Datasets:

eugeneschwartz

/

advertising-supreme

like 0

Welcome to the most sought after direct marketing masterpiece. This book was recently selling for over $900 dollars used—so I decided to re-issue it. It is a real privilege to bring Gene Schwartz's advertising wisdom back into print. We built a wonderful business based on his wisdom. He was a special delight and a treat to know—Gene was 6'2" and reminded me of Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead. But Gene had much more charm and wit and a fabulous, unforgettable smile. Exciting sight—watching the multi-talented genius's fingers flying over the keyboard creating another brilliant ad. And then he'd sit back with that great smile, read it over and enjoy it more and more. Gene wrote advertising copy lor the best direct marketers in America. And then he published a book in 1964 titled Hoxc to Double Your Child's Grades in School, following up with How to Double Your Power to Learn and then Breakthrough Advertising in 1966. He was very clever—he exchanged his copywriting for access to mailing list names and promoted his own books to them! But then Gene had a stroke in 1978 and he had trouble typing . . . for it affected his right side. But he worked and iii IV FOREWORD worked until he became quite proficient typing with just his left hand. My big idea—Retain Gene as a business consultant instead of a copywriter to guarantee him a regular income. He became very important to us in that new role. lie helped very much in the creation of the Bottom Line/Personal concept and of our editorial style. Awesome. Then there was Gene III, the scientist, always reading the leading-edge science books and belonging to a very sophisticated group that met weekly to discuss the implications of those scientific advances on society. Finally, there was Gene IV—an amazing talent as an art collector, together with his wife Barbara, a famous interior designer. They built a fabulous art collection betting on Hans Hoffman Morris Lewis, Frank Stella, Donald Judd and Milton Averv well before anyone else had heard of them. Their first acquisition was by the color-pioneer Hans Hoffman. It took me years to appreciate Hoffman's work. Barbara also helped me build an incredible collection of photographs that are now at the Art Institute of Chicago. On my first gallery tour with them—I discovered a crumpled photo by the Starn twins that had two words on i t - Confusion/Order. That is what I'm devoted to-bringing order from confusion. So Barbara and I built a very exciting Lessons in Life collection. I was her first art advisory client. And it is with her generous permission that we bring Gene's classic book back into the world. Martin Edelston Founder and President. Boardroom Inc. Publisher of Bottom Line/Personal Jan-04 PREFACE TO THE BOARDROOM EDITION This book was first published in 1966—what seems to be three lifetimes ago. It was put out bv Prentice-Hall, a marvelous house: it sold onlv a few thousand copies. But since it was published I have had people coming to me regularly to tell me that thev directlv credit reading this book with their making millions of dollars. This is amazing enough, but even more remarkable is the fact that—when I look back on it—not a single one of these people was a copywriter. Here is a book that is called Breakthrough Advertising . . . and yet was used bv men who were not in the business of advertising at all, to make more monev than most of us ever dream of accumulating. How did this happen? Whv was a publisher, a financier, a manufacturer of novelties, able to make so very much monev with a book that is about putting sentences together? (The financier told me that, within one vear after obtaining the book, he had raised his net worth from $100.000 to $10 million). Are the sentences contained in the pages that follow actually that powerful? Can they change the fortunes of men so radically? Are thev far more universally adaptable than I had first t h o u g h t . . . so they are no longer about advertising products, but literally about opening whole new markets for them? \1 PREFACE Therefore, eighteen years later, when Boardroom Books asked me to republish this text. I had to study it again, with the fresh eyes of a person who had not read it in all that time, to see what was the real content of my book, and its real effect on its readers. I did. I discovered the secret. And I am using this introduction now to admit my red-faced shame. What I had thought I had written those mam- years ago was a book on advertising; what I actually put down on these pages was an entireh' different book, on a far broader theme: There is a way to develop an entirely new market for a new or an old product. That way involves a certain number of clearludefined steps. And in this hook 1 show „ou every single one of those steps. ' J As you mav know, all of us—no matter what official designation we give the industry we do business m - a r e actually on a deeper level, in exactly the same profession. We are all'simply creating or exploiting markets for our products. When the market is born, our business is simultaneously given birth. When it grows so does our share of it. When it is mature, our sales charts develop heir first aches and pains. And at that point, if we can develop a fresh new- market for that old product, it is exactly as if we achieved the Faustian dream, and enabled that product to drink from the proverbial "Fountain of Youth." We are all primarily conceptual midwives. helping give birth to new markets for our products. All the other functions" we or our business, p e r f o r m - t h e manufacturing, distribution service hnancmg, and all the r e s t - a r e simply adjuncts to this vital central process. We are, in a single phrase, "Market-Makers." We sense each new market in its turn. We test and evaluate its size and scope We gauge its true potential financial strength, and then we focus all the people, all the money and all the desire that makes it up on one ultimate object: our own product. Most of the time, the market exists before our product, and we simply tap its present strength. But, m this era of constant PREFACE Ml change, we ourselves mav help give it its first viable financial form. We may sense that people want computers in their homes as well as their offices . . . or want to walk around all dav with music plugged into their ears . . . or would like to spend three air-conditioned hours in a faraway galaxv, battling with light-swords against evil and tyranny. Making a market, then, is not. as I thought when I originally wrote this book, simply a matter of making an ad. It is also the making of a product. And it is the making of a conduit through which that product can be obtained bv the people whom you have made desire it more than an equivalent sum of their money. This book outwardly talks about the sentences that make up the primary appeal of that product to that market. But its true and deeper message is found when it is interpreted as a market-diviner, and a market-intensifier. In other words, its message will show vou how to find your "dream" market, and how to drive it into a national "feeding frenzy." And I have also made an equally important discovery upon reviewing this book since it was first published. The examples in its pages have grown slightly older, but the principles that these examples manifest are timeless. For example, if I were writing this book today, its examples would show more appreciation of feminism, environmental awareness, health and fitness striving— even the blessed sexual revolution. Thev would be more open and more frank than thev could have been then. All this is for the good—but this book is not about revieiving todm/s ads, but creating from scratch tomorrow's winners! This book is about avoiding the need for copying or imitating am other product or advertisement. So today's examples are as "outdated" as those of two decades ago. This book is about what-happensnext, and the fundamental rules of making a fortune out of slightly redirecting that tomorrow. You see, people don't change: only the direction of their desires do. They cannot be made to want anything, nor is it necessary to create want. All that is necessary is to be able to channel v U1 PREFACE those wants into the proper products that offer legitimate satisfaction for them. It takes ten million . . . fifteen million . . . twentvfive million. . . fifty-- million . . . one hundred and fifty million people . . . to create a vast market for your goods. But it takes only one slip of paper—or its recitation by a series of salesmen—to direct all those millions of people to your stores, or vour catalogues, or your wholesalers. Not one single thing has changed in that regard since I wrote this book. Nor will it ever alter in the slightest. So this book is not about building better mousetraps. It is, however, about building larger mice, and then building terrifying fear of them in your customers. In other words, it is about helping to shape the largest and strongest market possible, and then intensifying that market's reaction to its basic need or problem, and to the "exclusive" solution vou have to offer it. Ask Rodale Press—for whom I sold over twentv million dollars of a single book, The Practical Encyclopedia of Natural Healing. Ask the publisher of this book. Boardroom Reports, Inc.— who started out with $3,500 in total working capital, and who will probably do more than 25 million dollars in gross volume next year, with I am proud to say at least a little bit of assistance from me. Ask the seventeen businesses I've started or helped start. . . (Twenty-five percent of just one of them was sold for close to a million dollars in one dav.) These principles work. They discover markets. Thev build markets. They intensify markets. Thev revitalize markets. They perform, in sum, the invaluable function of giving you customers for the products you want or have to sell. And that's what we all need, isn't it? Customers. This, therefore, is a book full of customers—for your products. It is really nothing else. Just customers, by the millions. Eighteen years have passed. Three lifetimes. They've been good years, and good lives. I hadn't read the book since then, but PREFACE 1A some hidden part of me had remembered it, and I think it's worth your reading now. If vou agree with me, whv not write and tell me so. I have several millionaires, and multimillionaires, to my credit now. I'd like to make the next one YOU. Please help me. Gene Schwartz DEDICATION To BARBARA, who somehow, incredibly, still loves and always inspires me. INTRODUCTION Creativity Can Be Made to Order If You Follow This Simple Rule If you expect a scholarly tome on advertising, stop here. I am a mail order copy writer who makes his living by producing results—in carefully-measured dollars of profit—from the written word. My income—my standard of living—depends bluntly and directly upon my ability to sell. And I have no salesmen to help me; no store-reputation to help me: no point-of-purchase reminders, no discounts, no friendly sales clerks to give mv products a push. I sell, or do not sell, on the basis of one tool alone—my ad Therefore, I have done a great deal of thinking and experimenting with these ads. And, since I have had the good fortune to own my own mail order firms for the last eleven years, I have had far greater freedom than most copy writers to put mv ideas to a conclusive test and to see whether or not they really work. I believe, as do many other advertising men, that mail order is the greatest copy writing school in the world. In mail order INTRODUCTION XI for reasons which I'll reveal later in this book, YOU learn techniques and approaches to copy—especially new-product and newslant copy—that you learn in no other branch of this business. Some of these techniques I have never seen discussed in anv other article or book on copv writing—and I think I've read most of them. I have explained these techniques in detail in the hope that they will prove as profitable to other eopv writers as they've been for me. Can they be used by non-mail-order eopv writers as well? Most assuredly. J. K. Lasker once said that mail order makes a copy writer, but his real pav-off comes when he applies his mail order techniques to general advertising. I think that B.B.D. & O., Ted Bates, Ogilvy, Young & Rubicam and a dozen other agencies prove this every day. Therefore I've written this book—not from the mail order perspective alone—but from the universal problem of all eopv writing: How to write a headline—and an ad that follows it—that will open up an entirely new market for its product. An ad that will give a new product immediate profit: that will give an old product a brand-new slant; that will give a competitively-battered product a new weapon—not onlv to protect itself against its imitators but to actually damage or destrov the loyalty of their following. These objectives cannot be achieved by following somebody else's formula—no matter how successful it was for them. Thev demand creativity Thev demand a brand-new headline; a brandnew approach to the market: a literal advertising "breakthrough." Hence the title of this book. This, then, is a practical book, of practical rules that produce, and exploit, creativity, and that are meant to pay off on the very first ad. To put them to work, vou start with these basic facts. INTRODUCTION Basic Facts of Life for Copy Writers Writing copy is like playing the stock market, or being an atomic physicist. Basically