The Science Of Advertising

Dear Building Industry Supplier.

In 1937 Claude Hopkins published a book called ‘Scientific Advertising’. That book has become one of the absolute must have texts in every good copywriters, advertisers and marketers library. David Ogilvy said…

“Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life.”

Because of his time Claude sounds a little old fashioned in the way he writes. But he’s a no holds barred kinda guy. In the opening chapter of his book he’s subtle, but he doesn’t mince words.

“The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood. The correct methods of procedure have been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and we act on basic law.

“Therefore, this book deals, not with theories and opinions, but with well-proven principles and facts.”

Before Claude’s time advertising was a gamble. Disconnected individuals bumping into good ideas in the dark. Never really understanding what they’d done right if they did create a winning piece. But over time large advertising agencies began to work in cooperation and became store houses for decades of hard won experience.

Because of this an astonishingly exact science emerged. Like a compass sheparding advertisers to the shortest, safest and cheapest route to any advertising destination. And it was constantly being backed up by rigorous testing and analysis of thousands of tracked campaigns.

To Infinity And Beyond

Tests were done by tracking the responses of thousands of campaigns mostly through the use of coupons. And as with any scientific endeavor, tests produce results. Some methods only worked for a few niches while other methods produced consistent results across every niche and product line.

Those methods became principles.

Mail Order advertising was and is traceable down to the fraction of a penny. The results of each ad compared against all the others. The parts of an add to test are limitless. Things like…

• Headline
• Font
• Imagery
• Line spacing

But always more importantly is the actual message being presented and how that message impacts the buying decision of the prospects. Presentation has an impact, but crushing results come from a powerful and emotional message.

Knowing what works in mail order can make a huge difference to the bottom line profitability of a campaign. As a consequence mail order advertising established many of the basic laws and principles of advertising. Principles which work across every industry for one simple reason. They speak to skin-bags-full-o-mush human beings. And fundamentally we haven’t changed for thousands of years.

The final deciders for what works best have always been Cost Per Customer and Return On Investment. As with anything you want to improve you have to measure the things that prove actual effectiveness. The purpose of advertising is not to entertain. It’s not to create brand awareness. It’s for one thing and one thing only. To sell.

You’d have to be mad as a March Hare to ignore the laws of advertising established by Claude and his peers. Especially if you’ve ever studied the success of the masters who teach those principles today. Funnily enough they don’t care much for creativity awards. They still just harp on about Cost Per Customer and Return On Investment.

To create breakthroughs in advertising you only need learn the principles of scientific advertising and deviate from them only when testing proves it works better. Which of course is part of the principles of the science.

To buy a copy of Scientific Advertising you can go to this carefully disguised affiliate link.

So what really works in your advertising? Share a story about a method that works so others can test it in their own niche.

Warm Regards,
Scott.