Scientific Advertising

How Advertising Laws Are Established
The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached
the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is
reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until
they are well understood. The correct method of procedure have
been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and
we act on basic law. Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become,
under able direction, one of the safest business ventures. Certainly no
other enterprise with comparable possibilities need involve so little
risk.
Therefore, this book deals, not with theories and opinions, but
with well-proved principles and facts. It is written as a text book for
students and a safe guide for advertisers. Every statement has been
weighed. The book is confined to establish fundamentals. If we enter
any realms of uncertainty we shall carefully denote them.
The present status of advertising is due to many reasons. Much
national advertising has long been handled by large organizations
known as advertising agencies. Some of these agencies, in their
hundreds of campaigns, have tested and compared the thousands of
plans and ideas. The results have been watched and recorded, so no
lessons have been lost.
Such agencies employ a high grade of talent. None but able and
experienced men can meet the requirements in national advertising.
Working in co-operation, learning from each other and from each
new undertaking, some of these men develop into masters.
Individuals may come and go, but they leave their records and
ideas behind them. These become a part of the organization's
equipment, and a guide to all who follow. Thus, in the course of
decades, such agencies become storehouses of advertising
experiences, proved principles, and methods.
The larger agencies also come into intimate contact with experts
in every department of business. Their clients are usually dominating
concerns. So they see the results of countless methods and polices.
They become a clearing house for every thing pertaining to
merchandising. Nearly every selling question which arises in business
is accurately answered by many experiences.
Under these conditions, where they long exist, advertising and
merchandising become exact sciences. Every course is charted. The
compass of accurate knowledge directs the shortest, safest, cheapest
course to any destination.
We learn the principles and prove them by repeated tests. This is
done through keyed advertising, by traced returns, largely by the use
of coupons. We compare one way with many others, backward and
forward, and record the results. When one method invariably proves
best, that method becomes a fixed principle.
Mail order advertising is traced down to the fraction of a penny.
The cost per reply and cost per dollar of sale show up with utter
exactness.
One ad is compared with another, one method with another.
Headlines, settings, sizes, arguments and pictures are compared. To
reduce the cost of results even one per cent means much in some
mail order advertising. So no guesswork is permitted. One must
know what is best. Thus mail order advertising first established many
of our basic laws.
In lines where direct returns are impossible we compare one town
with another. Scores of methods may be compared in this way,
measured by cost of sales.
But the most common way is by use of the coupon. We offer a
sample, a book, a free package, or something to induce direct replies.
Thus we learn the amount of action which each ad engenders.
But those figures are not final. One ad may bring too many
worthless replies, another replies that are valuable. So our final
conclusions are always based on cost per customer or cost per dollar
of sale.
These coupon plans are dealt with further in the chapter on "Test
Campaigns." Here we explain only how we employ them to discover
advertising principles.
In a large ad agency coupon returns are watched and recorded on
hundreds of different lines. In a single line they are sometimes
recorded on thousands of separate ads. Thus we test everything
pertaining to advertising. We answer nearly every possible question
by multitudinous traced returns.
Some things we learn in this way apply only to particular lines.
But even those supply basic principles for analogous undertakings.
Others apply to all lines. They become fundamentals for
advertising in general. They are universally applied. No wise
advertiser will ever depart from those unvarying laws.
We propose in this book to deal with those fundamentals, those
universal principles. To teach only established techniques. There is
that technique in advertising, as in all art, science and mechanics. And
it is, as in all lines, a basic essential.
The lack of those fundamentals has been the main trouble with
advertising of the past. Each worker was a law unto himself. All
previous knowledge, all progress in the line, was a closed book to
him. It was like a man trying to build a modern locomotive without
first ascertaining what others had done. It was like a Columbus
starting out to find an undiscovered land.
Men were guided by whims and fancies - vagrant, changing
breezes. They rarely arrived at their port. When they did, quite by
accident, it was by a long roundabout course.
Each early mariner in this sea mapped his own separate course.
There were no charts to guide him. Not a lighthouse marked a
harbor, not a buoy showed a reef. The wrecks were unrecorded, so
countless ventures came to grief on the same rocks and shoals.
Advertising was a gamble, a speculation of the rashest sort. One
man's guess on the proper course was as likely to be as good as
another’s. There were no safe pilots, because few sailed the same
course twice.
The condition has been corrected. Now the only uncertainties
pertain to people and to products, not to methods. It is hard to
measure human idiosyncrasies, the preferences and prejudices, the
likes and dislikes that exist. We cannot say that an article will be
popular, but we know how to sell it in the most effective way.
Ventures may fail, but the failures are not disasters. Losses, when
they occur, are but trifling. And the causes are factors which has
nothing to do with the advertising.
Advertising has flourished under these new conditions. It has
multiplied in volume, in prestige and respect. The perils have
increased many fold. Just because the gamble has become a science,
the speculation a very conservative business.
These facts should be recognized by all. This is no proper field
for sophistry or theory, or for any other will-o'-the-wisp. The blind
leading the blind is ridiculous. It is pitiful in a field with such vast
possibilities. Success is a rarity, a maximum success an impossibility,
unless one is guided by laws as immutable as the law of gravitation.
So our main purpose here is to set down those laws, and to tell
you how to prove them for yourself. After them come a myriad of
variations. No two advertising campaigns are ever conducted on lines
that are identical. Individuality is an essential. Imitation is a reproach.
But those variable things which depend on ingenuity have no place in
a text book on advertising. This is for groundwork only.
Our hope is to foster advertising through a better understanding.
To place it on a business basis. To have it recognized as among the
safest, surest ventures which lead to large returns. Thousand of
conspicuous successes show its possibilities. Their variety points out
its almost unlimited scope. Yet thousands who need it, who can
never attain their deserts without it, still look upon its
accomplishments as somewhat accidental.
That was so, but it is not so now. We hope that this book will
throw some new lights on the subject.
Chapter 2
Just Salesmanship
To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments
one must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship.
Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and
failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising
question should be answered by the salesman's standards.
Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to
make sales.It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.
It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the
people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen. Treat it as a
salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with other salesmen.
Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good salesmen do
not make. Then you will not go far wrong.
The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied
salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to
one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per
word on an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a
super-salesman.
A salesman's mistake may cost little. An advertisers mistake may
cost a thousand times that much. Be more cautious, more exacting,
therefore. A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade.
Mediocre advertising affects all of your trade.
Many think of advertising as ad-writing. Literary qualifications
have no more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship. One
must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just
as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is
unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They
reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent,
creates corresponding resistance.
That is so in personal salesmanship as in salesmanship-in-print.
Fine talkers are rarely good salesmen. They inspire buyers with the
fear of over-influence. They create the suspicion that an effort is
made to sell them on other lines than merit.
Successful salesmen are rarely good speech makers. They have
few oratorical graces. They are plain and sincere men who know their
customers and know their lines. So it is in ad writing. Many of the
ablest men in advertising are graduate salesmen. The best we know
have been house-to-house canvassers. They may know little of
grammar, nothing of rhetoric, but they know how to use words that
convince.
There is one simple way to answer many advertising questions.
Ask yourself," Would it help a salesman sell the goods?" "Would it
help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?" A fair answer to those
questions avoids countless mistakes. But when one tries to show off,
or does things merely to please himself, he is little likely to strike a
chord which leads people to spend money. Some argue for slogans,
some like clever conceits. Would you use them in personal
salesmanship? Can you imagine a customer whom such things would
impress? If not, don't rely on them for selling in print.
Some say "Be very brief. People will read for little." Would you
say that to a salesman? With a prospect standing before him, would
you confine him to any certain number of words? That would be an
unthinkable handicap. So in advertising. The only readers we get are
people whom our subject interests. No one reads ads for
amusements, long or short. Consider them as prospects standing
before you, seeking for information. Give them enough to get action.
Some advocate large type and big headlines. Yet they do not
admire salesmen who talk in loud voices. People read all they care to
read in 8-point type. Our magazines and newspapers are printed in
that type. Folks are accustomed to it. Anything louder is like loud
conversation. It gains no attention worthwhile. It may not be
offensive, but it is useless and wasteful. It multiplies the cost of your
story. And to many it seems loud and blatant.
Others look for something queer and unusual. They want ads
distinctive in style or illustration. Would you want that in a salesman?
Do not men who act and dress in normal ways make a far better
impression? Some insist on dressy ads. That is all right to a certain
degree, but is quite important. Some poorly-dressed men, prove to be
excellent salesmen. Over dress in either is a fault.
So with countless questions. Measure them by salesmen's
standards, not by amusement standards. Ads are not written to
entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely
to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest
advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they
are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek
applause.
When you plan or prepare an advertisement, keep before you a
typical buyer. Your subject, your headline has gained his or her
attention. Then in everything be guided by what you would do if you
met the buyer face-to-face.If you are a normal man and a good
salesman you will then do your level best.
Don't think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view.
Think of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want
what you sell. Don't try to be amusing. Money spending is a serious
matter. Don't boast, for all people resent it. Don't try to show off.
Do just what you think a good salesman should do with a half-sold
person before him.
Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before
they plan to write an ad. One of the ablest of them has spent weeks
on one article, selling from house to house. In this way they learn the
reactions from different forms of argument and approach. They learn
what possible buyers want and the factors which don't appeal. It is
quite customary to interview hundreds of possible customers. Others
send out questionnaires to learn the attitude of the buyers. In some
way all must learn how to strike responsive chords. Guesswork is
very expensive.
The maker of an advertised article knows the manufacturing side
and probably the dealers side. But this very knowledge often leads
him astray in respect to customers. His interests are not in their
interests. The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place
himself in the position of the buyer. His success largely depends on
doing that to the exclusion of everything else.
This book will contain no more important chapter than this one
on salesmanship. The reason for most of the non-successes in
advertising is trying to sell people what they do not want. But next to
that comes lack of true salesmanship.
Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception.
They are written to please the seller. The interest of the buyer are
forgotten. One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print,
when that attitude exists.
Chapter 3
Offer Service
Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They
care nothing about your interests or profit. They seek service for
themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly
mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, "Buy my brand. Give me the
trade you give to others. Let me have the money." That is not a
popular appeal.
The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not
quote a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product. The
ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information.
