Claude hopkins

transcript

Claude Hopkins Advertising Pioneer

Life and career •  1866–1932 •  Lord & Thomas, Chicago (predecessor of Foote Cone Belding, now Draft FCB). •  Schlitz, Quaker Oats, Goodyear, Palmolive. •  He was cocky, but he KNEW what worked and what didn’t — through countless cycles of trial and error. •  He made a ton of money in his day. $185,000 a year — about $4 million today.

July 2, 2015 Proprietary and confidential. Please use discretion. 2

Principles and philosophy •  Advertising is salesmanship •  Focus on the individual customer •  Offer service •  The value of full information •  Tell your full story •  Be specific •  Psychology •  Samples and demonstration •  Emphasis on cost and result •  Testing and experimentation •  Sell to consumers, not to dealers •  Never advertise negatively •  Passion and hard work

ADVERTISING IS SALESMANSHIP

“The only purpose of advertising is to make sales.”

“Advertising is multiplied salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to one. A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertising mistake may cost a thousand times as much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore.”

“The way to sell goods is to sell them.”

“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.”

FOCUS ON THE INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMER

“Don’t think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Think of a typical individual.”

“The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in the position of the buyer.”

“Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interests of the buyer are forgotten. One can never sell

goods profitably, in person or in print, when that attitude exists.”

“Every campaign that I devise or write is aimed at some individual member of this vast majority. I do not consult managers or boards of directors. Their viewpoint is nearly always distorted. I submit them to the simple folks around me who typify America. They are our customers. Their reactions are the only ones that count.”

“I know of nothing more ridiculous than gray-haired boards of directors deciding on what housewives want.”

“We must get down to individuals. We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person. Center on their desires.”

“We cannot go after thousands of men until we learn how to win one.”

OFFER SERVICE

“Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this

fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising.”

“People can be coaxed but not driven. Whatever they do they do to please themselves. Many fewer mistakes would be in advertising if

these facts were never forgotten.”

“The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless.”

THE VALUE OF FULL INFORMATION

“Ad 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 which comes up.”

“Caffeineless coffee has been advertised for years. Only through weeks of reading did we find the way to put it in another light.”

“To advertise a tooth paste this writer has also read 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.”

“The maker may say that he has no distinctions. However, there is nearly always something impressive which others have not told. We must discover it.”

“Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far.”

“The uninformed would be staggered to know the amount of work involved in a single ad. This is no lazy man’s field.”

“Advertising is much like war... Our intelligence department is a vital factor.”

TELL YOUR FULL STORY

“When you once get a person’s attention, then is the time to accomplish all you ever hope with him.”

“In every ad consider only new customers. People using your product are not going to read your ads.”

“We cannot expect people to read our ads again and again.”

“In one reading of an advertisement one decides for or against a proposition. And that operates against a second reading.”

“Ads should tell the full story. People do not read ads in a series.”

“We should not lose our opportunity. Every ad should include whatever we have found appealing to any considerable class.”

“All appeals which prove themselves important should be included in every ad.”

“One fact appeals to some, one to another. Omit any one and a certain percentage will lose the fact which might convince.”

“The more you tell, the more you sell.”

“Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader.

BE SPECIFIC

“Give actual figures, state definite facts. Take the tungsten lamp as an example. Say that it gives more light than other lamps, and people are but mildly impressed. Say that it gives 3-1/2 times the light of carbon lamps, and people realize that you have

made actual comparisons. They will accept your claims at par.”

“The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific.”

“One actual figure counts for more than countless platitudes.”

“Indefinite claims leave indefinite impressions. But definite claims get full credit and value.”

PSYCHOLOGY

“Human nature is perpetual. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them.”

“Curiosity is one of the strongest forms of human incentives.”

“Then he said, ‘Try our rivals’ too’ — said it in his headlines. He invited comparisons and showed that 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.”

“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 as impressive.”

“Remove all restrictions and say, ‘We trust you,’ and human nature likes to justify that trust.”

“Ask a person to take a chance on you, and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on them, and the way is easy.”

“An offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way

not to lose that advantage.”

“Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be. People will do much to cure a trouble, but... little to prevent it.

They do not cross bridges in advance.”

SAMPLES AND DEMONSTRATION

“The product itself should be its own best salesman.”

“No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration.”

“Samples are of prime importance. However expensive, they usually form the cheapest selling method.”

“You say that is expensive. So is it expensive to gain a prospect’s interest.”

“They would not think of sending out a salesman without samples. But they will spend fortunes on advertising to urge people to buy without seeing or testing.”

“Many advertisers lose much by being penny-wise. That is why they ask ten cents for a sample, or a stamp or two. Putting a price on a sample greatly retards supplies.

Then it prohibits you from using the word ‘Free’ in your ads.”

