M Y L I FE

C HOP KINS
.

HA R P E R 0
’
B R O T H E R S P UB L I S H E R S

NE W to m: a nd 10 310 01!
 m un 18 407 m m
Co p i
y g
r h t. 1 91 7 , b y Har
pe
'
r 0 m
d
Printe inth e Uni ted Snee
 co m n
me tr : e

Pnnu cn
I
II
IIIMr STA R T m B usm nss
IV H ow I 601 MY Su n I n Anvn rmno '

V
VI Pm omu. Sw ap

VII M ED I CA L Apm nsm o '

MY LI QUOZONB En n mnca
I! Tm; ST A R T or M r 83m m Yam

A UTOM OB I LE A nvmu xsm o '

Tm A nvn nsm o '

Em ! Hxs ror r
'
or Pu tna m
P tm rx o Gm ns A ND UA m
Q OA T:
Pm m
on

Sous M A I L O RD ER En a m
-
el :

Ru sow FOR S m “

! VIII Mr Gm '
r s '
t m
! I!

81 2 4 9 8
 T RE E / 1 68

H I S book is not written as a persona l history ,

but a s a business story I ha ve tried to a void

.

tr ivia lities a nd to confine myself to ma tters of in

structive interest The chief object behind every
.

episode is to ofier helpful suggestions to those who

'

will follow me A nd to sa ve them some of the

.

midnight groping which I did .

One night in Los A ngeles I told this story to

B e n Ha mpton wr iter publisher and advertising
, , ,

man He listened for hours without interruption

.
,

beca use he saw in this career so much of value to

beginner s He never rested unti l he h ad my promise
.

to set down th e story for publication .

He wa s right A ny man who by a lifetime of

.

e xcessive a pplica tion learns more a bout anything

tha n O thers owes a sta tement to successors The .

r es ul ts of resear ch should be recorded Every pio .

neer shoul d bla ze his trail Tha t is all I have tried

.

to do .

When th is autobiography was announced as a

ser ial many letters of pr otest ca me to me Some of .

them ca me from the hea ds of big businesses which

I h a d served Behind them a ppear ed th e fear tha t
.

I would cla im excessive credit to th e hurt of Other s

’

pride I ree te some of the chapters to elimina te

.

every possible ca use for such apprehensions .

N o ; my only claim for credit is tha t I ha ve prob

 P RE F AC E
a bly worked twice as long as anybody else in th i s
field I have lived for many years in a vortex Of
.

a dvertising . Nat ura lly I learned more from e x

p e ri ence t ha n those who h a d a lesser ch ance N o w.

I want tha t exp erience so fa r as possible to h e l p

, ,

Oth ers a void the same di fi cul t climb . I set do w n

these findings solely for the purpose of aiding Other s
to start far up the heights I sca led There is nothing
.

to be gained for myself save that satisfaction H a d .

some one set down a record like this when I bega n

I would ha ve blessed him for it Then with the
.
,

efiorts I here descr ibe I might h a ve atta ined some

'

pea ks in advertising beyond any of us now M ay .

I li ve to see Others do tha t .

CLA UDE C Hor m

. .
M Y LI FE I N A D V E RT I S I NG
 Cb a pte r Om

EARL Y I NFL UE fiQ s;

HE grea test event in my ca reer occurred a year

b efore I wa s born My fa ther selected for me
.

a Sc o tch mother She typified in a high degree the

.

thr if t and caution the intelligence ambition and

, , ,

e ner g of h er ra ce Boys they say ga in most Of

y .
, ,

their qua lities from their mothers Certainly I in .

h er i te d from mine conspicuous conserva tism The .

lac k Of that qua lity h as wrecked more advertising

men more business men than anything else I know
, ,
.

Th a t fact will be empha sized a gain and a gain in

this book I stress it here in tribute to the source of
.

"
my prudence . Safety first h a s been my guiding
star A Scotch mother is the grea test a sset a boy
.

ca n h ave who desires a career in a dvertising Then .

economy and ca ution are instinctive with him .

They are fundamwta ls Success sa ve by accident

.
, ,

is impossible without them But the lack of these .

qua lities ma y be partially corrected by studious

cultiva tion .

M ost business wrecks which I have encountered

ar e due to over rea ching-
TO reckless specula tion
.

on a hidden chance To tha t haste which la ughs at

.

conserva tism To racing a hea d on unblazed trails

.
,

in fear tha t some riva l may go farther or get higher .

There are exceptions in business but not in a d ,

I
 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISIN G
verti si ng dvertising disasters are due to
. Al l a

r ashness n e edl ess and inexcusa ble

,
I do nor mean .

a d Vem smg fai l u r es Al l of us in th is line attempt

hin W
.

t h ic h n n ot be done We de ling with

w
g s ca a re a

hum
.

a n n a ture ith wants prejudices and idio

, , ,

syn cr a si e s which we ca nnot mea sure up No .

a mount of experience ca nguide us correctly in even

the ma jority of cases That is why inca ution is an .

a dvertising crime In every advertising ventur e we

.

are dealing with a pig in the poke .

But ordinary failur es mean little They are ex .

p e ct ed . E ve ry a dvertising venture i n its initia l

stage mea ns simply feeling the public pul se If .

people do not resp ond the fa ult often lies with the ,

product or to circumstances beyond control The

, .

loss is a trifle if anything in ventures which are

, ,

rightly conducted Hopes and idea s which fail to

.

p an out are mere incidents .

I refer to ca ta strophes to the cra sh of wild sp ecu ,

la ti ons .I mean advertising men who pilot some

big a nd costly ship to the rocks Those men rarely .

recover Pilots who prove reckless are forever

.

feared I have seen scores of promising men in this

.

line wreck themselves with their ships just be ca use ,

they ventured with all sails sprea d on some un

charted course SO far a s I remember nOt one of
.
,

them ever came back The Scotch blood in my .

veins h as for thirty five years kept me from such -

disa sters .

Because of my mother a dime to me h as alwa ys ,

 ‘

ARLY I N EL UE N ca s
E
3
looked as big as a doll a r Not my dimes only but .
,

the other fellow s dim es I ha ve spent them care

'

fully b O th as Owner and trustee I have never

,
.

ga mbled in a large wa y whether acting for myself ,

or for O thers .
—
So the fa ilures I ha ve made and
—
they ar e many ha ve never counted strongly a ga inst
me I ha ve esca ped the distrust engendered by con
.

p
s i cuo us disa ster When I lo st.I lost little in ,

money a nd nothing in confidence When I won I .

,

Often g a ined millions for my client a n d a wea lth of

prestige for myself Tha t I largely owe to my .

mO th er .

I owe h er va stly more She taught me industry . .

I ca n scarcely remember an hour night or d ay , ,

when mother was na at work She was a college .

gr a du a te with g rea t intellectua l powers The r e .

ca me a time when a s a widow she h ad to support

, ,

h er chil dren by tea ching school Before and after .

sch oo l she did the housework In the evenings she .

—
wr ote books kindergarten books for schools .

When vaca tion ca me she tramped from school to ,

school to sell them She did the work of three or

.

four women She developed th ree or four careers

. .

From my earliest years under h e r direction and ,

incentive I did likewise I ha ve supported myself

, .

since the a ge of nine Other boys wh en they went .

,

to school as I did counted their school work a da y

, .

It was an incident to me Before school I opened .

two school houses built the fires and dusted the

-
,

sea ts A fter school I swept those school houses

.
-
.
 MY L I F E I N A D V E x ne
'

4 O

Then I distributed the Detroi tEveni ng Nem to s ixty

five homes before supper .

On Sa turdays I scrubbed the two school house s -

an d distributed bills On Sundays I was a church

.

j anitor which kept me occupied from early morning

,

until ten o clock at night In vaca tions I went to

’

the farm where the working th e was sixteen hours

,

a day .

When the doctor pronounced me too sickly for

sch ool I went to the cedar swamp There work .

started a t in the morning We milked th e .

cows an d fed the ca ttle before brea kfa st A t .

we drove to the swamp ca rrying our lunch with us

,
.

All d ay long we cut poles and hewed ties A fter .

dinner came another milking ; then we bedded the

ca ttle for the night A t nine o clock we crept up
.
’

a la dder to t h e a ttic and our bed Ye t it never oc.

curred to me that I wa s working hard .

In after years I did the same in business I h ad no .

working hours Wh en I cea sed before midnight

.
,

tha t was a holiday for me I often left my office at

.

two o clock in the morning Sunda ys were my

'

best working days beca use there were no inter

,

p
ru ti on s Fo r .sixteen years aft er enter ing busines s

I rarely h ad anevening or a Sunda y not occupied by

work .

I am nor advising Others to follow my example .

I would nor a dvise a boy of mine to do so Life .

holds so many Other things more important than

success that work in moderation
proba bly br ings
 E A RL Y INF L U ENC ES
mo r e joy But the man who works twice as long
.

a s h i s fellows is bound to go twice as far especia lly ,

i n a d vertising .

O ne ca nnot get around tha t Th ere is some d if .

fer e nce in brains of course but it is nOt so impor

, ,

t a nt a s the difference in industry Th e man who .

d o es two or t h ree times the work of another learns

two or three times a s much He ma kes more mis .

ta ke s and more successes and he learns from bo rh ,

.

If I h a ve gone higher than O thers in a dvertising or ,

done more the fact is not due to exceptional a bility

, ,

but to exceptional hours It mea ns th a t a manh as.

s a c rificed all else in life to excel in this one p ro

fes si o n It means a man to be pitied ra ther than

.
,

envied perhaps
Once I said in a speech I figure tha t I have ,

spent seventy years in advertising The time is only .

th i rty five years by the ca lendar but mea sured by

-
,

ordinary working hours and amount of work ac

complished I ha ve lived two years in one Fru .

g a li ty and ca u tion kept me from disa st er but i n ,

d ustry taught me a dvertising and made me what

I m
a .

Th rough fa ther I gained poverty and tha t was ,

ano ther blessin g Father wa s the son of a clergy

.

man His ancestors far back h ad been clergymen

.
,

b red and schooled in p overty so this was his ,

na tura l sta te .

I owe much to that condition It took me among .

the common p eople of whom God made so many

, .
6 MY e E I N ADVERTISING
I came to know them their wants and impulses , ,

their struggles and economies their simplicities , .

Those common people whom I know so well be

ca me my future customers When I ta lk to them .
,

in print or in person they recognize me as one of,

their kind .

I am sure that I could not imp ress th e rich for I ,

do nor know them I ha ve never tried to sell wha t

.

they buy I am sure I would fail if I tried to ad

.

verti se th e Rolls Royce Tiffany 8: Company or

-
,

Steinwa y pianos I do nOt know the na ti ons of

.

the rich But I do know the common people I

. .

love to ta lk to la boring men to s tudy housewives -

,

who must count their pennies to ga in the confi ,

dence and learn th e ambitions of poor boys and

girls Give me someth ing which they want and I
.

will strike the responsive chord My words will .

be simple my sentences short Scholars may ridi

,
.

cule my style The rich and vain ma y la ugh at th e

.

factors which I fea ture But in millions of hum ble .

homes the common people will rea d and buy They .

will feel that the writer knows them A nd they .

,

in advertising form 9 5 p,er cent of our customers .

To p overty I owe ma ny experiences which taught

me salesma nship Had it nor been for poverty I
.

would never ha ve been a house to house canva sser - -

,

an d there I learned th e most I know a bout human

nature as a pplied to spending money Canva ssing .

is a wonderful school One of the grea test ad ver .

tising men this country h as developed always went

 E A RLY I N B L U ENCE O 7
o u t to se ll in p erson before he tried to se ll in p rint .

I h a ve known him to spend weeks in going from

fa rm to farm to learn the farmer s vi ewpo int
’

I .

h a v e known him to ring a thousand door bells to -

n an s an
'

g a i the wom gle .

T o poverty I owe the fact that I never went to

co ll ege . I spent those four year s in th e school of
ex p e rience in s tea d of a school of theory I know.

no thing of value which an advertising mancan be

ta ug ht in college I know of many things taught
.

th e r e which h e will need to unlea rn before he ca n

ste e r an y p ra c t ica l cou rse Th en .highe r ed uca tion

rs to me a handica p to a manwhose lifetim e

ap p e a

wo r k consists in app ealing to common people .

O f cour se we h ad no a dvertising courses in my

sch o ol da ys no courses in salesma nship or journal
,

i sm I am sure i twould be better if we did not have

.

them n ow . I have rea d some of those cour ses .

They were so misleading so impractica l tha t they , ,

e x as pera ted me . Once a man brought me fi om a '

g rea t t e chnic a l s chool th ei r cou r se in a dv ertising

W
,

and a sked me h ow to improve it henI rea d it I

.

“
sa i d Burn it You ha ve no righ t to occupy a
.

young ma n s most impressive years most precious

’

year s with rot like tha t If he spends four years

, .

to lea rn such theories he will spen , d a doz en years

to unlearn them . Then he will be so far behind in
th e ra ce tha t he will never a ttempt to ca tch up .

A s I said I was exa spera ted

, I left a bad im
.

p '
e ss i on B ut t e ll m e how a college p rofes so r who ,
8 MY L I FEER I N A DV
T ISIN G

h as lived his life in an e duca tional Cloister ca n be ,

fitted to teach advertising or practical business .

Those things be long to the school of rea l business .

They are learned nowhere else I ha ve ta lked with .

hundreds of men on this subject I h ave watched .

th e vagaries of men who for la ck of educa t i on

, ,

pla ce a halo on men who have it I ha ve gone to .

college s entered their cla sses listened to their lec

, ,

tures I went with respect for I belong to a college

.
,

family I was born on a college ca mpus Fa ther

. .

and mother were bOth college gra dua tes my gra nd ,

father was one Of the founders of a college My .

sister and my da ug h ter ha ve college educa tions .

I am weighi ng my words I ha ve watched count

less college men i n business In an advertising .

a gency of which I wa s h ead we employe d college ,

men even as ofi ce boys M any a client Of m ine

.

—
,

h as adopted th e same policy to employ none but

college men The whole idea was to employ men
.

with training which th e employers lacked and of ,

which they kee nly felt th e lack But I cannot .

remember one of those men who ever ga ined a

p rominent place The m enwho spent those college

.

years in practica l business h ad an overwhelming

a dvanta ge As far as advertising is concerned one
.
,

can learn more in one week s ta lk with farm folks

’

than by a year in a ny cla ssroom I know .

To Will Carleton I Owe the influence wh ich di

rooted my course from the minis try I was destined .

to be a clergyma n I came from a clerica l ancestry

. .
10 MY LI FE IN ADVERTISIN G
he stop
ped home and he found there the
at our ,

ul tra religious atmosphere nOt plea sa nt for a boy

-
.

A fter one of h is visits he wrote a ballad ba sed on

tha t experience It was pu blished in his Ci t
.
y Ba llad s ,
“
an d the title was There Wasn t A ny Room for
'

His Heart It recited the tale a young man told

.

the sh erifl on his way to prison The tale Of a

'

Scorch Pres byterian home where religion was fa na t

ici sm .The boy through this repression was
, ,

dr iven into crime Will Carleton in that ba lla d

.

ma de me the victim of tha t religious tragedy and ,

sent me a copy of the book .