They site advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy
the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer
may prove the claims without any cost or risks. Some of these ads
seem altruistic. But they are based on the knowledge of human
nature. The writers know how people are led to buy. Here again is
salesmanship. The good salesman does not merely cry a name. He
doesn't say, "Buy my article." He pictures the customers side of his
service until the natural result is to buy.
A brush maker has some 2,000 canvassers who sells brushes from
house to house. He is enormously successful in a line which would
seem very difficult. And it would be for his men if they asked the
housewives to buy. But they don't. They go to the door and say, "I
was sent here to give you a brush. I have samples here and I want
you to take your choice." The housewife is all smiles and attention. In
picking out one brush she sees several she wants. She is also anxious
to reciprocate the gift. So the salesman gets an order.
Another concern sells coffee, etc., by wagons in some 500 cities.
The man drops in with a half-pound of coffee and says, "Accept this
package and try it. I'll come back in a few days to ask how you liked
it." Even when he comes back he doesn't ask for an order. He
explains that he wants the women to have a fine kitchen utensil. It
isn't free, but if she likes the coffee he will credit five cents on each
pound she buys until she has paid for the article. Always some
service.
The maker of the electric sewing machine motor found
advertising difficult. So, on good advice, he ceased soliciting a
purchase. He offered to send to any home, through any dealer, a
motor for one weeks' use. With it would come a man to show how to
operate it. "Let us help you for a week without cost or obligation,"
said the ad. Such an offer was resistless, and about nine in ten of the
trials led to sales.
So in many, many lines. Cigar makers send out boxes to anyone
and say, "Smoke ten, then keep them or return them, as you wish."
Makers of books, typewriters, washing machines, kitchen cabinets,
vacuum sweepers, etc., send out their products without any
prepayment. They say, "Use them a week, then do as you wish."
Practically all merchandise sold by mail is sent subject to return.
These are all common principles of salesmanship. The most
ignorant peddler applies them. Yet the salesman-in-print very often
forgets them. He talks about his interest. He blazons a name, as
though that was of importance. His phrase is, "Drive people to the
stores," and that is his attitude in everything he says. People can be
coaxed but not driven. Whatever they do they do to please
themselves. Many fewer mistakes would be made in advertising if
these facts were never forgotten.
Chapter 4
Mail Order Advertising:
What It Teaches
The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail.
But that is a school from which he must graduate before he can hope
for success. There cost and result are immediately apparent. False
theories melt away like snowflakes in the sun. The advertising is
profitable or it is not, clearly on the face of returns. Figures which do
not lie tell one at once the merits of an ad.
This puts men on their mettle. All guesswork is eliminated. Every
mistake is conspicuous. One quickly loses his conceit by learning how
often his judgment errs - often nine times in ten.
There one learns that advertising must be done on a scientific
basis to have any fair chance of success. And he learns that every
wasted dollar adds to the cost of results. Here is a tough efficiency
and economy under a master who can't be fooled. Then, and only
then, is he apt to apply the same principles and keys to all advertising.
A man was selling a five-dollar article. The replies from his ad
cost him 85 cents. Another man submitted an ad which he thought
better. The replies cost $14.20 each. Another man submitted an ad
which for two years brought replies at an average of 41 cents each.
Consider the difference on 250,000 replies per year. Think how
valuable was the man who cut the cost in two. Think what it would
have meant to continue that $14.20 ad without any key on returns.
Yet there are thousands of advertisers who do just that. They
spend large sums on a guess. And they are doing what that man did -
paying for sales from 2 to 35 times what they need cost. A study of
mail order advertising reveals many things worth learning. It is a
prime subject for study. In the first place, if continued, you know
what pays. It is therefore good advertising as applied to that line. The
probability is that the ad has resulted from many traced comparisons.
It is therefore the best advertising, not theoretical. It will not deceive
you. The lessons it teaches are principles which wise men apply to all
advertising.
Mail order advertising is always set in small type. It is usually set
in smaller type than ordinary print. That economy of space is
universal. So it proves conclusively that larger type does not pay.
Remember that when you double your space by doubling the size of
your type. The ad may still be profitable. But traced returns have
proved that you paying a double price for sales. In mail order
advertising there is no waste space. Every line is utilized. Borders are
rarely used. Remember that when you are tempted to leave valuable
space unoccupied.
In mail order advertising there is no palaver. There is no boasting,
save of super-service. There is no useless talk. There is no attempt at
entertainment. There is nothing to amuse. Mail order advertising
usually contains a coupon. That is there to cut out as a reminder of
something the reader has decided to do.
Mail order advertisers know that readers forget. They are reading
a magazine of interest. They may be absorbed in a story. A large
percentage of people who read an ad and decide to act will forget that
decision in five minutes. The mail order advertisers that waste by
tests, and he does not propose to accept it. So he inserts that
reminder to be cut out, and it turns when the reader is ready to act.
In mail order advertising the pictures are always to the point.
They are salesmen in themselves. They earn space they occupy. The
size is gauged by their importance. The picture of a dress one is
trying to sell may occupy much space. Less important things get
smaller spaces. Pictures in ordinary advertising may teach little. They
probably result in whims. But pictures in mail order advertising may
form half the cost of selling. And you may be sure that everything
about them has been decided by many comparative tests. Before you
use useless pictures, merely to decorate or interest, look over some
mail order ads. Mark what their verdict is.
A man advertised an incubator to be sold by mail. Type ads with
right headlines brought excellent returns. But he conceived the idea
that a striking picture would increase those returns. So he increased
his space 50 percent to add a row of chickens in silhouette. It did
make a striking ad, but his cost per reply was increased by exactly that
50 percent. The new ad, costing one-half more for every insertion,
brought not one added sale. The man learned that incubator buyers
were practical people. They were looking for attractive offers, not for
pictures.
Think of the countless untraced campaigns where a whim of that
kind costs half the advertising money without a penny in return. And
it may go on year after year. Mail order advertising tells a complete
story if the purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no
limitations there are on amount of copy. The motto there is, "The
more you tell the more you sell." And it has never failed to prove out
so in any test we know.
Sometimes the advertiser uses small ads, sometimes large ads.
None are to small to tell a reasonable story. But an ad twice larger
brings twice the returns. A four times larger ad brings four times the
returns, and usually some in addition. But this occurs only when the
larger space is utilized as well as the small space. Set half-page copy in
a page space and you double the cost in returns. We have seen many
a test prove that.
Look at an ad of the Mead Cycle Company - a typical mail order
ad. These have been running for many years. The ads are unchanging.
Mr. Mead told the writer that not for $10,000 would he change a
single word in his ads. For many years he compared one ad with the
other. And the ads you see today are the final results of all those
experiments. Note the picture he uses, the headlines, the economy of
space, the small type. Those ads are as near perfect for their purpose
as an ad can be.
So with any other mail order ad which has long continued. Every
feature, every word and picture teaches advertising at its best. You
may not like them. You may say they are unattractive, crowded, hard
to read - anything you will. But the test of results has proved those
ads the best salesman those lines have yet discovered. And they
certainly pay.
Mail order advertising is the court of least resort. You may get the
same instruction, if you will, by keying other ads. But mail order ads
are models. They are selling goods profitably in a difficult way. It is
far harder to get mail order than to send buyers to the stores. It is
hard to sell goods which can't be seen. Ads which do that are
excellent examples of what advertising should be. We cannot often
follow all the principle of mail order advertising, though we know we
should. The advertiser forces a compromise. Perhaps pride in our ads
has an influence. But every departure from those principles adds to
our selling cost. Therefore it is always a question of what we are
willing to pay for our frivolities. We can at least know what we pay.
We can make keyed comparisons, one ad with another. Whenever we
do we invariably find that the nearer we get to proved mail order
copy the more customers we get for our money.
This is another important chapter. Think it over. What real
difference is there between inducing a customer to order by mail or
order from his dealer? Why should the methods of salesmanship
differ? They should not. When they do, it is for one of two reasons.
Either the advertiser does not know what the mail order advertiser
knows. He is advertising blindly. Or he deliberately sacrifices a
percentage of his returns to gratify some desire.
There is some apology for that, just as there is for fine offices and
buildings. Most of us can afford to do something for pride and
opinion. But let us know what we are doing. Let us know the cost of
our pride. Then, if our advertising fails to bring us the wanted
returns, let us go back to our model - a good mail order ad - and
eliminate some of our waste.
Chapter 5
Headlines
The difference between advertising and personal salesmanship lies
largely in personal contact. The salesman is there to demand
attention. He cannot be ignored. The advertisement can be ignored.
But the salesman wastes much of his time on prospects whom he can
never hope to interest. He cannot pick them out. The advertisement
is read only by interested people who, by their own volition, study
what we have to say. The purpose of a headline is to pick out people
you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first
thing you say is, "Hey there, Bill Jones" to get the right persons
attention. So it is in an advertisement. What you have will interest
certain people only, and for certain reasons. You care only for those
people. Then create a headline which will hail those people only.
Perhaps a blind headline or some clever conceit will attract many
times as many. But they may consist of mostly impossible subjects
for what you have to offer. And the people you are after may never
realize that the ad refers to something they may want.
Headlines on ads are like headlines on news items. Nobody reads
a whole newspaper. One is interested in financial news, one in
political, one in society, one in cookery, one in sports, etc. There are
whole pages in any newspaper which we may never scan at all. Yet
other people might turn directly to those pages. We pick out what we
wish to read by headlines, and we don't want those headlines
misleading. The writing of headlines is one of the greatest journalistic
arts. They either conceal or reveal an interest.
Suppose a newspaper article stated that a certain woman was the
most beautiful in the city. That article would be of intense interest to
that woman and her friends. But neither she nor her friends would
ever read it if the headline was "Egyptian Psychology." So in
advertising. It is commonly said that people do not read
advertisements. That is silly, of course. We who spend millions in
advertising and watch the returns marvel at the readers we get. Again
and again we see 20 percent of all the readers of a newspaper cut out
a certain coupon. But people do not read ads for amusement. They
don't read ads which, at a glance, seem to offer nothing interesting. A
double-page ad on women's dresses will not gain a glance from a
man. Nor will a shaving cream ad from a woman.
Always bear these facts in mind. People are hurried. The average
person worth cultivating has too much to read. They skip threefourths
of the reading matter which they pay to get. They are not
going to read your business talk unless you make it worth their while
and let the headline show it.
