Hard Times Call for Hard Sell.
There’s an old saying that the more you tell, the more you sell. And successful marketers still say it all the time because it’s true. Reasons why and some old tricks of the trade you can also count on are below for your reading pleasure. Find out what you may be missing. First, get a good idea. Here are three golden oldies.
“You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.”
Pepsodent toothpaste was introduced to the US market in 1915. Lord & Thomas adman and copywriter Claude Hopkins* (1866–1932) played a key role in making Pepsodent a household name. The company started using the “You’ll wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent” tagline in the 1920s. By the 1930s Pepsodent was the No. 1 selling toothpaste in the US, a position it held for the next thirty years.
*His book Scientific Advertising (1925) is still required reading for anyone serious about a career in marketing.
“When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”
Schlitz was once a major beer brand but had lost a lot of its luster over the years. The company decided to get back in the game and switched its advertising account to Leo Burnett (1891–1971) in 1962. Burnett developed a number of innovative television marketing campaigns. “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer” quickly became a cultural phenomenon and the beer a staple in American households.
Listerine hasn’t been able to take a breather ever since Scope was introduced.
The folks at Procter & Gamble didn’t know what to expect when they introduced Scope mouthwash in 1966. Listerine was the first over-the-counter mouthwash and had been the dominant brand for nearly sixty years. Fortunately, Scope’s “Fights Medicine Breath” tagline did the trick lickety-split. And while Scope wasn’t ever head and shoulders over Listerine, the two brands have been neck and neck ever since.
The headline always comes first.
David Ogilvy praised John Caples (1900–1990) as “one of the most effective copywriters there has ever been.” Here are a few of Caples’ observations on headlines:
• If the headline doesn’t stop people, the copy might as well be written in Greek. • If the headline is poor, the best copywriters in the world can’t write copy that will sell. • If the headline is good, it’s a relatively simple matter to write the copy. • Effective headlines appeal to the target’s self-interest or provide news. • Long headlines that say something are better than short headlines that say nothing. • Specifics are more believable than generalities. • Avoid headlines that merely provoke curiosity.*
*Referred to as “throwaway headlines” in the business since you’re just throwing your money away.
What’s the secret to good advertising copy?
According to Robert B. Parker (1932–2010) in his book Mature Advertising (1981), “Advertising copy is good if it is easy to read and completely satisfying. The copy should fulfill the promise of the headline. People expect to learn more about the benefit the headline promised. The very first words are critical. They must maintain the interest stimulated by the headline. If not, it’s goodbye reader.”
Claude Hopkins on psychology
“The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes. Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar.” – Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising
“We saw more clearly than ever that basically it is copy that makes advertising pay.” – Albert Lasker (1880–1952), “the father of modern advertising”
Legendary Advice
Ogilvy on Advertising
“I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don’t want you to tell me that you find it creative. I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. When Aeschines spoke, they said, ‘How well he speaks.’ But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, ‘Let us march against Philip.’” – David Ogilvy (1911–1999)
Bernbach on Creative
“Merely to let your imagination run riot, to dream unrelated dreams, to indulge in graphic acrobatics and verbal gymnastics is not being creative. The creative person has harnessed his imagination. He has disciplined it so that every thought, every idea, every line he draws, every light and shadow in every photograph he takes, makes more vivid, more believable, more persuasive the original theme or product advantage he has decided he must convey.” – Bill Bernbach (1911–1982)
Bernays on Persuasion
“Advertising is fundamentally persuasion and persuasion happens to be not a science, but an art. It’s that creative spark that I’m so jealous of for our agency and that I am so desperately fearful of losing. I don’t want academicians. I don’t want scientists. I don’t want people who do the right things. I want people who do inspiring things.” – Edward L. Bernays (1891–1995), “the father of public relations” (and the nephew of Sigmund Freud)
Trout & Ries on Positioning
“The basic approach of positioning,” Al Ries (1926–2022) and Jack Trout (1935–2017) wrote in Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, “is not to create something new and different but to manipulate what’s already up there in the mind, to retie the connections that already exist.” That’s why the title of All the President’s Men, the Bernstein and Woodward book about the Watergate scandal, was so successful. Most people know the Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme: “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men couldn’t put Humpty together again.” In this case, President Richard Nixon was Humpty.
Lawrence Creaghan COPYWRITING • FRENCH-TO-ENGLISH ADAPTATION Make sure you get your words’ worth. creaghan@outlook.com • 2 Place Ontario Montreal QC H3G 1E9 • (514) 775-8283 • creaghan.ca