24.02.08 - My Life in Advertising

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2		My Life in Advertising
3		By Claude Hopkins
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5		Amazon: Link
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7		#	Pg.	TC Highlight
8		1	76	I have never gambled in a large way, whether acting for myself or for others. So, the failures I have made, and they are many have never counted strongly against me. I have escaped the distrust engendered by conspicuous disaster. When I lost, I lost little in money and nothing in confidence. When I won, I often gained millions for my client and a wealth of prestige for myself. That I largely owe to my mother.
9		2	92	When I ceased before midnight. that was a holiday for me. I often left my office at two o’clock in the morning. Sundays were my best working days because there were no interruptions. For sixteen years after entering business, I rarely had an evening, or a Sunday not occupied by work. I am not advising others to follow my example. I would not advise a boy of mine to do so. Life holds so many other things more important than success that work in moderation probably brings more joy. But the man who works twice as long as his fellows is bound to go twice as far, especially in advertising. One cannot get around that.There is some difference in brains, of course, but it is not so important as the difference in industry. The man who does two or three times the work of another learns two or three times as much. He makes more mis takes and more successes, and he learns from both. If I have gone higher than others in advertising, or done more, the fact is not due to exceptional ability, but to exceptional hours. It means that a man has sacrificed all else in life to excel in this one profession. It means a man to be pitied, rather than envied, perhaps.
10	X	3	104	Through father I gained poverty, and that was another blessing. Father was the son of a clergyman. His ancestors far back had been clergymen, bred and schooled in poverty, so this was his natural state. I owe much to that condition. It took me among the common people, of whom God made so many. I came to know them, their wants and impulses, their struggles and economies, their simplicities.
11		4	119	To poverty I owe the fact that I never went to college. I spent those four years in the school of experience instead of a school of theory. I know nothing of value which an advertising man can be taught in college. I know of many things taught there which he will need to unlearn before he can steer any practical course. Then higher education appears to me a handicap to a man whose lifetime work consists in appealing to common people.
12		5	154	That ballad had a greater influence on my career than all my family teachings. I admired Will Carleton. I wanted to be when I grew up a famous man like him. His attitude on my home life agreed with mine, of course. And when such a man agreed with me, he gave my opinions weight. Ever after that Will Carleton became my guiding star. His attitude on religious fanaticism showed me for the first time that there was another side. I went on studying for the ministry. I was a. preacher at seventeen. I preached in Chicago at eighteen. But the course of thought which Will Carleton started eventually made a religious career impossible for me.
13		6	177	Up to the age of six or seven I was surrounded by college students at play. I knew nothing of the serious side of student life, but I saw all the college pranks. Thus, I gained a rather firm idea that all life was a playground. This section foreman reversed that idea. He impressed me with the difference between him and his helpers. The helpers worked from necessity. They did as little as possible. They counted the hours to quitting time, then on Saturday nights they would go to the city and spend all they had earned in the week. The foreman worked with enthusiasm. He said: “Boys, let us lay so many ties today. Let us get this stretch in fine shape.” The men would go at it stoically, and work as though work was a bore. But the foreman made the work a game. That man built his home in the evenings, after ten-hour days on the railroad. He cultivated a garden around it. Then he married the prettiest girl in the section and lived a life of bliss. Eventually he was called to some higher post, but not until I learned great lessons from him. “Look at those boys play ball,” he said. “That’s what I call hard work. Here I am shingling a roof. I am racing with time. I know what surface I must cover before sunset to fulfil my stint. That’s my idea of fun.’’ “Look at those fellows whittling, discussing railroads, talking politics. The most that any of them know about a railroad is how to drive a spike. They will always do that and no more. Note what I have done while they loafed there this evening-built most of the porch on my home. Soon I will be sitting there in comfort, making love to a pretty wife. They will always be sitting on those soap boxes around the grocery stove. Which is work and which play?”