People will not be bored in print. They may listen politely at a
dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history, etc. But in print
they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They want to
be amused or benefited. They want economy, beauty, labor savings,
good things to eat and wear. There may be products which interest
them more than anything else in the magazine. But they will never
know it unless the headline or picture tells them.
The writer of this chapter spends far more time on headlines than
on writing. He often spends hours on a single headline. Often scores
of headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For the
entire return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of
readers. The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we
get a hearing. The vast difference in headlines is shown by keyed
returns which this book advocates. The identical ad run with various
headlines differs tremendously in its returns. It is not uncommon for
a change in headlines to multiply returns from five or ten times over.
So we compare headlines until we know what sort of appeal pays
best. That differs in every line, of course. The writer has before him
keyed returns on nearly two thousand headlines used on a single
product. The story in these ads are nearly identical. But the returns
vary enormously, due to the headlines. So with every keyed return in
our record appears the headlines that we used. Thus we learn what
type of headline has the most widespread appeal. The product has
many uses. It fosters beauty. It prevents disease. It aides daintiness
and cleanliness. We learn to exactness which quality most of our
readers seek. This does not mean we neglect the others. One sort of
appeal may bring half the returns of another, yet be important
enough to be profitable. We overlook no field that pays. But we
know what proportion of our ads should, in the headline, attract any
certain class.
For this same reason we employ a vast variety of ads. If we are
using twenty magazines we may use twenty separate ads. This
because circulation's overlap, and because a considerable percentage
of people are attracted by each of several forms of approach. We
wish to reach them all.
On a soap, for instance, the headline "Keep Clean" might attract a
very small percentage. It is to commonplace. So might the headline,
"No animal fat." People may not care much about that. The headline,
"It floats" might prove interesting. But a headline referring to beauty
or complexion might attract many times as many. An automobile ad
might refer in the headline to a good universal joint. It might fall flat,
because so few buyers think of universal joints. The same ad with a
headline, "The Sportiest of Sport Bodies," might out pull the other
fifty to one.
This is enough to suggest the importance of headlines. Anyone
who keys ads will be amazed at the difference. The appeals we like
best will rarely prove best, because we do not know enough people to
average up their desires. So we learn on each line by experiment.
But back of all lie fixed principles. You are presenting an ad to
millions. Among them is a percentage, small or large, whom you
hope to interest. Go after that percentage and try to strike the chord
that responds. If you are advertising corsets, men and children don't
interest you. If you are advertising cigars, you have no use for nonsmokers.
Razors won't attract women, rouge will not interest men.
Don't think that those millions will read your ads to find out if
your product interests. They will decide at a glance - by your headline
or your pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.
Chapter 6
Psychology
The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The
more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects
lead to certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results
and avoid mistakes. Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is
the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the principles of
psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn
what you learn about them.
We learn, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest
human incentives. We employ it whenever we can. Puffed Wheat and
Puffed Rice were made successful largely through curiosity. "Grains
puffed to 8 times the normal size." "Foods shot from guns." "125
million steam explosions caused in every kernel." These foods were
failures before that factor was discovered.
We learn that cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans are
extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel
that they can afford to eat and have and wear the best. Treat them as
if they could not and they resent your attitude.
We learn that people judge largely by price. They are not experts.
In the British National Gallery is a painting which is announced in a
catalog to have cost $750,000. Most people at first pass it by at a
glance. Then later they get farther on in the catalog and learn what
the painting cost. They return then and surround it.
A department store advertised at one Easter time a $1,000 hat,
and the floor could not hold the women who came to see it. We
often employ this factor in psychology. Perhaps we are advertising a
valuable formula. To merely say that would not be impressive. So we
state - as a fact - that we paid $100,000 for that formula. That
statement when tried has won a wealth of respect.
Many articles are sold under guarantee - so commonly sold that
guarantees have ceased to be impressive. But one concern made a
fortune by offering a dealers signed warrant. The dealer to whom one
paid his money agreed in writing to pay it back if asked. Instead of a
far-away stranger, a neighbor gave the warrant. The results have led
many to try that plan, and it has always proved effective.
Many have advertised, "Try it for a week. If you don't like it we'll
return your money. Then someone conceived the idea of sending
goods without any money down, and saying, "Pay in a week if you
like them." That proved many times more impressive.
One great advertising man stated the difference this way: "Two
men came to me, each offering me a horse. Both made equal claims.
They were good horses, kind and gentle. A child could drive them.
One man said, "Try the horse for a week. If my claims are not true,
come back for your money." The other man also said, "Try the horse
for a week." But he added, "Come and pay me then." I naturally
bought the second mans horse."
Now countless things - cigars, typewriters, washing machines,
books, etc. - are sent out in this way on approval. And we find that
people are honest. The losses are very small.
An advertiser offered a set of books to business men. The
advertising was unprofitable, so he consulted another expert. The ads
were impressive. The offer seemed attractive, "But," said the second
man, "let us add one little touch which I have found effective. Let us
offer to put the buyers name in gilt lettering on each book." That was
done, and with scarcely another change in the ads they sold some
hundreds of thousands of books. Through some peculiar kink in
human psychology it was found that names in gilt gave much added
value to the books.
Many send out small gifts, like memorandum books, to customers
and prospects. They get very small results. One man sent out a letter
to the effect that he had a leather-covered book with a mans name on
it. It was waiting on him and would be sent on request. The form of
request was enclosed, and it also asked for certain information. That
information indicated lines on which a man might be sold.
Nearly all men, it was found, filled out that request and supplied
the information. When a man knows that something belongs to them
- something with his name on - he will make an effort to get it, even
though the thing is a trifle.
In the same way it is found that an offer limited to a certain class
of people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an
offer limited to veterans of the war. Or to members of a lodge or
sect. Or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming
advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage.
An advertiser suffered much from substitution. He said, "Look
out for substitutes," "Be sure you get this brand," etc., with no effect.
Those were selfish appeals. Then he said, "Try our rivals' too" - said
it in his headlines. He invited comparisons and showed that he did
not feat them. That corrected the situation. Buyers were careful to get
the brand so conspicuously superior that its maker could court a trial
of the rest.
Two advertisers offered food products nearly identical. Both
offered a full-size package as an introduction. But one gave his
package free. The other bought the package. A coupon was good at
any store for a package, for which the maker paid retail price.
The first advertiser failed and the second succeeded. The first
even lost a large part of the trade he had. He cheapened his product
by giving a 15-cent package away. It is hard to pay for an article
which has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling
on a pass. The other gained added respect for his article by paying
retail price to let the user try it. An article good enough for the maker
to buy is good enough for the user to buy. It is vastly different to pay
15 cents to let you try an article than to simply say "It's free."
So with sampling. Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and
she pays it slight respect. She is no mood to see its virtues. But get
her to ask for a sample after reading your story, and she is in a very
different position. She knows your claims. She is interested in them,
else she would not act. And she expects to find the qualities you told.
There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five articles
exactly alike and five people may choose one of them. But point out
in one some qualities to notice and everyone will find them. The five
people then will all choose the same article.
If people can be made sick or well by mental impressions, they
can be made to favor a certain brand in that way. And that, on some
lines, is the only way to win them.
Two concerns, side by side, sold women's clothing on
installments. The appeal, of course, was to poor girls who desire to
dress better. One treated them like poor girls and made the bare
business offer. The other put a woman in charge - a motherly,
dignified, capable woman. They did business in her name. They used
her picture. She signed all ads and letters. She wrote to these girls like
a friend. She knew herself what it meant to a girl not to be able to
dress her best. She had long sought a chance to supply women good
clothes and give them all season to pay. Now she was able to do so,
with the aid of men behind her. There was no comparison in those
two appeals. It was not long before this womans' long established
next door rival had to quit.
The backers of this business sold house furnishings on
installments. Sending out catalogs promiscuously did not pay.
Offering long-time credit often seems like a reflection.
But when a married woman bought garments from Mrs. _, and
paid as agreed, they wrote to her something like this: "Mrs. _, whom
we know, tells us that you are one of her good customers. She has
dealt with you, she says, and you do just as you agree. So we have
opened with you a credit account on our books, good any time you
wish. When you want anything in furnishings, just order it. Pay
nothing in advance. We are very glad to send it without any
investigation to a person recommended as you are. "That was
flattering. Naturally those people, when they wanted some furniture,
would order from that house.
There are endless phases to psychology. Some people know them
by instinct. Many of them are taught by experience. But we learn
most of them from others. When we see one winning method we
note it down for use when occasion offers.
These things are very important. An identical offer made in a
different way may bring multiplied returns. Somewhere in the mines
of business experience we must find the best method somehow.
Chapter 7
Being Specific
Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like
water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, "Best
in the world," "Lowest price in existence," etc. are at best simply
claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually
damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to
exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the
statements that you make.
People recognize a certain license in selling talk as they do poetry.
A man may say, "Supreme in quality" without seeming a liar, though
one may know that the other brands are equally as good. One expects
a salesman to put his best foot forward and excuses some
exaggeration born of enthusiasm. But just for that reason general
statements count for little. And a man inclined to superlatives must
expect that his every statement will be taken with some caution.
But a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or
a lie. People do not expect an advertiser to lie. They know that he
can't lie in the best mediums. The growing respect in advertising has
largely come through a growing regard for its truth. So a definite
statement is usually accepted. Actual figures are not generally
discounted. Specific facts, when stated, have their full weight and
effect.
This is very important to consider in written or personal
salesmanship. The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by
making it specific. Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a
carbon and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-third
times the light and people realize that you have made tests and
comparisons.
A dealer may say, "Our prices have been reduced" without
creating any marked impression. But when he says "Our prices have
been reduced 25 percent" he gets the full value of his announcement.
A mail order advertiser sold women's clothing to people of the
poorer classes. For years he used the slogan, "Lowest prices in
America." His rivals all copied that. Then he guaranteed to undersell
any other dealer. His rivals did likewise. Soon those claims became
common to every advertiser in his line, and they became
commonplace. Then under able advice, he changed his statement to
"Our net profit is 3 percent." That was a definite statement and it
proved very impressive. With their volume of business it was evident
that their prices must be minimum. No one could be expected to do
business on less than 3 percent. The next year their business made a
sensational increase.
At one time in the automobile business there was a general
impression that profits were excessive. One well-advised advertiser
came out with this statement, "Our profit is 9 percent." Then he cited
actual costs on the hidden costs of a $1,500 car. They amounted to
$735, without including anything one could easily see. This advertiser
made a great success along those lines at that time.
