When Science is Applied to Advertising and Marketing

 Copyright 2006 Presslink Publishing

This is the third article in a series of the history of advertising and marketing. We pick up the story from when John E. Kennedy exited Lord and Thomas leaving Albert Lasker with the monumental task of replacing him.

1908 Kennedy must have been a hard act to follow.

But Lasker did replace him with a man who made an even greater overall contribution to the advertising world than Kennedy did.

Kennedy's replacement was called Claude C. Hopkins.

And what a true pioneer he proved to be.

He's the man who inaugurated free sampling, risk-free trials, money-back guarantees, market testing, and much more.

Hopkins agreed with Kennedy on the "Salesmanship on Paper" philosophy, but where Kennedy was a "one idea" man, Hopkins had many ideas.

Hopkins reckoned that just placing ads and seeing what happened was futile. Pure guesswork. He wanted to measure everything that he did.

And we should all be glad that he did.

Hopkins wrote only two books but both were classics. His first: "Scientific Advertising" written in 1923 contained manyof his secrets that he found with his testing techniques. These secrets are still as valid today.

His second book, written in 1927, was an autobiography called: "My Life in Advertising." Many regard this as the best advertising book ever written.

All top marketers regard Hopkins' first book as their copywriting "how-to" bible.

And the late advertising great, David Ogilvy, had this to say about Scientific Advertising: "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read Scientific Advertising seven times - it completely changed my life."

Jay Abraham, known as America's #1 marketing wizard, had this to say: "Claude Hopkins is the master of them all. His influence has easily added over $6m to my personal income.....and still counting."

Hopkins created ad campaigns for many major US companies that are still going strong today. Companies such as Palmolive, Pepsodent, and Quaker Oats.

One of his secret strategies for creating more turnover for his clients was that of "pre-emptive" strikes.

By this strategy, he used to tell a story of how things were done in an industry and thus educate the customers. Any competitor could have told the same story but didn't. and whoever did so first, gained the edge.

Hopkins stated in his books that a large part of advertising done at the time was based on the concept of: "Buy My Product" or "Come into My Store." Lots of advertisers today make this same mistake. Are you one of them?

Customers are not fooled by this. They want to know: "What's in it for me?"

Hopkins knew this and used this psychology to grow Van Camp's pork and bean business. After his research, Hopkins found that 94% of housewives were baking their own beans at home and only 6% were buying canned beans.

But Hopkins realized that everybody advertising canned beans merely stated: "Buy My Brand." Nobody explained what the benefit of their product was.

So, Hopkins ran an advertising campaign that explained how it took 16 hours to bake beans at home, and you could never make home baked beans digestible.

He talked about crispy beans on top and the mushy beans on the bottom. He also highlighted the process Van Camp's used to select their beans, the soft water that they used, and how they made the skins less tough by removing the lime. He also emphasized the steam ovens where the beans were baked at 245 degrees in sealed containers so no flavor was lost. Then finally he offered a free sample so customers could compare.

This particular campaign became a huge success for Van Camps. Yet it was the very same process that all the manufacturers could have told. But they didn't.

Here's another famous story from Claude Hopkins which you may have heard of:

Schlitz Beer were ranked 5th. in their share of the market. That was, until they hired Hopkins to do his makeover.

Hopkins' campaign took Schlitz from that 5th. spot to equal 1st. spot in just a few months.

What Hopkins did in these two examples and all the others he created, was educate people. The same is true today.

You cannot over-educate people.

Now maybe you're still thinking, anything from as long ago as the beginning of the last century can't possibly work today.

Then think again.

1908 Walter Dill Scott produces another classic on advertising: "Psychology of Advertising." Maxwell Sackheim said this about this classic manuscript: "The only book on advertising I read as a youth was written by Professor Walter Dill Scott of North Eastern University and was titled: "The Psychology of Advertising." l still think it is one of the finest books ever written on the subject - and that his formula for successful advertising has never been surpassed.

1911 Kennedy returns to Lord and Thomas as a freelance copywriter.

1911 Proctor and Gamble pay JWT to launch Crisco, its new vegetable shortening.

1911 Standard Oil , dissolved by the courts, invites Harrison King McCann to form an agency to service its disbanded divisions.

1911 Woodbury Soap launches its "The skin you love to touch" campaign. The first time "sex" appeal was used in advertising.

Around this time, copywriting started to become a "trade." Many newcopywriters appeared and agencies like Lord and Thomas actually set upcopywriting schools.

Some great sales copy by some great writers started to show. In my next article I will mention a few. All are well-worth studying.

About the author:

Peter Woodhead is the author of Long Lost Marketing Secrets, other niche websites and a member site. He offers a free 9 Part e-course at: http://www.LostSecretsofMarketingLegends.com Get it today! And you can get his 4 sales and marketing books by visiting: http://www.LongLostMarketingSecrets.com or view his member site at: http://www.PublicDomainResource.com

 Peter Woodhead

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