, will not use an expensive stock; it will use a cheaper quality of paper. If the form letter goes to business or professional men in the city, the quality of the paper will be determined accordingly. In every instance, stock should be selected which will meet the expectations of the recipient.

The fact that the recipient knows a form letter as such, largely nullifies its influence. A business man who sends out a large number of form letters a year claims that when he gets a reply beginning, "In response to your form letter," he knows that the effect of that letter is absolutely lost on a large percentage of this list who seldom or never bother to read such communications. And one of the distinguishing marks of such a letter is the poor quality of its paper.

Different grades of stationery may be used for the various departments. For inter-house or inter-department correspondence, an inexpensive paper is desirable. For many purposes, indeed, a low-priced stock is entirely permissible. But the higher the quality of paper, the more exclusive and personal that letter becomes, until, in the cases of executive heads of corporations, the stock used is of the best. One well-known corporation regularly uses six different grades of paper for its letters; one grade is engraved upon a thin bond of excellent quality and used by the president of the company when writing in his official capacity; another grade is engraved upon a good quality of linen paper and is used by the other officers, sales managers and heads of office departments when writing official letters to outside parties; when writing to officers or employees of their own concern, the same letterhead, lithographed on a less expensive grade of paper, is used; A fourth grade of bond paper is used by officers and department heads for their semi-official correspondence. The sixth grade is used only for personal letters of a social nature; it is of a high quality of linen stock, tinted. Thus, the size, shape and quality of the paper and letterhead in each instance is made to conform to the best business and social usages.

For business correspondence, custom allows but little leeway in the choice of paper. For print shops, advertising concerns, ink manufacturers, engravers, or paper manufacturers, stationery offers an opportunity to exploit their taste or products in an effective and legitimate manner. For most houses, however, a plain bond, linen, or the vellums and hand-made papers that are coming into favor, furnish the best letter paper.

Colors on correspondence paper are seldom used to good effect; the results are frequently glaring and cheap. When in doubt as to what tint to use in the paper stock, use white, which is always in good taste. Tinted stock is occasionally used to good advantage as a "firm color." In such cases all the correspondence of that house has a uniform tint, which thus acquires an advertising value in attracting attention to itself among a mass of other letters. Aside from this occasional and often doubtful advertising value, tinted stock tends toward the eccentric except in the cases of paper dealers, publishers, or printers who have a purpose in displaying typographical effects.

Many concerns use paper of various tints, each of which identifies the particular department from which it comes. Thus, white paper may mark the letters from the executive department, blue from the selling department, and brown from the manufacturing department. But, even in such cases, the colors are used ordinarily only for inter-house or inter-department communications.

The sheet should be of standard size; that is the letter sheet should be folded to fit exactly into the envelope that is used.

Only such paper stock should be selected as can hold ink readily. Never select a stock that is not entirely serviceable on a typewriting machine. Never sacrifice the practical to the eccentric in business stationery.

An inferior quality of stationery is sometimes accepted by the shrewd observer either as a deliberate act to economize or as an indication of poor taste or indifference. A man who gets an estimate, for example, written on cheap paper, may be led to believe that the man who skimps on letter paper is apt to skimp on his work. So long as the paper represents the sender, just so long will the sender be judged by it.

From a semi-business or social standpoint, stationery often plays an important role; many instances are recorded where a man's private note paper has been the means of eliminating his name from select, social lists. The lady who, in writing to an employment office for a butler, used her private stationery with the remark, "that is one more way of giving them to understand what sort of a butler I want," knew the effect produced by proper letter paper.

In other words, the stationery of a business house--the size, the proportions, the tint, the quality of its correspondence-paper-- offers the first of the several opportunities for the correspondent to put the recipient into a receptive state of mind toward the communication. It is an item that the shrewd correspondent does not ignore, because it offers him an opportunity--and the first opportunity--to score.