Summary Of Claude Hopkins' Scientific Advertising

“The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science” - Claude Hopkins

How Advertising Laws Are Established

Advertising, once a gamble, has now become one of the safest business ventures. This is because advertising agencies, who conduct most national advertising (hundreds of campaigns, thousands of plans/ideas), watch and record their results. Principles are learned and proved by repeated tests, using keyed advertising, traced returns, using coupons and samples. The main problem with advertising in the past was the lack of these fundamentals, each man was a law unto himself → Like a man trying to build a car without first learning what others had done. Not only are actions (ex: people sending in a coupon) recorded, but the quality of those replies is recorded → One ad may bring in too many worthless replies, another replies that are valuable. Final conclusions are always based on cost per customer or cost per dollar of sale. Now the only uncertainties are people/products, not methods → We cannot say whether something will be popular, but we know how to sell it in the most effective way. Though these laws are essential, so is individuality, but these changing things which depend on ingenuity have no place in a textbook on advertising. Goal of this book is to show advertising success is not accidental, but one of the surest business ventures leading to large returns.

Just Salesmanship Advertising is Salesmanship

The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable/unprofitable according to its actual sales. The only difference is in degree. Advertising may appeal to thousands, instead of only one. Many of the ablest men in advertising are graduate salesmen, they know how to use words that convince. Fine Talkers Are Rarely Good Salesmen They create the suspicion that an effort is being made to sell them on other lines than merit. (Trick them into buying. ) In advertising, fine writing/unique literary style is a disadvantage, they take the attention from the subject and reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, create corresponding resistance.

How to Answer Almost Any Advertising Question

Ask yourself: "Would it help a salesman sell the goods?" "Would it help me sell them if I met a buyer in person?" → These questions avoid countless mistakes.

• Don't use slogans/clever phrases - Some argue for slogans, some like clever conceits. Would you use them in personal salesmanship? Can you imagine one of your prospects being impressed by these?
• Don't force short ads - Some say: "Be very brief. People will read for little. " With a prospect standing before him, would you limit a salesman to a certain number of words? The only readers we get are people who our subject interests, no one reads ads for amusement, long or short. Give them enough to take action.
• Don't use obnoxious type/large headlines - Use 8-point type because newspapers/magazines are printed in it. People are used to it. (Blend in, don't look like an ad. )
• Don't "over-dress" ads - Some want ads distinctive in style/illustration. Do not men who act/dress in normal ways make a far better impression? Some poorly-dressed men, prove to be excellent salesmen.
• Don't entertain - Entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. One of advertising's greatest faults: instead of salesmen, ad writers try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause.

Advertising Mindset

When writing an ad, keep before you a typical buyer. → Individual who wants what you sell. What would you do if you met the buyer face-to-face? Do not think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view.

• You must learn how to strike responsive chords - Some advertising men go out in person and sell door-to-door to people before they write an ad, other survey thousands. They learn reactions from various arguments/approaches. They learn what appeals and what doesn't
• The advertising man studies the consumer - His success depends largely on doing that to the exclusion of everything else. Writes ads with the interest of the buyer in mind, not to please the seller.
• Offer service people are selfish, as we all are - They care nothing about your own interests, only seek service for themselves. Whatever they do, they do to please themselves.
• The best ads ask no one to buy - They offer wanted information, offer a sample or to buy the first package. They give the customer a way to prove the claims without any cost or risk. Cigar Example: Advertiser sent out boxes of cigars and said: "Smoke then, keep them, or return them, as you wish. "

Advertising Selling Goods By Mail

False theories melt away because every ad is traced, it is either profitable or it is not. All guesswork is eliminated. One learns advertising has to be done on a scientific basis to have any chance of success.

• Readers forget - A large percentage of people who read an ad and decide to act will forget that decision in 5 minutes. The mail order advertiser inserts a reminder to be cut out. Must use scarcity/urgency. → Only get one shot to sell prospect something.
• Pictures - Always to the point, they are salesmen in themselves and earn the space they occupy. Decided by comparative tests.
• Ad size - An ad twice larger brings twice the returns, but only when the larger space is as well utilized as the smaller space. However, set half-page copy in a page space and you double the cost.
• Study long-running mail order ads - Every feature, word and picture teaches advertising at its best. → Tests of results have proved these ads to be the best salesmen.

