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.

An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject.   The library of an ad agency should have books on every product that calls for research.  A painstaking advertising person will often read for weeks on some problem that comes up.

Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use.  But with some, one fact may be the critical point of success.

This writer has just completed an enormous amount of reading, medical and otherwise, on coffee.  This, to advertise a coffee without caffeine.  One scientific article out of a thousand perused, gave the crucial point for that campaign.  It was the fact that caffeine stimulation comes two hours after drinking.  So the immediate bracing effects that people seek from coffee, does not come from the caffeine.  Removing caffeine does not remove the kick.  It does not modify coffee's delights, for caffeine is tasteless and odorless.

Caffeine free coffee has been advertised for years.  People regarded it like near-beer.  Only through weeks of reading did we find a way to put it into another light.

To advertise a toothpaste this writer has also read many volumes of scientific data that was as dry as dust.  But in the middle of one volume he found the idea that has helped make millions for that toothpaste manufacturer, and has made this campaign one of the greatest sensations in the advertising world.

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

Before advertising a food product, 130 men were employed for weeks to interview all classes of consumers.

With another product line, letters we’re sent to 12,000 physicians. Questionnaires are often mailed to tens of thousands of men and women to understand the viewpoint of consumers.

A $250,000-a-year person, before advertising outfits for acetylene gas, spent weeks going from farm to farm to learn more. And another did that for a tractor campaign.

Before advertising a shaving cream, one thousand men were asked to state what they most desired in a shaving soap.

Called on to advertise pork and beans, a canvass was made of some thousand homes.  Before then all pork and bean advertising has been based on "Buy my brand."  That canvass showed that only 4 per cent of the people used any canned pork and beans.  96 percent baked their beans at home.  The problem was not in attempting to sell a particular brand.  Any such attempt appealed to only 4 percent.  The right appeal was to win the people away from home-baked beans.  Without this knowledge the advertising would have no doubt failed, however with the knowledge, it proved to be a great success.

A canvas is made, not only of homes, but of dealers. Competition is measured up.

Every advertiser of a similar product is written for his literature and claims.  Thus we start with exact information on all that our rivals are doing.

Clipping bureaus are used so that everything printed on our subject gets to the person who writes the 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 spending.  We must learn what a user spends a year, otherwise we will not know if users are worth the cost of acquiring.

We must learn the total consumption, so as not to overspend.

We must learn the percentage of readers to whom our product appeals.  We must often gather this data on the different classes.  The percentage may differ on farms then in cities.  The cost of advertising largely depends on the percentage of wasted circulation.

Thus an advertising campaign is usually preceded by a very large volume of data.  Even an experimental campaign, for effective experiments, cost 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 statement.  If it is true, it will form a big part in the advertising.  If it’s false, it may prove a boomerang and bounce back and knock the advertisement on its bottom.  And it may prevent our ads from good advertising mediums.  It is remarkable how often a manufacturer is proved wrong on claims he has made for years.

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

With every product involving scientific data a censor is appointed.  The ad-writer, however well informed, may draw wrong conclusions from the facts.  So an authority passes on every advertisement.

The uninformed would be astounded to know the amount of work involved in a single ad, sometimes weeks of work.  The ad seems so simple, and it must be simple to appeal to simple people.  But behind that ad there may lie reams of data, volumes of information and months of research.

Advertising is no lazy man's field.