Shaving soaps have long been advertised "Abundant lather,"
"Does not dry on the face," "Acts quickly," etc. One advertiser had as
good a chance as the other to impress those claims. Then a new
maker came into the field. It was a tremendously difficult field, for
every customer had to taken from someone else. He stated specific
facts. He said, "Softens the beard in one minute." "Maintains its
creamy fullness for tens minutes on the face." "The final result of
testing and comparing 130 formulas." Perhaps never in advertising
has there been a quicker and greater success in an equally difficult
field.
Makers of safety razors have long advertised quick shaves. One
maker advertised a 78-second shave. That was definite. It indicated
actual tests. That man at once made a sensational advance in his sales.
In the old days all beers were advertised as "Pure." The claim
made no impression. The bigger the type used, the bigger the folly.
After millions had been spent to impress a platitude, one brewer
pictured a plate glass where beer was cooled in filtered air. He
pictured a filter of white wood pulp through which every drop was
cleared. He told how bottles were washed four times by machinery.
How he went down 4,000 feet for pure water. How 1,018
experiments had been made to attain years to give beer that
matchless flavor. And how all the yeast was forever made from that
adopted mother cell.
All claims were such as any brewer might have made. They were
mere essentials in ordinary brewing. But he was the first to tell the
people about them, while others cried merely "pure beer." He made
the greatest success that was ever made in beer advertising. "Used the
world over" is a very elastic claim. Then one advertiser said, "Used by
the peoples of 52 nations," and many others followed.
One statement may take as much room as another, yet a definite
statement may be many times as effective. The difference is vast. If a
claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way. All these
effects must be studied. Salesmanship-in-print is very expensive. A
salesman's loose talk matters little. But when you are talking to
millions at enormous cost, the weight of your claims is important.
No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying "How do
you do?" When you have no intention of inquiring about ones health.
But specific claims when made in print are taken at their value.
Chapter 8
Tell Your Full Story
Whatever claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement
should tell a story reasonably complete. If you watch returns, you will
find that certain claims appeal far more than others. But in usual lines
a number of claims appeal to a large percentage. Then present those
claims in every ad for their effect on that percentage. Some
advertisers, for sake of brevity, present one claim at a time. Or they
write a serial ad, continued in another issue. There is no greater folly.
Those serials almost never connect.
When you once get a persons attention, then is the time to
accomplish all you can ever hope with him. Bring all your good
arguments to bear. Cover every phase of your subject. One fact
appeals to some, one to another. Omit any one and a certain
percentage will lose the fact which might convince.
People are not apt to read successive advertisements on any single
line. No more than you read a news item twice, or a story. In one
reading of an advertisement one decides for or against a proposition.
And that operates against a second reading. So present to the reader,
when once you get him, every important claim you have. The best
advertisers do that. They learn their appealing claims by tests - by
comparing results from various headlines. Gradually they accumulate
a list of claims important enough to use. All those claims appear in
every ad thereafter.
The advertisements seem monotonous to the men who read them
all. A complete story is always the same. But one must consider that
the average reader is only once a reader, probably. And what you fail
to tell him in that ad is something he may never know. Some
advertisers go so far as to never change their ads. Single mail order
ads often run year after year without diminishing returns. So with
some general ads. They are perfected ads, embodying in the best way
known all that one has to say. Advertisers do not expect a second
reading. Their constant returns come from getting new readers.
In every ad consider only new customers. People using your
product are not going to read your ads. They have already read and
decided. You might advertise month after month to present users
that the product they use is poison, and they would never know it. So
never waste one line of your space to say something to present users,
unless you can say it in your headlines. Bear in mind always that you
can address an unconverted prospect.
Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader.
You are dealing with someone willing to listen. Then do your level
best. That reader, if you lose him now, may never again be a reader.
You are like a salesman in a busy mans office. He may have tried
again and again to get entree. He may never be admitted again. This
is his one chance to get action, and he must employ it to the full.
This brings up the question of brevity. The most common
expression you hear about advertising is that people will not read
much. Yet a vast amount of the best paying advertising shows that
people do read much. Then they write for a book, perhaps - for
added information. There is a fixed rule on this subject of brevity.
One sentence may tell a complete story on a line like chewing gum. It
may on an article like Cream of Wheat. But, whether long or short,
an advertising story should be reasonably complete.
A certain man desired a personal car. He cared little about the
price. He wanted a car to take pride in, else he felt he would never
drive it. But, being a good business man, he wanted value for his
money. His inclination was towards a Rolls-Royce. He also
considered a Pierce-Arrow, a Locomobile and others. But these
famous cars offered no information. Their advertisements were very
short. Evidently the makers considered it undignified to argue
comparative merits.
The Marmon, on the contrary, told a complete story. He read
columns and books about it. So he bought a Marmon, and was never
sorry. But he afterwards learned facts about another car at nearly
three times the price which would have sold him the car had he
known them.
What folly it is to cry a name in a line like that, plus a few brief
generalities. A car may be a lifetime investment. It involves an
important expenditure. A man interested enough to buy a car will
read a volume about it if the volume is interesting.
So with everything. You may be simply trying to change a woman
from one breakfast food to another, one tooth paste, or one soap.
She is wedded to what she is using. Perhaps she has used it for years.
You have a hard proposition. If you do not believe it, go to her in
person and try to make the change. Not to merely buy a first package
to please you, but to adopt your brand. A man who once does that at
a womans' door won't argue for brief advertisements. He will never
again say, "A sentence will do," or a name claim or a boast.
Nor will the man who traces his results. Note that brief ads are
never keyed. Note that every traced ad tells a complete story, though
it takes columns to tell. Never be guided in any way by ads which are
untraced. Never do anything because some uninformed advertiser
considers that something right. Never be led in new paths by the
blind. Apply to your advertising ordinary common sense. Take the
opinion of nobody, whom know nothing about his returns.
Chapter 9
Art In Advertising
Pictures in advertising are very expensive. Not in cost of good art
work alone, but in the cost of space. From one-third to one-half of
an advertising campaign is often staked on the power of the pictures.
Anything expensive must be effective, else it involves much waste. So
art in advertising is a study of paramount importance. Pictures
should not be used merely because they are interesting. Or to attract
attention. Or to decorate an ad. We have covered these points
elsewhere. Ads are not written to interest, please or amuse. You are
not writing to please the hoi-polloi. You are writing on a serious
subject - the subject of money spending. And you address a restricted
minority.
Use pictures only to attract those who may profit you. Use them
only when they form a better selling argument than the same amount
of space set in type.
Mail order advertisers, as we have said, have pictures down to a
science. Some use large pictures, some small, some omit pictures
entirely. A noticeable fact is that none of them uses expensive art
work. Be sure that all these things are done for reasons made
apparent by results. Any other advertiser should apply the same
principles. Or, if none exist to apply to his line, he should work out
his own by tests. It is certainly unwise to spend large sums on a
dubious adventure.
Pictures in many lines form a major factor. Omitting the lines
where the article itself should be pictured. In some lines, like Arrow
Collars and most in clothing advertising, pictures have proved most
convincing. Not only in picturing the collar or the clothes, but in
picturing men whom others envy, in surroundings which others
covet. The pictures subtly suggest that these articles of apparel will
aid men to those desired positions.
So with correspondence schools. Theirs is traced advertising.
Picturing men in high positions of taking upward steps forms a very
convincing argument.
So with beauty articles. Picturing beautiful women, admired and
attractive, is a supreme inducement. But there is a great advantage in
including a fascinated man. Women desire beauty largely because of
men. Then show them using their beauty, as women do use it, to gain
maximum effect.
Advertising pictures should not be eccentric. Don't treat your
subject lightly. Don't lessen respect for your self or your article by
any attempt at frivolity. People do not patronize a clown. There are
two things about which men should not joke. One is business, one is
home. An eccentric picture may do you serious damage. One may
gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling
prospects.
Then a picture which is eccentric or unique takes attention from
your subject. You cannot afford to do that. Your main appeal lies in
headline. Over-shadow that and you kill it. Don't, to gain general and
useless attention, sacrifice the attention that you want.
Don't be like a salesman who wears conspicuous clothes. The
small percentage he appeals to are not usually good buyers. The great
majority of the sane and thrifty heartily despise him. Be normal in
everything you do when you are seeking confidence and conviction.
Generalities cannot be applied to art. There are seeming exceptions
to most statements. Each line must be studied by itself.
But the picture must help sell the goods. It should help more than
anything else could do in like space, else use that something else.
Many pictures tell a story better than type can do. In advertising
of Puffed Grains the picture of the grains were found to be most
effective. They awake curiosity. No figure drawing in that case
compare in results with these grains.
Other pictures form a total loss. We have cited cases of that kind.
The only way to know, as is with most other questions, is by
compared results. There are disputed questions in art work which we
will cite without expressing opinions. They seem to be answered both
ways, according to the line which is advertised.
Does it pay better to use fine art work or ordinary? Some
advertisers pay up to $2,000 per drawing. They figure that the space is
expensive. The art cost is small in comparison. So they consider the
best worth its cost. Others argue that few people have art education.
They bring out their ideas, and bring them out well, at a fraction of
the cost. Mail order advertisers are generally in this class. The
question is one of small moment. Certainly good art pays as well as
mediocre. And the cost of preparing ads is very small compared with
the cost of insertion.
Should every ad have a new picture? Or may a picture be
repeated? Both viewpoints have many supporters. The probability is
that repetition is an economy. We are after new customers always. It
is not probably that they remember a picture we have used before. If
they do, repetition does not detract.
Do color pictures pay better than black and white? Not generally,
according to the evidence we have gathered to date. Yet there are
exceptions. Certain food dishes look far better in colors. Tests on
lines like oranges, desserts, etc. show that color pays. Color comes
close to placing the products in actual exhibition.
But color used to amuse or to gain attention is like anything else
that we use for that purpose. It may attract many times as many
people, yet not secure a hearing from as many whom we want. The
general rule applies. Do nothing to merely interest, amuse, or attract.
That is not your province. Do only that which wins the people you
are after in the cheapest possible way. But these are minor questions.
They are mere economies, not largely affecting the results of a
campaign.