Th at b alla d h ad a greater influence on my career

th an a ll my family tea chings I admired Will .

Carleton I wanted to be when I grew up a famous

.

manlike h im His attitude on my home l ife a greed

.

with mine of course A nd when such a managreed

, .

with me he gave my opinions weight Ever after .

that Will Carleton beca me my guiding star Hi s .

attitude on religious fana ticism showed me for the

first ti me that there was another side .

I went on studying for the ministry I was a .

preach er at seventeen I preached in Chica go at

.

eighteen But the course of thought which Will

.

Carleton started eventually made a religious career

impossible for me .

A nother event h ad a grea t eflect My sister and

'

I h a d been ill M a th er h ad nur sed us and cared for

.

us During our convalescence she read to us Uncle

.

Tom s Cabi n A li ttle later I learned tha t the play

'

.
 ARLY INFL UENCE S E 11

was coming to town so I ma de arrangements to ,

distribute the bills and earn some tickets for it .

A ft er much per suasion mOth er agreed to let us see

th e pla y .

The time was a week ahea d and the days passed ,

with leaden steps On the morning of the great day

.

I arose a t four O clock The d a y seemed endless

'

. .

A t seveno clock in the evening my sister and I were

’

unab le to wait longer so we induced our mother to ,

st a rt with us for the town ha ll .

On th e way we met the Presbyterian minister .

He was a n old bachelor who h a d forgotten his

youth Children insti nctively shrank away from
.

h i m so I sensed in his appro ach a ca lamity

,
.

“
He a ccosted us and said : Well si ster I see you , ,

are out for a stroll I love to see a mOth er and h er

.

ch ildren in such p erfect harmony .

“
M other replied Yes broth er we are out for a
!

, ,

stroll But for more than tha t I feel I should tell

. .

you something These children have be en ill

. .

During their recovery I read them Uncle Tom s

’

Ca bi n They beca me intensely interested Tonight

. .

the play is coming to town and this boy h a s ea rned

th e tickets I ha ve agreed to take the children
.

to the play It cannot be worse than the b ook and

.
,

the book h as certainly been a grea t factor for good .

The bachelor clergyman replied : I see your

logic sister and I sympa thize with your desire
, ,
.

The book did prove itself a factor of tremendous

g ood . But remembe r this : Those child ren will
11 M Y LI FE I N ADVERTISIN G
s omet ime go out from your ca re They will see the .

lights of the devil s pl ayhouses urging them to

’

enter Wha t will they sa y whenthose tempta tions

.

come ? Will they say tha t their mother took them

"
to thei r first pla y so they should not hesita te P
,

M Oth er replied : You a re right I must nOt set

‘
.

this b a d example : A nd she turned and took us

home I n one moment I lost all respect for wha t
.

mother typified and I never re ga ine d th a t respe ct

,
o
.

A nother ma n exerted a remar ka b l e influence on

"

my impressive year s : He wa s a ra ilroad section

foreman working for , per day He bossed .

several men whose wa ges were p er d ay .

Upto the a ge of six or seven I was surrounded by

college students at pla y I knew nothing of the .

serious side of student life but I saw all the college ,

pranks Thus I ga ined a rather firm idea that all

.

life wa s a playground .

This section foreman reversed that idea He i m .

pressed me with the difference between him and his

helpers The helpers worked from necessity They
. .

did as little a s possible They counted the hour s to.

quitting time then on Saturday nights they would

,

go to the city and spend a ll they h ad earned in th e

week .

The foreman worked with enthusia sm He said .

Boys let us lay so many ties toda y Le t us get

,
.

t h is stretch in fine shape The men would go at .

it stoica lly and work as though work wa s a bore

,
.

B ut th e foreman made the work a game .

 E ARLY INFL UENCES 13

That man built his home in the evenings aft er ,

ten hour da ys on the ra ilroa d

-
He cultivated a .

ga rden around it Then he married th e prettiest

.

gi r l in the section and lived a life of bliss Even

,
.

tua lly he wa s called to some higher

post b ut nOt ,

until I learned gr eat lessons from him .

‘
Look a tthose boys pla y ba ll he sa id That s '
.
,

wh a t I call har d wor k Here I am shingling a roof

. .

I am racing with time I know what surface I must

.

cover before s unset to fulfill my sti nt That s my .

'

idea of fun .

“
Look a t those fellows whittling discussing ,

ra il r o a ds
, talking politics The most tha t any of
.

them know a bout a rai lroa d is how to drive a

spike They will always do that and no more
. .

Not e wha t I ha ve done while they loafed there thi s

—
evening b uilt most of the porch on my home .

SoonI will be sitting there in comfort ma ki ng love ,

to a pretty wife They will a lways be sitting on

.

those soap boxes around the grocery stove Which .

"
is wor k and which pla y P
“
I f a thing is useful they call it wor k if useless ,

they ca ll it pla y One is as hard as the Other One

. .

can b e just a s much a game a s the O ther I n b Oth .

there is rivalry Th ere s a struggle to excel the

’

"
rest. All th e difference I see lies 1nattitude of mind .

I never forgot those tal ks That man was to me .

wha t James Lucey was to Calvin Coolidge I ca n .

“
say to him now a s Coolidge sai d
, Were it not for ,

you I should nor be here .

14 MY Li r a m o nnnsm o
In later year s I W e a director of the Volunteers
of A ma i ca an d ma de a study of life s derelicts I
’

studied them in the soup kitchens in prisons and ,

on par ole Their great tr ouble was nor laziness

.
,

but too much love of pla y Or ra ther a wr ong

.
, ,

idea of pla y Most of them h ad in their youth

.

worked every wa ki ng hour But some worked at.

ba ll th rowing while Others hoed the corn Some

-
.

pocketed balls while Others pocketed orders Some .

of their home runs were recorded in chalk while

O thers wer e carved in stone Al l th e difference .

lay in a d ifferent idea of fun .

I came to love work as Other men love golf I .

love it still Many a time I beg 06 from a bridge

.

game a di nner or a dance to spend the eveni ng in

, ,

my ofi ce I stea l away from week end parties at

.
-

my country home to enjoy a few hours at my type

writer .

So the love of work can be cultiva ted just like ,

the love of pla y The terms are interchangea ble

. .

What Others call work I call play and vi ce versa , .

We do best wha t we like best If that is chasing a .

polo ball one will probably excel in tha t If i t

, .

means checkma ting competitors or getting a home ,

runin something worth while he will excel in th a t , .

So it means a grea t deal when a young man can

come to regard his life work a s the most fa scina ting
game tha t he knows A nd it should be The ap
. .

p la use of a thletics dies in a moment The appl a use .

of success gives one cheer to the grave .

 Cb a pter Two

L E S S O N S I N A DV E R T I S I NG A ND S E L L I NG

A THER owned a newspaper in a prosperous

lumbering city The people h ad money to
.

spend so advertise rs flocked th ere

, We smile now .

as we remem ber th e a d s of those da ys . b ut we ,

smile at th e hoopski rts too , .

Most of th e a dvertisements were pa id for in trade .

Our home beca me a wa rehouse of a dvertised mer

ch an d i se I remember that a t one th e we h ad
.

six pianos an d six sewing machines in stock

-
.

One of the products which fa ther a dvertised was

Vinegar Bitters I afterward learned its history
. .

A vinegar ma ker spoiled a ba tch throug h some

-

queer fermenta tion Thus he produced a product

.

wei rd in its oflensi veness The people of those

'

da ys believed tha t medicine must be horrible to be

“
efl ecti ve We h ad oils and ointments for man or
'

b ea S t which would ma ke either wild We used .

“ ”
sna ke oil and skunk oil presuma bly beca use ,

of their na mes Unless the cure was worse than

.

th e disea se no one woul d respe ct it

, .

So we h ad all sorts of bitters Vinegar Bitters .

was th e worst of its ki nd and therefore the most,

popular Fa ther accepted tha t wretch ed stuff

.

—
dozens of b Ottles i n payment for the a dvertising .

People came to us fOr pianos organs sewing ma , ,

-
16 M Y L I FE IN ADVERTISING
chines etc but nor for medicines So our stock
,
. .

of Vinegar Bitters a cc umula ted .

M Oth er being Scorch could nor tolerate wa ste

, , .

She was bound to use up that medicine and I , ,

being the sickly one of the fa mily was th e victim , .

I took Vinegar Bitters morning noon and night , , .

If the ma kers of tha t remedy a re still in existence ,

I can testify tha t since th en I ha ve ha d remar ka ble

hea lth.

Fa ther in his newspaper ofi ce also printed bills

, , .

I used to study them ; sometimes I would set them .

Then I would go to the advertiser and solicit the

job of distributing There were one thousa nd
.

homes in our city I would offer to place one bill

.

in each home for $1 It meant traveling some .

thirty five miles Other boys oflere d to do the

'

-
.

same job for b ut they would place several

bills in a home a nd would skip all the far away -

h omes I a sked a dvertisers to compare the resul ts

.
,

an d I soon obtained a monopoly .

That wa s my first experience with traced results .

It t aught me to sta nd for known and compared

returns a n, d I have urged them ever since In no .

O ther way ca n rea l service revea l its a dvant a ge .

Doing a nything blindly is folly .

When I wa s ten years old mother was left a

widow From tha t time on I h ad to support myself
.

an d contribute to the support of the fa mily I did .

this in many wa ys but the only ways which co un

, t
he e e those which aflecre d my after ca reer
'

r ar - .
18 MY L I r E IN A D VE RYI sI NO
tion They showed in some dramatic way wha t
.

the product they sold would do It is amazing .

how ma ny advertisers know less tha n those men

a bout sa lesmanship .

I shall deal with this further The subject is .

very nea r to my heart I touch on it here to show

.

where I learned the rudiments of coupons Since .

then I have sent out in magazines and newspapers

hundreds of millions of coupons Some were good .

for a sample some were good for a full sized pack

,
-

a g e free at a ny sto re M y na me is
. identified with
this system of advertising I ha ve sampled every .

sort of thing Nothing else h as done so much to

.

ma ke me a factor in advertising Yet how simple .

it is a nd how natural Doing what every salesman

.

must do every ca nvasser and fa ker N one but

, .

those who regard advertising as some magic dream

land will ever try to sell without sampling .

A nother way I found to ma ke money was b y sell

ing books The profit was 1 00 p
. er c ent and the ,

field appea red inviting One da y I rea d that A llen

.

Pi nkerton the grea t detective h ad written his life

, ,

history N0 need to say that A llen Pinkerton was

.

th e her o of all boys of those times So I induced .

mother to invest our little capital in a supply of

A ll en Pinkerton s books
’

I remem ber when the books came in I spread .

them over the floor I was sure tha t all people

.
,

were waiting to get them I was anxious to rush .

out an d supply them .

 LassONs IN A DV
ERTISIN G A ND sE LL I NO 1 9
"
M other sai d : Get the lea di ng menfirst They .

will bring in the others So I went up tha t mom

—
.

—
ing to the ma yor Mr Resigne before he left his .

home He received me very cordia lly I was a

. .

widow s son I h ad the cordial support of all our

’

bes t people in my efl orts to ma ke money A nd I

'

have learned since that every young person h as .

A ma nwho has made a success d esires to see others

ma ke a success A manwho h a s worked wants to
.

see O thers wor k I am that way Countless young

. .

people now flock to my home but the welcome ones ,

are those who wor k whether young menor young ,

women A boy having a good time onhis fa ther s

.
’

money h as alwa ys been ofiensive to me So to a

'

.
,

degree a young woman If there is to be any

,
.

equa lity between the sexes there should be equa lity ,

in efiort People of either sex m ust justify existe nce

'

. .

Some through circumstances may not fully earn

, ,

their way but they should strive to do so I a bhor

, .

drones A nd I believe tha t my influence h as driven

.

ma ny men and women to grea ter ha ppiness .

I realize now why M r Resigne received me so .

p olitely th a t morning I w a s a town boy strug .

,

gling to succeed Never in my busiest hour ha ve

.

I ever refused to meet such a boy or girl myself I .

have spent many precious hour s with them financed ,

them and advised them Th ere is nothing I admire .

more than the spirit to win one s way

’

But I struck a snag that morning Mr Re signe . .

was a deeply religious man He h ad some ex treme .

 MY LI F E
ERTISIN G IN A DV

an d exacting ideals One idea of his was that a

.

detective dea ling with crimi na ls h a d no place in

, ,

polite society He h ad outgrown the hero sta ge

. .

He listened to me until I brought out my book .

Then he ga ve it one glance and threw th e book i n ,

my lap He said You are welcome in my home

.
, ,

but nor your book One of you must depart You

. .

may sta y here as long as you wish to but your ,

book must go into the street I consid er tha t an .

A llen Pinkerton book is an offense to all I sta nd

for .

That was a revela tion I have seen it exemplified .

scores of times since then Hundreds of men have .

discussed their pet projects with me Boards of .

directors have gravely decided that the world must

be on their side I have urged them to ma ke tests
.
,

to feel out th e public pulse I ha ve told them tha t .

p eople in gene ra l could never be judged by our

selves Some ha ve listened and profited some ha ve

.
,

scorned my opinions Sometimes those who de

.

cided to judge the world by themselves succeeded , .

Four times in five they fa iled I know of nothing .

more ridiculous than gray ha ired boards of di -

rectors deciding on wh a t housewives want .

In the particular case which I recite the odds

were in my favor I went home from the ma yor s
.
’

house discouraged I never dreamed th a t such

.

Opinions a bout detective stories my loved stori es , ,

could exist .

M other encouraged me She sa id : Go among .

 LESS ONS IN ADVERTI SIN G A ND S E LL IN G
‘ ’

b usine ss men ; go down to the Big Store L earn .

wha t th ey say a bout it I did so The ma na ger

. .

bought a book Then he took me around among

.

h i s ofi ce force and sold six more books for me I .

ma de a big clean upon A llen Pinkerton s book

’
-
.

Th a t taught me another lesson We must never .

j udge hum a nity by ourselves The things we w a nt .

,

the things we like ma y appeal to a sma ll minority

, .

The losses occa sioned in a dvertis ing by venturing

on persona l preference would ea sily p a y the na tiona l

debt We live in a democracy On every law th ere

. .

are divided opini ons So in every preference every

.
,

want Only the obstina te the bone hea ded will

.
,
-
,

venture far on persona l opinion We must submi t .

all things in a dvertising as in everything else to , ,

'

th e court of public opinion .

This you will see is the ma in th eme of thi s

, ,

book I own an ocean going yacht but do you

.
-
,

suppos e I woul d ventur e across a n ocean withou t

a chart or compa ss ? If I ha ve no such records I ,

ta ke soundings all the wa y .

We are influenced by our surroundings Th e .

p r ospe rous mingle with the prosperous so do thos e ,

of cer ta in li kes an d inclina tions The higher we .

a scend the farther we proceed from ordin ar y huma n

ity Tha t will nor do in adverti sing

. .