all three of these professions—eopv writing, speculation and science—are exactly alike. The same keys make each one of them work. And if you realize win. vou can double the effectiveness of your copy overnight. Consider these facts: All three of them deal with immense natural forces gargantuan forces thousands of times more powerful than the men who use them. In science, they are the fundamental energies of the universe. In speculation, they are the billion-dollar tides and currents of the market place. In copy writing thetj are the hopes and fears and desires of millions upon millions of men and women, all over the world. The men who use these forces did not create them; thev can neither turn them on nor shut them off thev can neither diminish them nor add to them. But they ran harness them! The scientist did not create the energy of the sun; hut he can direct that energy into the explosion of an atom bomb. The speculator did not create the enormous growth of the electronics industry after the war: but he can ride that growth to produce a fifty times increase in his capital. And the copy writer does not create the desire of millions of women all over America to lose weight; but he can channel that desire onto a particular product, and make its owner a millionaire. This, then, is the end goal—to take these gigantic natural forces and harness them to our own uses. But how do we do it? No two of these forces are alike. Each is unique; each operates in a different way The same formula, earefullv worked out to release atomic energy, fails complete])- to solve the problem of rocket propulsion. The same pattern of investment, that spots the upturn in electronics and makes a fortune, loses that fortune in uranium. And the same advertising appeal, that builds an in- INTRODl ( INTRODUCTION ™1 dustrv in reducing, collapses completely when applied to health foods, even though both advertisements may reach exactly the same audience. Whv? Because no formula works twice. Each and every formula is simplv the written solution to a particular problem that occurred in the past. Change even one part of that problem, and vou need an entirelv different formula. That's why memorizing theories won't make vou a scientist, or studying charts won't make you a market wizard, or rewriting somebody else's headlines won't make vou a copy writer. What will work? Innovation, of course. Continuous, repeated innovation. A steady stream of new ideas—fresh new solutions to new problems. Created—not by the impossible route of memory— but by analysis. In afield in which the rales are constantly changing—where the forces that determine the outcome are constantly shifting— where new problems are constantly being encountered every day— rules, formulas and principles simply will not work. They are too rigid—too tightly bound to the past. They must he replaced by the only known method of dealing with the Constantly New— analysis. And what is analysis? It is a series of measuring rods, cheekpoints, signpost questions that show you where a particular force is going, and enable you to get there first. It is a series of rough guesses, based on past successes, that enables you to cut through the surface of a problem to see what makes it tick. Analysis is the art of asking the right questions and letting the problem dictate the right answers. It is the technique of the break-through. And it can be learned—just as surely as grammar, mathematics or spelling. The first part of this book is about analysis, applied to the profession of copy writing. Its basic thesis is this: Everv new market—everv new product—every newadvertisement is a fresh new problem that never existed before on the face of this earth. Past advertising successes CONTENTS PART 1: THE BASIC STRATEGY OF PERSUASION 1 1 MASS DESntE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK—AND HOW TO FOCUS IT ONTO YOUR PRODUCT 3 What Is This Mass Desire—and How Is It Created? 4 Permanent Forces 6 The Forces of Change 6 How to Channel Mass Desire Onto Your Particular Product 7 The Analysis of Your Product: What It Is—and What It Does 9 2 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS—HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON IT WHEN YOU WTUTE YOUR HEADLINE 13 Your Headline's Real Job 14 What Your Prospect's State of Awareness Demands From Your Headline 15 The Most Aware 16 The Customer Knows of the Product But Doesn't Yet Want It 16 How to Introduce New Products 79 How to Introduce Products That Solve Needs 21 How to Open Up a Completely Unaware Market 23 Giving Words to a Hidden Dream 26 Exploiting a Hidden Fear 27 Leading Into an Unacceptable Problem by Starting With a Universally Accepted Image 28 To Project a Hidden Desire Which Cannot Be Put Bluntly Into Words 29 Using a Common Resentment or Unvoiced Protest to Capture a Far Greater Market Than the Direct Statement of the Solution of That Resentment Would Produce 30 Projecting an Ultimate Triumph That the Prospect Will Identify With 32 xv CONTENTS Projecting the Result of a Problem in Such a Way That It Will Be Identified With by People Who Would Reject a Direct Statement of the Problem Itself 3.3 Projecting the Result of an Accomplishment to Attract People Who Would Be Frightened Away by the Work Implied to Achieve It 34 The List Never Ends 34 A Final Word on Style in Advertising Copy 35 3 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR M4RKET: HOW MANY PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE YOU? 37 If You Are First in Your Market 37 If You're Second, Do This 3.9 The Third Stage of Sophistication 41 The Fourth Stage 44 How to Revive a "'Dead" Product 45 Let's Look at an Industry That Went Through All Five Stages of Sophistication 46 A Personal Note 50 4 38 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HEADLINE ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR BASIC D3EA 51 5 SUMMARY: THE ART OF CREATIVE PLANNING— HOW TO MAKE AN IDEA GROW 59 The Three Levels of Creativity 5.9 On Motivation Research and Its Relation to the Copy Writer 61 On Expressing the Personality of a Product in Your Headline 63 On the Only Type of Prevention Headline That Will Sell 64 On the Selection of Splinter Markets to Avoid Competition 65 In Summary 66 PART 2: THE SEVEN BASIC TECHNIQUES OF BREAKTHROUGH ADVERTISING 69 6 INSDDE YOUR PROSPECT'S MIND—WHAT MAKES PEOPLE READ, WANT, BELDZVE 71 Desires 72 Identifications 73 Beliefs 74 CONTENTS 7 THE FTRST TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: INTENSIFICATION 77 Thirteen Ways to Strengthen Desire 77 Your First Presentation of Your Claims HO Put the Claims in Action 83 Bring In the Reader 85 Show Him How to Test Your Claims 86 Stretch Out Your Benefits in Time 87 Bring In an Audience 89 Show Experts Approving 90 Compare, Contrast, Prove Superiority 91 Picture the Black Side, Too 92 Show How Easy It Is To Get These Benefits 94 Use Metaphor, Analogy. Imagination 94 Before You're Done, Summarize 95 Put Your Guarantee to Work 99 How to Apply These Principles of Intensification to the Campaign 101 8 THE SECOND TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: IDENTIFICATION 107 How to Build a Saleable Personality Into Your Product 107 A Personal Note 108 The Roles Your Prospect Desires 109 Character Roles 110 Achievement Roles 113 How to Put These Longings for Identification to Work for Your Product 114 The Primary Image of Your Product 117 How to Build New Images Into Your Product 119 On the Limits to the Images Your Prospects Will Identify With 124 On Saleable Identifications Springing From the Physical Product Itself 125 9 THE TfflRD TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: GRADUALIZATION 129 How to Make Your Prospect Believe Your Claims Before You State Them 729 What Exactly Is Belief? 130 The Architecture of Belief 133 CONTENTS A New Definition of Awareness 134 A Detailed Example 135 How Belief Was Built Into the Opening 137 Goal Conclusions 139 The Ultimate Objective 141 A Restatement of Our Basic Theory 144 The Inclusion Question 145 Detailed Identification 145 Contradiction of Present (False) Beliefs 146 The Language of Logic 147 Syllogistic Thinking 149 Other Belief Forms 150 10 THE FOURTH TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: REDEFINITION 153 How to Remove Objections to Your Product 153 Simplification 155 Escalation 160 Price Reduction 162 11 THE FIFTH TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: MECHANIZATION 165 How to Verbally Prove That Your Product Does What You Claim 165 Verbal Proof 167 Stage One: Name the Mechanism 167 Stage Two: Describe the Mechanism 168 Stage Three: Feature the Mechanism 170 On the Importance of Mechanism When You Want to Convince Your Reader That You're Giving Him a Bargain 171 12 THE SIXTH TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: CONCENTRATION 175 How to Destroy Alternate Ways for Your Prospect to Satisfy His Desire 175 What Concentration Is 177 Let's See How He Does It 179 A Second Strategy 181 One Final Word on Concentration 184 CONTENTS 13 THE SEVENTH TECHNIQUE OF BREAKTHROUGH COPY: CAMOUFLAGE 185 How to Borrow Conviction for Your Copy 185 Let's Look at a Few Examples 186 The Second Way to Borrow Believability 190 Believability-Borrowing Strategy #3 191 14 THE FINAL TOUCHES 195 Verification—How to Offer Authorities and Proof 196 Reinforcement—How to Make Two Claims Do the Work of Four 200 Interweaving—How to Blend Emotion, Image and Logic Into the Same Sentence Sensitivity—How to Give Your Reader What He Demands Step by Step Throughout the Copy 20o Sample Ad #1 206 Sample Ad #2 210 Sample Ad #3 210 Sample Ad #4 211 See How the Structure Differs 214 Momentum—How to Draw Your Reader Deeper and Deeper Into Your Copy 215 Mood—How to Pack Your Copy With Drama, Excitement, Sincerity or Any Other Emotion You Wish EPTLOGUE-A COPY WRITER'S LIBRARY 227 202 222 INDEX 229 PARTI THE BASIC STRATEGY OF PERSUASION How to write a winning headline that no one has ever written before 1 MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK —AND HOW TO FOCUS IT ONTO YOUR PRODUCT Let's get right down to the heart of the matter. The power, the force, the overwhelming urge to own that makes advertising work, comes from the market itself, and not from the copy. Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those alreadyexisting desires onto a particular product. This is the copy writer's task: not to create this mass desire—but to channel and direct it. Actually, it would be impossible for any one advertiser to spend enough money to actually create this mass desire. He can only exploit it. And he dies when he tries to run against it. This has been shown time and time again in the automotive field, for example. In 1948, in order to display their rising standard of living, the American public decided they wanted a longer, lower, wider car. Chrysler chose to buck the trend; and offered a 4 MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK fine, functional car—with more head, leg and shoulder room on the inside—but shorter and squatter on the outside. A multimillion-dollar campaign was prepared bv one of the most creative agencies in America. But the results—against the tide of mass desire—were catastrophic. In 1954, cars had become universallv long; and drivers were appraising each other's car in terms of horsepower. Here was the rise to dominance of a vast new public demand. The Twin-H Hudson Hornet, the twin-exhaust Cadillac, the Chrysler 300—all in turn exploited this trend, and rode it to gain millions of dollars in extra sales. The Ford Company decided to plav it down, and devoted millions of advertising dollars to sell safety. Again, the advertising ran into a wall of disinterest: results were nonexistent; and the next year Ford produced, and advertised, the highest-horsepower engines in their history YVut perhaps \Vie most pamTu\ prooY was the Edsel. Here was a good car, backed by a deluge of fhu< advertising, that died trying to fight the overwhelming switch in demand to a cheap, simple, inexpensive-to-run compact car. Let me repeat. This mass desire must already be there. It must already exist. You cannot create it. and vou cannot fight it. But you can—and must—direct it, channel it. focus it onto your particular product. What Is This Mass Desire—and How Is It Created? We can define this Mass Desire quite simply. It is the public spread of a private want. Advertising is a business of statistics. We deal with percentages of population. We address our ads to individuals; and yet the success of our advertising depends on thousands, or even millions, of these individuals sharing the same response to these ads—the response of wanting our product enough to pav us the price we ask for it. MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK 5 Before these individuals can share this buying response, they must first share the desire upon which our ad is based. Privately, each of them wants the same thing. Puhliclx. there are enough of them to repay us the cost of advertising, manufacturing and selling, plus a profit. It is the moment alien a private desire is shared by a statistically significant number of people, large enough to profitably repay selling these people, that a market is born. This market mav consist of a desire shared by only a few thousand people, such as the urge to own fine antiques. Or it may be shared by tens of millions, as the desire to lose weight. But it is there, demanding to be satisfied, waiting only for the information that will direct it onto a particular product. Since these mass desires