Some things you do may cut all your results in two. Other things
can be done which multiply those results. Minor costs are
insignificant when compared with basic principles. One man may do
business in a shed, another in a palace. That is immaterial. The great
question is, ones power to get the maximum results.
Chapter 10
Things Too Costly
Many things are possible in advertising which are too costly to
attempt. That is another reason why every project and method
should be weighed and determined by a known scale of cost and
result. Changing peoples habits is very expensive. A project which
involves that must be seriously considered. To sell shaving soap to
the peasants of Russia one would first need to change their beard
wearing habits. The cost would be excessive. Yet countless
advertisers try to do things almost as impossible. Just because
questions are not ably considered, and results are traced but
unknown.
For instance, the advertiser of a dentifrice may spend much space
and money to educate people to brush their teeth. Tests which we
know of have indicated that the cost of such converts may run from
$20 to $25 each. Not only because of the difficulty, but because
much of the advertising goes to people already converted.
Such a cost, of course, is unthinkable. One might not in a lifetime
get it back in sales. The maker who learned these facts by tests make
no attempt to educate people to the tooth brush habit. What cannot
be done on a large scale profitably can not be done on a small scale.
So not one line in any ad is devoted to this object. This maker, who is
constantly guided in everything by keying every ad, has made
remarkable success.
Another dentifrice maker spends much money to make converts
to the tooth brush. The object is commendable, but altruistic. The
new business he creates is shared by his rivals. He is wondering why
his sales increase is in no way commensurate with his expenditure.
An advertiser at one time spent much money to educate people to
the use of oatmeal. The results were too small to discover. All people
know of oatmeal. As a food for children it has age-old fame. Doctors
have advised it for many generations. People who don't serve oatmeal
are therefore difficult to start. Perhaps their objections are
insurmountable. Anyway, the cost proved to be beyond all possible
return.
There are many advertisers who know facts like these and
concede them. They would not think of devoting a whole campaign
to any such impossible object. Yet they devote a share of their space
to that object. That is only the same folly on a smaller scale. It is not
good business.
No one orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase
the consumption of those fruits. The cost might be a thousand times
his share of the returns. But thousands of growers combined have
done it on those and many other lines. There lies one of the great
possibilities of advertising development. The general consumption of
scores of foods can be profitably increased. But it must be done on
wide co-operation.
No advertiser could afford to educate people on vitamins or
germicides. Such things are done by authorities, through countless
columns of unpaid-for space. But great successes have been made by
going to people already educated and satisfying their created wants.
It is a very shrewd thing to watch the development of a popular
trend, the creation of new desires. Then at the right time offer to
satisfy those desires. That was done on yeast's, for instance, and on
numerous antiseptics. It can every year be done on new things which
some popular fashion or widespread influence is brought into vogue.
But it is a very different thing to create that fashion, taste or influence
for all in your field to share.
There are some things we know of which might possibly be sold
to half the homes in the country. A Dakin-fluid germicide, for
instance. But the consumption would be very small. A small bottle
might last for years. Customers might cost $1.50 each. And the
revenue per customer might not in ten years repay the cost of getting.
Mail order sales on single articles, however popular, rarely cost less
that $42.50 each. It is reasonable to suppose that sales made through
dealers on like articles will cost approximately as much. Those facts
must be considered on any one-sale article. Possibly one user will win
others. But traced returns as in mail order advertising would prohibit
much advertising which is now being done.
Costly mistakes are made by blindly following some ill-conceived
idea. An article, for instance, may have many uses, one of which is to
prevent disease. Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it
should be. People will do much to cure trouble, but people in general
will do little to prevent it. This has been proved my many
disappointments.
One may spend much money in arguing prevention when the
same money spent on another claim would bring many times the
sales. A heading which asserts one claim may bring ten times the
results of a heading which asserted another. An advertiser may go far
astray unless he finds out. A tooth paste may tend to prevent decay.
It may also beautify teeth. Tests will probably find that the latter
appeal is many times as strong as the former. The most successful
tooth paste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his headlines.
Tests have proved them unappealing. Other advertisers in this line
center on those troubles. That is often because results are not known
and compared.
A soap may tend to cure eczema. It may at the same time improve
complexion. The eczema claim may appeal to one in a hundred while
the beauty claims would appeal to nearly all. To even mention the
eczema claims might destroy the beauty claims.
A man has a relief for asthma. It has done so much for him he
considers it a great advertising possibility. We have no statistics on
this subject. We do not know the percentage of people who suffer
from asthma. A canvass might show it to be one in a hundred. If so,
he would need to cover a hundred useless readers to reach one he
wants. His cost of result might be twenty times as high as on another
article which appeals to one in five. That excessive cost would
probably mean disaster. For reasons like these every new advertiser
should seek for wise advice. No one with the interests of advertising
at heart will advise any dubious venture.
Some claims not popular enough to feature in the main are still
popular enough to consider. They influence a certain number of
people - say one-fourth of your possible customers. Such claims may
be featured to advantage in a certain percentage of headlines. It
should probably be included in every advertisement. But those are
not things to guess at. They should be decided by actual knowledge,
usually by traced returns.
This chapter, like every chapter, points out a very important
reason for knowing your results. Scientific advertising is impossible
without that. So is safe advertising. So is maximum profit. Groping in
the dark in this field has probably cost enough money to pay the
national debt. That is what has filled the advertising graveyards. That
is what has discouraged thousands who could profit in this field. And
the dawn of knowledge is what is bringing a new day in the
advertising world.

Chapter 11
Information
An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full
information on his subject. The library of an ad agency should have
books on every line that calls for research. A painstaking advertising
man will often read for weeks on some problem which comes up.
Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use. But some one
fact may be the keystone of success.
This writer has just completed an enormous amount of reading,
medical and otherwise, on coffee. This is to advertise a coffee
without caffeine. One scientific article out of a thousand perused
gave the keynote for that campaign. It was the fact that caffeine
stimulation comes two hours after drinking. So the immediate
bracing effects which people seek from coffee do not come from the
caffeine. Removing caffeine does not remove the kick. It does not
modify coffees delights, for caffeine is tasteless and odorless.
Caffeineless coffee has been advertised for years. People regarded
it like near-beer. Only through weeks of reading did we find a way to
put it in another light. To advertise a tooth paste this writer has also
ready many volumes of scientific matter dry as dust. But in the
middle of one volume he found the idea which has helped make
millions for that tooth paste maker. And has made this campaign one
of the sensations of advertising.
Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares
the midnight oil will never get very far. Before advertising a food
product, 130 men were employed for weeks to interview all classes of
consumers. On another line, letters were sent to 12,000 physicians.
Questionnaires are often mailed to tens of thousands of men and
women to get the viewpoint of consumers. A $25,000-a-year man,
before advertising outfits for acetylene gas, spent weeks in going
from farm to farm. Another man did that on a tractor. Before
advertising a shaving cream, one thousand men were asked to state
what they most desired in a shaving soap.
Called on to advertise pork and beans, a canvass was made of
some thousand of homes. There-to-fore all pork and bean advertising
has been based on "Buy my brand." That canvass showed that only 4
percent of the people used any canned pork and beans. Ninety-six
percent baked their beans at home. The problem was not to sell a
particular brand. Any such attempt appealed to only four percent.
The right appeal was to win the people away from home-baked
beans. The advertising, which without knowledge must have failed,
proved a great success.
A canvas made, not only of homes, but of dealers. Competition is
measured up. Every advertiser of a similar product is written for his
literature and claims. Thus we start with exact information on all that
our rivals are doing. Clipping bureaus are patronized, so that
everything printed on our subject comes to the man who writes ads.
Every comment that comes from consumers or dealers goes to
this mans desk. It is often necessary in a line to learn the total
expenditure. We must learn what a user spends a year, else we shall
not know if users are worth the cost of getting. We must learn the
total consumption, else we may overspend.
We must learn the percentage of readers to whom our product
appeals. We must often gather this data on classes. The percentage
may differ on farms and in cities. The cost of advertising largely
depends on the percentage of waste circulation. Thus an advertising
campaign is usually preceded by a very large volume of data. Even an
experimental campaign, for effective experiments cost a great deal of
work and time.
Often chemists are employed to prove or disprove doubtful
claims. An advertiser, in all good faith, makes an impressive assertion.
If it is true, it will form a big factor in advertising. If untrue, it may
prove a boomerang. And it may bar our ads from good mediums. It
is remarkable how often a maker proves wrong on assertions he had
made for years.
Impressive claims are made far more impressive by making them
exact. So, many experiments are made to get the actual figures. For
instance, a certain drink is known to have a large food value. That
simple assertion is not very convincing. So we send the drink to the
laboratory and find that its food value is 425 calories per pint. One
pint is equal to six eggs in calories of nutriment. That claim makes a
great impression.
In every line involving scientific details a censor is appointed. The
ad-writer, however well informed, may draw wrong inferences from
facts. So an authority passes on every advertisement. The uninformed
would be staggered to know the amount of work involved in a single
ad. Weeks of work sometimes. The ad seems so simple, and it must
be simple to appeal to simple people. But back of that ad may lie
reams of data, volumes of information, months of research. So this is
no lazy mans field.
Chapter 12
Strategy
Advertising is much like war, minus the venom. Or much, if you
prefer, like a game of chess. We are usually out to capture others'
citadels or garner others' trade. We must have skill and knowledge.
We must have training and experience, also right equipment. We
must have proper ammunition, and enough. We dare not
underestimate opponents. Our intelligence department is a vital
factor, as told in the previous chapter. We need alliances with dealers,
as another chapter tells.
We also need strategy of the ablest sort, to multiply the value of
our forces. Sometimes in new campaigns comes the question of a
name. That may be most important. Often the right name is an
advertisement in itself. It may tell a fairly complete story, like
Shredded Wheat, Cream of Wheat, Puffed Rice, Spearmint Gum,
Palmolive Soap, etc. That may be a great advantage. The name is
usually conspicuously displayed. Many a name has proved to be the
greatest factor in an articles success. Other names prove a distinct
disadvantage - Toasted Corn Flakes, for instance. Too many others
may share a demand with the man who builds it up.
Many coined names without meaning have succeeded. Kodak,
Karo etc., are examples. They are exclusive. The advertiser who gives
them meaning never needs to share his advantage. But a significant
name which helps to impress a dominant claim is certainly a good
advantage. Names that tell stores have been worth millions of dollars.
