Advertising & Selling, Volume 10 (November 1927 to April 1928)
A bound volume of the New York trade fortnightly Advertising & Selling, from November 2, 1927 (No. 1) to April 18, 1928, about 1,260 scanned pages of articles, letters and trade advertisements.
What it is
A bound volume of the New York trade fortnightly Advertising & Selling, from November 2, 1927 (No. 1) to April 18, 1928, about 1,260 scanned pages of articles, letters and trade advertisements. Its spine is the last five instalments of Claude C. Hopkins's autobiography My Life in Advertising: mail order lessons, including an ad at 42 cents per reply that beat a larger rival at $14.20; his commission deal with Albert Lasker at Lord & Thomas; his tested principles of Scientific Advertising, such as writing as a salesman would speak, never boasting and using coupons; his great mistake of not starting a business of his own; and a portrait of his work habits. Around it run Earnest Elmo Calkins on sincere advertising, Melvin T. Copeland on why industrial buyers purchase, and a rebuttal by L. E. McGivena arguing that advertising is not a science.
Why read it now
Read it to see Hopkins's method argued in public, with the pushback printed beside it. His core still holds: judge an ad by cost per result, test one version against another, and ask for a specific action. That is how search and social ads are bought now, and the story of 42 cents against $14.20 per reply remains the clearest case for testing before scaling. Two of his rules have not held as general laws. His claim that small type and plain layout always win comes from mail order; brand work is judged over years, and Binet and Field's analysis of the IPA effectiveness databank finds that emotional, long-term campaigns build more profit than short-term response alone. His line that brilliant writing has no place also runs against evidence linking creative quality to effectiveness. McGivena's point, that a market is never the same after it has been advertised to, anticipates ad wear-out. Calkins adds that a precise figure, 999 stores, persuades better than a round one. Use: run tests the Hopkins way on Meta or Snapchat, but keep a brand budget his tests would never have measured.
Passages worth keeping
Take a profitable mail order advertisement and set it in twice the space; use larger type, more decorations or a border. You will get an advertisement which looks more attractive, but you will double the cost of replies and sales.
الإعلان الأكبر والأجمل قد يضاعف كلفة كل رد، فالمظهر ليس معيار الحكم، والحكم للأرقام.
Brilliant writing has no place in advertising. A unique style takes attention away from the subject.
الأسلوب اللافت يشغل القارئ بالكاتب عن المنتج، لذلك يطلب هوبكنز لغة بسيطة لا تلفت النظر إلى نفسها.
In fishing for buyers as in fishing for bass, one should not reveal the hook.
كلما ظهرت محاولة البيع زادت مقاومة المشتري، فالإقناع الناجح لا يكشف أداته.
The specific statement is always stronger than the broad claim. To say your product is sold in 999 stores is more convincing than to say that it is sold in a thousand stores.
الرقم المحدد يبدو محسوبًا ومسؤولًا، أما الرقم المدوّر فيبدو مبالغة، ولذلك يصدقه القارئ أقل.
Our solution X is never the same after somebody has advertised to it.
السوق ليس مادة ثابتة في مختبر؛ فكل حملة تغيّر الجمهور، ولذلك لا تتكرر نتيجة التجربة نفسها بالضرورة.
The scanned text has OCR errors. The passages are quoted from it, with only obvious slips fixed.
What it teaches best
Read the original archive.org
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