Transcript
Introduction
Human nature is perpetual. In most respects, it is the same today as the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them. We learned, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives. We employed it whenever we can. Puffed wheat and puffed rice were made successful largely through curiosity. For them, we used headlines like ‘Food shot from guns.’ ‘125 million steam explosions caused in every kernel.’ These foods were failures before that factor was discovered.
We learned that people judge largely by price. They are not experts. In the British National Gallery is a painting which is announced in the catalog to have cost $750,000. Most people at first pass it by at a glance. Then later, they learn what the painting cost. They return and surround it. A department store advertised $100 hat, and the floor could not hold the women who came to see it. We often employ this factor. Perhaps we are advertising a valuable formula. To merely say that would not be impressive. So we state as a fact that we paid $100,000 for that formula. That statement, when tried, has won a wealth of respect.
Many have advertised, “Try my product for a week. If you don't like it, we'll return your money.” Then someone conceive the idea of sending goods without any money down and saying, “Pay in a week if you like them.” That proved many times as impressive. One great advertising man stated the difference this way: Two men came to see me, each offering me a horse. Both made equal claims. They were good horses. A child could drive them. One man said, “Try the horse for a week. If my claims are not true, come back for your money.” The other man said, “Try the horse for a week.” But then he added, “Come and pay me then.” I naturally bought the second man's horse.
An advertiser offered a set of books to businessmen. The advertising was unprofitable, so he consulted another expert. The ads were impressive. The offer seemed attractive. “But,” said the second man, “let us add one little touch, which I have found very effective. Let us offer to put the buyer's name in gold lettering on each book.” That was done, and without another change in the ads, they sold some hundreds of thousands of books. Through some peculiar kink in human psychology, the names in gold gave much added value to the books.
In the same way, it is found that an offer limited to a certain class of people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an offer limited to veterans of the war or to members of a lodge or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will go a long way not to lose that advantage. An advertiser suffered much from substitution. He said, look out for substitutes, be sure you buy this brand, et cetera, with no effect. These were selfish appeals. Then he said, "Try our rivals, too," in his headlines. He invited comparisons and showed that he did not fear them. That corrected the situation. Buyers were careful to get the brand so conspicuously superior that its maker could court a trial of the rest.
There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five products exactly alike, and five people may choose one of them, but point out in one some qualities to notice and everyone will find them. The five people then will all choose the same product. These are just some examples. There are endless phases to psychology. Some people know them by instinct. Many of them are taught by experience, but we learn most of them from others. When we see a winning method, we note it down for use when the occasion offers. These things are very important. An identical offer made in a different way may bring multiplied returns.
That was an excerpt from the chapter on psychology of the book, Scientific Advertising, written by Claude Hopkins. So I wanted to cover this book because I thought it would be a good bonus episode to go with the book, the biography on Albert Lasker that I just did because Claude and Albert worked together for, I think, like 17 years. Claude Hopkins will sound familiar to -- may sound familiar to you because back on Founders #170, I read his biography, My Life in Advertising. He is largely regarded as probably the greatest copywriter to ever live.