So a great deal of research often precedes the selection of a name.
Sometimes a price must be decided. A high price creates
resistance. It tends to limit ones field. The cost of getting an added
profit may be more than the profit. It is a well-known fact that the
greatest profits are made on great volume at small profit. Campbell's
Soups, Palmolive Soap, Karo Syrup and Ford cars are conspicuous
examples. A price which appeals only to - say 10 percent - multiplies
the cost of selling.
But on other lines high price is unimportant. High profit is
essential. The line may have a small sale per customer. One hardly
cares what he pays for a corn remedy because he uses little. The
maker must have a large margin because of small consumption. On
other lines a higher price may even be an inducement. Such lines are
judged largely by price. A product which costs more than the
ordinary is considered above the ordinary. So the price question is
always a very big factor in strategy.
Competition must be considered. What are the forces against
you? What have they in price or quality or claims to weigh against
your appeal? What have you to win trade against them? What have
you to hold trade against them when you get it?
How strongly are your rivals entrenched? There are some fields
which are almost impregnable. They are usually lines which create a
new habit or custom and which typify that custom with consumers.
They so dominate a field that one can hardly hope to invade it. They
have volume, the profit to make a tremendous fight. Such fields are
being constantly invaded. But it is done through some convincing
advantage, or through very superior salesmanship-in-print.
Other lines are only less difficult. A new shaving soap, as an
example. About every possible customer is using a rival soap. Most of
them are satisfied with it. Many are wedded to it. The appeal must be
strong enough to win those people from long-established favor.
Such things are not accomplished by haphazard efforts. Not by
considering people in the mass and making blind stabs for their
favors. We must consider individuals, typical people who are using
rival brands. A man on a Pullman, for instance, using his favorite
soap. What could you say to him in person to get him to change to
yours? We cannot go after thousands of men until we learn how to
win one.
The maker may say that he has no distinctions. He is making a
good product, but much like others. He deserves a good share of the
trade, but he has nothing exclusive to offer. However, there is nearly
always something impressive which others have not told. We must
discover it. We must have a seeming advantage. People don't quit
habits without reason.
There is the problem of substitution and how to head it off. That
often steals much of ones trade. This must be considered in ones
original plan. One must have foresight to see all eventualities, and the
wisdom to establish his defenses in advance.
Many pioneers in the line establish large demands. Then through
some fault in their foundations, lose a large share of the harvest.
Theirs is a mere brand, for instance, where it might have stood for an
exclusive product. Vaseline is an example. That product established a
new demand, then almost monopolized that demand through
wisdom at the start. To have called it some different brand of
petroleum jelly might have made a difference of millions in results.
Jell-O, Postum, Victrola, Kodak, etc., established coined names
which came to typify a product. Some such names have been
admitted to the dictionary. They have become common names,
though coined and exclusive. Royal Baking Powder and Toasted
Corn Flakes, on the other hand, when they pioneered their fields, left
the way open to perpetual substitution. So did Horlicks Malted Milk.
The attitude of dealers must be considered. There is a growing
inclination to limit lines, to avoid duplicate lines, to lesson
inventories. If this applies to your line, how will dealers receive it? If
there is opposition, how can we circumvent it?
The problems of distribution are important and enormous. To
advertise something that few dealers supply is a waste of ammunition.
Those problems will be considered in another chapter. These are
samples of the problems which advertising men must solve. These
are some of the reasons why vast experience is necessary. One
oversight may cost the client millions in the end. One wrong piece of
strategy may prohibit success. Things done in one way may be twice
as easy, half as costly, as when done another way. Advertising without
this preparation is like a waterfall going to waste. The power might be
there, but it is not made effective. We must center the force and
direct it in a practical direction.
Advertising often looks very simple. Thousands of men claim
ability to do it. And there is still a wide impression that many men
can. As a result, much advertising goes by favor. But the men who
know realize that the problems are as many and as important as the
problems in building a skyscraper. And many of them lie in the
foundations.
Chapter 13
Use Of Samples
The product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the
product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and
atmosphere, which you place around it. That being so, samples are of
prime importance. However expensive, they usually form the
cheapest selling method. A salesman might as well go out without his
sample case as an advertiser.
Sampling does not apply to little things alone, like foods or
proprietaries. It can be applied in some way to almost every thing.
We have sampled clothing. We are now sampling phonograph
records.Samples serve numerous valuable purposes. They enable one
to use the word "Free" in ads. That often multiplies readers. Most
people want to learn about any offered gift. Tests often show that
samples pay for themselves - perhaps several times over - in
multiplying the readers of your ads without additional cost of space.
A sample gets action. The reader of your ad may not be
convinced to the point of buying. But he is ready to learn more about
the product that you offer. So he cuts out a coupon, lays it aside, and
later mails it or presents it. Without that coupon he would soon
forget. Then you have the name and address of an interested
prospect. You can start him using your product. You can give him
fuller information. You can follow him up.
That reader might not again read one of your ads in six months.
Your impression would be lost. But when he writes you, you have a
chance to complete with that prospect all that can be done. In that
saving of waste the sample pays for itself.
Sometimes a small sample is not a fair test. Then we may send an
order on the dealer for a full-size package. Or we may make the
coupon good for a package at the store. Thus we get a longer test.
You say that is expensive. So is it expensive to gain a prospects
interest. It may cost you 50 cents to get the person to the point of
writing for a sample. Don't stop at 15 cents additional to make that
interest valuable.
Another way in which samples pay is by keying your
advertisements. They register the interest you create. Thus you can
compare one with another ad, headline, plan and method. That
means in any line an enormous savings. The wisest, most experienced
man cannot tell what will most appeal in any line of copy. With a key
to guide you, your returns are very apt to cost you twice what they
need cost. And we know that some ads on the same product will cost
ten times what others cost. A sample may pay for itself several times
over by giving you an accurate check. Again samples enable you to
refer customers where they can be supplied. This is important before
you attain general distribution.
Many advertisers lose much by being penny-wise. They are afraid
of imposition, or they try to save pennies. That is why they ask ten
cents for a sample, or a stamp or two. Getting that dime may cost
them from 40 cents to $1. That is, it may add that to the cost of
replies. But it is remarkable how many will pay that addition rather
than offer a sample free.
Putting a price on a sample greatly retards replies. Then it
prohibits you from using the word "Free," as we have stated, will
generally more than pay for your samples.
For the same reason some advertisers say, "You buy one package,
we will buy the other." Or they make a coupon good for part of the
purchase price. Any keyed returns will clearly prove that such offers
do not pay. Before a prospect is converted, it is approximately as
hard to get half price for your article as to get the full price for it.
Bear in mind that you are the seller. You are the one courting
interest. Then don't make it difficult to exhibit that interest. Don't ask
your prospects to pay for your selling efforts. Three in four will
refuse to pay - perhaps nine in ten.
Cost of requests for samples differ in every line. It depends on
your breadth of appeal. Some things appeal to everybody, some to a
small percentage. One issue of the papers in Greater New York
brought 1,460,000 requests for a can of evaporated milk. On a
chocolate drink, one-fifth the coupons published are presented.
Another line not widely used may bring a fraction of that number.
But the cost of inquiries is usually enough to be important. Then
don't neglect them. Don't stint your efforts with those you have half
sold. An inquiry means that a prospect has read your story and is
interested. He or she would like to try your product and learn more
about it. Do what you would do if that prospect stood before you.
Cost of inquiries depends largely on how they come. Asking
people to mail the coupon brings minimum returns. Often four times
as many will present that coupon for a sample at the store. On a line
before the writer now, sample inquiries obtained by mail average 70
cents each. The same ads bring inquiries at from 18 cents to 22 cents
each when the coupons are presented at a local store. Most people
write few letters. Writing is an effort. Perhaps they have no stamps in
the house. Most people will pay carfare to get a sample rather than
two cents postage. Therefore, it is always best, where possible, to
have samples delivered locally.
On one line three methods were offered. The woman could write
for a sample, or telephone, or call at a store. Seventy percent of the
inquiries came by telephone. The use of the telephone is more
common and convenient than the use of stamps.
Sometimes it is not possible to supply all dealers with samples.
Then we refer people to some central stores. These stores are glad to
have many people come there. And other dealers do not generally
object so long as they share in the sales. It is important to have these
dealers send you the coupons promptly. Then you can follow up the
inquiries while their interest is fresh.
It is said that sample users repeat. They do to some extent. But
repeaters form a small percentage. Figure it in your cost. Say to the
woman, "Only one sample to a home" and few women will try to get
more of them. And the few who cheat you are not generally the
people who would buy. So you are not losing purchasers, but the
samples only.
On numerous lines we have for long offered full-sized packages
free. The packages were priced at from 10 cents to 50 cents each. In
certain territories for a time we have checked up on repeaters. And
we found the loss much less than the cost of checking. In some lines
samples would be wasted on children, and they are most apt to get
them. Then say in your coupon "adults only." Children will not
present such coupons, and they will rarely mail them in.
But one must be careful about publishing coupons good for a
full-size package at any store. Some people, and even dealers, may
buy up many papers. We do not announce the date of such offers.
And we insert them in Sunday papers, not so easily bought up.
But we do not advocate samples given out promiscuously.
Samples distributed to homes, like waifs on the doorsteps, probably
never pay. Many of them never reach the house or the housewife.
When they do, there is no prediction for them. The product is
cheapened. It is not introduced in a favorable way. So with
demonstrations in stores. There is always a way to get the same
results at a fraction of the cost.
Many advertisers do not understand this. They supply thousands
of samples to dealers to be handed out as they will. Could a trace be
placed on the cost of returns, the advertiser would be stunned.
Give samples to interested people only. Give them only to people
who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people
whom you have told your story. First create an atmosphere of
respect, a desire, an expectation. When people are in that mood, your
sample will usually confirm the qualities you claim.
Here again comes the advantage of figuring cost per customer.
That is the only way to gauge advertising. Samples sometimes seem
to double advertising cost. They often cost more than the advertising.
Yet, rightly used, they almost invariably form the cheapest way to get
customers. And that is what you want.
The argument against samples are usually biased. They may come
from advertising agents who like to see all the advertising money
spent in print. Answer such arguments by tests. Try some towns with
them, some without. Where samples are effectively employed, we
rarely find a line where they do not lessen the cost per customer.