are shared bv millions of people. they take years to develop, and thev are created b\ social, economic and technological forces far greater than advertising itself can command. It is this fact, when used correctly that gives advertising its enormous potential for profit. Bv simplv directing this gigantic, already-existing mass desire—rather than being required to create it—advertising thus commands an economic force hundreds of times more poiveifnl Hum the mere number of dollars that the advertiser can spend on it. This is the Amplification Effect of successful advertising—the reason that $1 spent on such advertising can create 850 or even SI00 in sales. But this Amplification Effect takes place only when advertising exploits already-existing desire. When it tries to create this desire, it is no longer advertising but education. And, as education. it can produce at best only one dollar in sales for every dollar spent on advertising. No single advertiser can afford to educate the American public. He must rely on forces far greater than any advertising budget to build this mass desire. And then he can make those forces work for him—by directing that desire onto his particular product. What are these nation-wide forces that create this mass desire? There are many of them. But they fall into two general 6 MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK categories—each presenting its distinct problem to the copy writer. Here are these two categories, with a few specific examples of each. 1. Permanent Forces Mass Instinct. The desire of women to be attractive, or men to be virile, or men and women both to keep their health. In this case, the instinct never fades—the desire never changes. The copy writer's problem here is not to pick out the trend—it is there for everyone to see. His job is to distinguish his product from the others that were there before it—to create a fresh appeal— to build a stronger believabilitv—to shift desire from the fulfillment offered by one product to that offered bv another. How this is done, we shall see in a moment. A mass technological problem. Bad television reception, or corroding automobile mufflers, or the time it takes for aspirin to bring relief. Until the problem is finallv solved, the customers will buy and try—buy and try again. And here the copy writer has the same problem—to offer the same claim of relief as his competitors, but offer it in a new way. 2. The Forces of Change The beginning, the fulfillment, and the reversal of a trend. Style. The sudden mass decision to show off a pay raise bv installing a swimming pool in the back yard, instead of buying a bigger car. The horsepower appeal of the Fifties, and its sudden subordination to gas economy. Here the copv writer is dealing with the straws in the wind that may indicate a hurricane. Here he needs sensitivity, foresight, intuition. He must be able to see and catch the rising tide when it's almost imperceptible—sense which of the several appeals that are built into his product he should stress at any particular moment, and when to shift to another— and, always, how to be there first. MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK Mass Education. The school primer and the movie screen. The tastes and appearances of society women, television stars, presidential candidates, trickling down to every hamlet in America. Group pressure; back-yard gossip; community product pioneers. And equally important, the sum total of all advertising— in its unconscious, unplanned and overall effect of multiplying people's dreams and desires, and thus raising their standard of living. Here again the problem is timing. When does the shift become statistically significant? When do enough people make the change? When should the automotive powerhouse, for example, change its image to become the common man's gas saver? The copy writer is faced with a society containing dozens— even hundreds—of these already-existing mass desires. His first joh therefore is to detect them—inventory them—chart their force and direction. This is a study that will occupy part of every working dav for the rest of his life. His second job is to harness his products onto their backs. He does this in this wav: How to Channel Mass Desire Onto Your Particular Product The copy writer in his work uses three tools: his own knowledge of people's hopes, dreams, desires and emotions; his client's product; and the advertising message, which connects the two. The copy writer performs his work in three stages. In general, thev go something like this: 1. Choose the most powerful desire that can possibly he applied to your product. Every mass desire has three vital dimensions. The first is urgency, intensity, degree of demand to be satisfied. For example, constant arthritic pains compared to a minor headache. The second dimension is staving power, degree of repetition, the inability to become satiated. For example, raw hunger compared to a craving for gourmet foods. And the third dimension is scope— ft> MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK the number of people who share this desire. For example, the number of men willing to pay $10 for an automotive accessorv that saves gas—as compared to those willing to pav the same price for one that merely prevents future repair bills. Every product appeals to two, three or four of these mass desires. But only one can predominate; onlv one can reach out through your headline to your customer. Only one is the key that unlocks the maximum economic power at the particular time your advertisement is published. Your choice among these alternate desires is the most important step yon will take in writing your ad. If it is wrong, nothing else that you do in the ad will matter. This choice is embodied in your headline. It is for this reason that we spend so many chapters on headlines later on. To sum up the first stage then, you trv to choose the mass desire that gives you the most power in all three dimensions. You try to tap a single overwhelming desire existing today in the hearts and minds of millions of people who are actively seeking to satisfy it at this verv moment. 2. Acknowledge that desire—reinforce it—and/or offer the means to satisfy it—in a single statement in the headline of your ad. This headline is the bridge between vour prospect and your product. It touches your prospect at the point of awareness that he has arrived at today. If he is aware of vour product, and realizes that it can satisfy his desire, vour headline starts with vour product. If he is not aware of your product, but only of the desire itself, your headline starts with the desire. And, if he is not yet aware of what he really seeks, but is concerned only with a general problem, your headline starts with that problem and crystallizes it into a specific need. In any case, your headline—though it mav never mention your product—is the first vital step in recognizing this mass desire— justifying and intensifying it—and directing its solution along one specific path. 3. And then you take the series of performances that are MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK 9 built into your product—what your product does—and you show your prospect how these product performances inevitably satisfy that desire. Here's how: The Analysis of Your Product: What It Is—and What It Does In reality, every product vou are given to sell is actually two products. One of them is the physical product—the steel, glass, paper or tobacco that the manufacturer has shaped into a particular pattern, of which he is justly proud. The other is the functional product—the product in action—the series of benefits that vour product performs for vour consumer, and on the basis of which he buys vour product. The physical product does not sell. People do not buy the steel in a car, the glass in a vase, the tobacco in a cigarette, or the paper in a book. The physical part of your product is of value only because it enables your product to do things for people. The important part of your product is what it does. The rest—the steel skeleton— the chrome or metal case that vou actually deliver to your customer—is only your excuse for charging them your price. What they are reallv paying you for is what the product will do. No physical part of vour product can ever become a headline. No one will buy the size of vour clients plant, the weight of vour client's steel, the care of vour client's construction. All these facts can only be used, later on. to document and reinforce the primary performance that vou promise your reader in your headline, in the following wavs: By justifying your price. This is the common-sense theory that the longer the car, the more tubes in the television set, the more stitches per inch in the suit, then the greater the number of dollars your product can command—if that product first delivers the performance that your prospect demands. By documenting the quality of your performance. Tell your 10 MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK prospect the weight of steel in vour car's door, and he's more likely to believe that your car will protect his life if he should have an accident on the highway. Tell vour prospect the number of times your plant removes the impurities in vour face cream, and she's more likely to believe that vour cream will remove the impurities in her skin. By assuring your prospect that that performance will continue throughout the years. Ceramic mufflers mean no repair bills for the life of your car. Chemically-protected paper means you can hand your prize books down to vour children. Quick-frozen food means vou can retain taste and vitamins for months after your purchase. By sharpening the reader's mental picture of that performance. The Rolls-Royce must give vou perfect riding silence because every metal part of the chassis is shielded from every other metal part by a protective coat of rubber. Helena Rubenstein's new face cream must make your skin look younger because it contains the placenta of living animals. And, above all, by giving your product's claim of performance afresh new basis for believability. This is the most important use of the physical product in fields where a new firm or product is attempting to invade an established Mass Instinct field. Others have made the same claim before. Your product, in order to pull sales awav from them, must introduce a new mechanism that performs the claim, or a new quality that assures its performance, or a new freedom from old limitations that improves the performance. This is the point of difference—often conceived by the copy writer, and built bv the manufacturer into the product at his recommendation. We shall discuss this point of difference quite thoroughly in the next few chapters. So much for the physical product. It is always subordinated to the functional product—the product in action—what the product does. It is the performance of your product, satisfying the mass desire of your market, that provides the selling power of your ad. MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK 11 Your first task, then, in studying your product, is to list the number of different performances it contains—to group these performances against the mass desires that each of them satisfies— and then to feature the one performance that will harness the greatest sales power onto vour product at that particular time. Take the automobile, for example. Every automobile offers its prospective owner several different and distinct sets of performances: It offers him transportation. The ability to carry himself, his family, his luggage, and perhaps tin the case of station wagons) his pets and his furniture from place to place. It offers him dependability. The freedom from breakdown, stalling, poor performance, repair bills, embarrassment and inconvenience. It offers him economy. Inexpensive transportation: savings in both gas and oil; freedom from repair bills, seen this time from the point of view of the pocket book: durability high trade-in value, low insurance cost. It offers him power. Number of horses at his command; takeoff at the lights: acceleration on hills and in traffic; top speed, even if he never uses it. All adding up to a feeling of dominance on the highway. It offers him recognition. Admiration, status, subtle and accepted bragging, envy, the feeling of having arrived. The ohs and ahs of his neighbors, the first ride, the very smell of a new car. It offers him value. The number of feet of steel he can command for the price. High trade-in value over the years. The fact that the car can last for 100,000 miles, even if he can afford to trade it in every year. It offers him novelty: Power steering five vears ago—electric door locks todav. Three-tone paint jobs vesterdav—iridescent paints now. The thrill of being the leader, the pace-setter, the proven pioneer. And man\- more. Some of them hidden, never admitted, discovered only recently bv motivation research. Dozens of VZ MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK different performances, built into the same product, each of them reaching out and tapping a different desire—a distinct public. And yet your ad can feature onlv one of these performances; can effectively tap only one mass desire at a time. Your headline is limited by physical space. You have onlv one glance of the reader's eye to stop him. He is preoccupiedhe is not looking for your product or your message—the span of his attention will admit only one thought to penetrate his indifference during that glance. If your first thought holds him. he will read the second. If the second holds him, he will read the third. And if the third thought holds him, he will probably read through your ad. Every product gives you dozens of keys. But onlv one will fit the lock. Your job is to find that one dominant performance squeeze every drop of power out of it in your presentation—and then convince your reader that that performance and that satisfaction can come onlv from your product. The next four chapters will show von how to locate that one dominant performance, and how to fasliion it into vour headline. Once you have written that headline, then even other performance contained in your product simply reinforces and documents that main appeal, in exactly the same wav as the physical product facts listed above. 