I ha ve se en hundreds of a ttempts and thousands

of p ro cots which h ad no cha n ce wha tever
j Jus t .

beca use some bigoted men judged the many by the

few I ha ve ta ken part in such enterprises but
.
,
 MY LIFE IN ADVERTISIN G
o nly because of some business requirements Men .

coul d nor be convinced They were going ahead .

on their limited conceptions whether they were ,

wrong or right I ha ve done my duty by showing

.

them the way or showing them th e rocks at th e

, ,

lea st possible expense .

Let me di gress here to say tha t the roa d to success

lies through ordinary people They form th e vast .

ma jority The ma n who knows them and is one

.

of them stands the va stly better chance .

Some of th e grea test successes I ha ve ever known

in advertising were ignorant men Two are now .

heads of agencies One of them h as ma de much

.

—
money in advertising a man who can hardly sign
his name But he knew ordinary people and th e
.
,

ordinary pe ople bought what he h a d to sell .

One of th em wrote copy whi ch would induce a

farmer to mortgage his barn to respond But hi s .

every sentence h ad to be edited for grammar .

Now college men come to us by the hundreds and

“ "
sa y, We ha ve education we have literary style ,
.

I say to them tha t borh those things are handicaps .

Th e grea t m a jority of men and women cannot ap

p recia te literary style If they do they
. fear it ,
.

They fear over i nfluence when it comes to spending

-

money A ny uni que style exci tes suspici on A ny

. .

evident efl ort to sell creates corresponding resist

'

ance .A ny appe al which seems to come from a

high er cla ss arouses their resentment A ny dicta .

tion is abhorrent to us all .

 LESSONS I N A D vnx nsI N O A ND SE LLIN G a;

All th e time we are see king in advertising men ,

with th e impul ses of the ma jority We never ask .

th eir education never their literary qua lifica tions

,
.

Those la cks are ea sily supplied But let a manprove .

to us that he understa nds human nature and we

welcome him wi th op enarms .

Let me ci te two or three examples One day I .

received a letter fr om a man who h ad eviden tly

addressed me a trandom He sa id There is a grea t
.
,

demand for rea dy made mea t pies and I ma ke them

-
,
.

I have named them Mrs Brown s Mea t Pies be

’

.
,

cause people like home cooki ng I have crea ted a .

considera ble demand and I know th ere exists a

,

much larger demand I want capital to expand it

. .

I saw in tha t man primeval instincts His mea t .

p ies d i d not a ttract me but his rar e i nsight

, to
human nature did So I sent out a man to investi
.

gate He found tha t the writer was a night coo k

.

in a shabby restaurant at $8 p er week I brought .

him to my ofi ce and I oflered him p w ek to

'

, e r e

learn advertising He came with me and he is

.
,

now one of the lea ding advertising men of th e

country .

A nother mancame to Ch icago from Manitowoc ,

Wisconsin He ate brea kfast at a Thompson re s

.

ta ura nt. He found there a ba ked apple whi ch re

minded him of his home He said to h imx lf .
,
“
There are thousands of men who come as I do , ,

from th e country to Ch icago Two thirds of th e

- .
14 MY L I F E I N A D V E x n sI NO
'

ci ty consists of th em I sh oul d tell them a bout

th ose ba ked apples .

He wrote upa page ad on ba ked app les and sub

.

mitred it to John R Thompson M r Thompson . . .

agreed to runit an d th e pa tronage of his resta urants

,

i ncreas ed at once Tha t was the beginning of an

.

a dvertisin g campa i gn which mul ti pli ed th e pa tron

age of th e Thompson lun ch rooms an d made their
owner many times a milli onaire .

Most young men and most be ginners think tha t

th e older men overlook th em My experience i s.

tha t menin business are looking for capa ci ty Tha t .

i s th e crying dearth The more we know the more

.

we realize the volume of work to be done The .

a ble worker s in an y line a re few an d a ll are look ,

ing for relief and help A ll who see th e rea li ties

.

are anxious to find Others who ca n see them .

That first Thompson a d was published on Sun

day morning I wa s hea d of the copy department
.

in a l arge a dvertising agency I was seeking for

.

ne w tal ent Tha t very morning I found the man

.

who wrote that ad and brought him to my hotel

. .

I oflered him
'

p er ye ar— a m a n fr om a sm a ll
town in Wisconsin who h ad never earned one fifth -

tha t .I saw in him one of th e few men who knew

a s I know them
p eo ple .

He did nor accept for he saw in hi s first ad th e

, .

chance to indepe ndent success He went on and .

won it He pictured to the country boys of the

.

ci ty th e foods they h ad kn own at home Dough .

 MY L I F E I N A D V E R rI sI NO '

humble pe ople They came from hum ble peop

. le ,

and they know them .

Those people are canny economi cal thrifty sus

, , ,

p i ci ous. They are not ea sily fooled on ordina ry

purchases The hi ghl y educa ted man the manwho

.
-
,

h a s lived in a d ifl erent environment cannot under

’

stand them !

We see toda y that the heads of large enterprises

are men who arose from th e ranks They know .

their a ssocia tes all the way up the men they com
,

mand and infl uence Yet there is no line in which

.

such knowledge is more important th an in adver

rising. So the lowly experiences I ha ve cited here

ar e indicative of the chief requirements in adver

ris ing in business or in politics

, , .
 Ch a pte r lTb r e s

M Y S T A R T I N B US I NE S S

P TO my gradua tion from high school my

ambition wa s the ministry I was anearnest .

Bible student The grea test game we h ad in our

.

house was repe a ting Bible verses We took turns .

,

a s in a spelling bee going a round the circle until

, ,

a ll dr opped out s a ve one I was always tha t one

. .

I h ad memorized more verses th an anyone I met .

!O ften the ministe r d ropped in but he w a s no ,

competitor of mine in a Bible competition I knew .

severa l times as many verses A t the age of seven

.

I wa s writing sermons and setting them in my

father s printing ofi ce Often in prayer meetings
’
- -
.

I spoke a short sermon Thus all came to regar d

.

me a s a coming pulpit ora tor I was ma de vale .

d i crorian of my cla ss a t school My gra dua ting .

es sa y was on ambition a nd I still remember how

,

I denounced it how I pleaded for poverty and

,

During the following summer I preached every

Sunday in a country school where I ta ught The .

school wa s twelve miles from my home but I ,

walked there with my luggage I found tha t no .

one on the school board could rea d or write The .

head of the school board and lea der in his com

munity gained his distinction th rough a barrel of
37
 MY L IF E IN ADVERTISING
whisky which stood in the corner of h is living
room . It h a d floa ted a shore from a wreck on La ke
Mi chi gan The man was generous with it so h is
.
,

home W e the headquar ters of the community .

The onl y other furniture in th e room consisted

of a woo d stove and three soap boxes Sitting on
-
.

one of those soap boxes I s truggled to convince ,

the illitera te man th at I was qualified to teach I .

did so at la st by rea ding a joke from an almanac .

Tha t pamphlet constituted his entire library and ,

my reading of it was a revela tion to him Tha t .

was another lesson NOt tha t I have dealt largely

.

with illiterate pe ople but with very simple p

, eople .

A nd I love them I love and know their natural

.

instincts and reactions .

Then came the question of p ay They were plan .

ni ng two months of summer school We went to .

th e home of the trea s urer a nd counted th e district

resources . They amounted to and I was

ofiere d th at sum for my tea ching

'

I found a farm home which h ad a new organ and ,

two girls who wanted to play I offered to give .

them music lessons plus one dollar p , er week for ,

my board My savings that summer amounted to

.

$35 p er mon th It .w a s a long long t i me aft er ,

en tering business before I saved as much .

I was the teacher in th at community on week

da ys and the minister on Sundays A nd I learned .

there every day new lessons about peop le That .

,
 MY STA RT I N B USIN ESS
you will rea lize as you go along is th e most I have ,

ever learned .

When tha t summ er was over I went to Chicago .

Mother wa s visiting at th e home of Doctor Mill s

i nBrighton Par k and I joined h er The day after
, .

my arrival wa s Sunday Inthe afternoon th e min .

ister came to call He was ill The next day he

. .

wa s lea ving for an extended va ca tion He told us .

how he dr eaded to preach that night so mOth er ,

suggested tha t I should relieve him I was a .

student for the ministry .

I recognized tha t a s a crisis I h ad be en growing .

a wa y from mother s st rict idea s of religion I knew

’

that she could nor approve of me if she knew me

as I wa s She wa s a fundamenta list She believed
. .

in a persona l devil in hell fire and in all th e mi r

, ,

acl es. To h er the Bible was a history inspired by ,

its writers and to be ta ken litera lly The eart h .

was erea te d in six days Eve wa s derived from .

A dam s ri b William Jennings Bryan would ha ve

'

’
been mother s idol .

I h ad beengrowing a way from h er orthodox con

cep ti ons but I h ad not dar ed to tell h er
, It would .

mean the destruction of h er fondest illusions But .

during th e summer I h ad prepared a sermon based

on my ideas of religion It countenanced the harm
.

less joys of life which h ad been barred to me I t .

ar g ued a ga inst hell fire a gainst infa nt damna tion

, ,

a gai nst the discipline I knew It even questioned .

th e story of the crea ti on and of j onah and th e whal e .

30 MY L I FE IN ADVERTISIN G
I resolved to deliver th e sermon that nigh t and
face the consequences I was eighteen then Never
. .

since then ha ve I dar ed to face a crisis like that .

Unless I entered the ministry I felt tha t my school ,

days were ended I h ad come to Chicago to decide

.

on my course and this was the test

, .

That evening in the pulpit rem ains one Of my

clearest memories There were eight hundred
.

people in the audience a veraging twice my age , .

But I forgot them all M Oth er wa s the only a u

.

d i tor whom I h a d in mind I knew that the mi n .

ister who sat behind me was mother s friend His

’

orthodox idea s agreed with hers So I felt myself .

a ra dica l of the deepest dye N ever since ha ve I .

faced to my knowled ge such una nimous oppos

, ,

iti on Tha t sermon I consider the most

.

event of my life .

A s the sermon progr ess ed the minister grew rest

less Mother s face was an enigma The audience
'

. .

a ppea red appa lled When I fini shed the minister

.
,

pronounced a trem bling benediction The a udience .

fil ed out in silence NOt a man or woman came to

.

greet me Then I knew myself anoutcast from the

.

flocks I h ad hoped to lea d .

M Oth er walked home in silence She said no .

word to me that night but I knew that I h a d ,

brought myself to the parting of th e wa ys The .

next d ay she asked me to lunch wi th h er down

town A t a ta ble on Dearborn Street she opened
.

the subject by stating tha t I no longer was h er son .

 MY ESS S TA RT 3! IN B USIN

I waited for nothing further but arose and walked ,

out on the S treet There I closed th e door forever

.

on a clergyman s career
’

Mother was never the same to me again She .

coul d not forgive my delinquency We rarely met .

after tha t da y She lived to see me successful in

.

Oth er occupations but she never di scussed them ,

with me I h ad blighted h er ambitions But if

. .

a dvertising h a d ever been ma de to me a s oppressive

as religion I wo uld ha ve a bandoned that

, I have .
,

in fact quit ma ny a big account beca use of some

,

what similar rea sons I believe every man should .

do so NO man can succeed in any line where he

.

finds himself in disagreement and where unh appi

ness results I consider business as a game and I
.

p la y it a s a game Th a t is wh y I ha ve be en and
.
,

still am so de VOted to it
, .

On that fateful day out on Dear born Street I , ,

felt in my pocket and found onl y three dollars Th e .

rest of my sa vings h ad been left in Michigan

!

I .

thought of Spring Lake where my uncle h ad a ,

fruit farm It was fruit picking time so I resolved

.
-
,

to get there and pick fruit .

I went down to the harbor and found several

lumber vessels from Muskegon The captain of .

one of them let me work my way across as chore

boy in the kitchen From Muskegon I walked to .

Spring Lake and arranged to pick fr uit for my

,

uncle and O ther s at p er da y Those ea rnings .

,

with my sa vings as a school teacher gave me over -

,
32 . MY LIEE IN A DV ERTISING
$ 1 00 . But I needed for a course at busines s
college .

Grandfather who lived at my uncle s home ad

'

, ,

mired the way I worked He called me Mr Stick . .

to itiveness There were two of us boys on the

- .

farm cousins of the same age I wor ked sixteen

,
.

hours a da y my cousin worked as little as he could

,
.

So grandfa ther decided to back me All he h ad in .

the world wa s $ 1 00 saved to bury him He oflered

'

.
,

that to me on condition that I a ssume the burial

expe nse wh en it ca me Of course I did . .

Tha t was another crisis in my care er There were .

two grandsons of simil ar a ge So far as anyone .

knew there was no choice in a bility I being a

,
.
,

back slider h ad to face considera ble disapproval

-
,
.

But I h ad sa ved $ 1 00 and I worked The Other boy

,
.

h ad saved nothing and he did nor like to work

,
.

SO I wa s the one who secured the help which

ch anged the current of my life The other boy .

became a locomotive fireman So it h as been in .

many a juncture I have witnessed since The saver .

an d the worker get the preference of the men who

control opportunities A nd often that preference
.

proves to be the most importan t thing in life .

With I went to Grand Rapids and entered

Swensburg s Business College It was a ridiculous
’
.

“ "
i nstitution Professor Swensburg wrote a fine
.

Spenceri an hand With that single qualification he

.

became a business tea cher but he taught us nothing ,

.

His whole conception of business as we saw it was

34 MY L I F E I N ADVER TI SIN G

Still h e rightly estimated us I think Anyone who , .

a id more to a Swensb urg gra dua te pa id too much

p .

I was nearing the end of my course also of my ,

re sour ces . I began to contempla te going back to

‘
th e farm Then one morning Professor Swens ’

burg brought a posta l card to his h em e and used ,

“
tha t as his subject He sa id I ha ve often told
.
,

you boys tha t positions awaited you a t p er

week somewhere Now I ha ve the actual evidence

. .

It come s on a postal nor in a letter to sa ve posta ge

, , .

A business ma nin Gra nd Ra pids writes me tha t he

h a s a bookkeeping position a t p er week for

on e of you an d he asks me to send him a candida te

, .

Don t all of you a pply a t once but whoever among

’

you wants tha t position should come to my ofi ce

after the l ecture and I will give him the name an d
a ddress .

The Other boys laughed It was a new joke on

.

their worthlessness But I edged toward th e door

. .

“ "
When the Professor finished his lecture and
started downsta irs I was only one step behind .

He ga ve me a letter to E G Studley and I went

. .
,

to interview him He was interested in the Grand

.

Rapids Felt B OOt Company The young ma n who .

h ad kept the books h ad been a dvanced to sup erin

tendent They wanted some one in his place If

. .

that superintendent considered me qual ified I coul d ,

have the position .

I went to him and secured it The bookkeep ing .

was a minor item I was expected to sweep th e

.
 MY su n IN B USINESS 3;
floors and wash the windows I was also to be
.

errand boy The chi ef condition was tha t I was

.

never to wear a coa t The superintendent was very

“ ”
democra tic He wanted no dudes a bout him
. .

In the ofli ce and on errands downtown I was always

to appear in my shirt sleeves I could qua lify for
.

tha t position beca use I h ad two shirts left .

