Advertisers Must Know Their Product PDF Print E-mail
Written by Claude Hopkins   
Saturday, 21 June 2008 23:26
The successful ad-writer must get full information on the subject. The library and/or computer files of an ad agency should have books and/or electronic files on every line that calls for research. When a problem arises, an astute advertising person will conduct an exhaustive review the literature for weeks. By scanning a multitude of books, journals and/or electronic files, one should find a few useable facts. One fact may even become the keystone of success. 

One researcher conducted an enormous amount of library research, medical and general information, on coffee to advertise decaffeinated coffee. The researcher found one scientific article out of a thousand of those reviewed showed caffeine stimulation comes two hours after drinking it. This became the cornerstone for the advertising campaign. Therefore the immediate effects people seek from coffee do not come from caffeine. Removing caffeine does not remove the kick. It does not modify coffee's delights, for caffeine is tasteless and odorless.

Caffeineless coffee has been advertised for years. People regarded it like near-beer. After weeks of reading we found a way to put it in another perspective..

Another example of the rewards of rigorous and time consuming research is a tooth paste advertisment. In the middle of one volume the advertiser found the idea which has helped make millions for that tooth paste maker. Additionally it made this campaign one of the sensations of advertising.

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

Some useful ideas and research techniques:

  • Before advertising a food product, 130 men were employed for weeks to interview all classes of consumers.
  • On another project, letters were sent to 12,000 physicians. Questionnaires are often mailed to tens of thousands of men and women to get the viewpoint of consumers.
  • A $25,000-a-year man, before advertising outfits for acetylene gas, spent weeks in going from farm to farm.
  • Another ad-writer did that on a tractor.
  • Before advertising a shaving cream, one thousand men were asked to state what they most desired in a shaving soap.
  • When called on to advertise pork and beans, a canvass was made of about a thousand homes. Previously all pork and bean advertising has been based on "Buy my brand." A survey of this particular population showed that only 4 percent of the people used any canned pork and beans. Ninety-six percent baked their beans at home. The problem was not to sell a particular brand, since a brand appealed to only four percent. The right appeal was to win the people away from home-baked beans. Without this knowledge we would certainly have failed. Armed with this research information, the advertising proved a great success.
  • The advertiser may survey, not only homes, but dealers. Knowing the competition is essential. Every advertiser of a similar product is known for his literature and claims. Thus we start with exact information on all that our rivals are doing.
  • Clipping bureaus are patronized, so that everything printed on our subject comes to the person who writes ads.
  • Every comment that comes from consumers or dealers goes to this person's desk.
  • It is often necessary in a line to learn the total expenditure. We must learn what a user spends a year, otherwise we shall not know if users are worth the cost of getting.
  • We must learn the total consumption, otherwise we may overspend.
  • We must learn the percentage of readers to whom our product appeals. We must usually gather this data on socio-economic classes and various groups. The percentage may differ on farms and in cities. The cost of advertising largely depends on the percentage of waste circulation.

Thus an advertising campaign is usually preceded by much research and a very large volume of data. Even an experimental campaign reqiures a great deal of work and time.

Often chemists are employed to prove or disprove doubtful claims. An advertiser, in all good faith, makes an impressive assertion. If it is true, it will form a big factor in advertising. If untrue, it may prove a boomerang. And it may bar our ads from good mediums. It is remarkable how often a maker proves wrong on assertions he had made for years.

Impressive claims are made far more impressive by making them exact. So, many experiments are made to get the actual figures. For instance, a certain drink is known to have a large food value. That simple assertion is not very convincing. So we send the drink to the laboratory and find that its food value is 425 calories per pint. One pint is equal to six eggs in calories of nutriment. That claim makes a great impression.

In every line involving scientific details a censor is appointed. The ad-writer, however well informed, may draw wrong inferences from facts. So an authority passes on every advertisement. The uninformed would be astounded to know the amount of work involved in a single ad. It frequently involves weeks of work. The ad seems so simple, and it must be simple to appeal to the average person. But back of that ad may lie reams of data, volumes of information, and months of research.

This is no lazy person's field of work.
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 29 July 2008 02:47 )
 

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