2 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS—HOW TO CAPITALIZE ON IT WHEN YOU WRITE YOUR HEADLINE You have now completed the first two stages in writing your ad. You have defined the mass desire that makes up your market—for example, the desire to lose weight, shared by millions of women all over America. And you have selected the one performance in vour product that satisfies that desire most deeply—for example, a liquid meal in a glass, delicious, filling, already measured for you. as easy and pleasant to drink as a chocolate malted. This definition of vour market, and the selection of the product performance most likely to capture that market, forms the core concept, or theme, of vour ad. You now know where you are going to start—with your market; and where you are going to end—with your product. The bridge between these two—their meeting place—is your ad. Your ad always begins with your market, and leads that 13 14 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS market inevitably into your product. The beginning of vour ad— your headline—is the first step in this process. Therefore it concerns itself entirely with your market. It mav never even mention your product or its performance. It is based entirely on the answer to these three questions: 1. What is the mass desire that creates this market? (Which we have already discovered.) 2. How much do these people know today about the way your product satisfies this desire? (Their State of Awareness.) 3. How many other products have been presented to them before yours? (Their State of Sophistication. The answer to question 1 gives von the nation-wide force that creates your market. The answer to questions 2 and 3 gives you the location of that market in relation to vour product. Your strategy for exploiting or overcoming the answers to these last two questions will give you the content of vour headline. Let's first re-define the job we are going to ask our headline to do, and then see how each of these last two questions tells us what that headline should—and should not—saw Your Headline's Real Job There has been much confusion about how much of a selling job your headline should be required to do. Actually, your headline does not need to sell at all. It does not have to mention your product. It does not even have to mention vour main appeal. To demand that a headline should do any of these is to place the full selling burden on approximately 10% to 20% of the total physical space of your ad . . . that physical space taken up by the headline itself. Your headline has only one job—to stop your prospect and compel him to read the second sentence of your ad. In exactly the same way, your second sentence has only one job—to force him to read the third sentence of vour ad. And the third sentence YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 15 —and every additional sentence in your ad—has exactly the same job. It is simply common sense that the more of vour storv vou can force your prospect to read, the more thoroughly you can sell him. To attempt to do the same selling job in ten words, instead of a hundred, or a thousand, is to shoot craps with vour clients money. You might as well bnv only enough space to print vour headline, and use the rest of the budget for repeat insertions. It is the copy writer's job to force the prospect to read his client's full story—not just a skimmed version of it. Only to prospects actively seeking the client's specific brand-name product, and in a case where you can offer them a special price reduction, can your headline do the full selling job. To attempt a complete selling job with anv other kind of headline is simply to admit defeat. What Your Prospect's State of Awareness Demands From Your Headline We have already assumed that the only reader you are looking for is the prospect for vour product. That means that he shares a defined desire with thousands, and perhaps even millions, of other people all over America. But how much aware is that prospect of that desire? How close is it to the surface of his consciousness? Is he aware only that a problem or need exists, or is he aware if they can be satisfied? And if he is aware that a means of satisfaction exists, does he realize that it lies in your iiroup of products, or specifically in your product by name, or more specifically in your product at a given price? The answer to these questions will help you determine the State of Awareness of your market—their present state of knowledge about your product and the satisfaction that your product performs. It is at this precise point of awareness that vour headline begins. 16 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS In its natural development, everv market's awareness passes through several stages. The more aware your market, the easier the selling job, the less vou need to sav. Let's go down the awareness scale step by step. We'll start at the Most Aware—the most mechanical selling job—and proceed to more and more difficult problems, requiring more and more creative solutions. 1. The Most Aware The customer knows of your product—knows what it does— knows he wants it. At this point, he just hasn't gotten around to buying it yet. Your headline—in fact, vour entire ad—need state little more except the name of your product and a bargain price. For example: "Revere Zomar Lens, Electric Eve Camera—Formerly $149.50—Now Only $119.95." The remainder of the advertisement can summarize quicklv the most desirable selling points. Then add the name of a store, or a coupon, and close. This is the typical department store, discount store, mailorder- bargain-catalog type of advertising. It takes advantage of the full weight of all the advertising that has been done on the same product before it. Its addition—its news—is the price—or a free gift—or instant delivery—or proximity in the neighborhood. Its prospect is fully aware—he has all the information he needs. Here the copy writer is nothing more than the merchandise manager's phrase-maker. The price is the most important part of his headline. There is nothing creative about his job, and he should receive the lowest possible scale of pav. 2. The Customer Knows of the Product But Doesn't Yet Want It Here, your prospect isn't completely aware of all your product does, or isn't convinced of how well it does it, or hasn't yet been told how much better it does it now. YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 17 Here—in the approach to this market—is the great bulk of all advertising. Here you are dealing with a product which is known—which has established a brand name—which has alreadylinked itself with an acknowledged public desire, and has proven that it satisfied that desire. Here vour headline is faced with one of seven tasks: (a) To reinforce your prospects desire for your product: (b) To sharpen his image of the way vour product satisfies that desire; (c) To extend his image of where and when vour product satisfies that desire; (d) To introduce new proof, details, documentation of how well vour product satisfies that desire; (e) To announce a new mechanism in that product to enable it to satisfy that desire e\-en better; (f) To announce a new mechanism in vour product that eliminates former limitations; (g) Or to completely change the image or the mechanism of that product, in order to remove it from the competition of other products claiming to satisfy the same desire. In all seven cases, the approach is the same. You display the name of the product—either in the headline or in an equally large logo—and use the remainder of the headline to point out its superioritv. The body of the ad is then an elaboration of that superiority—including visualization, documentation, mechanization. When you have finished weaving in everv strand of vour product's superiority7, your ad is done. Here are sample headlines presenting solutions to all seven of the problems of this state of awareness: (a) To reinforce your prospect's desire for your product— bv using: ASSOCIATION: "Steinway—The Instrument of the Immortals." "Jov—The Costliest Perfume in the World." 18 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS EXAMPLE: "Which Twin Has the Toni?" "Hair Coloring So Natural Only Her Hairdresser Knows For Sure—Miss Clairol." SENSORY SHARPEN I \ 0 : "Tastes like you just picked it—Dole." "The skin YOU love to touch—Woodbury" ILLUSTRATION: (Anyone of the thousands of superb pictorial ads in the food, fashion, cosmetic, jewelry and similar industries. Perhaps best summed up by Life Saver's classic headline. "Please don't lick this page.") (b) To sharpen your prospect's image of the way your product satisfies that desire (Much like the sensory shaipening illustrated above; but concentrating here on the physical product itself, or on the mechanism bv which it works): "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in a Rolls Royee is the electric clock." "The amazing story of a Zippo that worked after being taken from the bellv of a fish." (c) To extend his image of where and when your product satisfies that desire: "Anywhere you go. Hertz is always nearby" "Thirst knows no season"—in a winter ad, at a time when cold drinks were only consumed during the summer—" Coca Cola." (d) To introduce new proof, details, documentation of how 11 your product satisfies that desire: "9 out of 10 screen stars use Lux Toilet Soap for their priceless smooth skins." we, YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 19 "Jake La Motta, 160-lb fighter, fails to flatten Mono paper cup." "In Boston, the #1 tea-drinking citv, the #1 tea is Salada." (e) To announce a new mechanism in that product to enable it to satisfy that desire even better: "Hoovers new invention washes floors and vacuums up the scrub water." "Worlds only dog food that makes its own gravy— Gaines Graw Train." (f) To announce a new mechanism in i/onr product that eliminates former limitations: "You breathe no dustv odors when YOU do it with Lewvt." "A new Zenith hearing aid—inconspicuous beyond belief." (g) Or to completely change the image or the mechanism of the product, in order to remove it from the competition of other products claiming to satisfy the same desire. Here we are dealing with the State of Sophistication of our market—the amount of exposure they have already had to similar products. Every product during its life history encounters this problem. All of Chapter 3 will be devoted to some of the approaches to its solution. We now move on to the less aware markets—with their more difficult copv challenges, and their greater demand for the unprecedented. 3. How to Introduce New Products The prospect either knows, or recognizes immediately, that he wants what the product does; but he doesn't yet know' that there is a product—your product—that will do it for him. 20 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS Here the problem is two-fold. First, to pinpoint the illdefined, as-vet-uncrvstallized desire that is slowly spreading through great masses of people all over America. And second, to crystallize that desire, and its solution, so sharplv and so dramatically that each and every prospect will recognize it at a glance. The three steps in the process are simple. Name the desire and/or its solution in vour headline. Prove that that solution can be accomplished. And show that the mechanism of that accomplishment is contained in vour product. However, starting with a market in this still-amorphous state of awareness, and continuing with each of the more difficult challenges to come, the execution becomes more and more important than the mechanics. Here the eopv writer contributes more and more to the value of the product in the public eve, and to its total volume of sales. Here the innovator comes into play. Here the ratio of salary of copy writer to production supervisor shoots up abruptly. For this is the domain of the idea man. What are the attributes he needs0 First, analysis. As a copy writer vou will find it necessary to define the particular market most receptive to vour product, its location in relation to your product in terms of awareness and sophistication, and the driving emotional forces that have created

Here are some examples of headlines you could use: “making fabulous sums of money” “lifetime of wisdom from one of America’s most distinguished and successful financiers” “reveals almost completely-unknown techniques” and “for the first time between the covers of a single book”