Then came the question of living on p er

week I found a sma ll room with a widow who

.

wanted a man in the house That cost me one .

dollar p er week In a restaurant over a grocery

.

store a dingy man served dingy meals a t p er

week They were beyond my reach I h ad to con

. .

sider my laundry So I arranged with him to miss

.

two meals a week and get board for

I was a young man active and ever hungry A l
, .

ways the great question was what mea ls to mi ss

, .

I tried brea kfast but morni ng found me starving

, .

I tried luncheon but tha t lost meal would spoil my

,

aft ernoon. My only way was to race by the res

ta urant a t nigh t and go to bed A nd that I co uld .

n0t do unl ess I crossed the street Th e smell of the .

food would tempt me to forget th e shirt sleeves

which formed so grea t a h am in my wor k .

That sounds rather pitiful but it wasn t It was

’

.
,

p
a grea t a dvance over my cedar swamp ex eri ence -
.

I slept alone in a bed instea d of on a h ay mow with

,

railroad section men So long as we are going up

.

ward nothing is a hardship But when we start

,
.
36 MY LI FE IN ADVERTISING
down even from a marble mansion to a ch eap
, er
pa lace that is hard
, .

The Felt B00 t Company comprised some of the

lea ding business men of Grand Ra pids Our sales .

came in winter only so all summer long we bor

,

rowed money to get ready for those sales The .

directors indorsed our notes One of my duties was .

to go around and secure indorsements and renewa ls .

In tha t way I met M r M R Bissell pr esident of

. . .
,

th e Bis sell Carpet Sweeper Compa ny .

He was a geni a l man and I saw in him my cha nce

,

to a higher salary One day I wa ylaid him on h is

.

way to lunch I pictured the di fii cul ti es of a young

.

man living on p
e r week The re was no need .

to exaggera te There on his way to lunch I told

.

h i m of the two meals weekly I wa s obliged to miss .

A bove all I pictured my drea m of p

,
ic I knew a .

resta urant which served p i c at dinner but the ,

board wa s p er week M y grea test ambition .

at that ti me was to get tha t p ic .

From him I learned another ki nk in human na

ture . Struggle and poverty did nor appeal to him .

He h ad known th em well and he considered them ,

good for a fellow But he loved pie and h ad never

.
,

been denied it So he invited me home to ea t pie

. .

A nd he arranged for a salary of $6 p er week so I

coul d have pie every da y .

 Cb a pter F our

HO WI G O T M Y S T A R T I N A DV E R T I S I NG

HA T contact with Mr Bissell led to frequent

.

contacts Soon we entered the cold weather

.
-

sea son wh en my duties became hea vy .

"
I hear you are worki ng hard Mr Bissell said ,
.

to me one day .

I rep lied I should work hard for I have so

, ,
”
many ea sy months .

He insisted on the deta ils and he learned that I

,

was lea ving my ofii ce a t two o clock in the morning

’

and a ppearing aga in a t eight Li ke a ll big men .

whom I ha ve known he was a tremendous worker

,
.

He h ad always done the average work of three men .

So the hours tha t I kept gave him interest in me ,

an d he urged me to join his cm cc force .

In the early stages of our careers none can judge

us by results The shallow menjudge us by likings
.
,

but they are nor men to tie to The real menjudge .

us by our love of work the basis of their success

,
.

They employ us for work and our ca pacity for ,

work counts a bove all else .

I started with the Bissell Carpet Sweep er Com

pany in February as assistant bookkeeper at $40 a

month By November I h ad advanced to $75 I
.

was head bookkeeper then and my position ofiered

,

no chance to go farther .

V
38 MY LI FE I N ADVERTISIN G
I began to rea son in thi s way : A bookkeeper is
an expense In every business ex penses are kept
.

down I could never be worth more than any Other

.

man who could do the work I did Th e big sal .

aries wer e pa id to salesm en to the men who ,

brought i norders or to the men in the factory who

,

reduced the costs They showed profits and they

.
,

could command a rea sona ble share of those profits .

I saw the difference between the p rofit earni ng and -

the expense side of a business and I resolved to ,

gra duate from the debit class .

Just at tha t time Mr Charles B Judd our man ,

. .
,

a ger brought to our a ccounting ofii ce a pamphl et

w
,

ritten by John E Powers Powers was then the

. .

dean of a dvertising which meant really a wet ,

nur se A dvertising was then in its infancy He

. .

h a d bee n a dvertising writer for John Wanam a ker in

Philadelphia and there he created a new conception
,

of advertising He told the truth but told it in a

.
,

rugged an d fa scina ting way Wan ama ker pa id him .

a year which in those da ys was considered

,

a fa bulous s a l ary He h a d become the model a nd

.

i dea l of all men who h ad a dver tising ambitions .

A nd so in some respects today

,
The principl e s , .

for which John Powers stood are still among our

a dvertising funda mentals .

John Power s h ad left Wanama ker s and gone out

’

for himself The Bissell Company s Ea stern man

’
.

a ger Thom a s W William a was one of his great

, .
 now I MY START IN ADVERTISIN G 39
GOT

a dmirers Through hi m I h ad heard a great deal of

.

Powers and his d rama tic advertising .

One incident which I remember occurred inPitts

burgh A cloth ing concern was on the verge of
.

bankruptcy They ca lled in Powers and he im

.
,

mediately m easured up the situa tion He sa id .

“
There is only one way out Tell the truth Tell
. .

the people tha t you are bankrupt and th at your only

way to sal vation lies thr ough la rge and immd i a te
sa les
.

The clothing dealers argued that such an an

nouncement would bring every creditor to their
“
doors But Powers said : No ma tter Either te ll
. .

"
the truth or I quit .

Their next day s ad read someth ing like this

'

We are bankrupt We owe . more than

we can p ay This announcement will bring our
.

creditors down on our necks But if you come and

.

buy tomorrow we sha ll have the money to m eet

them . If not we go to the wall Thes e are the
, .

prices we are quoting to m eet this situa tion

Truth was then such a rarity in advertising tha t

this announcement crea ted a sensation People .

flocked by the thousands to buy and th e store was,

sa ved .

A noth er time he was asked to advertise mackin

toshes whi ch could n or be d isposed of .

“
What is the matter with them Powers a sked .

“
The buyer replied : Between you and me they are
40 MY L I F E I N ADVERTISING
rott en Th at is norh z 1 g of course to say in the
'

.
, ,

a dvertising but it is true ,

.

The next day ca me an ad sta ting We ha ve .

,

ro rtenmackintoshes They are a lmost worth .

less but S till worth the price we ask Come and

,
.

see them If you find them worth the price we ask

.
,

then buy .

The buyer rushed up to Powers rea dy for a fight , .

What do you mean by advertising tha t our ma ck

" “
intosh es are r0tten? he cried How canwe ever .

hope to sell them ?

“
That is just what you told me said Powers , .

I am simply telling people the truth Before the .

buyer h ad a chance to calm down every mackint osh

was sold .

It was then atthe height of his fame he submitted

, ,

a pamphl et to the Bi ssell Carpet Sweeper Compa ny ,

b y request of Mr Williams It was written on . .

butcher pa per One of Powers ideas was tha t

’
.

manner shoul d never becloud matter I well remem .

ber the fir st sentence — “

A ca rpet sweeper if you
—
,

get the right one you might as well go without

matches .

But he knew nothing about carpet sweepers He .

h ad given no s tudy to our tra de situa tion He .

knew none of our problems He never gave one .

moment to studying a woman s possible wish for a

'

car pet sweeper .

I said to Mr Judd That cannot sell carpet .

,

swe ep ers There is not one word in that pamphlet

.
4; MY L I FE I N ADVERTISING
an d our cards I ofiered bOth free for Christm a s
'

.
,

um a s a gift but as a reward

, Nor then or ever .
,

since ha ve I asked a purchase That is useless I

,
. .

ha ve simply ofiered service I required a signed .

a greement from the d e aler to di spla y the sweeper s

on the rack with the cards I furnished Thi s made .

him solicit me .

I sent out som e five thousand letters They .

brought me one thousand order s almost the fir st ,

orders we h ad ever received by ma il That was the .

birth Of a new idea which led me to gra dua te from

the expense account to the field Of money earners -
.

Even then I h ad no courage I did nOt dare to .

enter the business getting field without an anchor

-

to windward That again was due to mother So

.
, , .

I decided to devote my days to these new ad ven

tures and my nights to work on the books Th us
, .

I continued for long Rarely did I lea ve my ofi ce

.

before midnight and I often l eft at two in th e

,

morning .

A s a boy I h a d studied forestry I ga thered sam .

p les Of all the woods around me an d sent them to

O ther boys for exchange Thus I accumul ated scores

.

of interesting woods This little hobby of mine

.

led directly to my next merchandising step .

I conceived the idea of ofiering Bisse ll Carpet

'

Sweepers in some interesting woods If my Christ .

ma s idea ha d excited ridicule this excited pity I , .

a sked them to build Bissell ca rpe t sweepers in

twelve distinguished woods one in each wood to ,

 Eo w I GOT M T S TART I N ADVERTI SI N G 43
the dozen . I wanted them to runfrom th e wh ite of
the bird s eye maple to the dark of the walnut and
’
-
,

to include all the colors between .

Tha t aroused real opposition A s I have sa id .

,

all the dire ctors of the compa ny were ex sa lesmen -

.

One was th e inventor of some new devices and was

"
a power to be regarded He sa id : Why not talk .

broom action patent dumping devices cyco bear

, ,

ings and the great things I have crea ted ?

,
“
I am talking to women I replied They are , .

not mechanics I want to talk the things wh ich

.

they will understand and a ppreci ate .

They fina lly let me do that as a concession Since .

I h ad done wha t they deemed impossible and sold

sweeper s by letter they could h ardly refuse me a ,

rea sona ble l a titude They a gree d to build .

sweepers twelve woods to the dozen for me

, ,
.

While they were bui lding the sweepers I ar ,

range d my pla ns I wrote letters to dealers in

.
,

e ffect as follows : Bissell ca rpet sweepers are toda y

offered twelve woods to the dozen the twelve —
finest woods in the world They come with displ ay .

racks free They come with pamphlets like the

.
,

one inclosed to feature these twelve woods They

, .

will never be ofiere d again We offer them on

'

condition tha t you sign the agreement inclosed .

Y ou must display them until sold on the racks and ,

with the cards we furnish You must send out our .

pamphlets in every package which leaves your store

for thr ee weeks I ofiered a privilege not an in
'

.
,
 MY L I TE I N ADVERTISIN G
44
d ucement I appeared as a ben efactor nor as a
.
,

salesman 80 dealers responded in a way that sold

.

our stock of sweepers in thr ee weeks .

Let us pause here for a moment That was my .

begi nning in advertising It was my fir st success . .

It was ba sed on pleasing people like everything ,

e lse I ha ve done It sold not only to dealers but

.
, ,

to users It m ultiplied the use of carpet sweepers

. .

A nd it ga ve to Bi ssell sweepers the practical monop

oly which they m a inta in to this da y .

“
Other men will still say ; I have no such op por

tun i ty My line is not like tha t

. Of course it .

isn t but in all probability it offers a thousand ad

’

vantages N o man is in any line tha t is harder to

.

sell th an ca rpet sweepers were in those da ys I care .

not wha t it is The usual a dver tising wa s imp

. os

sible . A carpet sweeper would last ten years The .

profit was about one dollar Never h as anyone .

found an ordinary way to advertise profita bly an

article of th at class .

No young man finds himself in any field with

smaller opportunity A ny manina bank a lumber .
,

office a tire concern or a grocery h as a far better

, ,

opportunity than I h ad The only d ifierence lies in

'

his conceptions I felt that cler kship was an ex

.

pense and expenses would always be minimized I

,
.

was struggling to gra dua te into the p rofit earning -

class where no such limit exists .

My success with the twelve woods gave me great

prestige Then I sought Other unique ideas I
. .
 now I GOT M TS TART I N ADVERTISIN G 45
went to Chicago and saw a Pullman car finished in
vermilion wood It was a beautiful re d wood I
. .

went to th e Pullmw factory and asked them a bout

it They told me tha t the wood came from India
.
,

tha t all the forests were owned by the British

G overnment tha t the wood wa s all cut by convicts
, ,

then ha uled to the Ganges River by elephants The .

vermilion wood was heavi er than wat er so a log ,

of ordinary wood was placed on either side of ea ch

vermilion log to float it down the river .

Tha t gave me the idea of an interesting picture .

G overnment forests convicts elephants the Gan

, , ,

ges On the way home I visualized tha t appeal

. .

But I returned to realities in Grand Rapids th e

next morning My employers there h ad no con
.

cep ti on of government forests ra j a hs elephants , , ,

etc . They h ad perfected a new dumping device .

So I argued long and loud I a sked them to order

.

a cargo of vermilion wood They l aughed A gain

. .

they said that sweeper users were not buying woods ,

tha t they wanted broom action efi ci ent dumping ,

devices pure bristle brushes and so forth Wha t

, ,
.

folly ! One might as well discuss the Einstein th e

ory with an Eskimo .

But my successes h ad brought me some prestige ,

an d I finally induced our people to order for me th e

single cargo I desired While waiting for it I p
. re

pared my campaign I h ad letter heads litho

.

graphed in vermilion color My envelopes were .

vermi lion addressed in whi te ink I printed two .

46 MY LI FE IN ADVERTISING
million pamphlets with vermilion covers and a
ra j ah s hea d on the front The pamphlet told a
’

S tory intended to arouse curiosity to bring women ,

to see that wood No Other activa ting factor com

.

pares with curiosity Pictures showed the forests .

,

the convicts the elephants the Ganges River and

, ,

th e Pullma n car One hundred thousand letters

.

wer e printed to Ofl er this wood to dealers

'

A fter some weeks the wood arrived in th e shape

of rough he wn timbers A few hours la ter Mr
- . .

Johnson the factory superintendent came to me

, ,
“
with tears in his eyes We tried to saw that ver .

“
milion wood he said and the saw flew to
, ,

pieces The wood is like iron It cannot be cut

. . .

That whole ca rgo is wa ste .

I sa id : Brace up Mr Johnson We all ha ve our

,
. .

problems to solve They told me I could not sell

.

carpet sweepers by letters but I did Now you as , .

,

a factory expert cannot afl ord to fall down

'

.
,

He cut up the logs in some way with a cross cut -

sa w . Then he came with a new complaint He .

co uld not drive a brad in the wood so he saw no ,

way to build a sweeper with it .

“
I sa id : Johnson you annoy me Come ta ke ,
.
,

my desk and try to sell those sweepers and I will go

and m a ke them Bore holes for y our brads
. .

But the storms were ga thering for me Manu .

facturi ng h ad almost stopped The cost of the .

sweepers was mounting So I h ad to ma ke the con .

cession of oflering only three vermilion wood

 HO W I GOT M Y START
ADVE RTISIN G 47 IN

sweepers as part of each dozen and the rest in ,

ordinary woods .