14		7	230	Mother made a silver polish. I molded it into cake form and wrapped it in pretty paper. Then I went from house to house to sell it. I found that I sold about one woman in ten by merely talking the polish at the door. But when I could get into the pantry and demonstrate the polish, I sold to nearly all. That taught me the rudiments of another lesson I never have forgotten. A good article is its own best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods, in print or in person, without samples. The hardest struggle of my life has been to educate advertisers to the use of samples. Or to trials of some kind. 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. Some say that samples cost too much. Some argue that repeaters will ask for them again and again. But persuasion alone is vastly more expensive.
15		8	239	I learned this also from street fakers. I stood for hours to listen to them in the torchlight. I realize now that I drank in their methods and theories. They never tried to sell things without demonstration. They showed in some dramatic way what the product they sold would do. It is amazing how many advertisers know less than those men about salesmanship.
16		9	254	A man who has made a success-desires to sec others make a success. A man who has worked wants to sec others work. I am that way. Countless young people now flock to my home, but the welcome ones are those who work, whether young men or young women. A boy having a good time on his father’s money has always been offensive to me. So, to a degree, a young woman. If there is to be any equality between the sexes, there should be equality in effort. People of either sex must justify existence. Some, through circumstances, may not fully cam their way, but they should strive to do so. I abhor drones. And I believe that my influence has driven many men and women to greater happiness.
17	X	10	276	We must never judge humanity by ourselves. The things we want, the things we like, may appeal to a small minority. The losses occasioned in advertising by venturing on personal preference would easily pay the national debt. We live in a democracy. On every law there are divided opinions. So, in every preference, every want. Only the obstinate, the bone-headed, will venture far on personal opinion. We must submit all things in advertising, as in everything else, to the-court of public opinion. This, you will see, is the main theme of this book. I own an ocean-going yacht, but do you suppose I would venture across an ocean without a chart or compass? If I have no such records, I take soundings all the way. We are influenced by our surroundings. The prosperous mingle with the prosperous, so do those of certain likes and inclinations. The higher we ascend the farther we proceed from ordinary humanity. That will not do in advertising.
18	X	11	287	Let me digress here to say that the road to success lies through ordinary people. They form the vast majority. The man who knows them and is one of them stands the vastly better chance. Some of the greatest successes I have ever known in advertising were ignorant men. Tw o are now heads of agencies. One of them has made much money in advertising a man who can hardly sign his name. But he knew ordinary people, and the ordinary people bought what he had to sell.
19		12	292	Now college men come to us by the hundreds and say, “We have education, we have literary style.” I say to them that both those things arc handicaps. The great majority of men and women cannot appreciate literary style. If they do, they fear it. They fear over-influence when it comes to spending money. Any unique style excites suspicion. Any evident effort to sell creates corresponding resistance. Any appeal which seems to come from a higher class arouses their resentment. Any dictation is abhorrent to us all. All the time we are seeking in advertising, men with the impulses of the majority. We never ask their education, never their literary qualifications. Those lacks arc easily supplied. But let a man prove to us that he understands human nature and we welcome him with open arms.
20	X	13	325	I am trying to show by this how ordinary, how plebeian, good advertising is. And how ordinary humanity counts. Most new men in this field rely on language, on the ability to express an idea. Others count on queer things which attract attention. All of them are trying to fatter them-selves and that always arouses resentment. The real people in advertising whom I know are all humble people. They came from humble people, and they know them.
21		14	339	Often the minister dropped in, but he was no competitor of mine in a Bible competition. I knew several times as many verses. At the age of seven I was writing sermons and setting them in my father’s printing-office. Often in prayer-meetings I spoke a short sermon. Thus, all came to regard me as a coming pulpit orator. I was made valedictorian of my class at school. My graduating essay was on ambition, and I still remember how I denounced it, how I pleaded for poverty and service.
22		15	359	I had been growing away from mother’s strict ideas of religion. I knew that she could not approve of me if she knew me as I was. She was a fundamentalist. She believed in a personal devil, in hell fire, and in all the miracles. To her the Bible was a history, inspired by its writers and to be taken literally. The earth was created in six days. Eve was derived from Adam’s rib. William Jennings Bryan would have been mother’s idol. I had been growing away from her orthodox conceptions, but I had not dared to tell her. It would mean the destruction of her fondest illusions. But during the summer I had prepared a sermon based on my ideas of religion. It countenanced the harmless joys of life which had been barred to me. It argued against hell fire, against infant damnation, against the discipline I knew. It even questioned the story of the creation and of Jonah and the whale.