Headlines

A headline is equal to personal contact. A salesman is there to demand attention, he cannot be ignored, people will listen politely to someone boring or boasting. An advertisement can be ignored, people will not be bored in print.

The Purpose of a Headline

We pick out what we wish to read by headlines. → They conceal or reveal an interest. People study what we have to say with their own free will. The product you have will interest certain people only, and for certain reasons. → Create a headline which will hail those people only.

People Will Not Read Ads For Amusement

They don't read ads which, at a glance, seem to offer nothing interesting. The Importance of headlines Claude Hopkins spends far more time on headlines than on writing the ad. → Often hours on a single headline. The entire return of an ad depends on attracting the right sort of reader. Not uncommon for a change in headline to multiply returns from five or ten times over.

Different Headlines Target Different Appeals

Through comparing headlines by keyed returns, we learn what type of headline has the most widespread appeal, and what appeal(s) pays best. Different appeals example: it fosters beauty, it prevents disease, it aids daintiness and cleanliness. → Different people are attracted to different appeals. One appeal may bring half the returns of another, but still enough to be profitable. → That is why separate ads are run for the same product at the same time, we wish to reach all people who are attracted to our products' various appeals. The appeals we like will rarely prove best, because we do not know enough people to average up their desires.

Hooking Your Target Audience

You are presenting an ad to millions. Among them is a percentage you hope to interest. → Go after that % and try to strike the chord that responds. These millions won't read your ad to find out if your product interests. → They will decide at a glance by your headline/pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.

You Must Understand Psychology

Certain effects lead to certain reactions. → Use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes. Principles of psychology are always the same. Curiosity Curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives. "Grains puffed to 8 times the normal size. " → Turned a failed product into a success. People Judge Largely By Price Cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans want bargains, but not cheapness. → Want to feel as though they can afford the best, resent those who treat them as if they couldn't.

Guarantees Have Ceased To Be Impressive

Instead of: "Try it for a week. If you don't like it we'll return your money. " → Use: "Pay in a week if you like them. "

Personalization Selling a set of books → Offering to put the buyer's name on each book in gold lettering gave much added value. Sending out free gifts not very effective, but sending letters saying there is a free leather-covered book waiting for him is very effective. → When a man knows something belongs to him - something with his name on it - he will make an effort to get it. Limited Offers An offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. (Ex: to war veterans, members of a lodge/sect, or to executives. ) Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage.

Reverse Psychology

Selfish appeals don't work (Ex: "Be sure you get this brand. ") Instead: "Try our rivals' too. " He invited comparisons and showed he did not fear them. → Buyers were careful to get the brand so conspicuously superior that its maker could court a trial of the rest.

Free Samples Have a Price

Giving away your full product for free cheapens it. → It is hard to pay for something which has once been free. Another man paid people to use his product. (Bought redeemable coupons from people who showed them and gave his product. ) This man succeeded. → An article good enough for the maker to buy is good enough for the seller to buy.

Pre-Qualified Leads

Hand someone an unwanted product and they pay it little respect. But tell them its qualities and your claims and get her to ask for a sample and she is in a much different position. → She is interested (because she acted) and expects to find the qualities you told.

Power of Expectations

If people can be made sick or well by mental impressions(placebo effect), they can be made to favor a certain brand. Show five articles exactly alike to five people and they may pick either one, but point out some qualities in one and they will all notice and then all choose the same article. An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns.

Being Specific

Platitudes and generalities leave no impression whatsoever. (Ex: "Supreme in Quality") → They suggest a tendency to exaggerate, a looseness of expression, and make readers take any statement you make with caution. But a man making a specific statement is either telling the truth or a lie. People do not expect an advertisement to lie, so a definite statement is usually accepted. With specific facts, people realize you've made tests/comparisons. "Our prices have been reduced 25 percent. " - takes up almost same space, but is many times as effective as: "Our prices have been reduced. "

Tell Your Full Story

The Ad Should Tell Your Story Reasonably Completely

Certain claims appeal to larger (and different) percentages than others, you must present those claims in every ad for their effect on that percentage.