Soon I was rea dy to ma il the letters They did .

not urge dea ler s to buy the sweepers They oflered .

the privilege of buying Three vermi lion wood .

sweepers would come in each dozen if orders were

sent a t once The dealer could sell them at any
.

price he chose But never a ga in could he obtain

.

Bissell sweeper s built in vermilion wood The .

only condition was that the dealer must sign th e

a greement inclosed He h ad to di splay the sweepers
.

until sold h ad to display the cards we sent him

, ,

an d h a d to inclose our vermilion pamphl et in every

package which left his store for three weeks Thus .

a ga in I placed the dea l er in position where he was

soliciting us .

The response was overwhelming Th e Bissell .

Carpet Sweeper Company made more money in th e

next six weeks than they h ad made in any year be
fore. They h ad vastly increa sed the number of
dealers handling carpet sweepers A nd they h ad .

multiplied the interest of women in a device which

was then in but limited use .

A fter tha t I ga ve up my bookkeep ing and de

voted my time to selling I sold more carpet sweep
.

ers by my one cent letters than fourteen salesmen

-

on the road combined A t the same time our sales

.

men increa sed their sa les by ha ving new fea tur es to

ta lk Thus Bissell ca rpet sweepers a tta ined the
.

position which they hold today They came to .

4 8 I n LI TE I N ADVERTISING
control some 9 5 p er cent of the trade The adver .

rising wa s done by the d ea ler The demand grew .

an d grew until the Bissell Co mp a ny beca me I be ,

lieve the richest concern in Grand Ra pids

, .

My business wa s to devise three selling schemes

They all referred to finishes and woods I
.

‘
a year . .

found a man for instance who h ad patented a

, ,

method of coloring veneers The coloring liquid .

was placed on the under side It came through the .

veneer wherever the ends of the gra ins showed on

top creating a weird and beautiful efl ecr I gave the
'

.
,

resulting wood a coined name an d inclosed samples

in my letters .

A gain I oflered to supply dealers three gold pla ted

'

sweepers as a par t of ea ch dozen ex actly the s ame ,

as we exhibited a t the World s Fa i r in Chica go

'

Thus I placed thousands of World s Fair exh ibits i n

’

windows the country over .

But in two or three years I found myself running

out of schemes There are distinct limitations to
.

exciting varieties in carpet sweeper finishes New .

ideas came harder and harder I felt that I was .

nearing the end of my resources so I began to look ,

for wider fields .

Just at that time Lord 8: Thoma s of Chicago first

ofl ere d me a position They h ad a scheme man
'

named Carl Greig who was lea ving them to go ,

with the I nter Ocea n to increa se the circul ation .

Lo rd 8: Thomas who h a d watched my sweeper ,

selling schemes offered me his place The salary

,
.
 Ch a p
ter F i ve

L A R G E R F I E L DS

O W I approach a tragic epoch in my life I .

was close to my limits in Grand Ra pids The .

offer from Lord 8: Thomas ga ve me wider recogni

tion A mbition surged within me because of my
.
,

mother s blood I became anxious to go higher

’

. .

But I h a d built a new home in Grand Ra pids .

A ll the friends I knew were a b out me There I .

enjoyed prestige I knew that in a larger field I

.

would ha ve to sa crifice the things that I loved most .

I suppose I was right in my desires according to ,

general S tandards A mbition is everywhere ap

.

p la u d ed But.I h a ve often returned to Grand Ra pids

to envy my old a ssociates They continued in a .

quiet S heltered field They met no l arge demands

,
. .

Success and money came to them in modera tion .

But in my turbulent life as I review it I ha ve found

, ,

no joys they missed Fame came to me but I did

.
,

nOt enjoy it Money came in a mea sure but I could

.
,

never spend it with pleasure My real inclination .

h as a lwa ys been toward the quiet pa ths This S tory .

is written in gardens near Grand Rapids where the ,

homing instinct brought me Whenmy old friends .

and I get together here it is hard to decide who ,

took the wiser course .

Swift 8: Company packers of Chica go advertised

, ,

30
 LARGE R FI ELDS 5 1

for anadverti sing ma na ger I looked them up and .

,

I found tha t their capita l at that time wa s

I inquired a bout them and I learned tha t they ,

intended to spend pe r year Tha t would .

place them attha t time among the lar gest A m u i oa n

a dverti sers I could nOt see in th e Bissell line one
.

tenth the chance they offered 80 I resolved to .

obta in that Chicago position I h ad no doubt of .

my a bility to do S O In my Michigan field I was

.

king and I never drea med tha t Other potenta tes

,

might trea t me a s a slave .

I went to Chicago then out to th e S tockyards

, ,

an d was referred to M r I H Rich He was hea d . . . .

of the butterine department and the manwho h ad

urged them to a dvertise .

”
M r Rich I said I have come for that posi
.
, ,

tron.

He smiled at me benevolently and asked for my

name and address Then he wrote my name down
.

on a sheet which held many names before mine .

” "
What are all those names ? I asked .

Why they are oth erjap aid Mr Rich

, p li can ts s . .

There are one hundred and five of them Your .

”
number is one hundred and six .

I was astounded One hundred and S ix mencon

.

si d er ed themselves fitted for th at high position .

What efirontery !
'

I turned to Mr Rich and said : I came here

.

ma inly to learn where I S tood in advertising I did .

nOt really desire this position My heart is in .

5 1 . MY L ITE I N ADVERTISING
Grand Rapids and I feel that my happiness lies ,

there But thi s is a cha llenge I am going to prove

. .

myself best fitted for this place .

Mr Rich smiled and said : Go ahea d and God

.
,

bless you We are wa iting to be convinced

. Then .

after a brief ta lk he dismissed me .

I knew all of the lea ding advertising agents of

Chicago They h ad solicited my business SO tha t
. .

"
afternoon I went to ea ch an d said Please write ,

toda y to I H Ri ch care Swift 8: Company Union

. .
, ,

Stockyards Chica go and say wha t you think of

, ,

Claude Hopkins Al l promised to do tha t a nd I .

,

knew that some of them would write very fla ttering

things .

That night I returned to Grand Rapids It h ap .

pened that I h ad lately been employed there by the

Board of Tra de to write a history of Grand Rapids .

The members were delighted with it Writing that .

book h ad brought me into conta ct with all the

leading business men I started out the next morn .

ing to see them First I called on the bankers then .

,

on the fur niture ma kers then on the wholesalers -

, ,

then on other business men I spent several da ys .

"
in this quest To each one I said Plea se write to
.
,

I H Ri ch care Swi ft 8: Company Union Stock

. .
, ,

Yards Chicago and say what you think of Claude

, ,

Hopkins as a writer and a nadvertising man Tha t .

started a flood of letters .

Then I went to the Grand Ra pids Hera ld and said

I want to write for you a daily two column article -
 LA RGE R FIE LDS 53
on advertising It will cost you nothing and it will
.

educate your advertisers Al l I ask is tha t you let .

me S ign the articles and tha t you publish my picture

in them .

They a greed so every evening after ofi ce hours

—
,

I wrote tha t two col umn ar ticle Then I took it to .

the ofli ce on my bicycle to reach the paper before

midnight Every article wa s a ddressed in reali tv
.

to Swift 8: Company to Mr I H Rich It was ,

. . . .

written to show what I knew a bout advertising .

A s the articles app eared I mailed them to M r Ri ch . .

A fter thr ee weeks of tha t da ily bombar dment I

received a telegram from Swift 8: Company a sking

me to come to Chica go I went but with little idea .

,

of accepting the position I h ad come to rea lize .

more than ever that I would be lonesome away from

Grand Rapids But I h a d to complete my conquest
.
,

so I wen t .

—
We h ad not discussed salary tha t was too te
more So my idea of escape was to ask a sal ary
.

higher than they would p ay I did so and Mr .

, .

L F Swift now president of the company refused

. .
, ,

to consider it He h ad rea d none of my letters or

.

articl es I h ad ma de no impression on him ; all he

.

considered was my salary demand .

Mr Ri ch thenasked for another conference in th e

.

aftern oon and took me out to lunch A t the table

, .

he talked like a father He pointed out the narrow.

sphere I h ad and always woul d ha ve where I was :

, ,

Swift 8: Company were offering me one of the grea t

54 MY L I TE I N ADVERTISIN G

est positions in my line Th ey h a d a score of lines

.

to advertise . There I would have an unlimi ted

scope . He pictured the folly of refusing such an
opportuni ty and I yielded to his persua sions A fter
,
.

lunch I went back and accepted the sala ry offered ,

promising to start in three weeks .

The next morning in Grand Rapids I went up to

my home and saw the family on the porch There .

were shade trees in front and many flowers in th e

y a rd
. I contra sted th a t setting wit h the S tockya rds ,

where the outlook covered only dir ty pens filled

with ca ttle and hogs The way to the ofli ce led
.

thr ough a ha lf mile of mud Then I regretted my

-
.

a ction The price seemed too great to p

. ay Ha d .

I not givenmy word I would have turned back that

morning to quiet insignificance A nd now after .
,

looking back thirty years I think I would turn ,

back this morning .

In three weeks I went to Chicago I secured a .

room on Forty thi rd Street because the cars there

-
,

ran to the S tockyar ds The room wa s a small one

.
,

da rk and dingy I h ad to climb over my trunk to

.

get into bed On the dresser I placed a picture of

.

my home in Grand Ra pids but I h ad to turn tha t ,

picture to the wall before I could go to sleep .

The next morning I went to the S tockyards and

r wor k M r Ri ch wa s awa y
p res ented myse lf f o . .
,

so I was referred to M r L F Swift now president

. . .
,

of the company He did n0t remem ber me

. .
 LARGE R FI E LDS 55
I said Three weeks ago you employed me as
,

a dver tising man a ger .

” ”
Is that so ? he replied I h ad entirely forgot .

ten If you are really employed here go out and

.
,

talk with Howes .

Consider that reception for a lonely man a lrea dy ,

half discouraged For a proud man who considered

.
,

hi mself important For a man from a sma ll ci ty .

where everybody knew him hi s importance and ,

his pl ace .

But I was more unwelcome thanI supposed M r . .

G F Swift then hea d of the company wa s in

. .
, ,

Europe when I was employed It was his first va .

ca tion and he could not endure it so he hurried

, ,

back A t o nce he asked what I was doing in his

.

ofli ce When told tha t I was there to spend his

.

money he took an intense dislike to me and it

, ,

never changed .

He set out atonce to ma ke my position untenable .

The business he hea ded ha d been built without the

use of print He catered to nobody a sked nobody s
.
,
’

patrona ge He h a d gained wha t he could by sheer

.

force He h ad the same contempt for ana dvertising

.

man tha t a general must ha ve for a poet .

He made my way very hard I h a d come from .

gentle surroundings fr om an Ofli ce fil led with ,

fr iends There I entered the atmosphere of war

. .

There every conception of business was conflict ,

inside and outside the ofli ce We ha ve nothing left .

5 6 MY L ITE I N ADVERTISING
in big business toda y to compare with the p acki ng

business of thirty years ago .

M r G F Swift was a deeply religious man I

. . . .

am s ure he did the right as he knew it But he was .

an autocra t in the da ys when business wa s much

like war No one gave quarter or a sked it That

. .

was the attitude which l a ter brought business into

bad repute .

Mr Swift was a fighter and I became one of hi s

.
,

targets I typified a foolish outgo I h ad been

. .

installed in his a bsence to waste his hard earned -

money So I suffered the consequences A mong the

. .

many who trembled at his word I always trembl ed ,

most .

M r Swift s concep tion of a dvertising referred in

’
.

p articul ar to si gns on refr igera tor ca rs They went .

everywhere Good a dvertising there consisted of

.

light letters I could never get them light enough

. .

Nex t came the annual ca lendars He h a d very .

deci ded ideas a bout them and they never agr eed ,

with mine Nor could I carry out his ideas to his

.

satisfaction .

One da y he asked me to photograph a side of beef

for h anging in his beef houses I recognized this as .

a cr uci al test so I ca lled in a ha lf dozen photog

,
-

p
ra h ers The .b est sides of b e ef in sto ra ge were

brought out for photographing The next morning .

I sent him some dozens of pictures and a sked him to

ma ke his choice .

Soon I saw Mr Swift charging from his Ofi ce .

,
5 8 MY LITE IN ADVERTISING
sta rted whenMr L F Swift came to my desk one
. . .

“
d ay He said : Father is very nervous a bout this
.

money spent in advertising He considers it an .

utter wa ste The results so far are not very encour

.

a ging Y ou ha ve been here nearly six weeks but

.
,

our s ales on CO tosue t have h ardly incr ea sed a t all .

I h a d no need to explai n to him He knew that .

a dver tising h ad ha rdly star ted But I saw th at I .

h a d to help him out by ma king some quick show

mg .

Tha t night after dinner I paced the S treets I .

tried to analyze myself I h ad ma de a grea t success

.

in Grand Rapids ; I was ma king a fizzle here What .

were the reasons ? Wha t was there I did in the old

field which I could apply to Swift 8: Company s '

problems ?
A t mi dnight on Indiana A venue I thought of an
, ,

idea In Grand Rapids I cr eated sensations I p

. re ,

sented enticing ideas I did nOtsay to people Buy

.
,

my brand instea d of the Other fellow s I ofle red

’ '

them inducements which na turally led them to buy .

Why not apply those principl e s to COtosuet?

Rothschild 8: Company were then completing a new
store They would ha ve anopening in two weeks
. .

I knew Charles Jones the a dvertising mana ger and

, ,

I decided to go to him and ofler a sensation for his

'

opening .

The next day I did so His grocery department .

was on the fifth floor and it included a l arge bay

window I urged him to let me have tha t window
.
 LA RGE R TI E L D S 59
for a unique exhibit I will build ther e I said
.
, ,
"
the lar gest ca ke in the world I will a dvertise .

the ca ke in a big way in the newspapers I will .

ma ke tha t I promised the greatest feature in

, ,

your opening .

My idea was to ma ke a ca ke with COtosuet in

place of butter Then to argue that a product be tter
.

than butter was certainly better than l ard .

Mr Jones accepted my proposition Then I went

. .

nex t door to H H Kohlsaa t 8: Co ba kers and

. . .
, ,

a sked them to ba ke the ca ke I told them to ma ke .

the speci al tins whi ch were necessary to decora te ,

the ca ke in a magnificent way and to build it a s ,

high as the room They did so . .

A t the time of the opening I inserted half page -

ad s in the newspa pers an

. nouncing the biggest ca ke
in the world That was on Saturda y and that
.
,

night the S tore wa s to open A fter di nner I st arted.

down to see the ca ke myself but the ca rs stopped on ,

Sta te Street long before they reached the S tore I .

stepped out an d saw before me a perfect sea of

people Af ter a long time of struggle I rea ched
.

the doors A t every door I found a policeman

. .

The authorities h ad closed the doors beca use the

crowd was too large to a dmit .

During the next week people climbed

,

four flights of stairs to tha t ca ke The elevators .

could n0t carry them There I h ad demonstrators.

to offer samples of the ca ke Then we h ad prizes .

60 ADVE RTISIN G
M Y L I FE IN

to offer to those who guessed nearest to the weight ,

but every guesser h a d to buy a pail of COtosuet .