23	X	16	395	The saver and the worker get the preference of the men who control opportunities. And often that preference proves to be the most important thing in life.
24	X	17	431	So long as we are going upward, nothing is a hardship. But when we start down, even from a marble mansion to a cheaper palace, that is hard.
25		18	695	We went along the New York Central, and in every city, we learned new ways to increase the results of our efforts. We went to the leading baker and showed him newspaper clippings of what we had done elsewhere. We offered to let him build the cake, and be advertised as its creator, on condition that he bought a carload of Cotosuet. Sometimes two carloads. We went to the leading grocery and proved the results of our cake show. Then we offered to place the cake in his store if he ordered a carload in tins.
26		19	708	Study salesmen, canvassers, and fakers if you want to know how to sell goods. No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. I have no sympathy with those who feel that fine language is going to sell goods at a profit. I have listened to their arguments for hours. They might as well say that full dress is an excellent diving-suit. No dilettantes have any chance in prying money out of pockets. The way to sell goods is to sell them. The way to do that is to sample and... demonstrate, and the more attractive you can make your demonstration the better it will be for you. The men who succeed in advertising arc not the highly bred, not the men careful to be unobtrusive and polite, but the men who know what arouses enthusiasm in simple people. The difference is the difference between Charlie Chaplin and Robert Mantell, or “After the Ball” and “The Moonlight Sonata.’’ If we are going to sell, we must cater to the millions who buy.
27		20	782	I had sold more Cotosuet in one week than six salesmen had sold in six weeks. Not one buyer had complained about the price. Mr. Swift wired me to fire the whole Boston force, but I asked him to wait until I returned and explained my methods to him. When I met Mr. Swift, I said: “I did not sell Cotosuet did not talk Cotosuet. I sold pie cards and schemes, and Cotosuct went with them.” “Then I wish you would teach our other men to do that.’’ “It cannot be taught,” I replied. And I am still of that opinion. The difference lies in the basic conception of selling. The average salesman openly seeks favors, seeks profit for himself. His plea is, “Buy my goods, not the other fellow’s.” He makes a selfish appeal to selfish people, and of course he meets resistance. I was selling service. The whole basis of my talk was to help the baker get more business. The advantage to myself was covered up with, my efforts to please him. I have always applied that same principle to advertising. I never ask people to buy. I rarely even say that my goods are sold by dealers, I seldom quote a price. The ads. all offer service, perhaps a free sample or a free package. They sound altruistic. But they get a reading and get action from people seeking to serve themselves. No selfish appeal can do that.
28		21	803	If they did my purchases would be few. My check book is at the office. By the next day, in all probability, the book would be forgotten. But they offer to send me the book to examine. I simply mail the coupon. I tear it out at once, put it in my pocket, and mail it the next morning. In my early years in advertising those ideas of salesmanship were new. I was, I believe, among the first to apply them. No doubt I originated many of their applications. I never tried to sell anything, even in my retail-store advertising. I always offered a favor. Now I talk of service, profit, pleasure, gifts, not any desires of my own. The house-to-house canvasser must apply those principles, else his sales are limited. So must the mail-order advertiser, whose results are known. But the advertiser who proceeds without knowing results often ignores these principles. Everywhere we see advertisers merely saying a name. They say: Buy my brand. Be sure to get the original.”Their whole evident desire is some selfish advantage. Such advertising may sometimes pay to an extent, but it never can pay like appeals which appear unselfish. But Swift & Company refused to give anything away. I could never sample their products. We advertised wool soap, washing powder, breakfast sausage, hams, and bacon and butterine, and we were reasonably successful. But I came to realize that under their restrictions any real success was impossible.
