Ads and Sales: A Study of Advertising and Selling from the Standpoint of the New Principles of Scientific Management
Grown from talks to ad clubs, Casson's book argues that selling and advertising are the last parts of business still run on habit, and that the efficiency methods of Taylor and Emerson can be turned on them.
What it is
Grown from talks to ad clubs, Casson's book argues that selling and advertising are the last parts of business still run on habit, and that the efficiency methods of Taylor and Emerson can be turned on them. The sales chapters use history as proof (Jay Cooke selling $1,240,000,000 of Civil War bonds, McCormick's written guarantee for his reaper) and sort salesmen into the actor, the hustler and the "Sunny Jim". The advertising chapters hold that the public is sated with brags, that copy must start from fact, that the aim is a buying habit built from what is seen recently, vividly and often, and that an ad must make people Look, Like, Learn and Buy. Chapter nine grades more than 8,000 magazine ads into named types such as the Bell-Wether testimonial, the Big Fact and the Glad Hand. It ends on public goodwill and the outside adviser.
Why read it now
Several claims hold up. Advertising as habit-building, through recency and frequency, matches what the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute calls mental availability: brands grow by coming to mind at the moment of buying. His rule, "first the Fact, and then the Phrase", is still the fix for copy that could sell any brand, a fault Casson catches when he notes that a piano ad could fit an incubator. His rule for testimonials (big, clean, expert names only) applies directly to influencer choice today. The public opinion chapter makes the case that a large company must advertise to keep goodwill, which is the argument for reputation work now. What has dated: the four-word headline limit rests on a misreading of attention research, and Ogilvy's later mail-order data found long headlines often sold more. The ranking of red, then green, then black ignores that contrast with the page decides what gets seen. Use: run Casson's go-cart test. List who actually buys your product, then check whether anyone who designs or advertises it is that person.
Passages worth keeping
It is not yet generally acknowledged that the Phrase without the Fact is mere cheap talk
العبارة اللامعة التي لا تسندها حقيقة كلام رخيص، والإعلان الجيد يبدأ بالحقيقة ثم يصوغ لها العبارة.
He must do something DIFFERENT if he wants it to be noticed and remembered.
في سوق مزدحم بالإعلانات لا يكفي رفع الصوت أو تكبير المساحة، والمطلوب شيء مختلف يلفت النظر ويبقى في الذاكرة.
The headline should not consist of more than FOUR WORDS, for the reason that the human eye can only see four things at once.
يرى المؤلف أن العنوان لا يتجاوز أربع كلمات لأن العين تلتقط أربعة أشياء معًا، وهي قاعدة لم تثبتها التجارب اللاحقة.
The First Duty of a Corporation is to Secure the Goodwill of the Public.
أول واجب على الشركة أن تكسب رضا الناس، لأن عداء الجمهور يعطّل كل ما عداه مهما كانت جودة المنتج.
They are beginning to see that THE REALLY UNIQUE POINTS IN A BUSINESS ARE VERY FEW, and the common things are very many.
ما يظنه صاحب العمل خصوصية في نشاطه قليل، ومعظم مشكلاته مشتركة مع غيره، ولذلك يفيده رأي من يقف خارج شركته.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
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