Chapter 14
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 to 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 lines 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 store.
The prospects who go there to get the 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, inquiries 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 inquiries 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 a coupon. Point out to each that many of
his customers are bound to present that coupon. Each coupon
represents a cash sale at full profit. No average dealer will let those
coupon 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 attain 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 inquiries 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 might be vastly
cheaper.
Sending stocks on consignment to retailers is not widely favored.
Many dealers resent it. Collections are difficult. And non-businesslike
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.
Chapter 15
Test Campaigns
Almost any questions can be answered, cheaply, quickly and
finally, by a test campaign. And that's the way to answer them - not
by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort - the
buyers of your product.
On every new project there comes up the question of selling that
article profitably. You and your friends may like it, but the majority
may not. Some rival product may be better liked or cheaper. It may
be strongly entrenched. The users won away from it may cost too
much to get.
People may buy and not repeat. The article may last too long. It
may appeal to a small percentage, so most of your advertising goes to
waste. There are many surprises in advertising. A project you will
laugh at may make a great success. A project you are sure of may fall
down. All because tastes differ so. None of us know enough peoples
desires to get an average viewpoint.
In the old days, advertisers ventured on their own opinions. The
few guess right, the many wrong. Those were the times of advertising
disaster. Even those who succeeded came close to the verge before
the time is turned. They did not know their cost per customer or
their sale per customer.
The cost of selling might take a long time to come back. Often it
never came back.
Now we let the thousands decide what the millions will do. We
make a small venture, and watch cost and result. When we learn what
a thousand customers cost, we know almost exactly what a million
will cost. When we learn what they buy, we know what a million will
buy We establish averages on a small scale, and those averages always
hold. We know our cost, we know our sale, we know our profit and
loss. We know how soon our cost comes back. Before we spread out,
we prove our undertaking absolutely safe. So there are today no
advertising disasters piloted by men who know.
Perhaps we try out our project in four or five towns. We may use
a sample offer or a free package to get users started quickly. Then we
wait and see if users buy those samples. If they do, will they
continue? How much will they buy? How long does it take for the
profit to return our cost of selling? A test like this may cost $3,000 to
$5,000. It is not all lost, even when the product proves unpopular.
Some sales are made. Nearly every test will in time bring back the
entire cost.
Sometimes we find that the cost of the advertising comes back
before the bills are due. That means that the product can be
advertised without investment. Many a great advertiser has been built
up without any cost whatever beyond immediate receipts. That is an
ideal situation. On another product it may take three months to
bring back the cost with a profit. But one is sure of his profit in that
time. When he spreads out he must finance accordingly.
Think what this means. A man has what he considers an
advertising possibility. But national advertising looks so big and
expensive that he dare not undertake it. Now he presents it in a few
average towns, at a very moderate cost. With almost no risk
whatever. From the few thousand he learns what the millions will do.
Then he acts accordingly. If he then branches he knows to a certainty
just what his results will be.
He is playing on the safe side of a hundred to one shot. If the
article is successful, it may make him millions. If he is mistaken about
it, the loss is a trifle.
These are facts we desire to emphasize and spread. All our largest
accounts are now built in this way, from very small beginnings. When
business men realize that this can be done, hundreds of others will do
it. For countless fortune-earners now lie dormant.
The largest advertiser in the world makes a business of starting
such projects. One by one he finds out winners. Now he has twentysix,
and together they earn many millions yearly. These test
campaigns have other purposes. They answer countless questions
which arise in business.
A large food advertiser felt that his product would be more
popular in another form. He and all his advisers were certain about it.
They were willing to act on this supposition without consulting the
consumers, but wiser advice prevailed. He inserted an ad in a few
towns with a coupon, good at any store for a package of the newstyle
product. Then he wrote to the users about it. They were almost
unanimous in their disapproval.
Later the same product was suggested in still another form. The
previous verdict made the change look dubious. The advertiser hardly
thought a test to be worth while. But he submitted the question to a
few thousand women in a similar way and 91 percent voted for lit.
Now he has a unique product which promises to largely increase his
sales.
These tests cost about $1,000 each. The first one saved him a very
costly mistake. The second will probably bring him large profits.
Then we try test campaigns to try out new methods on advertising
already successful. Thus we constantly seek for better methods,
without interrupting plans already proved out.
In five years for one food advertiser we tried out over fifty
separate plans. Every little while we found an improvement, so the
results of our advertising constantly grew. At the end of five years we
found the best plan of all. It reduced our cost of selling by 75
percent. That is, it was four times more effective than the best plan
used before. That is what mail order advertisers do - try out plan after
plan to constantly reduce the cost. Why should any general advertiser
be less business-like and careful?
Another service of the test campaign is this: An advertiser is
doing mediocre advertising. A skilled advertising agent feels that he
can greatly increase results. The advertiser is doubtful. He is doing
fairly well. He has alliances which he hesitates to break. So he is
inclined to let well enough alone.
Now the question can be submitted to the verdict of a test. The
new agent may take a few towns, without interfering with the general
campaign. Then compare his results with the general results and
prove his greater skill.
Plausible arguments are easy in this line. One man after another
comes to an advertiser to claim superior knowledge or ability. It is
hard to decide, and decisions may be wrong. Now actual figures
gained at a small cost can settle the question definitely. The advertiser
makes no commitment. It is like saying to a salesman, "Go out for a
week and prove yourself." A large percentage of all the advertising
done would change hands if this method were applied.
Again we come back to scientific advertising. Suppose a chemist
would say in an arbitrary way that this compound was best, or that
better. You would little respect his opinion. He makes tests -
sometimes hundreds of tests - to actually know which is best. He will
never state a supposition before he has proved it. How long before
advertisers in general will apply that exactness to advertising?
Chapter 16
Leaning On Dealers
We cannot depend much in most lines on the active help of
jobbers or of dealers. They are busy. They have many lines to
consider. The profit on advertised lines is not generally large. And an
advertised article is apt to be sold at cut prices.
The average dealer does what you would do. He exerts himself on
brands of his own, if at all. Not on another mans brand. The dealers
will often try to make you think otherwise. He will ask some aid or
concession on the ground of extra effort. Advertisers often give extra
discounts. Or they make loading offers - perhaps one case free in ten
- in the belief that loaded dealers will make extra efforts.
This may be so in rare lines, but not generally. And the efforts if
made do not usually increase the total sales. They merely swing trade
from one store to another.
On most lines, making a sale without making a convert does not
count for much. Sales made by conviction - by advertising - are likely
to bring permanent customers. People who buy through casual
recommendations do not often stick. Next time someone else gives
other advice.
Revenue which belongs to the advertiser is often given away
without adequate return. These discounts and gifts could be far better
spent in securing new customers.
Free goods must be sold, and by your efforts usually. One extra
case with ten means that advertising must sell ten percent more to
bring you the same return. The dealer would probably buy just as
much if you let him buy as convenient.
Much money is often frittered away on other forms of dealer
help. Perhaps on window or store displays. A window display, acting
as a reminder, may bring to one dealer a lions share of the trade. Yet
it may not increase your total sales at all.
Those are facts to find out. Try one town in one way, one in
another. Compare total sales in those towns. In many lines such tests
will show that costly displays are worthless. A growing number of
experienced advertisers spend no money on displays. This is all in
line of general publicity, so popular long ago. Casting bread upon the
waters and hoping for its return. Most advertising was of that sort
twenty years ago.
Now we put things to the test. We compare cost and result on
every form of expenditure. It is very easily done. Very many costly
wastes are eliminated by this modern process.
Scientific advertising has altered many old plans and conceptions.
It has proved many long established methods to be folly. And why
should we not apply to these things the same criterion we apply to
other forms of selling? Or to manufacturing costs?
Your object in all advertising is to buy new customers at a price
which pays a profit. You have no interest in garnering trade at any
particular store. Learn what your consumers cost and what they buy.
If they cost you one dollar each, figure that every wasted dollar costs
you a possible customer.
Your business will be built in that way, not by dealer help. You
must do your own selling, make your own success. Be content if
dealers fill the orders that you bring. Eliminate your wastes. Spend all
your ammunition where it counts for most.
Chapter 17
Individuality
A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in
some way from the masses and in a pleasing way. Being eccentric,
being abnormal is not distinction to covet. But doing admirable
things in a different way gives one a great advantage. So with
salesmen, in person or in print. There is uniqueness which belittles
and arouses resentment. There is refreshing uniqueness which
enhances, which we welcome and remember. Fortunate is the
salesman who has it.
We try to give each advertiser a becoming style. We make him
distinctive, perhaps not in appearance, but in manner and in tone. He
is given an individuality best suited to the people he addresses.
One man appears rugged and honest in a line where rugged
honesty counts. One may be a good fellow where choice is a matter
of favor. In other lines the man stands out by impressing himself as
an authority.
We have already cited a case where a woman made a great success
in selling clothing to girls, solely through a created personality which
won.
That's why we have signed ads sometimes - to give them a
personal authority. A man is talking - a man who takes pride in his
accomplishments - not a "soulless corporation." Whenever possible
we introduce a personality into our ads. By making a man famous we
make his product famous. When we claim an improvement, naming
the man who made it adds effect.
Then we take care not to change an individuality which has
proved appealing. Before a man writes a new ad on that line, he gets
into the spirit adopted by the advertiser. He plays a part as an actor
plays it.
In successful advertising great pains are taken to never change our
tone. That which won so many is probably the best way to win
others. Then people come to know us. We build on that acquaintance
rather than introduce a stranger in guise. People do not know us by
name alone, but by looks and mannerisms. Appearing different every
time we meet never builds up confidence.
Then we don't want people to think that salesmanship is made to
order. That our appeals are created, studied, artificial. They must
seem to come from the heart, and the same heart always, save where
a wrong tack forces a complete change.
There are winning personalities in ads as well as people. To some
we are glad to listen, others bore us. Some are refreshing, some
commonplace. Some inspire confidence, some caution. To create the
right individuality is a supreme accomplishment. Then an advertisers
growing reputation on that line brings him ever-increasing prestige.
Never weary of that part. Remember that a change in our
characteristics would compel our best friends to get acquainted all
over.
Chapter 18
Negative Advertising
To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don't point out others'
faults. It is not permitted in the best mediums. It is never good
policy. The selfish purpose is apparent. It looks unfair, not sporty.
If you abhor knockers, always appear a good fellow.