29		22	856	Night after night Dr. Shoop and I discussed the situation. I told him all I had done by talking ideas not connected with the product. Then we evolved the idea of a druggist’s signed guaranty. People were not buying medicine; they were buying results. Many an advertiser a thousand miles away offered to guarantee results, but the guarantors were strangers. I conceived the idea of having a neighborhood druggist, to whom people paid their money, sign the guaranty. First, I tried this plan out on a cough cure. It brought enormous results. Here was one cough cure which anyone could buy without risk. Hit brought the results we promised, it was worth many times its cost. If it failed, it was free. No cough cure on the market then could compete with that. Later I tested the same plan on other remedies on Dr. Shoop’s Restorative, on his Rheumatic Cure. It worked like magic. Others made claims, but we offered a certainty. And we secured most of the trade.
30	X	23	875	In advertising and merchandising, that is something always to consider. One must outbid all others in some way. He must offer advantages in qualities, service, or terms, or he must create a seeming advantage by citing facts which others fail to cite. Crying a name or brand is not sufficient. Urging people to buy from you instead of others goes against the grain. One must know his competition, know what others offer, know what people want. Until one feels sure that the advantages arc strongly on his side, it is folly to risk a battle. One cannot long fool people who are carefully spending money. Never pay the price to get them unless you see clearly how you can keep them. Don’t underestimate the intelligence and the information of people who count their pennies.
31		24	891	There I learned another valuable principle in advertising. In a wide-reaching campaign we are too apt to regard people in the mass. We try to broadcast our seed in the hope that some part will take root. That is too wasteful to ever bring a profit. We must get down to individuals. We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person. Center on their desires. Consider the person who stands before you with certain ex pressed desires. However big your business, get down to the units, for those units are all that make size.
32		25	899	Then I went through the brewery. I saw plate-glass rooms where beer was dripping over pipes, and I asked the reason for them. They told me those rooms were filled with filtered air, so the beer could be cooled in purity. I saw great filters filled with white-wood pulp. They explained how that filtered the beer. They showed how they cleaned every pump and pipe, twice daily, to avoid contaminations. How every bottle was cleaned four times by machinery. They showed me artesian wells, where they went 4,000 feet deep for pure water, though their brewery was on Lake Michigan. They showed me the vats where beer was aged for six months before it went out to the user. They took me to their laboratory and showed me their original mother yeast cell. It had been developed by me ;200 experiments to bring out the utmost in favor. All of the yeast used in making Schlitz Beer was developed from that original cell. I came back to the office amazed.I said: “Why don’t you tell people these things? Why do you merely try to cry louder than others that your beer is pure? Why don’t you tell the reasons?” ‘Why,” they said, “the processes we use arc just the same as others use. No one can make good beer without them.” “But” I replied, “others have never told this story. It amazes everyone who goes through your brewery. It will startle everyone in print”
33	X	26	914	That situation occurs in many, many lines. The maker is too close to his product. He secs in his methods only the ordinary. He does not realize that the world at large might marvel at those methods, and that facts which seem commonplace to him might give him vast distinction. That is a situation which occurs in most advertising problems. The article is not unique. It embodies no great advantages. Perhaps countless people can make similar products. But tell the pains you take to excel. Tell factors and features which others deem too commonplace to claim. Your product will come to typify those excellencies. If others claim them afterward, it will only serve to advertise you. There are few advertised products which cannot be imitated. Few who dominate a field have any exclusive advantage. They were simply the first to tell certain convincing facts.
34	X	27	961	My years in Racine gave me unique experience in advertising proprietaries and brought me wide reputation. My methods were new. Testimonials had been almost universal in those lines. I published none. Reckless claims were common. My ads. said in effect, “Try this cough remedy; watch the benefits it brings. It cannot harm, for no opiates are in it. If it succeeds, the cough will stop. If it fails, it is free. Your own druggist signs the warrant.” The appeal was overwhelming, almost resistless. Ever since then my chief study has been to create appeals like that. When we make an offer, one cannot reasonably refuse, it is pretty sure to gain acceptance. And however generous the offer, however open to imposition, experience proves that very few will cheat those who offer a square deal. Tr y to hedge or protect yourself, and human nature likes to circumvent you. But remove all restrictions and say, “We trust you,” and human nature likes to justify that trust. All my experience in advertising has shown that people in general arc honest.