both that market and the potential for the sales of vour product within it. Second, intuition, which may be described as the ability to sense a trend at its start, gauge its force and direction, determine the precise moment when it burgeons into a profitable market. And third, verbal creativity, as discussed in the next three chapters, and throughout the rest of the book. The ability to give a name to the still-undefined. To capture a feeling, a hope, a desire, a fear in words. To create a catchword or a slogan. To focus emotion, and give it a goal. Let us see how great writers in the past have taken these YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 21 amorphous desires, and brought them into razor-sharp focus in a single statement in their headline: "Light a Lucky, and vou'll never miss sweets that make you fat." "Who else wants a whiter wash—with no hard work':"" "How to win friends and influence people. "To men who want to cjuit work some day. "When doctors feel rotten—this is what they do.' "Now! Run your car without spark plugs'' "Who ever heard of 17,000 />/<>om* ironi a single plant0" And dozens more. Here, amorphous desire has been crystallized in the headline. Then sharpened and expanded in the first few paragraphs; satisfied and documented in the body of the ad: and focussed inevitably on the product throughout. Sometimes the simplest statement of the desire is the best. "How to win friends and influence people" needs no verbal twist to increase its impact. At other times, the desire itself must be reinforced by fresh proof that it can be achieved, "When doctors feel rotten—this is what they do". Or by mystery, "Now! Run your car without spark plugs!" Or by wonderment, "Who ever heard of 17,000 blooms from a single plant?". The next two chapters will discuss, first, the strategy of determining when to use a fresh approach; and second, how- to sharpen that first statement of desire with verbalization. 4. How to Introduce Products That Solve Needs The prospect has—not a desire—but a need. He recognizes the need immediately. But he doesn't yet realize the connection between the fulfillment of that need and your product. This is the problem-solving ad. It might be thought of as a special case of the desire ad mentioned above, since the tech' Z'Z YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS nique of writing it is so similar. Here you start bv naming the need and/or its solution in your headline. Then dramatize the need so vividly that the prospect realizes just how badlv he needs the solution. And then present your product as the inevitable solution. Again, this type of ad runs from the most naked statement of the need alone, to the most complicated verbal twists to bring it to the peak of impact. To start at the beginning, the most effective possible headline for your particular problem mav be as simple as this: "Corns?" Here, only the problem itself is mentioned—nothing more. Or it may be necessary to state both problem and solution immediately: "Stops maddening itch." Many headlines in this category promise the removal of previously unconquerable limitations. They are especially popular in catalog selling: "Lets portable transistor radios play on ordinary household current." And many combine all three elements—the problem, its solution, and the removal of the usually expected limitations: "Shrinks hemorrhoids without surgerv." There are headlines which promise substitutes for unpleasant or expensive tasks: "Now! A ring and piston job in a tube!" YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS ^o And there are headlines which promise to prevent a future problem, before it can occur: "Look, Mom! No cavities!" But many times the problem is not so clearly defined, not so obviously on the surface. You may know the general area of the problem—for example, people's embarrassment at speaking poor English. But you may not be sure of which avenue is the most effective in reaching them. Here the emphasis of a single word—the emotional sharpening of an already easily-identified image—provides the answer: "Do YOU make these mistakes in English0" And, where the solution to the need has been promised before—where the direct statement of the solution has lost its force and freshness—then verbal twists are needed to restore that novelty: "How a bald-headed barber helped save my hair." 5. How to Open Up a Completely Unaware Market And finally—the most difficult. The prospect is either not aware of his desire or his need—or he won't honestly admit it to himself without being lead into it by your ad—or the need is so general and amorphous that it resists being summed up in a single headline—or it's a secret that just can't be verbalized. This is the outer reach of the awareness scale. These are the people who are still the logical prospects for your product; and vet, in their own minds, they are hundreds of miles away from accepting that product. It is your job to bridge that gap. Let me repeat what I said when we first began to explore these five stages of awareness. Each of these stages is separated from the others by a psychological wall. On one side of that wall is indifference; on the other, intense interest. A headline that 24 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS will work wonders in the first stage-for example, "Dial Soap-90 a cake -will fail completely when addressed to a third-stage market where your prospect doesn't even realize that soaps can be made with built-in deodorants. And a third-stage headlinefor example "Who else wants a whiter wash with no hard work?" -will be old-hat, no-news to todays housewife, who has been barraged by whiter-than-white advertising for twenty years To sum up, then.- a headline which will work to'a market in one stage of awareness will not work to a market in another stage of awareness. Nor will it work, even to a market in which it has been successful, once that market passes on to a new stage ot awareness. b Most products are designed to satisfy a specific need or desire. They are born into markets that are m at least the third or fourth stages of awareness. They may therefore never be faced with the problem of an unaware market. However, many products actually pass out of public awareness or out of public acceptance-at some time or other during their hfe histories. The desire they satisfy dries up, or other products serve it better, or they are branded "old-fashioned " Again, we are dealing with a matter of statistics. When a product begins to slip . . . when volume falls off, even though advertising budgets are increased . . . when the name of the product no longer sells as much . . . when a direct statement of the product s function no longer sells as much . . . when a direct statement of the desire or the need that the product fulfills no longer sells as much-then that product needs to be reborn, and its problem is the problem of opening up an unatvare market Again, this is the most difficult, the most challenging probem of a 1. There are few positive milestones to guide vou But fortunately there are some completely self-evident negative rules that can eliminate many blind alleys, and set you face to face against your task. Planning a headline for a completely unaware or resistant market, then, is first of all a process of elimination' Here are the first paths: 25 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 1. Price means nothing to a person who does not know your product, or want your product. Therefore, eliminate all mention of price, or price reduction, in your headline or prime display type. 2. The name of vour product means nothing to a person who has never seen it'before, and may actually damage your ad if you have had a bad model the year before, or if it is now associated with the antiquated, the unfashionable, or the unpleasant. Therefore, keep vour product out of the headline, and be extremely wary about'breaking the mood or disguise of your ad with a prominent logo. 3. And this is the hardest fact of all to accept. At this stage of your market, a direct statement of what your product does, what desire it satisfies, or what problem it sokes, simply will not work. Your product either has not reached that direct stage, or has passed beyond it. And vou cannot simply shift from one desire to another. You are not faced here with a problem of sophistication, but one of complete indifference, or unacceptability. Therefore, the performance of vour product, and the desire it'satisfies, can only be brought in later. You cannot mention them in vour headline. ' So vou cannot mention price, product, function or desire. What do vou have left? Your market, of course! And the distinct possibility that by broadening vour appeal beyond price, product function or specific desire, vou can reach the maximum limits of your full potential market; consolidate splinter appeals; and increase the sales of vour product at a fantastic rate. Once you have accepted the challenge of writing this kind of ad, then vour product and its attributes fade into the background, and'you concentrate exclusively on the state of mind of vour market at this particular moment. ' What vou are doing essentially in this fifth stage is calling uour market together in the headline of your ad. You are writing an identification headline. You are selling nothing, promising nothing, satisfying nothing. Instead, you are echoing an emotion, YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS an attitude, a ^satisfaction that picks people out from the crowd and binds them together in a single statement. In this type of headline, you are telling them what thev are You are defining them for themselves. You are giving them the information they need and want, about a problem still so vague that you are the first to put it into words. Here, above all, is the type of headline that never attempts to sell a product or a performance, but simplv tries to sell the remainder of the ad itself—the information that follows on the page. The only function of this headline is to get the prospect to read the next paragraph. And this second paragraph pulls him into the third; and the third into the fourth: and right on down the page, paragraph after paragraph. Meanwhile these paragraphs are building a steady progression of logical images, from the first identification with'the headline, to a growing awareness of the problem or the desire to the realization that a solution is at hand, and to the inevitable focussing of that desire and that solution onto your particular product. This, then, is the general strategy of dealing with an unaware market. The application of this strategy, when all direct methods have failed, has produced hundreds of great headlines. It would be impossible to classify all of them, since each solution establishes its own new pattern. However, there are definite landmarks and directions we can distinguish. Here are some of them—starting with the general principle they used, then the problem thev solved, then the headline itself, and then the most important structural paragraph of body copy: Giving Words to a Hidden Dream Problem: to expand the market for home correspondence courses beyond that obtained by "Earn more money" and "Gain more skill" headlines. The solution: YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 27 THE UNIVERSITY OF THE NIGHT The voung Lincoln, poring over borrowed school-books far into the night—seeking in the dim light of bis log fire the transforming light of knowledge—eager to grow—eager to do . . . here is an example which has inspired the man who strives against the odds of circumstances to make his place in the world. To-night, in cities and towns and villages . . . thousands of men will drop their daily labors to fight, beneath the lamp, the battle that Lincoln fought. . . Up from the mines, down from the masts of ships . . . from all the places where men work, they will go home and take up their books because they yearn to grow, because thev seek higher training, greater skill, more responsibility . . . Some of them are men who work in one field whereas their talents and desires are in another. Some . . . are halted in their progress because they do not understand the higher principles of their business or profession. Some left school in bovhood because poverty made it necessary . . . Fifty years ago these men . . . would have had no place to turn for the courses of study and for the personal guidance that they need. Thirty vears ago there was founded a school to help them—a school created for their needs and circumstances— a school that goes to them no matter where they are—a school. . . Created in response to a need, the International Correspondence Schools have developed their scope and usefulness to the growth of that need . . . Exploiting a Hidden Fear Problem: To re-vitalize the sales of a coffee substitute, long after health headlines and pep headlines and taste headlines had failed. Secondary problem: To overcome a slipping brand name, that was no longer an asset in either the headline or the logo. The solution: 28 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS WHY MEN CRACK.. . An authority of international standing recently wrote; "You have overeaten and plugged vour organs with moderate stimulants, the worst of which are not onlv alcohol and tobacco, but caffeine and sugar . . ." You know them. Strong men. vigorous men, robust men—men who have never had a sick dav in their lives. They drive. They drive themselves to the limit. They lash themselves over the limit with stimulants. Thev crack. Often, the\- crash. You have seen them afterwards. Pitiful shells. The zest gone, the fire gone. Burnt-out furnaces of energy. "He was such a healthy-looking man " He was. His health was his undoing. His constitution absorbed