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.
Table of Contents
Chapter Nine