A S a result of tha t week COtosue t was pl aced on ,

a
profit paying ba sis in Chi ca go
-
We ga ined many .

thousands of users .

Then I organized a group to carry our pl an thr ough

the Eastern sta tes The group consisted of a ba ker
.

an d decorator three demonstrators and myself We

, .

went to BO S tonand arranged anexhi bit at the store

of Cobb Bates 8c Yerxa but they threw us out th e
, ,

first forenoon The crowd was so great that it

.

d estroyed all their chance to do business .

We went along the New Y ork Central and in ,

e very ci ty we learned new wa ys to increa se the te

sul ts of our efl orts We went to t he leading baker

'

an d s howed him newspaper clip ping s of wh a t we

h ad done elsewhere We offered to let him build .

the ca ke and be advertised as its creator on con

, ,

dition that he bought a carload of COtosuet Some .

times two carloads We went to the lea ding .

grocery and proved the results of our ca ke show - .

Th enwe oflered to place the ca ke in hi s store if h e

'

ordered a carload intins .

as Wherever we wen
,
t we sold enough COtosuet to
insure us a profit in advance Then we hired boys .

"
on Ma in Street to cry out with their papers Eve ,
”
merg News A ll a bout the Big Ca ke As a resul t
’

. .
,

we mobbed the S tores where the ca ke was on dis

play A nd in every city we esta bli shed thousands
.

of reg ular users .

 LA RGE R F IE LDS 61

A t last we came to Cleveland where t hey h ad a ,

pu blic m ar ket We could not the.re sell a ca rload

to a grocer But we arranged with the market to

.

give us their band for a week also their newspaper ,

space A s a result half the policemen in Cleveland

.
,

were called there to keep the crowd moving Ropes .

were stretched through the mar ket I doubt if th e .

sta lls sold much tha t week but we certai nl y sold ,

COtosue t .

When I turned to Chicago Mr L F Swift

re ,
. . .

“
sa id : That is the grea test a dvertising S tunt I have
ever known Y ou ha ve ma de good bOth with
.
,

fa ther and with me .

Thus I won out with Swift 8: Comp any .

That many say was not advertising A dverti s

, ,
.

ing to them is placing some dignified phra ses in

print But commonplace dignity doesn t get far
’

. .

Study salesmen canva ssers and fa kers if you want

, ,

to know how to sell goods No argument in the .

world can ever compare with one dramatic demon

stra ti on .

I have no sympathy with those wh o feel that fine

langua ge is going to sell goods a t a profit I have .

listened to their arguments for hours They mi ght .

as well sa y th a t full dress is an excellent diving

sui t
. No dilettantes ha ve any chance in prying
money out of pockets The way to sell goods is to .

sell them The way to do tha t is to sample and

.
!

demonstrate and the more attractive you canma ke

,

your demonstration th e better it will be for you .

67
. MY L ITE I N ADVERTISING
The men who succeed in a dvertising are act the
hi gh ly bred nm the men ca reful to be unobtr usive
-
,

an d polite but the men who know wha t ar ouses

,

enthusia sm in simple people The difference is

.

the d iflerence between Charlie Chaplin and Robert

” ” "
Mantel! or A fter the Ball and The Moonlight
,
"
Sona ta. If we are going to sell we must ca ter to
,

the millions who buy .

 Cb a pte r S i x

PER SON AL S ALE S M AN S H I P

ES P ITE my success there came a time with ,

Swift 8: Company when my a dvertising ap

peal lost all its persua siveness Cottolene cut prices . .

One of our largest fields wa s with ba kers They .

knew COtosuet to be identica l with Cottolene and ,

they refused to p a y a higher price .

Swi ft 8: Company s business h ad been founded

’

and developed on competition They met any price .

tha t was oflered So they could not conceive of a

.

product of theirs demanding a price a bove market .

I h a d fixed a price on COtosuet one half cent a -

pound a bove COttolene That price was essential .

to profit I could obta in it from consumers but the

.
,

bakery tra de formed a large part of our business .

We h ad a branch ofli ce in Boston for instance , ,

costing pe r month Six s alesmen went out

.

from there and M r Al dric h was in charge

,
. We .

ga ve them little credit for sales ma de to grocers as ,

a result of the dem an d we created A nd their sales .

to ba kers at our higher price became almost ml

’

.
, ,

One day M r Swift ca lled me to his ofli ce He

. .

"
said : Here is a letter from Boston I a gree with .

it entirely They are nOt ma king sales and they

.
,

cannot ma ke sales at the price you have fixed on

,

our product .
64 MY LITE I N ADVERTISING
They are wrong I replied Rea l s alesman
, .

shiph as no regard for price I am selling to con .

sumers ar our over price Why can t they sell to

’
-
.

ba kers ?
Mr Swift said : Can you do it ?
.

I replied that I could I could sell to ba kers just .

a s well as consumers on the principles I a dvised .

‘
Then he asked when canyou go to Boston ?
, ,
” “
I can go in two weeks I said I have much , .

”
work to clean up .

“
Can you go this afternoon ? he asked This .

is anurgent matter We are losing much money in

.

Boston I want to know the right and wrong be

.

fore we go much farther .

“
I will go this afternoon I said I wal ked out , .

to my desk and found it piled high with importa nt

matters I told my assistant to care for them Then
. .

I picked up the proof of a street car card which h ad -

just beensubmitted a picture of a p —

i e and placed
it under my arm .

WhenI arrived in Boston I met Mr Al drich dis .

,

coura ged an d cynical He told me what he h ad .

told Mr Swi ft I was a theorist in business No

. . .

one could hope to sell COtosuet at a price above

Cortolene and no s alesman did
, .

”
I sai d Tell me some one you can t sell
,
’
.

“
Mr A ldrich replied
. They are all a bout us .

We can t sell anyone

’

Tell me one concern I said ,

.
66 MY L I FE IN ADVE RTISI NG
all proba bility h ad he been a sked to appear in the
,

role of a dviser He like all of us enj oyed the new

.
, ,

situation .

Finally he insisted tha t the pie card represented

a
p i c a t its best N othing
. could be done to imp r ove
it He would ha ve the whole trade of Boston if
.

he could ma ke pies like that .

Then I urged him to ha ve it I said : How many .

”
stores in Boston are selling Fox Pies ?
“
A bout one thous and he replied , .

”
I said : I wi ll furnish you a car d like tha t to go
in every store Y ou have been good to me Let
. .

me do something to reciprocate I must a dvertise .

C O tosue t on those cards Let me say on ea ch that

.

nothing but Swift s COtosuet is used in the shorten

’

ing for Fox s p i cs I will furni sh you 1 5 0 of those

'

cards with every car load of COtosuettha t you order

now .

He a ccepted that ofler and ordered four carloa ds

to get one thousand cards .

Then I went to Providence and at Al tman s ,

’

ba kery made the same arrangement Then to New .

Haven then Hartford Springfield and all big New

, , ,

England cities In not one did I fail to sell the

.

lea ding ba ker a large supply of CO tosue t He pa id .

a higher price than for Cottolen e but he secured a ,

grea t a dvanta ge .

I returned to Boston with more orders for COto

suet than six salesmen h ad sold in six weeks But .

Mr A ldrich was scornful

. .
 TE RS O
NAL SALE SMANSH I P 67

You have nor been selling COtosuet he sa id , ,

Y ou ha ve simply sold a pie card Now let me .

see wha t you can do where you ha ve no such ad

vantage One of our largest customers is Mans
.

field Ba king Company Springfield Mass There , , .

you ha ve given exclusive rights to your p i c card .

I would like to see wha t you can do with ordinary

salesmanship .

I went a t once to Springfield and reached there ,

l ate Saturda y afternoon I went to the Ma nsfield.

ba kery and found Teddy Mansfield in his shirt

,

sleeves wor king I waited until he wa s done

,
. .

"
Then I sa id ; Teddy I ha ve an invita tion to the
,

Commercia l Club banquet tonight I am lonesome .

an d I don t want to go a lone They will let me

’

bring a guest I want you to go with me

. .

Teddy rebelled He said he h a d never been to a

.

banquet He h a d no suita ble clothes I told him

. .

tha t I was wearing just wha t I h ad on then So .

he finally consented .

Tha t was a grea t night for Teddy Mansfield He .

met for the first time with the lea ding men of h i s
city He enjoyed himself and when we parted he
.
,

wa s very friendly to me .

Tha t night at the hotel door I sa id ; I am coming

to see you Monda y morning to present someth ing
”
of gr ea t interest to you .

“
Please don t come he sa id You ha ve been
'

, ,

so ki nd tonight that I can t refuse you anything

’

But I am loaded with COtosuet I ha ve forty .

68 ADVE RTISI NG
MY LI F E IN

tierces in my cell ar and I cannot aflord to use them

'

, ,

as you know I sha ll be glad to see you but don t ’

.
,
”
a sk me to buy CO tosuet .

On Monda y morni ng I found Teddy Mansfield ,

“
a s usua l in his shirt sleeves
,
I said : Teddy I .
,

don t want to talk COtosuet to you but I ha ve a

’

am a dvertising man a ger of Swift 8

p roposition I . :

Company I can do in some ways wha t no one else

.

cando You are known inSpringfield but nobody

.
,

knows you outside I want to suggest a way to .

a dvertise Man sfield s pies all the way fi om h ere to

’
'

Chicago .

Then I unfolded my plan If he would order two .

carloa ds of COtosuet I would place a S ign on both ,

sides of the cars Tha t S i gn would announce that

.

all th at COtosuet was to be used in M an sfield s

pi
’

cs
“
in Springfield Ma ss Nor on one side of the .

car ,
I sa id but on both sides so everyone for
, ,

nine hundred miles on bOth sides of the tracks will

, ,

know you .

That idea appealed to Teddy as like idea s ha ve ,

appealed to countless a dvertisers be fore an d since .

It was folly some say but no more folly than all

, ,
‘
the ideas of keeping your name before the people .

Teddy typified the a verage a dvertiser of those da ys ,

in his desire simply to spread his fame He accepted .

my ofler and in one week the cars arrived I wa s

'

.
,

there to greet them with him I have rarely seen .

a man so plea sed as was Teddy Ma nsfield when he

saw t h ose cars wi th signs which h ad a dvertised

 P E RSO NAL SALE SMANSH I P 69

Mansfield p
ies all th e nine hundred mi les from
’
s

Chica go .

I h a d sold more COtosuet in one week than six

sal esmen h ad sold in six weeks Nor one buyer h a d .

compla ined a bout th e price Mr Swift wired me to . .

fire the whole Boston force but I asked him to wa it ,

until I returned and expl ained my methods to him .

“
When I met Mr Swift I said : I did nOt sell .

COtosue t did nOt talk COtosuet I sold pie cards

,
.

an d schemes and COtosuet went with them

,
.

Then I wish you would teach out Other mento

do that .

“
It cannot be taugh t I replied A nd I am sti ll , .

of that opinion The d iflerence lies in the basic

'

conception of selling The a verage salesman openly .

seeks favors seeks profit for himself His plea is

,
.
,
“
Buy my goods nor the Other fellow s He ma kes
’

.
,

a selfish app eal to selfish peop le and of course he ,

meets resistance .

I was selling service Th e whol e basis of my ta lk .

was to help the baker get more business The .

advanta ge to myself was covere d up inmy efi orts

'

to plea se him .

I ha ve always applied that same principle to ad

verti sing I never ask people to buy I rarely even
. .

say th a t my goods are sold by dea lers I seldom ,

quote a price The ads all offer service p

. erhaps a .
,

free sample or a free p acka ge They sound al .

truisti c
. But they geta readin g and get action from
70 MY L I TE I N ADVERTI SING
people seeki ng to serve themselves No selfish .

a ppea l can do tha t .

Toda y tha t same principle is widely applied to

house to house canva s sing Sellers of brushes call
- - .

to ofler the housewife a brush a s a gift Sellers of

'

aluminum wa re present a dish Sellers of coffee call .

a tfirst with a ha lf pound free packa ge to try

-
They .

a re al wa ys welcome The housewife is all S miles .

an d a ttention Then in the na tural rea ction S h e

.
, ,

strives to find a way to reciprocate the courtesy by

buying .

Ma kers of vacuum sweepers offer to send one for

a wee k s use in housecleaning Ma kers of electric
’

motors offer to send one to run the sewing machine -

or the fan for a week Ci gar ma kers send out .

-

boxes of cigars to anyone who asks They say ; .

“
Smoke ten then return the balance if you desire
, .

The test will cost you nothing A ll sorts of things .

are sent on a ppr oval Nearly everything sold is .

sold subject to return Al l good salesman ship in .

,

print or in person is ba sed on some appealing ser

,

vrce .

Good sa lesmen study to ma ke their appeals in

“
vi ti ng One sa ys ; Send me the money a nd I will
.

”
return it if the a rticle is not sa ti sfa ctory A nother .

“
says ; Se nd no money Let me send the article for .

tria l then remit or return it just as you desire

, ,
.

I buy many books by mail In nearly every issue .

of certa in m a g azines I see descriptions of books I

“
may want The ad s do nOtsay Send the money
. .
, .
 TE RSO
NAL SALES MANSH I P 7 1

If they did my purchases would be few My ch eck .

book is at the ofi ce By the next da y in all pro b

.
,

a bility the book would be forgotten But they

,
.

ofler to send me the b ook to e xamine I simply

'

ma il the coupon I tear it out at once p

. ut it inmy ,

pocket and mail it t he next morning

, .

In my early years in advertising th ose ideas of

sal esmanship were n ew I was I believe among .
, ,

the first to apply them No doubt I originated many .

of their applica tions I never tried to sell anything

.
,

even in my retail store advertising I always offered

-
.

a favor Now I talk of service p

. rofit plea s ure , , ,

gifts nor any desires of my own

,
.

Th e house to h ouse canvasser must ap

- -
ply thos e

principles else his sales are limited

, So must the .

ma il order advertiser whose results are known

-
, .

But the advertiser who procee ds without knowing

results often ignores t h ese principles Everywhere .

we see advertisers m erely crying a name They say : .

“
Buy my brand Be sure to get the origi nal
. .

Their whole evident desire is some selfish ad van

tage Such advertising may someti mw p
. ay to an

extent but it never can p

, ay like appeals whi ch

p
a pea r unselfish .
5
But Swift 8: Company refused to give anyt h ing
awa y I could never sample their products
. We .

advertised wool soap wa shing powd er br ea kfa st , ,

sa usage ha ms and bacon and butterine and we

, ,

were reasonably successful But I came to realize .

that un der their restrictions any real success was

73
. M T L I TE IN ADVERTISING
impossi ble Al l the years since ha ve confirmd my
.

opinion The packers ma ke many lines which can

.

be profita bly advertised But I do nor know of an

.

a dvertising success m ade by a pa cking house with ,

the possible exception of Cudahy s Dutch Cleanser

'

There were special reasons for tha t Al l their ad .

verti sing opportunities ha ve been lost through sel

fish ness They were bred in the idea tha t business

.

is a fight that s ales must be forced that competi

, ,

tion must be undersold Those idea s have been

.

modified materially but never so much as to ma ke

,

an y p acke r a n a dvertiser Th a t is no
. a dvertising ,

success in the packing line that I know of matches

the opportunity .

