By Claude C. Hopkins and Troy S. Laughren

© 2005 Troy S. Laughren All Rights Reserved
No part of this 2005 version May be reproduced in any form.

Many things are possible in advertising but are too costly to attempt.  That is another reason why every project and method should be weighed and determined by a known scale of cost and result.

Changing people's habits is very expensive.  A project which involves that must be seriously considered.  To sell shaving soap to the peasants of Russia one would first need to change their beard wearing habits.  The cost would be excessive, yet countless advertisers try to do things just like this everyday, even though they are almost impossible.  And all because questions are not well considered, and results are untraced and unknown.

For instance, the advertiser of a toothpaste may spend much space and money to educate people to brush their teeth.  Tests which we know of have indicated that the cost of converting such prospects may run from $20 to $25 each.  Not only because of the difficulty, but because so much of the advertising goes to people that already understand the benefits of brushing their teeth.

Such a cost, of course, is unthinkable.  One might not in a lifetime get it back in sales.  The maker who learned these facts by tests makes no attempt to educate people to the tooth brushing habit.  What cannot be done on a large scale profitably can not be done on a small scale.  So not one product in any ad is devoted to this objection.  This manufacturer, who is constantly guided in everything by tracking every ad, has made remarkable success.

Another toothpaste maker spends much money to make converts to the tooth brush.  The object although commendable, is altruistic.  The new business he creates is shared by his competitors.  He is wondering why his sales increase is in no way proportionate with his expenses.

An advertiser at one time spent much money to educate people to the use of oatmeal.  The results were too small to discover. All people know of oatmeal.  As a food for children it has age-old fame.  Doctors have advised it for many generations.   People who don't serve oatmeal are therefore difficult to sell to. Perhaps their objections are impossible.  Anyway, the cost proved to be beyond all possible return.

There are many advertisers who know facts like these and forfeit them.  They would not think of devoting a whole campaign to any such impossible object.  Yet they devote a share of their advertising space to that object.  That is only the same foolishness on a smaller scale. It is not good business.

No one, orange grower or raisin grower could attempt to increase the consumption of those fruits.  The cost might be a thousand times his share of the returns.  But thousands of growers combined have done it with those and many other products.  There lies one of the great possibilities of advertising development.  The general consumption of scores of foods can be profitably increased.  But it must be done on wide co-operation basis.

No advertiser could afford to educate people on vitamins or herbs.  Such things are done by authorities, through countless columns of unpaid-for space.  But great successes have been made by going to people already educated and satisfying their already created wants.

It is a very shrewd thing to watch the development of a popular trend, the creation of new desires.  Then at the right time offer to satisfy those desires.  That was done on yeasts, for instance, and on numerous antiseptics.  It can every year be done on new things which some popular fashion or widespread influence has brought into fashion.  But it is a very different thing to create that fashion, taste or influence for all in your industry to share.

There are something’s we know of which might possibly be sold to half the homes in the country.  A Dakin-fluid purifier, for instance.  But the consumption would be very small.  A small bottle might last for years.  Customers might cost $1.50 each.  And the revenue per customer might not in ten years repay the cost of acquiring them.  Mail order sales on single products, however popular, rarely cost less than 42.50 each.  It is reasonable to suppose that sales made through dealers on like products will cost approximately as much.  Those facts must be considered on any one-sale product. Possibly one user will win others.  But traced returns as in mail order advertising would prohibit much advertising which is now being done.

Costly mistakes are made by blindly following some ill-conceived idea.  A product, for instance, may have many uses, one of which is to prevent disease.  Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be.  People will do much to cure trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it.  This has been proved by many disappointments.

One may spend much money in arguing prevention when the same money spent on another claim would bring many times the sales.  A heading which asserts one claim may bring ten times the results of a heading which asserted another.  An advertiser may go far off course unless he finds out.

A tooth paste may tend to prevent decay and also beautify teeth.  Tests will show however that the latter appeal is many times as strong as the former.  The most successful tooth paste advertiser never features tooth troubles in their headlines.  Tests have proved them too unappealing.  Other advertisers in this industry center on those troubles.  Often this is because results are not known and compared.

A soap may tend to cure eczema.  It may at the same time improve complexion.  The eczema claim may appeal to one in a hundred while the beauty claims would appeal to nearly all.  To even mention the eczema claims might destroy the beauty claims.

A person has a relief for asthma.  It has done so much for him he considers it a great advertising possibility.  We have no statistics on this subject.  We do not know the percentage of people who suffer from asthma.  A canvass might show it to be one in a hundred.  If so, he would need to cover a hundred useless readers to reach one he wants.  His cost of result might be twenty times as high as on another product which appeals to one in five.  That excessive cost would probably mean disaster.  For reasons like these every new advertiser should seek wise advice.  No one with the interests of advertising at heart will advise any dubious venture.

Some claims not popular enough to feature in the main are still popular enough to consider.  They influence a certain number of people - say one-fourth of your possible customers.  Such claims may be featured to advantage in a certain percentage of headlines.  It should probably be included in every advertisement.  But those are not things to guess at.  They should be decided by actual knowledge, using tracked returns.

This chapter, like every chapter, points out a very important reason for knowing your results.  Scientific advertising is impossible without that, so is safe advertising.  So is maximum profit.

Groping in the dark in this field has probably cost enough money to pay the national debt.  That is what has filled the advertising graveyards.  That is what has discouraged thousands who could profit in this field.  And the dawning of knowledge is bringing a new day in the advertising world.