punishment. Otherwise he might have been warned in time. "For every action there is an equal and contrary reaction." You learned the law in physics. It applies to bodies. For every ounce of energy gained bv stimulation, bv whipping the nerves to action, an ounce of reserve strength is drained . . . But repeated withdrawals exhaust anv reserve. Physical bankruptcy. Then the crash . . . It's time to get back to normal, to close the drafts, to bank some of the fires... Avoid stimulants. What is good for the bov is good for the man . .. Borrowed Energy Must Be Repaid! Two million American families avoid caffeine bv drinking Postum. And two million American families are better off for it. . . Leading Into an Unacceptable Problem by Starting With a Universally Accepted Image Problem: To gain both publisher and prospect acceptance for a woman's deodorant. A direct statement of the performance or product would not only offend, but would never be published. The solution: YOUR PROSPECT S STATE OF AWARENESS WITHIN THE CURVE OF A WOMAN'S ARM A frank discussion of a subject too often avoided. A woman's arm! Poets have sung of its grace: artists have painted its beautv. It should be the daintiest, sweetest thing in the world. And vet, unfortunatelv. it isn't, alwavs. There's an old offender in this quest for perfect daintiness— an offender of which we ourselves niav be ever so unconscious, but which is just as truly present. Shall we discuss it frankly? Many a woman who savs, "No, I am never annoved by perspiration," does not know the facts . . . Of course, we aren't to blame because nature has made us so that the perspiration glands under the arms are more active than anywhere else. Nor are we to blame because . . . have made normal evaporation there impossible. Would you be absolutely sure of your daintiness? It is the chemicals of the body, not uncleanliness, that cause odor. And even though there is no active perspiration— no apparent moisture—there may be under the arms an odor... Fastidious women who want to be absolutely sure of their daintiness have found that thev could not trust to their own consciousness; they have felt the need of a toilet water which would insure them against any of this kind of underarm unpleasantness, either moisture or odor. To meet this need, a physician formulated Odorono— a perfectly harmless and delightful toilet water . . . 29 To Project a Hidden Desire Which Cannot Be Put Bluntly Into Words Problem: To capitalize on research findings that smoking cigarettes gives men a feeling of virilitv, importance, sexual strength. Any verbal expression of these themes, however, would be instantly rejected as absurd and offensive. The solution: The MARLBORO TATTOO AD: With its virile men (cowboys, racing car drivers, sky divers, etc.) whose appearance alone 30 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS projected more of an image of raw virility than any number of words could ever convev. Using a Common Resentment or Unvoiced Protest to Capture a Far Greater Market Than the Direct Statement of the Solution of That Resentment Would Produce Problem: To sell a do-it-yourself book on television repairs. Although all owners of TV sets were the potential market, only a small fraction considered themselves interested enough or capable enough to respond to a direct promise headline: "Save up to $100 a year on your TV repairs!" Most were afraid thev could not make the repairs themselves. Therefore, the market must be broadened to include the nonhandvmen owners, bv exploiting the existing resentment against TV senice contracts. The solution: WHY HAVEN'T TV OWNERS BEEN TOLD THESE FACTS Was your set purchased after the spring of 1947? Then here is the full, uncensored storv of how- von can avoid those $15-$20 repair bills—avoid those $30-860 a vear service fees—and still get the perfect, movie-clear pictures you've dreamed about! How many times this week have you had to get up to fix a jumpy TV picture? . . . How many times have you had to put up with ghosts? . . . 90% of These Breakdowns Are Unnecessary! All these breakdowns mav have seemed tragic to vou at the moment they happened—but here is the real tragedy! Do you know that the same exact set that vou now have in your front room . . . has been playing in manufacturer's test rooms for months—and playing perfectly! These sets have been subjected to "Breakdown Tests" . . . These sets have been tested against every conceivable type of viewing hazard . . . And, in almost everyone of these cases, these sets have produced perfect, movieYOUR PROSPECT S STATE OF AWARENESS clear pictures, without major breakdowns, for as much as one full vear! Here are some of the reasons why: What TV Experts Have Learned About Your Set. If your set were properly cared for, as these sets were . . . it need break down only once during the entire year . . . If your set were properly cared for, it can actually give you perfect, movie-clear reception the other 364 days of the year . . . And most important, these experts have discovered that you do not have to be a handyman or a mechanic in order to coax this performance . . . Here's why: 5 Minutes a Week for Perfect Reception. These TV experts have discovered that your TV set is a great deal like your bod}' in this respect—that it gives warning signals before it has a major breakdown . . . Now, if you had the knowledge to make a few minor adjustments, on the outside controls of that set, then you could correct those symptoms . . . If you do not have this knowledge . . . then your set will weaken, you will have a constantly bad picture . . . It's as simple as that. You pay a repairman—not for his work—but for his knowledge. If you had that knowledge yourself—then you would not have to pav him at all . . .' Now suppose that you had a TV expert at your elbow 24 hours a day. Suppose that every time your set began to flicker, or jump . . . this expert would show you exactly what knob on the outside of vour set vou could turn . . . Suppose that every time you were annoyed bv ghosts . . . this expert would show you a simple nonmechanical trick . . . Yes, and suppose that even when your set went black, this expert could show you . . . All the Information You Need About Your TV Set! This is exactly what a new book, the TELEVISION OWNER'S GUIDE does for you . . . 32 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS Projecting an Ultimate Triumph That the Prospect Will Identify With Problem: To sell music lessons by correspondence to a greater audience than would respond to a direct "Plav Real Tunes on the Piano in Five Davs" approach. The solution: THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO. BUT WHEN I STARTED TO PLAY!— Arthur had just played "The Rosarv." The room rang with applause. I decided that this would he a dramatic moment for me to make my debut. To the amazement of all my friends, I strode confidently over to the piano and sat down. "Jack is up to his old tricks," somebody chuckled. The crowd laughed . . . "Can he really play?" I heard a girl whisper to Arthur. "Heavens, no!" Arthur exclaimed. "He never plaved a note in his life. But you just watch him. This is going to be good." . . . Then I Started to Play. Instantly a tense silence fell on the guests. The laughter died on their lips as if by magic . . . I heard gasps of amazement. My friends sat breathless—spellbound. I played on and on and as I plaved I forgot the people around me. I forgot the hour, the place, the breathless listeners. The little world I lived in seemed to fade—seemed to grow dim—unreal. Only the music was real . . . It seemed as if the master musician himself were speaking to me . . . not in words but in chords. Not in sentences but in exquisite melodies! A Complete Triumph! As the last notes of the Moonlight Sonata died awav, the room resounded with a sudden roar of applause. I found myself surrounded by excited faces. How mv friends carried on! Men shook me by the hand—wildly congratulated me—pounded me on the back with their enthusiasm! Everybody was exclaiming with delight—plving me with YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS rapid questions . . . "Jack! Why didn't you tell us you could play like that?" . . . "Where did you learn?" . . . "How long have you studied?" . . . "Who was your teacher?" "I have never even seen my teacher," I replied. "And just a short while ago I couldn't even play a note." "Quit vour kidding," laughed Arthur, himself an accomplished pianist. "You've been studying for years. I can tell." "I have been studying only a short while," I insisted. "I decided to keep it a secret 'so I could surprise all you folks." Then I told them the whole story "Have vou ever heard of the U.S. School of Music?" T 'ISKPQ A few of my friends nodded. "That's a correspondence school, isn't it'3" thev exclaimed. "Exactly," I replied. "They have a new simplified method that can teach you to play any instrument by mail in just a few short months." . . . 33 Projecting the Result of a Problem in Such a Way That It Will Be Identified With by People Who Would Reject a Direct Statement of the Problem Itself Problem: To increase the sales of a mouthwash, not only on a germ theme (which could be immediately accepted), but on the more universal social-offense theme, which would be rejected in its direct form. The idea of bad breath was too insulting to be taken by the public "straight." The solution: OFTEN A BRIDESMAID BUT NEVER A BRIDE Edna's case was really a pathetic one. Like every woman, her primary ambition was to marry. Most of the girls in her set were married—or about to be. Yet no one possessed more charm or grace or loveliness than she. And as her birthdays crept gradually toward that tragic thirtv-mark, marriage seemed farther from her life than ever. She was often a bridesmaid but never a bride. 3 4 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS That's the insidious thing about halitosis (unpleasant breath). You, yourself rarely know when vou have it. And even your closest friends won't tell vou. Sometimes, of course, halitosis comes from some deepseated organic disorder that requires professional advice. But usually—and fortunately—halitosis is onlv a local condition that yields to the regular use of Listerine as a mouth wash and gargle. It is an interesting thing that this wellknown antiseptic that has been in use for \ ears for surgical dressings, possesses these unusual properties as a breath deodorant... Projecting the Result of an Accomplishment to Attract People Who Would Be Frightened Away by the Work Implied to Achieve It Problem: To broaden the market for home correspondence courses, beyond that possible with a direct statement of the immediate result—learning or skill. An attempt must be made to direct the prospect's mind away from effort, to reward. The solution: "HERE'S AN EXTRA $50, GRACE—" '7'm making real money now!" "Yes, I've been keeping it a secret until pav day came. I've been promoted with an increase of $50 a month. And the first extra money is yours. Just a little reward for urging me to study at home. The boss saws mv spare time training has made me a valuable man to the firm and there's more money coming soon. We're starting up easv street, Grace, thanks to vou and the I.C.S. . . ." YOUR PROS The List Never Ends Every day new solutions, new patterns are being created. Wherever the direct appeal fails, or loses its power, you should begin to explore a fifth stage headline. However, there are two vital points to remember in connection with this problem. First of all, this type of headline is inYOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS 35 finitely more difficult to bring home to the target than any of the other four types. You are far more likely to miss the mark on this headline, because you have far fewer guideposts to direct you. Your headline no longer refers to i/our product, but it must therefore refer even more strongly to your market. It cannot simply be a startler, or an attention-getter, or humorous, or cute. Nor can it mask the fact that it has no headline behind a prettv picture. Most copy writers use a fifth stage problem to write an empty headline, and are therefore simply wasting their client's money. Because it is so easy to wander off into an irrelevant headline, keep this one cardinal rule in mind. Your prospect must identify with your headline before lie can buy from it. It must be his headline, his problem, his state of mind at that particular moment. It must pick out the product's logical prospects—and reject as many people as it attracts. And, if it is an effective headline, and it works, then it too will become outdated as your market moves on to a new stage of awareness. And you will be presented with another problem, just as challenging, and just as rewarding, as the one you have solved before. You never step in the same river twice. No market ever stands still. A Final Word on Style in Advertising Copy Markets change; desires change; fashions change. And so do the acceptable styles of advertisements change. Certain advertising styles—the form your advertising message takes—grow tired with time—then stale—then actually laughable. At the turn of the century, effective ads were written in verse; twenty years later, no one would believe them. In the 1920s most of the great ads were narrative stories—either first-person confessions, or third person revelations, or comic strips dramatizations. Today everything but the comic strip is gone—and we see less and less of it every year. When a new style is born, people believe it, and it 36 YOUR PROSPECT'S STATE OF AWARENESS reinforces the message it is carrying. When that same style grows trite, people cannot see the message for the advertisement. We'll explore this subject further, in the chapters discussing Mood and Disguise in writing advertisements. Meanwhile, one more note here. In effective advertising, though stvles may change, strategydoes not. If you will study the piano and bridesmaid ads in this chapter, you will notice this: That while the narrative style of both is now old-hat, you can still respond to their power. Both tap desires that still exist—though now perhaps directed toward different products and different problems. And both evoke those desires, and channel those desires, so effectively, that if they were rewritten in today's idiom, and applied to different products, they still might sell millions of dollars worth of goods today. THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET: HOW MANY PRODUCTS HAVE BEEN THERE BEFORE YOU? As we mentioned before, in Chapter 2, there are three questions vou must answer before vou can determine what goes into vour headline. These are: 1. What is the mass desire that motivates your market? 