What did Claude Hopkins and Gary Halbert have in common?

I envy you, to be honest. When I came into advertising half a century ago, there really wasn’t anybody there to teach me. I had to find books, but I didn’t know which books - and it took me quite a while to find some good ones.

Would you like to know which helped me most? They were Aesop Glim, Copy - The Core of Advertising, which really inspired me to try to get into the business, How to Write Advertising That Sells by Clyde Bedell, and Merrill DeVoe’s - Effective Advertising Copy. That had 717 rather boring pages – what stamina I had!

But above all, there was a priceless book by the advertising manager for the International Correspondence Schools, a man who measured everything, bless him. When I was drafting this I was darned if I could remember his name . Then Kevin Halbert reminded me: it was G. Lynn Sumner. A forgotten hero - and thanks, Kevin.

Today learning how to succeed is a cakewalk compared to then. The internet is awash with stuff telling you what works, what doesn’t - and why you should buy somebody’s absolutely sure-fire recipe that’ll have you making more money than you can possibly count while you sleep. (Fat chance!)

The most able adman ever

But wherever you turn if you study, you’re bound to be referred not once, but many times, to Claude Hopkins - possibly the most talented man ever in the history of advertising and marketing. If only I’d heard of him when I started!

So I hope you have carefully read and re-read Claude’s Scientific Advertising. If not, you are rather like somebody studying warfare without knowing anything about Caesar, Hannibal, Napoleon or Wellington. I am told that Jay Abraham modelled his career on Claude.

Just in case you haven’t read Scientific Advertising, go to

www.draytonbirdmarketing commonsense.com

and you can download the whole book. It’s only 48 pages long; I have read it scores of times – and every time I do I am reminded of something I know I should be doing – but don’t.

What was Claude’s mistake?

Well, Claude wrote another book which most people haven’t read called “My Life in Advertising”. In the last chapter he confesses to his biggest mistake: He never went in to business for himself. When he did, towards the end of his life he made even more money than he had already, though why he wanted it I have no idea - since he was already absurdly rich.

Anyhow, being a genius, he chose a product which had a lot going for it. First, it was in the field of cosmetics where margins are huge, and second, he found somebody famous to front it, often the key to success in cosmetics.

And guess who else did pretty much the same thing? Gary Halbert. In fact I think the first time I ever knew of Gary was when I saw this ad. Would you like to know what I think made it work? Plus one thing that Gary believed increased sales by 50%? You would? Let’s go

A great product always beats great waffle

The first thing to remember in the hierarchy of success is not your brilliant copy. It is your product and its positioning. The phrase that comes to mind is “A gifted product is mightier than a gifted pen.” I quoted David Ogilvy as saying that and he told me he never said it at all. Well, if he didn’t, he should have - and if I did, I’m very pleased with myself.

A great product or one with unique positioning can get away with abysmal marketing. A dud product or one poorly positioned will find it very hard to succeed, no matter how brilliant the marketing. What you do matters infinitely more than what you say. To give a relevant example, by and large marketing for computers has been driven by product improvements, and the marketing has been a side show. Apple is perhaps the only exception.

To illustrate just how bad computer marketing has been, ask yourself this. How much has your computer manufacturer done to recognise you as a customer and capitalise on the fact that you are customer? Not much, if anything, right? I bet they’ve never even written to you personally at all. Yet that is very, very basic marketing.

Anyhow, the first great thing about this ad is that Tova Borgnine was, at that time, a name to inspire curiosity – her husband was a household name. So regardless of the appeal of the product one part of the battle to gain attention was won instantly.

Now look at the two most important factors in almost any ad: headline and picture. Nothing clever about either here. They are as safe as houses. A picture of Tova – women look at women. “Amazing and new” – words that increase readership. Beverley Hills. Hollywood. Look younger. Plain language “Hollywood stars swear by it”. Not a wasted word. And a question mark at the end of the subhead – a way to keep you reading.

What matters most?

What matters most after the headline and picture combination? The caption to the picture. And look how hard this works! It’s the guarantee – with an extra incentive to try.

Then the copy drives straight into battle. Not a wasted word. Names of Hollywood stars. Testimonials from ordinary people. Frankly, there is hardly a single detail here that does not teach a lesson.

Study it and look at some of the magical touches

There’s the mysterious stuff about Mexico. The mention of the arid climate (so right when talking about skin). The bit about the product changing colour after it’s applied ... shadows of witchcraft. And the word “magic” which appeals to the oldest of human suspicions. It “knows” what to do by itself.

Lots of stuff in quotes, too. If you study best selling paperbacks you’ll see that they have lots of dialogue – it increases readership.

And there are the constant variations on that basic thought: look younger (I counted 8) – with that wonderful no-risk line: “You can’t lose money, but you can lose years off your appearance”.

Notice the terms of the guarantee: send the empty packet back and we’ll still give you a refund. That is a perfect example of the well-known line of Claude Hopkins: make an offer so good only an idiot would refuse it. Nowadays they call it “risk reversal – just a fancy word for something as old as the hills.

And notice that the reader is asked to send the order to Tova herself.

If you note every single thing you see in this ad, you will learn a lot. And if you apply them you will achieve a lot.

The advertiser’s greatest challenge

James Webb Young, the great Creative Director of J. Walter Thompson in its early days remarked that the greatest problem of the advertiser is to be believed. And today I saw a report that only between 6% and 9% of customers believe that advertisers tell the truth.

So one thing to notice about this ad is what an extraordinary proportion of the copy is directly or implicitly a testimonial. But I would never have guessed what, in Gary’s view, increased response by a good 50% - something which was, again, a way of instilling belief. It was this line:

If you are in the Southern California Area, you may pick up the product at 8920 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, California, between the hours of 8:30 to 5:30 Monday to Friday.

As Laurence Bernstein, The King of Swipe comments:

“There were no customer lines on Wilshire Boulevard. Almost no one showed up to pick up the product in person.

What this paragraph did was strengthen the association between the product and its place of origin — Beverly Hills — a place that’s loaded with connotations of wealth, beauty and luxury.

More importantly, it persuaded even the most skittish prospect that, yes, this is a bona fide product from a legitimate company…so much so that they invite you to their Beverly Hills location to pick it up.”

What can you learn from this ad? Quite a few things:

That a famous but relevant name can work wonders.
That your copy doesn’t have to be ingenious to work. It has to be right.
That if you’ve got a winning proposition, repeat it as much as you can.
That testimonials are immensely important.
That a touch of hokum doesn’t hurt.
That convincing people what you say is true is critical (probably more so now that it was then).

And that I could never write this stuff as well as Gary did.

-Drayton Bird

http://www.draytonbirdcommonsense.com

P.S.The book I couldn't remember was How I Learned The Secrets Of Success In Advertising. You can get it on Amazon - as I shall.