In my da y in the S tockyards a bout all my con,

cep ti ons of selling in print were ta boo I saw tha t .

I h a d to escape those res trictions to accomplish my

arubi ti ons So I began to look a bout
. .
74 MY L I T E I N ADV ER T ISIN G
have done The only lines toda y which so try men
.

in the fire are some forms of mail order advertising -

.

Medicines in those da ys domin ated the a dvertis

ing field The best magazines accepted them
. .

A lmost nobod y questioned their legitim acy No .

more th an they questioned railroa d rebates or ,

pa sses to employees in my packing house ex p

, eri -

ence We must remember in reviewing medic ine

.
,

a dvertising how experience an

, d education changes
idea s and principles .

Every evil of the pa st h ad its logica l defense .

Th e medicine ma kers included ma ny high minded

- -

men They felt that they were serving humanity

.

by oflering good remedies for common conditions

a t very modest cost They were a iding those who
.

could nOt afiord physicians There wa s much .

rea son in thei r arguments Every medicine ma ker

.
-

received thousands of testimonia ls A nd I S till .

believe that those medicine ma kers did far more

-

good than harm Even though the good ca me

.

largely through menta l impressions .

j u B t medica l science a dva n ced Docto rs t h em.

selves turned largely awa y from drugs We ca me .

to realize that ailing people should ha ve a diag

nosis The rea l trouble should be located instead
.
,

of quelling symptoms In a large percentage of

.

cases it was unwise to a dvise self medication -

.

I came to that conclusion ma ny years ago I .

have nor advertised a medicine save for simple ,

a ilm ents for seventeen year s or over

, I would not .
 ME DICAL ADVE RTISI NG 75
do so under any circumstances Just a s I write .

this I am refusing anappropriation of

,
to
a dvertise a medicine I stand as str ongly as anyone
.

toda y aga inst advertising anything which opposes

public good as we see it now .

So plea se remember that what I recite here oc

curred many year s ago It a ccorded with existing
.

principles and practices I ha ve never known higher

.

minded men tha n those who engaged in these

enterprises I am dealing with a dvertising as it
.

applies to all conditions an d all times What .

should be advertised for the common good forms

a nentirely d i flerent question
'

While with Swift 8: Company I e te an article

on patent medicine advertising It reached the
-
.

a ttention of Dr Shoop in Ra cine Wisconsin

. He ,
.

was selling medicines through agents He h ad no .

drug store tra de The agency business was dying

-
.
,

so he was seeking a way to place his line on the

drug store shelves He wrote me to come and see
-
.

I was discouraged with food products advertised

under packing house restrictions I knew that
- .

medicine oflered the greatest opportunity to an

'

a dvertising man So I went to Ra cine t alked with

.
,

Dr Shoop and fina lly a ccepted wha t he Offered

.
, .

I found a line of remedies sold thr ough a gents

only NOt a bottle was in drug stores The or
. .

d i nary a gent could a ct survive so the business was,

dying fast My duty was to crea te a demand which

.
76 M Y L I TE I N ADVERTISI NG
would bring the sales to drug stores Nor one man .

in a million could have met tha t test without the

experience in retail selling which I h ad attained .

Night after nigh t Dr Shoop and I discussed the .

situation I told him all I h ad done by ta lking

.

ideas not connected with the product Then we .

‘
evolved the idea of a druggist s signed guaranty .

People were nor buying medicine they were buying ,

res ults Many anadvertiser a thousand miles awa y

.

oflere d to gua rantee res ults but the guarantors were

'

strangers I conceived the idea of ha ving a neigh

.

b orh ood druggist to whom people paid their

,

money sign the guaranty

, .

First I tried this plan out on a cough cure It .

brought enormous results Here wa s one cough .

cure which anyone could buy without risk If it .

brought the results we promised it was worth ,

many th es its cost If it failed it was free N o

.
,
.

cough cure on the market then could compete with

tha t .

Later I tested the same plan on Other remedies

on Dr Sh oops Restorative on his Rh euma tic Cure
’

. .
,

It worked like magic Others made cla ims but we.

,

offered a certainty A nd we secured most of th e

.

trade .

Our guaranties were based on a purcha se of six

b Ottle s for five doll ars Few users purcha sed tha t
.

a mount But the guaranty ga ve them confidence

.

in every one bOttle purchase Nobody inour field

-
.

had any chance to compete with us .

 M E DI CA L ADVERTISIN G 77
We were very cautious in those days We did .

not venture into newspaper advertising We di s .

tributed books from house to house in cities of over

I 5 OO popula tion
, We secured ma iling lists of
.

heads of families in every village or haml et below

that Those were the da ys before rura l delivery
. .

I h ad complete ma iling list of all hea ds of families

in some post ofi ces of the United States and
Canada .

The methods we used then have little interest

now Conditions ha ve cha nged We have learned
. .

that newspapers ofler the cheapest distribution of

'

an y o ffer we wish to m a ke But for ye ar

.s we m a il e d
an d distributed some books p e r da y .

Later we gradua ted from tha t and gOt into th e

newspaper s We secured results at one third our
.
-

former Cost We ca me to spend

.
pe r ye a r

in newspaper advertising and the results at tha t

,

time ma de me the lea der in proprietary advertising .

What I wish to emphasize here is that my p ro

p osa ls were always altr uistic I w as a lw a ys of

.f er ing
service A nyone could try what I oflered without
'

risk . It either brought results beyond what I

promised or th e con was ml There was nothing
‘

in the field in those da ys to match any ofier like

'

that .

In advertising and merchandising that is some ,

thi ng alwa ys to consider One must outbid all .

Other s in some way He must ofier advantages in

'

qualities service or terms or h e must create a

. . ,
7 8 M T L I TE I N ADVERTISIN G

seeming advantage by citing facts which Ot hers

fa il to cite Crying a name or brand is nOtsufi ci ent
. .

Urging people to buy from you instead of Others

goes against the grain One must know hi s com .

petition know wha t O thers ofler know wha t

'

, ,

people want Until one feels sure tha t the ad van

.

tages are S trongly on his side it is folly to risk a ,

battle One m m long fool pe ople who are care

.

ful ly spending money Never p ay the price to get

.

them unless you see clearly how you cankeep them .

Don t under estima te the intelligence and the in

’
-

forma tion of people who count their pennies .

I spent six and one half year s in Racine Ofi ce

- .

‘
h ours began at seven o clock in the morning We .

knew that extra hour s gave us an extra advanta ge .

A nd we were competing in one of the h ardest fields

tha t advertising ever knew .

But my da y never ended at the ofli ce I ha d a .

typewriter in my home I consider ed medicine as .

but one item though a supreme test of advertising

,

skill So I devoted the a n of my wa king hours

.

to outside enterprises .

The J L Stack A dvertising A gency hand led the

. .

Dr Shoop advertising I arranged with them to

. .

write all of their advertising Racine was a manu .

fa cturing center So I set out to develop after

.
,

ofi ce hours a dvertising enterprises there

, A nd .

from each I learned a great d ea l .

One of the clients of J L Stack was Montgomery .

,

Ward 8: CO I wrote and directed their a dvertisi ng

. .
 M E DI CA L ADVERTISING 79
Many new merchandising plans were inaugurated .

My everla sting gument was a ga inst dealing with

ar

people in the ma ss For instance a woman wrote .

,

in a bout a sewing machine She h ad tha t and -

.
,

nothing else on h er mind The general pla n

,
.
,

then was to send a catalog trea ting all inquiries ,

alike. I urged th a t every inquirer should be treated

like a prospect who came to a store We h ad a
’

special ca ta log on sewing machi nes showing every -

,

style and price We sent every inquirer the names

.

of a ll in h er vicinity who h ad bought our sewing

ma chines We asked h er to see the mac hi nes and
.

to talk with their owners 7 .

There I learned another valua ble principle in

advertising In a wide reaching ca mpa ign we are
.
-

too a p t to regar d people in the m ass We try to .

broadca st our seed i nthe hope that some par t will

ta ke r00t That is too wasteful to ever bring a
.

profit We must get down to indi viduals We

. .

must trea t people in a dvertising as we trea t them

i n person Center on their desires Consider th e
. .

person who stands before you with certa in ex

pressed desires However big your business get ,

down to th e units for those units are all tha t ,

ma ke size .

Schlitz Beer was another advertising campa ign

which I handled for J L Stack Schl itz was then . . .

in fifth place A ll brewers at tha t time were crying

.

“ ”
Pure .They put the word Pure in large
letters Then they took double pages to p
. ut it in
h MY LI FE I N
ADVERTI SI NG
l arger letters The cla im made a bout as much im
.

pression on people as water ma kes on a duck .

I went to a brewi ng school to learn the science

of brewi ng but tha t helped me na a t all Then
,
.

I went through the brewery I saw pla te glass .

rooms where beer was d ripping over pipes an d I ,

a ske d the rea son for them They told me those .

rooms were filled with filtered a ir so the beer could ,

be cooled i npurity I saw great filters filled with

.

white wood pulp

-
They explained how tha t
.

fil tered the be er They showe d how they cleaned

.

every pump and pipe twice daily to avoid con , ,

ta mina ti ons How every bottle was cleaned four

.

t imes by machinery They showed me artesian .

wells where they went

, feet deep for pure
water though their brewery was on La ke Michigan
,
.

They showed me the va ts where beer was aged

for six months before it went out to the user .

They took me to their labora tory and showed

me their origi nal mother yea st cell It h a d been .

developed by ex pe rimm ts to bring out the

utmost in fla vor A ll of the yea st used in ma king

.

Schlitz Beer was developed from that original cell .

I came back to the office amazed I sa id : Why .

don t you tell people these things ? Why do you

’

m erely try to cry louder than Others that your beer

is pure ? Wh y don t you tell the rea sons ?’

”
Why they said the processes we use are
, ,

just the same as Oth ers use No one canma ke good .

"
beer wi thout them .
81 m LI TE I N ADVERTISING
to a dvertise you There are few advertised product s
.

which ca nnot be imitated Few who dominate a .

field have any exclusive advanta ge They were .

simply the first to tell certain convincing facts .

Mr Cyrus W Curtis of the Curtis Publishing

. .
,

Company told me an interesting incident con

,

necred with tha t Schl itz campa ign He h a d never .

drunk beer h ad never ad mitted the word beer or

,

wine to the columns of the La d i es H ome j ourna l

’

But he took into the diner on a tra in a copy of

Life conta ining one of these Schlitz ad s The ad . .

so impresse d him tha t he ordered a ho rd e of

Schlitz He wanted to taste a product ma de under

.

such pur ity ideals

A mong my friends in Racin e was Jim Rohan .

He was a cler k on small salary He was in love .

with a school teacher whom his salary did nOt

-

permit him to marry But he h a d an idea a bout .

incubators A nd he felt that exploita tion of that

.

idea would give him money enough to marry .

I told him that I would ex ploit the idea and I ,

did I read something like seventy five incubator

.
-

catalogs a nd ad s They were much al ike A ll the. .

ma kers were fa wning salesmen trying to urge a

preference I analyzed the situation and tried to
.

find a unique method of attack .

I found a practical chicken raiser and I asked -

,

permission to write a book in his name He was .

an independent fell ow who car ed nothing for m ere

opinions So I characterized him in my book

. .
 ME DICA L ADVE RTISI NG 83
Writing in this man s name and on facts which h e
’

gave me I a sked nobody to buy Ra cine Incuba tors

, .

I simply told his experience He h ad tried all sort s .

of in cuba tors and he knew their fallacious cl a ims

, .

He h ad settled down to practical money ma king -

,

an d these were the methods he used He would .

help and encoura ge those who wished to follow

him but he h ad no sympathy for those wh o
,

followed every will o the wisp

'
- - -
.

That plea p roved a winner Most see kers after .

incubators wrote for five or six ca talogs Th ey .

a ll rea d al ike except mine Here was a rugged

,
.

an d practica l man who cared more for servi ng than

selling and the practica l people who wer e seeking
,

for profit naturally followed hi m .

But Ra cine Incubators were hig h priced A -

.

great many converts paused when they compared

the lower prices offered 80 I urged Mr Rohan . .

to start another company ca lled the Belle City ,

Incuba tor Company and there to offer incu ba tors

,

a t much lower prices on other inducem ents .

We followed up inquiries on th e Racine line for

ten da ys . Then when we saw too great a re sist
,

ance we ofiere d the Belle City line Thus we

'

.
,

secured a double chance on incubator buyers .

Otherwise with our best efl orts we could never

'

, ,

have earned a p rofit A s it wa s we built a business

.
,

which today is quite extensive A nd I know of .

no rival of the old times who survived .

We organized and advertised numerous Oth er lines

34 MY LI TE I N ADVERTIS ING
inRa cine One was the Ra cine Ba th Cabinet on
. e ,

was Ra cine Refrigera tors Those were excellent

advertis i ng exper iences beca use there were no
,

uncerta inties no repea ts

, .

The Racine Shoe Company manufac tured ex

cellent shoes They were in the center of the
.

leather region between Chicago and Mi lwaukee .

Their shoes at that time sold a t ana vera ge of

p “
er pa ir a t wholesale I o rga nized wha t I ca ll ed
.

the Racine Club It sold Racine Shoes to club

.

memb ers only at a dvanta geous prices I quoted to .

club members $3 p er pa ir del ivered an d I ofl ered

'

the choice of six styles The shoes cost me an .

a vera ge of pe r pa ir The a vera ge expr es s .

rate was 35 cents p er pa ir So my d ear a vera ge .

profit was 5 0 cents p er pair But a members hip .

cost 1 5 cents and no one could buy without ha ving

,

a members hi p The cost of my advertisi ng was

.

pai d by my membership fees Then with each .

pa ir of shoes I sent twelve memberships with

ca talogs etc A nyone who sold those twelve
, .

memberships could o bta in his shoes at 1 5 cents

p er pa ir
. A membe rshi p entitled the bear er to buy

a pa ir of shoes a t $3 wi th twelve more certi fica tes

worth 1 5 cents each .

I was offering shoes at $3 whi ch would cost

to $ 5 at the stores But I offered them to a .

limi ted clientele None but club members coul d

.

buy them Every buyer if he chose could sell

.
, ,

th e mem be rship certifica tes a t 1 5 cents each If he .

 ME DICAL ADVERTI SING 85
di d so h i s shoes would cost hi m only 1 5 cents
, .

When my a dvertising secured a few buyers they ,

beca me salesmen for me So a li ttle a dvertising

.

created for me an overwhelming trade It soon .

ex ceeded the ca pacity of the Ra cine Shoe Company ,

an d orders were much delayed .

The fly in thi s ointment was the fact that shoes

did nor alwa ys fit and I guaranteed a fit The
, .

returns a bsor bed most of my profits But I learned

.

a new angle in selling . I learned how customers ,

whether in direct selling or Otherwise could ,

influence future returns .