2. How much does your market know about your product? (Their State of Awareness.) 3. How many similar products have they been told about before? (Their State of Sophistication.) This third question is the most easilv answered. A few hours research should give you samples of everv competing ad in the field—if there are any. If You Are First in Your Market If there are not—if vou are the first in your particular market, with your particular product—then you are dealing with prospects 37 •JO THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET that have no sophistication about your product at all. In other words, thev have never received any information about such a product before. Once you get them interested, they are likelv to become much more enthusiastic, believe much more of what you have to say, and buy that much more readily. Remember, vour story is brand-new to them. This, of course, is the dream of every manufacturer and every copy writer. To be first. And it happens quite often today. Sometimes because of a technological breakthrough—creating a new product (women's hair sprays), or a radically better product (longplaying records), or a familiar product at an explosively low price (the Model T Ford). And sometimes, such a brand-new market is created by the insight of an advertising man, dealing with an already-established product. In this case, the ad man visualizes the application of the product to an entirely different market (the switch, in the Twenties, of Ovaltine from an aid for insomnia to a body builder for skinnv children). Or he reaches that market through a hitherto untapped medium (Revlons fabulous results from sponsorship of "The $64,000 Question" in the early days of TV). Or he discovers a previously unnoticed performance of his product that carries it completely beyond the limits of its old market (Lifebuoy's discovery that people would accept its strong medicinal odor as a cure for perspiration odor, and their subsequent christening of that odor with the catch-word "B.O."). When such a golden opportunity—to be first—presents itself, you are probably dealing with a market in its third or fourth stage of awareness. Your prospects know that they would like what your product does, or they would like to get rid of the problem your product solves—if it were only possible. Here, the answer to your third question is quite simple. You are dealing with a market where you are first. Therefore thev have no previous information about similar products. Therefore they are completely unsophisticated. THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 39 And vour exploitation of this answer—your strategy in approaching this market—is equally simple: 1. Be simple. Be direct. Above all, don't be fancy. 'Same either the need or the claim in your headline—nothing more. Dramatize that claim in your copy—make it as powerful as possible. And. then bring in your product; and prove that it works. Nothing more—because nothing more is needed. To illustrate, let's look at one of the most profitable, insatiable, constantlyrenewing, and therefore overworked fields in marketing history: the reducing field. No one knows who was the first man to stumble on the reducing field (though it's fairly certain that he must have become a millionaire). But all he had to say in his headline as a simple statement of the direct desire of millions of women: "NOW! LOSE UGLY FAT!" w: As he started to clean up, others inevitably followed. But, by this time, the reducing field had already been tapped. Advertisements had been run. The direct claim had been made. Mere repetition would no longer be enough. In other words, the reducing market was now in its Second Stage of Sophistication. A new approach was necessary. The strategy had to be changed—to this: If You're Second, Do This If you're second, and the direct claim is still working—then copy that successful claim—but enlarge on it. Drive it to the absolute limit. Outbid your competition. For example, here are two successful headlines in the now fiercelv-competitive reducing field that did just that. They have both been pushed to the outer limits of both legality and believabilitv. But thev both worked. 'LOSE UP TO 47 POUNDS IN 4 WEEKSOR RECEIVE $40 BACK!" 40 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET "I AM 61 POUNDS LIGHTER . . . NEVER A HUNGRY MINUTE." In most fields, this enlarged-claim technique reaches the outer limits in successive stages. Sometimes the completion of this process takes years. In the home garden field, as another example, an advertiser brought out a Floribunda Rose—using this headline with startling success: "PICK 25—50—100 ROSES FROM THIS ONE MAGNIFICENT PLANT!" It worked. And so, some years later, a special variety of cushion mum swept the country with this headline: "SIX HUNDRED MUMS FROM A SINGLE BUSH!" And, one year later, this headline carried the process to what are probably the absolute limits of Mother Nature: "WHO EVER HEARD OF 17,000 BLOOMS FROM A SINGLE PLANT?" As simple as this evolution looks, it produces results. It provided a tremendous lift to car sales in the 1950s, when 50 more horsepower was added to the advertisements everv vear. It was climaxed in the Chrysler 300—a car named after its horsepower rating—and pegged just at the limit of believability, practicality, and the inevitable public reaction. For the reaction will come. Toward the end, the process disintegrates. The successful claim is overworked; enlargement piles on enlargement. New competitors enter the field—each trying to promise more. Headlines double and triple in size. Words begin to lose their meaning—"whiter-than-whites" appear. The prospect becomes confused—then skeptical. Believability is shattered; claims are automatically discounted 50% by their readers. More promise is poured in to compensate. The governTHE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 41 merit begins to investigate. And the sales curve begins to turn down-down-down. The Third Stage of Sophistication At this point, your market has entered into its Third Stage of Sophistication. Your prospects have now heard all the claims— all the extremes. Perhaps they have even bought one or two competitive products. Every time they open a newspaper, another similar headline screams out at them. How are they to distinguish one product from the mass? How do you break through to reach them? One factor is vital here. That is the restorative power of the market you are dealing with. It may be a market based on a constantly recurring mass instinct, such as reducing. It may be a market based on an unsolved technological problem, such as spark plug replacement. It may be a market that periodically wishes to renew or improve its purchases, such as cars, homes, appliances. In all these cases, the desire never fades; the market continuallv renews itself. New prospects come into the market. Old customers become dissatisfied with their old purchases, their old solutions, and begin to look again. The mass desire—the tremendous profit potential—still exists. But it cannot be tapped by the old, simple methods any longer. Women still want to lose weight. But by now they've read dozens of ads for reducing aids—all promising them to take off 20, 30, 40 pounds in a matter of weeks. They no longer fully believe them. Perhaps the}' believe these ads so little that they won't even try a new product at all. For months, even years, they may simplv accept their overweight condition as "something that just can't be helped." But the desire never fades. The dissatisfaction builds up, month after month. Secretly, perhaps even unconsciously, these women are hoping to find a new product—a new headline—that promises them a new way to satisfy that age-old desire. 42 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET And on this fundamental fact, we build our strategy for selling a market in its Third Stage of Sophistication. If your market is at the stage where they've heard all the claims, in all their extremes, then mere repetition or exaggeration wont work any longer. What this market needs now is a new device to make all these old claims become fresh and believable to them again. In other words, A NEW MECHANISM—a new way to making the old promise work. A different process—a fresh chance—a brand-new possibility of success where only disappointment has resulted before. Here the emphasis shifts from what the product does to HOW it works. Not accomplishment, but performance becomes dominant. The headline expands. The claim remains—but now it is reinforced by the mechanism that accomplishes it. In the reducing field, for example, the limits of its basic promise had been reached bv headlines like this: "I AM 61 POUNDS LIGHTER . . . NEVER A HUNGRY MINUTE." Now new leaders emerge—avoiding the competition of claims—stressing mechanism instead, like this: "FLOATS FAT RIGHT OUT OF YOUR BODY!" ft ft ft "FIRST WONDER DRUG FOR REDUCING!" A vital change has taken place in both these ads—and in every ad that deals successfully with this Third Stage of Sophistication. In the previous, Second-Stage ads, the entire headline was taken up by a complete statement of the main claim. Below it, in smaller type, in either a subhead or the bodv copy, came the mechanism that accomplished the claim. Often, this mechanism was abbreviated—simply mentioned instead of being explained— indicated bv a sort of shorthand, like this: THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 43 "I AM 61 POUNDS LIGHTER . . . NEVER A HUNGRY MINUTE.' Read the Astonishing Experience of New York Food Expert with the Famous Eat-and-Redtice Plan. In Third-Stage ads, however, this arrangement is completely reversed. By this time, the basic claim has become well-known to almost all its prospects—perhaps even too well-known. Therefore, this shorthand can be applied to the claim itself. What was before a five to ten word headline describing nothing but the basic claim—"I AM 61 POUNDS LIGHTER"—Hint- can he communicated in a single word in a headline devoted to explaining how this claim is accomplished. For instance: "FLOATS FAT RIGHT OUT OF YOUR BODY!" Or: "FIRST WONDER DRUG FOR REDUCING!" First the mechanism is brought into the headline to establish a point of difference—to make the old claims fresh and believable again. And then—once the prospect is told that here is a brandnew chance for success—then the claim can he restated in full, to make sure that she realizes everything she is getting. Like this: "FLOATS FAT RIGHT OUT OF YOUR BODY!" Released for the first time! The amazing scientific discoverv that melts up to 37 POUNDS off men and women— without starvation diets, without a single hungry moment— without even giving up the foods you love! Or—using the same Third-Stage arrangement of mechanism in the headline, and claim elaborated in the lead paragraph—we have this ad: 44 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET "FIRST WONDER DRUG FOR REDUCING!" Used successfully by thousands of phvsicians! Lose as many pounds as you like without diets, without exercise, without giving up the kinds of food vou love to eat! In both these ads—and all others like them—the promise itself is subordinated to the mechanism which accomplishes that promise. This mechanism is featured in the headline. When ads such as these are successful, you are dealing with a market that is in its Third Stage of Sophistication. The Fourth Stage But you are still in a competitive market, and such ads give only a temporary advantage. Such ads, presenting a new promise, begin a new trend. Within a few months, the Third Stage of Sophistication passes into a Fourth Stage—a new stage of elaboration and enlargement. But this time, the elaboration is concentrated on the mechanism, rather than on the promise—like this: "FIRST NO-DIET REDUCING WONDER DRUG!" This Fourth Stage strategy can be summarized like this: If a competitor has just introduced a new mechanism to achieve the same claim as that performed by your product, and that new-mechanism announcement is producing sales, then you counter in this way. Simply elaborate or enlarge upon the successful mechanism. Make it easier, quicker, surer; allow it to solve more of the problem; overcome old limitations; promise extra benefits. You are beginning a stage of embellishment similar to the Second Stage