Advertisers Do Not Expect A Second Reading

In one reading of an advertisement one decides for or against a proposition. In every ad consider only new customers. Present to the reader, once you get him, every important claim you have. → That reader is someone willing to listen, but if you lose him now he may never again be a reader.

People Will Read Much

The most common expression you hear is: "People will not read much. " Example: A car may be a lifetime investment. A man interested enough to buy a car will read a volume about it if the volume is interesting. You have an extremely hard job. If you do not believe it go to someone in person and try to make them not only buy the first package, but to adopt your brand. → A man who does that will never again say: "A sentence will do. " Note that brief ads are never keyed. → Never be guided in any way by ads which are untraced. → Never be led in new paths by the blind.

Art in Advertising

Pictures in advertising are very expensive. Not only in production cost, but in space. Anything expensive must be effective. 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.

When Not to Use Pictures

They should not be used merely because they are interesting. Or to attract attention. Or to decorate an ad. → Ads are not written to interest, please or amuse.

Pictures Can Help Incite Emotion

Pictures have proved most convincing in many lines where the article itself should be pictured. Including clothing advertising. Not only in picturing the clothes, but in picturing men who others envy. → Pictures suggest that having the clothes will help them become the men.

Ad Pictures Should Not Be Eccentric

Don't treat your subject (money-spending) lightly. Don't, to gain general attention, sacrifice the attention that you want. Your main appeal lies in the headline. Overshadow that and you kill it. Should You Use Pictures At All? Many pictures tell a story better than type can do. Other pictures form a total loss. The only way to know, as is with most other questions, is by compared results.

Should Every Ad Have a New Picture? → Repetition does not detract. (We are after new customers only. ) Do Color Pictures Pay Better Than Black/White? Not generally, but there are exceptions. → Food. But color used to amuse or to gain attention is worthless. (Will attract the wrong type of people. ) But these are minor questions. The main idea is to do only that which wins the people you are after in the cheapest way possible.

Too Costly

Many things are possible in advertising which are too costly to attempt.

Changing People's Habits is Very Expensive

To sell shaving soap to the peasants of Russia one would first need to change their beard-wearing habits. No one orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase the consumption of those fruits.

Education is 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 shrewd to watch the development of popular trends, the creation of new desires, and at the right time offer to satisfy those desires.

Prevention is Not a Popular Subject

People will do much to cure trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it.

Track Your Results

Scientific advertising is impossible without that. So is safe advertising and maximum profit.

Information Research

An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject. A painstaking advertising man will often read for weeks on some problem that comes up. In many volumes, he may find few useful facts, but some one fact may be the keystone of success.

Competition is Measured Up

Every advertiser of a similar product is written for his literature and claims. -> Exact info on all that our rivals are doing. Everything printed on a subject comes to the man who writes ads.

Impressive Claims are made far more impressive by making them exact. "Large food value" -> Sent to lab: "425 calories per pint. " -> Ad: "Equal to six eggs in calories of nutriment. " Waste Circulation Learn the % of readers to whom your product appeals. The cost of advertising largely depends on the % of waste circulation. Example: A survey found only 4% of people used canned pork beans, 96% baked their beans at home. -> The problem was not to sell a particular brand, the right appeal was to win people away from home-baked beans.

Strategy Selection of a Name

Often the right name is an ad in itself. (Usually prominently displayed. ) -> "Shredded Wheat" or "Puffed Rice" Many a name has proved to be the greatest factor in an article's success. Many coined names without meaning have succeeded. -> "Kodak" or "Karo" -> The advertiser who gives them meaning never needs to share his advantage.

A Price Must Be Decided

A high price creates resistance and it is a well known fact the greatest profits are made on great volume at small profit. On other lines high price is unimportant. May have a small sale per customer or need a large margin because of small consumption. A higher price may even be an inducement. -> A product which costs more is considered better.

Competition

What claims/appeals do you have to win trade against them? -> Need some convincing advantage. Some fields are almost impregnable. -> Usually lines which create a new habit/custom and which typify that habit with consumers.

We Must Consider Individuals

What can you say to him in person to get him to change to your brand? We cannot go after thousands of men until we learn how to win one.