35	X	28	1007	My closest friend repudiated me entirely. He said that good sense was a prime requisite in a friend. I am sure that few men ever entered a business adventure under darker skies. But I want to say here that every great accomplishment of my life has been won against such opposition. Every move that led upward, or to greater happiness or content, has been fought by every friend I had. Perhaps because they were selfish and wanted me to stay with them. I have met other great emergencies, more important than money or business. I have always had to meet them alone. I have had to decide for myself, and always against tremendous opposition. Every great move I have made in life has been ridiculed and opposed by my friends. The greatest winnings I have made, in happiness, in money or content, have been accomplished amid almost universal scorn.
36	X	29	1014	But I have reasoned in this way: The average man is not successful. We meet few who attain their goal, few who are really happy or content. Then why should we let the majority rule in matters affecting our lives? Success has come to me in sufficient measure, happiness in abundance, and absolute content. Not one of those blessings would have come to me had I followed the advice of my friends. As a result, I never give advice. We have our own lives to live, our own careers to make. We have no way of measuring others desires and capacities. Some arc weak. A discouraging word at a critical moment may change their entire course. Then the one who gives that word incurs the responsibility. I court no obligations of that kind. Advertising teaches us how fallible arc our judgments, even in things we know best. We have nowhere near an even chance when we attempt to give advice. I went into Liquozone under the circumstances stated. I was playing a desperate game. Four men in four years had failed utterly. Yet on this dubious venture I was staking all I had. Night after night I paced Lincoln Park, trying to evolve a plan. I held to my old conceptions. Serve better than others, offer more than others, and you are pretty sure to win.
37	X	30	1056	There are other ways, I know, to win in selling and in advertising. But they are slow and uncertain. Ask a person to take a chance on you, and you have a fight. Offer to take a chance on him, and the way is easy. I have always taken chances on the other fellow. I have analyzed my proposition until I made sure that he had the best end of the bargain. Then I had something people could not well neglect.
38		31	1100	I came out with headlines, “Try Our Rivals, Too.” I urged people to buy the brands suggested and compare them with Van Camp’s. That appeal won over others. If we were certain enough of our advantage to invite such comparisons, people were certain enough to buy. That’s another big point to consider. Argue anything for your own advantage, and people will resist to the limit. But seem unselfishly to consider your customers’ desires, and they will naturally flock to you.
39	X	32	1126	Van Camp’s pork and beans offered no unique arguments. They were like other pork and beans. When we met in the factory and served a half dozen brands, not a man present could decide which we Van Camp’s. But we told facts which no one else ever told. We told of bean; grown on special soils. Any good navy beans must be grown there. We told of vine-ripened tomatoes, Livingston Stone tomatoes. All our competitors used them. We told how we analyzed every lot of beans, as every canner must. We told of our steam ovens where beans are baked for hours at S degrees. That is regular canning practice. We told how we boiled beans in soft water to eliminate the lime which made skins tough. Our rivals did that also. We pictured the beans, whole, un-crisped, and mealy. We Compared them with home-baked beans, with Crisped beans on top and mushy beans below. We told why beans, when baked in home ovens, fermented and, were hard to digest. And how we baked in scaled containers, so no favor could escape. We told just the same story that any rival could have told, but all others thought the story was too commonplace.
40		33	1178	Curiosity is a strong factor in human nature, and especially with women. Describe a gift, and some will decide that they want it, more will decide that they don’t. But everybody wants a secret gift. There are things to consider in such an offer. The gift must not be disappointing. It should be somewhat better than women arc led to expect. Then the offer must be treated in a rather insidious ‘way.
41	X	34	1231	That brings up another point in advertising the advantage of being specific. Platitudes and generalities make no more impression than water on a duck. To say, “Best in the world,” “Cheapest in the long run,” “The most economical,” etc., does not create conviction. Such claims are expected. The most carefully censored magazines accept them as merely expressions of a salesman trying to put his best foot forward. They are not classed as falsehoods, but as mere exaggerations. They probably do more harm than good, because they indicate a looseness of expression and cause people to discount whatever you say.