Show a bright side, the happy and attractive side, not the dark and
uninviting side of things. Show beauty, not homeliness; health, not
sickness. Don't show the wrinkles you propose to remove, but the
face as it will appear. Your customers know all about wrinkles.
In advertising a dentifrice, show pretty teeth, not bad teeth. Talk
of coming good conditions, not conditions which exist. In advertising
clothes, picture well-dressed people, not the shabby. Picture
successful men, not failures, when you advertise a business course.
Picture what others wish to be, not what they may be now.
We are attracted by sunshine, beauty, happiness, health, success.
Then point the way to them, not the way out of the opposite.
Picture envied people, not the envious.
Tell people what to do, not what to avoid.
Make your every ad breath good cheer. We always dodge a
Lugubrious Blue. Assume that people will do what you ask. Say,
"Send now for this sample." Don't say, "Why do you neglect this
offer?" That suggests that people are neglecting. Invite them to
follow the crowd.
Compare the results of two ads, one negative, one positive. One
presenting the dark side, one the bright side. One warning, the other
inviting. You will be surprised. You will find that the positive ad out
pulls the other four to one, if you have our experience.
The "Before and after taking" ads are follies of the past. They
never had a place save with the afflicted. Never let their memory lead
you to picture the gloomy side of things.
Chapter 19
Letter Writing
This is another phase of advertising which all of us have to
consider. It enters, or should enter, into all campaigns. Every
business man receives a large number of circular letters. Most of
them go direct to the waste basket. But he acts on others, and others
are filed for reference. Analyze those letters. The ones you act on or
the ones you keep have a headline which attracted your interest. At a
glance they offer something that you want, something you may wish
to know.
Remember that point in all advertising
A certain buyer spends $50,000,000 per year. Every letter, every
circular which comes to his desk gets its deserved attention. He wants
information on the lines he buys. But we have often watched him. In
one minute a score of letters may drop into the waste basket. Then
one is laid aside. That is
something to consider at once. Another is field under the heading
"Varnish." And later when he buys varnish that letter will turn up.
That buyer won several prizes by articles on good buying. His
articles were based on information. Yet the great masses of matter
which came to him never got more than a glance.
The same principles apply to all advertising. Letter writers
overlook them just as advertisers do. They fail to get the right
attention. They fail to tell what buyers wish to know.
One magazine sends out millions of letters annually. Some to get
subscriptions, some to sell books. Before the publisher sends out five
million letters he puts a few thousands to test. He may try twenty-five
letters, each with a thousand prospects. He learns what results will
cost. Perhaps the plan is abandoned because it appears unprofitable.
If not, the letter which pays best is the letter that he uses.
Just as men are doing now in all scientific advertising.
Mail order advertisers do likewise. They test their letters as they
test their ads. A general letter is never used until it proves itself best
among many actual returns.
Letter writing has much to do with advertising. Letters to
inquirers, follow-up letters. Wherever possible they should be tested.
Where that is not possible, they should be based on knowledge
gained by tests.
We find the same difference in letters as in ads. Some get action,
some do not. Some complete a sale, some forfeit the impression
gained. These are letters, going usually to half-made converts, that are
tremendously important.
Experience generally shows that a two-cent letter gets no more
attention than a one-cent letter. Fine stationery no more than poor
stationery. The whole appeal lies in the matter.
A letter which goes to an inquirer is like a salesman going to an
interested prospect. You know what created that interest. Then
follow it up along that line, not on some different argument.
Complete the impression already created. Don't undertake another
guess.
Do something if possible to get immediate action. Offer some
inducement for it. Or tell what delay may cost. Note how many
successful selling letters place a limit on an offer. It expires on a
certain date. That is all done to get prompt decision, to overcome the
tendency to delay.
A mail order advertiser offered a catalog. The inquirer might send
for three or four similar catalogs. He had that competition in making
a sale.
So he wrote a letter when he sent his catalog, and enclosed a
personal card. He said, "You are a new customer, and we want to
make you welcome. So when you send your order please enclose this
card. The writer wants to see that you get a gift with order -
something you can keep."
With an old customer he gave some other reason for the gift. The
offer aroused curiosity. It gave preference to his catalog. Without
some compelling reason for ordering elsewhere, the woman sent the
order to him. The gift paid for itself several times over by bringing
larger sales per catalog.
The ways for getting action are many. Rarely can one way be
applied to two lines. But the principles are universal. Strike while the
iron is hot. Get a decision then. Have it followed by prompt action
when you can.
You can afford to pay for prompt action rather than lose by delay.
One advertiser induced hundreds of thousands of women to buy six
packages of his product and send him the trademarks, to secure a
premium offer good only for one week.
Chapter 20
A Name That Helps
There is great advantage in a name that tells a story. The name is
usually prominently displayed. To justify the space it occupies, it
should aid the advertising. Some such names are almost complete
advertisements in themselves. May Breath is such a name. Cream of
Wheat is another. That name alone has been worth a fortune. Other
examples are Dutch Cleanser, Cuticura, Dynashine, Minute Tapioca,
3-in-one Oil, Holeproof, Alcorub, etc.Such names may be protected,
yet the name itself describes the product, so it makes a valuable
display.
Other coined names are meaningless. Some examples are Kodak,
Karo, Sapolio, Vaseline, Kotex, Lux, Postum, etc. They can be
protected, and long-continued advertising may give them a meaning.
When this is accomplished they become very
valuable.
But the great majority of them never attain status.
Such names do not aid the advertising. It is very doubtful that
they justify display. The service of the product, not the name, is the
important thing in advertising. A vast amount of space is wasted in
displaying names and pictures which tell no selling story. The
tendency of modern advertising is to eliminate waste.
Other coined names signify ingredients which anyone may use.
Examples are Syrup of Figs, Coconut Oil Shampoo, Tar Soap,
Palmolive Soap, etc.
Such products may dominate a market if the price is reasonable,
but they must to a degree meet competition. They invite substitution.
They are naturally classified with other products which have like
ingredients, so the price must remain in that class.
Toasted Corn Flakes and Malted Milk are examples of
unfortunate names. In each of those cases one advertiser created a
new demand. When the demand was created, others shared it because
they could use the name. The originators depended only on a brand.
It is interesting to speculate on how much more profitable a coined
name might have been.
On a patented product it must be remembered that the right to a
name expires with that patent. Names like Castoria, Aspirin,
Shredded Wheat Biscuit, etc., have become common property.
This is a very serious point to consider. It often makes a patent an
undesirable protection.
Another serious fault in coined names is frivolity. In seeking
uniqueness one gets something trivial. And that is a fatal handicap in
a serious product. It almost prohibits respect.
When a product must be called by a common name, the best
auxiliary name is a mans name. It is much better than a coined name,
for it shows that some man is proud of his creation.
Thus the question of a name is of serious importance in laying the
foundations of a new undertaking. Some names have become the
chief factors in success. Some have lost for their originators fourfifths
of the trade they developed.
Chapter 21
Good Business
A rapid stream ran by the writers boyhood home. The stream
turned a wooden wheel and the wheel ran a mill. Under that primitive
method, all but a fraction of the streams potentiality went to waste.
Then someone applied scientific methods to that stream - put in a
turbine and dynamos. Now, with no more water, no more power, it
runs a large manufacturing plant.
We think of that steam when we see wasted advertising power.
And we see it everywhere - hundreds of examples. Enormous
potentialities - millions of circulation - used to turn a mill wheel.
While others use that same power with manifold effect.
We see countless ads running year after year which we know to be
unprofitable. Men spending five dollars to do what one dollar might
do. Men getting back 30 percent of their cost when they might get
150 percent. And the facts could be easily proved.
We see wasted space, frivolity, clever conceits, entertainment.
Costly pages filled with palaver which, if employed by a salesman,
would reflect on his sanity. But those ads are always unkeyed. The
money is spent blindly, merely to satisfy some advertising whim.
Not new advertisers only. Many an old advertiser has little or no
idea of his advertising results. The business is growing through many
efforts combined, and advertising is given its share of the credit.
An advertiser of many years standing, spending as high as
$700,000 per year, told the writer he did not know whether his
advertising was worth anything or not. Sometimes he thought that his
business would be just as large without it.
The writer replied, "I do know. Your advertising is utterly
unprofitable, and I could prove it to you next week. End an ad with
an offer to pay five dollars to anyone who writes you that he read the
ad through. The scarcity of replies will amaze you."
Think what a confession - that millions of dollars being spent
without knowledge of results. Such a policy applied to all factors in a
business would bring ruin in short order.
You see other ads which you may not like as well. They may seem
crowded or verbose. They are not attractive to you, for you are
seeking something to admire, something to entertain. But you will
note that those ads are keyed. The probability is that out of scores of
traced ads the type which you see has paid the best.
Many other ads which are not keyed now were keyed at the
beginning. They are based on known statistics. They won on a small
scale before they ever ran on large scale. Those advertisers are
utilizing their enormous powers in full.
Advertising is prima facie evidence that the man who pays
believes that advertising is good. It has brought great results to
others, it must be good for him. So he takes it like some secret tonic
which others have endorsed. If the business thrives, the tonic gets
credit. Otherwise, the failure is due to fate.
That seems almost unbelievable. Even a storekeeper who inserts a
twenty-dollar ad knows whether it pays or not. Every line of a big
stores ad is charged to the proper department. And every inch used
must the next day justify its cost.
Yet most national advertising is done without justification. It is
merely presumed to pay. A little test might show a way to multiply
returns.
Such methods, still so prevalent, are not very far from their end.
The advertising men who practice them see the writing on the wall.
The time is fast coming when men who spend money are going to
know what they get. Good business and efficiency will be applied to
advertising. Men and methods will be measured by the known
returns, and only competent men can survive.
Only one hour ago an old advertising man said to the writer, "The
day for our type is done. Bunk has lost its power. Sophistry is being
displaced by actuality. And I tremble at the trend."
So do hundreds tremble. Enormous advertising is being done
along scientific lines. Its success is common knowledge. Advertisers
along other lines will not much longer be content.
We who can meet the test welcome these changed conditions.
Advertisers will multiply when they see that advertising can be safe
and sure. Small expenditures made on a guess will grow to big ones
on a certainty. Our line of business will be finer, cleaner, when the
gamble is removed. And we shall be prouder of it when we are
judged on merit.