“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.”

“We do not advocate samples given out promiscuously. The product is cheapened. Give samples to interested people only.”

EMPHASIS ON COST AND RESULT

“Your object in all advertising is to buy new customers at a price which pays a profit.”

“Ads are not written to amuse, but to sell. And to sell at the lowest cost possible.”

“Countless advertisers without a trace on cost are judging ads by appearance. That is why so much money is wasted in advertising. People do not know their costs...”

“The money is spent blindly, merely to satisfy some advertising whim.”

“...thousands of advertisers... spend large sums on a guess. And they are... paying for sales 2 to 35 times what they need cost.”

“...figuring cost per customer ...that is the only way to gauge advertising.”

“I have no sympathy with dignified and orthodox advertising. We are in business to get results.”

“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 credit.”

“We see... men spending five dollars to do what one dollar might do. Men getting back 30 per cent of their cost when they might get 150 per cent.”

“We can at least know what we pay. We can make keyed comparisons, one ad with another.”

“I want to sell what I have to sell, and sell it at a profit. I want the figures on cost and result.”

TESTING AND EXPERIMENTATION

“We must discover what appeals are most impressive. We learn that by keyed tests...”

“Guesswork is very expensive. Perhaps one time in fifty a guess may be right. But fifty times in fifty an actual test tells you what to do and avoid.”

“I have little respect for most theories of advertising, because they have not been proved.”

“Our success depends on pleasing people. By an inexpensive test we can learn if we please them or not.”

“...let the thousands decide what the millions will do.”

“One can always learn what is wanted and what is not wanted, without any considerable risk.”

“I never spent much money on any wrong theory. I discovered quickly the right and the wrong.”

“I made so many mistakes in a small way, and learned something from each. I made no mistake twice. Every once in a while I developed

some great advertising principle.”

“None of us can afford to rely on judgment or experience. New problems require new experience. We must test our undertakings in the most exact way possible.”

“We find that some methods which succeed in one line cannot by applied to another. So, regardless of principles, we must always experiment.”

SELL TO CONSUMERS, NOT TO DEALERS

“We cannot afford to sell anything twice. We cannot spend large sums in expense and concessions in selling our goods to dealers. Then spend other large sums in selling for the dealer. The tax is too great on the consumer. We must choose.”

“Much money is often frittered away on... dealer help.”

“To get dealers to stock an unknown line on promise of advertising is not easy. They have seen too many efforts fail, too many promises rescinded.”

“The average dealer does what you would do. He exerts himself on brands of his own, if at all. Not on another man’s brand. ...they make four times as much on

products of their own.”

“Many of the wrecks in advertising come from trying to sell things over and over. One first sells to the jobber, and he demands a large percentage.

Then he tries to sell to the retailer. He wants free goods and extra margins. Yet all the results depend on the consumer.”

“One can never win out in that way. It is like a man who tries to do business with excessive overhead. He bears the expense, the risk, and the effort,

and his profits are dissipated.”

“If a line can be sold by interesting dealers, let the dealer sell. But if we are going to sell our goods for him, we cannot pay him more than the profit

of a mere distributor.”

“Win consumers and let them sell to dealers.”

NEVER ADVERTISE NEGATIVELY

“Never advertise negatively.”

“To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don’t point out others’ faults. The selfish purpose is apparent.”

“Do not picture or feature ills. The people you appeal to have enough. Show and feature the happier results which come from your product or methods.”

“Repulsive ideas seldom won readers or converts. People do not want to read of the penalties. They want to be told of the rewards.”

“People are seeking happiness, safety, beauty, and content. Then show them the way.”

“Tell people what to do, not what to avoid.”

“Assume that people will do what you ask. Say, ‘Send now for this sample.’ Don’t say, ‘Why do you neglect this offer?’”

“The positive ad outpulls the other four to one.”

PASSION AND HARD WORK

“The man who does two or three times the work of another learns two or three times as much. He makes more mistakes and more successes, and he learns from both.”

“We do best what we like best.”

“I have always been an addict to work. I love work as other men love play. It is both my occupation and my recreation.”

“I consider business as a game and I play it as a game. That is why I have been, and still am, so devoted to it.”

LAST WORD

“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.”

“Safe principles are evolved only by those who know with reasonable exactness what the advertising does.”

“Every ad is surrounded by countless appeals. Every effort involves much expense. The man who wins out and survives does so only because of superior science and

strategy. He must know more, must be better grounded, must be shrewder than his rivals.”

PORTFOLIO

Learn more •  Scientific Advertising •  My Life In Advertising

Contact

Sheperd Simmons President 901-654-2101 sheperd@counterpartCD.com

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Lisa Evano Director, Dallas Office 214-447-0220 lisa@counterpartCD.com

Dallas

Claude hopkins

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