Home · Book Reports · 2024 · Scientific Advertising

Published: November 19, 2024

Tags: Business · Marketing

Author :: Claude C. Hopkins

Publication Year :: 1923

Source :: Scientific_Advertising.pdf

The book in...

One sentence:

An interesting historical look at advertising that seems to be the foundation of most of the modern, post-Ogilvy, understanding of sales.

Five sentences:

This was published in 1923 and Propaganda was published in 1928; it is extremely interesting to juxtapose these two works to see how they fit together. This 'above board' advertising versus the manipulative tactics seen in Bernay's works show an almost idealistic versus real interpretation of how people act, what they want, and what tactics work on them. Most of what is presented is almost naive versus modern standards; information and honesty are portrayed as foundational aspects of advertising whereas we see the total opposite in modern advertising. Much of what is revealed here is better said in Ogilvy's works, although this is interesting for anyone that wants a historical look at how Ogilvy came to his conclusions. Overall I would say that this book could be skipped if you've read Ogilvy and probably some Kennedy as well, but for the curious it is still worthwhile (and it is super short and easy to read at that).

designates my notes. / designates important. / designates very important.

Thoughts

Exceptional Quotes

The best ads ask no one to buy.

The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They site advantages to users.

Show the 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.

3. Table of Contents

01: How Advertising Laws Are Established
02: Just Salesmanship
03: Offer Service
04: Mail Order Advertising – What It Teaches
05: Headlines
06: Psychology
07: Being Specific
08: Tell Your Full Story
09: Art In Advertising
10: Things Too Costly
11: Information
12: Strategy
13: Use Of Samples
14: Getting Distribution
15: Test Campaigns
16: Leaning On Dealers
17: Individuality
18: Negative Advertising
19: Letter Writing
20: A Name That Helps
21: Good Business
22:
23:

· Chapter 1 - How Advertising Laws Are Established

page 2:

The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.

· Chapter 2 - Just Salesmanship

page 11:

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.

page 13:

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 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.
Ogilvy said both of these things. Or rather he probably learned them here.
Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before they plan or 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.

· Chapter 3 - Offer Service

page 15:

The best ads ask no one to buy.
The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They site advantages to users.

· Chapter 4 - Mail Order Advertising – What It Teaches

page 22:

Pictures in ordinary advertising may teach little. They probably result from whims. But pictures in mail order advertising may form half the cost of selling.

page 23:

Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no limitations there 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.

· Chapter 5 - Headlines

Use a headline to pull them in. Don’t be clever. Target your people.

· Chapter 6 - Psychology

page 40:

An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns.

· Chapter 7 - Being Specific

· Chapter 8 - Tell Your Full Story

page 47:

In every ad consider only new customers.

page 48:

Any reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader. You are dealing with someone willing to listen.

· Chapter 9 - Art In Advertising

Outdated. There are no more costly barriers to art, and color.

· Chapter 10 - Things Too Costly

page 60:

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.

page 61:

A soap may tend to cure eczema. It may at the same time improve the 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 claim.

· Chapter 11 - Information

Loads of work gathering information happens before the advertisement is ever run.

page 88:

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.

· Chapter 16 - Leaning On Dealers

Don’t focus too much on individual dealers. They may get more sales, but those sales may come at the expense of other dealers. You shouldn’t care who sells your product, only that it sells. The favors you may give dealers will likely cost more than they are worth.

· Chapter 17 - Individuality

Appear memorable and interesting. Speak in a certain way. Act in a certain way. Your ads should have a character of their own. Then once established, keep it this way. Don’t be ever changing.

· Chapter 18 - Negative Advertising

page 101:

To attack a rival is never good advertising.
Show the 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.