42	X	35	1236	But when we make specific and definite claims, when we state actual figures or facts, we indicate weighed and measured expressions. We are telling either the truth or a lie. People do not expect big concerns to lie. They know that we cannot lie in the best mediums. So, we get full credit for those claims. I shall have other occasions to cite the advantages of definite, specific claims.
43	X	36	1280	People are like sheep. They cannot judge values, nor can you and me. We judge things largely by others’ impressions, by popular favor. We go with the crowd. So, the most effective thing I have ever found in advertising is the trend of the crowd. That is a factor not to be overlooked. People follow styles and preferences. We rarely decide for ourselves because we don’t know the facts. But when we see the crowds taking any certain direction, we are much inclined to go with them.
44		37	1284	I showed in my advertising how the crowds were going to Overland automobiles. I told how the demand had forced a bankrupt concern into solvency. Then how it created a tent city. That presentation set people thinking. And they followed the trend. The Overland became, as it is today, one of the largest-selling cars in the world. The Reo at one time had a bad season. The season’s output was unsold, and sales had practically. stopped. The next season’s outlook was dubious. I was called in to meet this emergency. That has been my chief work in advertising meeting emergencies. Nobody ever called me in when the skies were bright, and the seas were calm. Nearly every client quit me when he got into smooth waters.
45	X	38	1296	Every ad., in my opinion, should tell a complete story. It should include every fact and argument found to be valuable. Most people, I figure, read a story but once, as they do a news item. I know of no reason why they should read it again. So, I wish them to get in that one reading every convincing fact.
46	X	39	1333	The lesson in this is the lesson in all salesman ship. One must know what buyers arc thinking about and what they are coming to want. One must know the upends to be a leader in a winning trend.
47	X	40	1335	Advertising to many is mere ad-writing. Language and style are considered important. They are not. If fine writing is effective in any way, it is a detriment. It suggests an effort to sell. And every effort to sell creates corresponding resistance. Salesmanship in print is exactly the same as salesmanship in person. Style is a handicap. Anything that takes attention from the subject reduces the impression. One may say: ‘‘That is a beautiful ad. The pictures are perfect, the presentation is wonderful.” But that very idea prohibits one from being influenced by the ad. It indicates lack of sincerity. It suggests an effort to sell. And we are all on our guard when somebody, apparently, is trying to get our money away.
48	X	41	1378	We did another thing there through a name. We called the anti-skid-tread All Weather. We figured out what claim could count most and made the name implies it. So, the name told our main story. It formed an ad. in itself. Our main purpose then was to induce motorists to use this type of tire on all wheels in all weathers. That has since become the custom, largely through that influence.
49		42	1572	I learned the reason for puffing. It exploded every food cell. I proved that it multiplied the grains to eight times normal size. It made every atom available as food. I watched the process, where the grains were shot from guns. And I coined the phrase, “‘Foods shot from guns.’’ That idea aroused ridicule. One of the greatest food advertisers in the country wrote an article about it. He said that of all the follies evolved in food advertising this certainly was the worst. The idea of appealing to women on a “Food shot from guns’’ was the theory of an imbecile. But that theory proved attractive. It aroused curiosity. And that is one of the greatest incentives we know in dealing with human nature.
50	X	43	1581	First, I established a personality-Professor A. P. Anderson. I have always done that wherever possible. Personalities appeal, while soulless corporations do not. Make a man famous and you make his creation famous. All of us love to study men and their accomplishments.
51	X	44	1639	Our success depends on pleasing people. By an inexpensive test we can learn if we please them or not. We can guide our endeavors accordingly. Two-minute Oats failed because the unique favor did not appeal to most people. But Quick Quaker gave to the Quaker Oats Company a new hold on the oatmeal business. The difference was decided by submitting the question to a few thousand housewives at small expense. That can always be done. One can always learn what is wanted and what is not wanted, without any considerable risk. That is about the only way to advertising success. 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.
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