of Sophistication described above. The same strategy will be effective here. But, unfortunately, so will the same limitations. The Fourth THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 45 Stage of Sophistication, like the Second Stage which it resembles, eventually pushes itself out of the realm of believabilitv. At this point, further elaborations become ineffective. You are then faced with two alternatives: First, discovering a new, acceptable mechanism to make the promise fresh and believable again. But remember, the mechanism vou use must not only be new and legitimate, but it must be accepted as believable and significant by vour market. Each Third and Fourth Stage ad that precedes you, makes this problem of acceptance more and more difficult. Eventually, of course, no new mechanism will gain acceptance. The market will have grown tired of your promises and the mechanisms bv which thev are accomplished. Your prospects will have been glutted bv advertising. You will have reached the Fifth Stage of Sophistication—the most difficult—where the field is said to be exhausted—where competitors are dropping out of the market en masse. How to Revive a "Dead" Product In this Final Stage of Sophistication, your market no longer believes in your advertising, and therefore no longer wishes to he aware of your product. In many ways, therefore, this Fifth Stage of Sophistication corresponds to the Fifth Stage of Awareness discussed in Chapter 2. The problems are the same. The strategy is the same. The emphasis shifts from the promise and the mechanism which accomplishes it, to identification with the prospect himself. You are dealing here with the problem of bringing your prospect into your ad—not through desire—but through identification. (See Chapter 8.) An outstanding example of a product which had lost its market because of such a Fifth Stage of Sophistication, and then gained it back by a brilliant use of the identification headline, is the Postum ad discussed in Chapter 2, and its headline, "WHY MEN CRACK . . ." 4 6 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET Let's Look at an Industry That Went Through All Five Stages of Sophistication But perhaps the classic example of an industry which encountered all five Stages of Sophistication—and overcame them— is the Cigarette Industry. The history of cigarette advertising is a continuous battle against competition, against physical and social taboos, even against the very success of its own current advertising; which saturates and exhausts the market bv the weight of its combined industry expenditures, and constantly demands new approaches. Let's briefly examine the main current of cigarette advertising first—the progression from the first to the fifth Stages of Sophistication—and then discuss some of the side problems it encountered. In the First Stage of Sophistication, when the market was new, cigarette advertising featured taste, enjoyment, pleasure in the headline: "I'D WALK A MILE FOR A CAMEL!" "CHESTERFIELD—THEY SATISFY!" This raw promise of enjoyment gradually became elaborated and embellished to push it to the limits of believabilitv. In this Second Stage, since you cannot measure the pleasure a cigarette gives you, the promise-growth took the form of broader and broader comparisons: "LIGHT UP A LUCKY, AND YOU WONT MISS THE SWEETS THAT MAKE YOU FAT!" But, without measurement, the limits of enlargement are soon reached. So Third-Stage strategy began to be emploved—a continuous stream of brilliant new mechanisms: "LUCKIES—THEY'RE TOASTED!" THE SOI'HI and hciiai: THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 4 I "PALL MALL'S GREATER LENGTH FILTERS THE SMOKE FURTHER!" "CAMELS—PROTECT YOUR T-ZONE!" And, as each of these mechanisms was accepted bv the buying public, the originators competitors adopted the mechanism and began to elaborate on it—initiating the Fourth Stage: "PHILIP MORRIS—ALL THE HARSHNESS BAKED OUT!" "CHESTERFIELD—REGULAR AND KING-SIZED TOO!" "NINE OUT OF TEN DOCTORS PREFER LUCKIES!" But eventually the mechanisms lost their potency, and the government ruled out the health claims; and in the early Fifties the industry faced a Fifth Stage market. But a new marketing tool—Motivation Research—had shown them how to reach this market without mechanisms or claims, without even headlines, simply by projecting strong visual identifications with the virility that the public had accepted in a cigarette. For example, anv of the Marlboro "Virile Men" ads. Or their imitations in Chesterfield, or Camel ads. Thus we have the full spectrum of sophistication confronting an industry. But cigarette advertisers also encountered two critical side problems. The first offered them the opportunity of doubling their market. The second, of retaining that huge market in the face of the most adverse publicity The first challenge occurred immediately following the First World War. By this time the old "Coffin Nails" taboo had been forgotten—for men. But there still remained the equally great potential market of women smokers—if smoking could be made respectable for women. The trend was definitely in that direction— the urge, the curiosity existed in millions of women in all social 4 8 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET classes—.some respectable women were actually daring to smoke in public. But the trend—left by itself—would take years to develop. An advertisement had to be created to accelerate that trend. To make smoking for women not only acceptable, but desirable. To channel the vast movement toward liberation and equality of the Twenties as the driving force to open up this huge new market. But such an advertisement could never come right out and suggest that women smoke. It could not even show a woman smoking. Such an advertisement was definitely a Fifth Stage problem— a problem in identification. And it was solved by linking a man and woman in their most appealing connection—in love with a smoking situation. The ad showed a young couple, sitting together on a beach on a moonlit night. He is just lighting up a cigarette—the first puffs of smoke are just drifting into the moonlight. She has her face turned toward his, and her words make up the entire headline (and, except for the logo, the entire ad): "BLOW SOME MY WAV." Nothing more needed to be said. A vast new market—opened up with four words. The second challenge occurred thirty vears later. This was the cancer scare of the late Fifties, which continues into today It resulted in four reactions: First, there were cigarette holders, water pipes, ceramic filters, etc.—none of which succeeded in establishing a national market, since they represented too much inconvenience, too blatant an admission that the purchaser was worried about his smoking. Secondly, the scare produced a determined effort in the industry itself to conduct its own research, to counteract or correct such claims. Third, it produced a temporary drop in cigarette sales. And, fourth, it opened up a vast new market for an already THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET 49 existing product—the filter cigarette—aided by the industry itself, which wisely gambled that smokers would not move out of cigarettes, but simply into a different kind of cigarette. Filter cigarettes had always existed, as a small, specialty market. But now they were expanded into a mass market. Millions of new prospects, who had never before even considered filter cigarettes, now sought out information about them, asked to be told which one to buy A new market opened up. And it started to retrace the same Stages of Sophistication as its parent market had passed through fifty years before: First Stage: "KENT'S MICRONITE FILTER TRAPS TARS BEFORE THEY REACH YOUR LIPS'" Second Stage: "20,000 FILTER TRAPS IN VICEROY!" Third Stage: "PARLIAMENT—THE MOST IMPORTANT V* INCH IN SMOKING TODAY—NO FILTER FEEDBACK!" Fourth Stage: "TAREYTON—DUAL FILTER FOR DOUBLE THE PLEASURE!" And the Fifth Stage—in an industry-wide stroke of genius— right back to the flavor again: "WINSTON TASTES GOOD LIKE A CIGARETTE SHOULD!" "IT'S WHAT'S UP FRONT THAT COUNTS!" "L & M HAS FOUND THE SECRET THAT UNLOCKS THE FLAVOR!" 50 THE SOPHISTICATION OF YOUR MARKET And so it goes. In industry after industry. The same life cycle for each market. The same deadly challenges. The same willingness to adapt rather than perish. A Personal Note In this book I have tried to write a scientific study of advertising, without troubling the reader with whatever personal ethics I myself may observe. Every copv writer who has ever sweated for days to create a new approach will know how it feels to see that approach copied overnight bv a competitor. I share every ounce of that feeling. But such events happen every day. And they are effective. Therefore, examples such as those detailed above must be listed, in all objectivitv, as a business strategy that has and will solve competitive problems in a competitive industry. I include them here—not as recommendations, but as possible strategies to be chosen or rejected. 4 38 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HEADLINE ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR BASIC IDEA Up to this point, we have been concerned with the strategy of planning copv—of arriving at the theme of our ad and the content of its headline—rather than with the techniques of actually writing this copy. The entire second portion of the book will be devoted to these techniques. But we must pause now, and examine one of these techniques out of sequence. It is called VERBALIZATION. And it is the art of increasing the impact of a headline bi/ the way in which it is stated. Everything we have done so far lias helped us obtain the content of our headline. We now know what we want to say. And we now have to determine how to sav it. The most obvious wav, of course, is simplv to state the claim in its barest form. "Lose Weight," or "Stop Corns." for example. And if you are the first in vour field, there is no better wav. But where vou are competitive, or where the thought is too 51 52 38 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HEADLINE complicated to be stated simply and directly, then you must reinforce that claim by binding other images to it with the words in which you express it. This is Verbalization. And it can accomplish several different purposes: 1. It can strengthen the claim—bv enlarging upon it, by measuring it, by making it more vivid, etc. 2. It can make the claim new and fresh again—bv twisting it, changing it, presenting it from a different angle, turning it into a narration, challenging the reader with an example, etc. 3. It can help the claim pull the prospect into the body of the ad—by promising him information about it, bv questioning him, by partially revealing mechanism, etc. All of these goals are accomplished by adding variations, enlargements or embellishments to the main headline claim of the ad. These additional images are bound into the main claim bv the sentence structure of the headline. Thev alter the main claim to make it more effective. They are the second creative step in writing the ad. First, we have seen how to determine the appeal itself. And now, howto shape that appeal into its most effective form in the headline. There are, of course, an infinite number of these variations (every good copywriter invents a few himself). But there are general patterns that most of them follow. Here are some of these guideposts for vour own thinking: 1. Measure the size of the claim: "20,000 FILTER TRAPS IN VICEROY!" "I AM 61 POUNDS LIGHTER . . ." 'WHO EVER HEARD OF 17,000 BLOOMS FROM A SINGLE PLANT?" 2. Measure the speed of the claim: "FEEL BETTER FAST!" 38 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HEADLINE 53 "7A7 TWO SECONDS, BAYER ASPIRIN BEGINS TO DISSOLVE IN YOUR GLASS!'" 3. Compare the claim: "SIX TIMES WHITER WASHES!" "COSTS UP TO $300 LESS THAN MANY MODELS OF THE LOW-PRICED THREE!" 4. Metaphorize the claim: "BANISHES CORNS!" "MELTS AWAY UGLY FAT!" 5. Sensitize the claim bv making the prospect feel, smell, touch, see or hear it: "TASTES LIKE YOU JUST PICKED IT!" "THE SKIN YOU LOVE TO TOUCH!" 6. Demonstrate the claim bv showing a prime example: "JAKE LAMOTTA, 160 POUND FIGHTER, FAILS TO FLATTEN MONO PAPER CUP!" "AT 60 MILES AN HOUR, THE LOUDEST NOISE IN THIS ROLLS ROYCE IS THE ELECTRIC CLOCK!" 7. Dramatize the claim, or its result: "HERE'S AN EXTRA 850, GRACE—I'M MAKING BIG MONEY NOW!" "THEY LAUGHED WHEN I SAT DOWN AT THE PIANO—BUT WHEN I STARTED TO PLAY . . ." 8. State the claim as a paradox: "HOW A BALD-HEADED BARBER SAVED MY HAIR!" "BEAT THE RACES BY PICKING LOSERS!" 5 4 38 WAYS TO STRENGTHEN YOUR HEADLINE 9. Remove limitations from the claim: "SHRINKS HEMORRHOIDS WITHOUT SURGERY!" "YOU BREATHE NO DUSTY ODORS WHEN YOU DO IT WITH LEWYT!" 10. Associate the claim with values or people with whom the prospect wishes to be identified: "MICKEY MANTLE SAYS: CAMELS NEVER BOTHER MY THROAT!" "9 OUT OF 10 DECORATORS USE WUNDAWEAVE CARPETS FOR LONG LIFE AT LOW COST!" 11. Show how much work, in detail, the claim does: "NOW! RELIEF FROM ALL 5 ACID-CAUSED STOMACH TROUBLES—IK SECONDS!" "RELIEVES CONGESTION IN ALL 7 NASAL PASSAGES INSTANTLY!" 12. State the claim as a question: "WHO ELSE WANTS A WHITER WASH—WITH NO HARD WORK?" "COULD YOU USE $25 A WEEK EXTRA INCOME?" 13. Offer information about how to accomplish the claim:

Here are 5 examples of the best headlines you could use for an apparel brand: - - - The concept is based around: The emotion we are tapping into is: