Scientific Advertising

In lines where direct returns are impossible, we compare one town with another.

This is a great way of determining if a particular location is doing better or worse, even if you do not have direct metrics. Assume behavior is roughly the same across the same culture of people, and compare rates of things like purchases and returns.

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 find out very quickly. We do know how to sell it in the most effective way.

True even today - I can’t say which post will go viral, but I can absolutely see if it did.

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.

Love this. No intellectual masturbation. The purpose of this is to sell, period.

Successful salesmen are rarely good speechmakers. 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.

The best copy is plain language.

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 but 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 information. Give them enough to get action.

This is the core point of the book. Write it so that it’s interesting to your audience. If it’s interesting for the type of person who would be a customer, nothing else matters - not length, phrasing, etc.

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.

Don’t get too clever; stick to the message.

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.

I often do my best work when I’m writing for an audience of one. Don’t write for a group.

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.

Empathize with your potential customer! That’s it. The whole message.

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.

Don’t fight human nature. Go with 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.

Love this.

Don’t think that those millions will read your ads to find out if your product interests. They will decide by a glance—by your headline or your pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.

Qualify your customers!

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.

So true.

We learn that cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans are extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness.

Americans keep the global economy afloat.

We learn that people judge largely by price. They are not experts.

Price is the best signal!

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.

Love it.

It is hard to pay for an article which has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling on a pass.

Much harder to introduce a higher price after the fact or to move something from free to paid.

It is vastly different to pay 15 cents to let you try an article than to simply say, “It’s free.”

Exactly this. It’s why if you’re starting a venture with what should be a paid product later, you should never give it away for free in the beginning.

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.

Don’t hate people for not believing what you’re selling - they’re no fools.

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.

So true.

In every ad consider only new customers. People using your product are not going to read your ads. They have already read and decided.

I wonder how this works with resurrection campaigns which are so popular these days. Hopkins probably didn’t even have the data to track that though.

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 by many disappointments.

Great insight.

A toothpaste 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 toothpaste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his headlines.

People want their problem solved (being beautiful) irrespective of the method (teeth whitening).

Impressive claims are made far more impressive by making them exact. So, many experiments are often made to get the actual figures.

It’s why Motion says we save you 13.1 hours in a month. It feels more real.

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.

Ironically this was not well known to most! Sam Walton, Sol Price, and many others had to discover this.

On other lines a higher price may be even 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.

Especially in luxury markets, price is a signal of quality.

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.

Stick to what works and keep on doing it!

---

Really common sense ideas by today’s standards, but you have to remember that at the time these ideas were revolutionary. So much so that Hopkins’ employer didn’t let him publish the book until much later, for fear that it would cause them to lose their competitive advantage. It shows just how much society has progressed that we take these ideas to be self-evident.