A ll tha t time I was continuing to a dverti se reta il

sales the country over I experimented locally
.

with every sort of sale Whenever I found a plan

.

which brought large returns I told oth er dea lers

,

about it This was all night work I never thought

. .

of sleep My whole ambition was to find wa ys to

.

lea d people to buy and I found them in plenty

, .

Wha t I found then h as been th e founda tion of all

th e success I ha ve gained
 C l mpnr E i g b t

M Y L I Q UO ZO NB E ! P E R I E NC E

Y YEA RS in Ra cine gave me unique ex peri

ence in advertising proprietaries and brought ,

me wide reputa tion My methods were new . .

Testimonials h ad been almost universal in those

lines I published none Reckl ess claws were
. .

“
common My a d s s a id in efiecr Try this cough
'

. .
,

remed y ; wa tch the benefits it brings It cannot .

harm for no opiates are in it If it succeeds the

,
.
,

cough will stop If it fails it is free Y our own

.
,
.

druggist signs the warrant .

The appeal was overwhelming a lmost resistless , .

Ever since then my chief study h as been to crea te

a ppea ls like tha t When we ma ke an ofier one
'

cannot rea sona bly refuse it is pretty s ure to gain

,

acceptance A nd however generous the offer how

.
,

ever open to imposition experience proves tha t ,

very few will chea t those who ofier a square deal

'

Try to hedge or protect yourself a nd human na ture ,

likes to circumvent you But remove all re stric

.

“
tions and say We trust you and human natur e
, ,

likes to justify that trust A ll my experience in .

a dvertising h a s shown tha t p eople in general are

honest .

A certain man in Chicago h ad made a small

fortune out of the Oliver typ ewriter but th e l i ne ,

as
 MY L I QUOZONB Ex pE mE NCE 87
was not to his liking He wa s a na tural advertiser
.
,

an d h ad long been searching for the product .

While he was build i ng a factory in Montreal ,

a n umber of men came to tell him of a germicide

‘
made in Toronto It was ca lled Powley s Liqui
.
’

fie d Oz one Many institutions in Cana da were

.

indorsing and employing it A nd with out any .

,

a dvertising countless people h ad learned of it

,

an d used it with remarka ble resul ts .

Final ly this man was induced to go to Toronto

to investigate the product He found a gas made
.
-

germicide harmless for internal use He inter

, .

viewed hundreds who h ad tried it including ,

hospita ls and Ca tholi c instituti ons and bea m : ,

enthused .

He bought th e product for then

changed the na me to Liquozone Then he started .

to advertise and market it He sought out an a ble

.

advertising ma n and ma de a year s con traCt with

’

hi m The next year he selected another man In

. .

four years he tried out four a dvertising men who

h ad convinced him of their a bility but the result ,

was utter fa ilure A ll the money invested in the

.

business h ad been dissipated The company was .

hea vily in debt Its balance sheet showed a net

.

worth of some less than nothing Which .

shows how rare is the experience and the ability

to a dvertise a proprietary product .

Still thi s determined a dvertiser remained un

discouraged He beli eved in his product and h e
.
,
88 mx m E m a nvnnnsm o
felt th a t some man somewhere knew how to ma ke
“
it win He said We will try it one year more
.
, ,

an d this time we ll find the man ’

.

On the la st da y of the fourth year he called on

all the lea ding advertis i ng a gents of Chica go and ,

h e asked each one to name th e best man th ey knew

of for a product of that kind A s I was at that time .

the particular star in th at field I believe all of ,

them na med me .

Hi s la st ca ll was on J L Stack and he p ut th e

. .
,

same question to him Just then a telegram came

.

in from me accepting an invita tion to dine with

,

Mr Sta ck tha t New year s Eve Mr Stack showed

'
-
. . .

“
th e telegram and sa id : Tha t is the man of course , .

No doubt Others ha ve told you But his employer .

is my client I cando nothing to harm his 1nterests

. .

Hopki ns is my friend and I never could advise ,

h i m to consider your hopeless proposition .

Th e advertiser replied If Hopki ns is the .

o u h e np ob bly t ke c re of hims elf L t

y say ca ,
r a a a e .

me dine with you tonight and meet him .

Tha t was my first contact with Liquozone Its .

promot r was a cha rming ma n Hi s powers of

e
.

pe rsua s i on were almost resistless 80 a ga inst my .

,

wishes h e induced me to stay over and meet him

,

th e next day .

Tha t was New year s Day I wanted to be a t

'
- .

h ome The Li quozone ofi ce where we met was

.

a dingy afi air The floors and the desks were rough

'

e heat ca m e from a rusty round wood

p in e .Th , ,
90 MY LI FE IN ADVERTI SING
a pine desk on Kinz ie Street I was to leave my .

friends and go out among s trangers I was to .

exch ange my a par tments in a hotel on La ke

Michigan for a dingy $45 p er month flat 1nChicago

- -
,

where my wife h ad to do h er own work I was .

to walk to the ofli ce to sa ve street car fare so my -

,

sa vings might be con served I h ad a steam auto

.

mobile the first inRacine and the joy of my leisure

, .

I h ad to lea ve tha t .

Friends gave me farewell parties but the con ,

versa tion at all of them centered on my foolishness .

A delegation was sent to ride with me to Chica go ,

an d to argue aga inst my folly all the way My .

closest friend repudiated me entirely He said .

th at good sense was a prime requisite in a friend .

I am sure that few men ever entered a busines s

a dventur e under d ar ker s kies But I want to sa y
.

h ere th a t every grea t accomplishment of my life

h as been won a gainst such opposition Every .

move tha t led upward or to greater happiness or

,

content h as been fought by every friend I h ad

, .

Perhaps because they were selfish and wanted me

to stay with them .

I have met other great emer gencies more im ,

p o rta nt t han money or business I h a ve alwa ys

.

h a d to meet them alone I have h ad to decide for

.

myself and always a ga inst tremendous opposition

,
.

Every grea t move I have made in life h a s been

ridiculed an d opposed by my friends The gr eatest .

winnings I ha ve made in happiness in money or

, ,
 MY L I QUOZONB Ex pE nmNOE 9 1

content ha ve been accomplished amid almost

,

universal scorn .

But I have rea soned in this way : The a verage

man is nOt successful We meet few who attain .

th eir goal few who are really ha ppy or content

, .

Then why should we let th e majority rule in

ma tters afiecring our li ves ?
'

Success h as come to me i n sufi ci ent mea sure ,

h appiness in a bundance and a bsolute content , .

Nor one of those bl essings would ha ve come to

me h a d I followed th e advice of my friends .

A s a result I never give advice

, We have our .

own lives to live our own careers to m a ke , We .

have no way of measuring Others desires and

'

capaci ties Some are wea k A discouraging word

. .

at a critica l moment ma y chan ge their entire

course Then the one who gives tha t word incurs
.

the responsi bility I court no obligations of tha t

.

kind A dvertising teaches us how falli ble a re our

.

judgments even inthings we know best We ha ve

, .

nowhere near an even chance when we a ttempt to

give advice .

I went into Liquozone under the circumstances

st a ted . I was pla ying a desperate game Four .

men in four years h a d failed utterly Y et on thi s .

dubious ventur e I was sta ki ng a ll I h a d .

Night after ni ght I paced Lincoln Park tryi ng ,

to evolve a plan I held to my old conceptions

. .

Serve better than Other s offer more t han Others , ,

an d you are pretty sure to win .

9 1 an m u m a nvnnnsm o'

One morning I came to th e omte and sai d : I

ha ve the winning idea Let us buy the first fifty .

cent bOttle Then to all who accep t let us ofier

'

.
, ,

a guara nty on six dollar bo ttles We p a y for th e .

first bOttle If tha t test lea ds one to con tinue we

.
,

ta ke the risk on the rest .

My associate was appalled He said : We are .

bankrupt now Your propositi on will throw us

.

into cha os .

But I obtained hi s p ermi ssion to try my plan in

a doz en sma ll Ill i nois citi es We offered a fifty .

cent bOttle free To each inquirer we sent anorder

.

ona certa in loca l druggist for the bOttle an d sa id , ,

“
We will p ay the price .

Then we sent to each inquirer a guaran ty ofleri ng

'

six dollar bOttles for five dollars The druggist .

would sign the warrant If resul ts from those six .

bOttles proved unsa tisfactory every penny would ,

be returned .

Consider how irresistible was such a p roposition .

A fifty cent b Ottle free

-
Then a five dollar lot .
-

“
under warrant Just say to your druggist that
.

you are dissatisfied and your money will be re ,

turned without arg ument .

I h ad a proposition which no reasonable person

could refuse A s most people are rea sona ble I
.
,

knew that most p eople in need would accept it .

My ofier was impregnable

'

We found in those test cities that our inquiries

for free bottles cost us 1 8 cents each We wai ted .
 MY I N an vn n nsm o
'

94
towns We received in the next year over
.

requests for the free bottle The a verage cost p er .

request was 1 8 cents just as it was in our test ,

cities Th e a verage sale p

. er request was 9 1 cents ,

or j us t a tri fle more than in test cities .

I went with Liquozone i n Februa ry We had .

no money sa ve enough to p ay our rent

, In our .

first fiscal year commencing July 1 our net profits, ,

were The next year we inva ded

Europe We esta blished a London om
. te where

we employed 306 pe ople We built a factory in .

France and fitted out one of the finest Ofi ces in

,

Paris In two years we were advertising in seven

.

teen langua ges and were selling Liquozone in

nearly every country of th e world
Germicides are uncerta in propositi ons New .

ones come to supplant the Old We recogniz ed .

that so we moved rapidly In three years we

, .

bought for people nearly five million fifty cent -

bOttles We made h ay while t he sun shone But

. .

that li quozone business still exists and it still is

profi table .

Wha t was the secret of t hat success ? Just th e

daring which led me to aba ndon safety for nu
.

certainty Then to buy a fifty cent bOttle for

.
-

everyone who sent a coupon Then to guarantee .

resul ts We had confidence i nour product we ha d

.
,

confidence in people Al l the way along every .

,

man consulted told us we were reckless Every .

director every adviser qui t us indisgust

, , .
 MY E! P ERI ENCE
L I QU OZONE
95
There are Other ways I know to win in selling
, ,

an d in advertising But they are slow and un

.

certa in A sk a person to ta ke a chance on you

.
,

and you ha ve a fight Ofier to ta ke a chance on

'

him and th e way is easy

,
.

I have always ta kenchances on th e Ot h er fell ow .

I have ana l yz ed my proposition until I made sure

that he h ad th e be st end Of the barga in Then I .

had something pe ople coul d nor well neglect .

I have been robbed in plenty but th e ro bbery ,

cost me ten times less than trying to enforce any

sa fe propositi on Now most leading merchants
.

have come to the same conclusion A nythi ng .

bought in a lea ding store is subject to return .

5 0 with goods ordered by ma il A nd countless .

advertiser s send out goods to stranger s on approva l .

" "
They sa y Try for ten days or Examine these
, , ,
" " "
books or Smoke ten of these cigars atour risk
, , .

Th e man who tries to play safety against thi s

almost universal trend finds himself handicapped .

A nd the cost of his sal es i s doubled or trebled ,

with the be st that he can do .

 Ch a pter Ni n

T H E S T A R T O F M Y S E V E N TE E N Y E A R S
WI T H A N A D V E R T I S I N G A G E N C Y

S P E N T five years with Liquozont five h

strenuous years I tra veled from ofi ce to Ofi ce

.
,

here and abroad Every country p . resented new

ro blems
p .

One night in Pari s I called in a famous doctor .

“
He told me I was a nervous wreck He said The .
,

only th ing th a t can sa ve you is to go home an d

re st

I have no home I said I live in a h Ote l

, . .

This h Otel is very much like it I might as well .

sta y here .

But he insisted Then I thought of a fruit farm

.

on Spring La ke Michigan which I h a d so often

, ,

plowed as a boy I remembered one name there

.
,

Robert Ferris I h ad heard he h ad bui lt a b owl

. .

So I cabled him for accommodations .

I received his reply in New Y ork The h a d .

h ad been torn down but he had cOttages nea tly

,
"
furnished with all one coul d desire Al l you .

"
need to bring is your trunk .

So I sent him a check for the cOttage and I

'

came on with my trunk For thr ee months I .

ba sked in the sunshi ne sleeping pl aying and, , ,

drink ing mi lk Then I went to Chicago ful ly

.
,

s‘
9 8 MY m a o v nn nsm o
'

Mi chigan A venue to selecr any car on the s treet

an d h a ve it charged to me .

So far as I know no ordinary human being has

,

e ver resisted A lbert Lasker He h as commanded .

what h e woul d in th is world Presidents have .

made him their p al NOrb ing he desired h as ever

.

bee n forbidden him .

So I yielded as all do to his p

, ersuasivenes s I , .

went to Indianapolis that night The next day I .

sta rted investiga tors to learn the situa tion i n

respect to pork an d beans I found that 94 p er .

cent of the housewives ba ked their own pork and

beans Only 6 p
. er cent were amen a ble to an y
canned bean argument Yet all the advertisers of
-
.

"
pork and beans were merely crying Buy my ,

I started a campaign to argue aga inst home

ba king Of course I ofiered sa mples of factory
'

ba king I told of the sixteen hours required to

.

ba ke bean s at home I told why home baking .

could never ma ke beans digestible I pictured .

h ome ba ke d beans with the crisped bea ns on top

, ,

the mushy beans below I told how we selected .

our beans Of the soft water we used of our steam

, ,

ovens where we ba ked beans for hours at

degrees Then I Offered a free sample for com
.

result wa s an enormous succ ess

pa rison The . .

A fter a while when Others followed us we

, ,

sufl ered substitution Our rivals tried to meet it

'

by in sisting on their brand They sa id in efieCt

'

.
,
 M Y S E VE NTE E N
YE A RS 99
Give me the money which you give to Oth ers .

A nd such app eals fell on deaf ea rs .

"
I ca me out with headlines Try Our Ri vals , ,
”
Too . I urged people to buy the brands suggested
an d compare them with VanCamp s That a ppeal
’

won over Others If we were certa in enough of

.

our adva ntage to in vite such comparisons p eople ,

were certain enough to buy .

Tha t s another big point to consider A rgue

’

anything for your own a dvanta ge and people will ,

resist to the limit But seem unselfish ly to consider

.

your customers desires and they will naturally

'

flock to you .

The greatest two faul ts in adverti sing lie in

boa sts and in selfishness The natural instinct of .

a succes sful manis to tell wha t he h as accomplished .

He ma y do tha t to a dinner par tn er who cannot get

awa y But he cannot do that in print Nor can
. .

he put Over at a reasona ble cost any selfish under

, ,

ta king People will listen if you talk service to

.

them They will turn their backs and always

.
, ,

when you seek to impress an advantage for your

self This is import ant I believe tha t nine tenths
.
- .

of the money spent in advertising is lost because

of selfish purposes blazonly presented .

The majority of advertising even today is based , ,

" ”
on the plea Buy my brand , Tha t plea never .

a ppea led to a nybody an d it never will No grocer

, .

“
would say Come to my store nm the next store
, , .

Even in hi s simplici ty he is too wise for tha t He

, .
1 m MY L I FE IN ADVE RTISI NG
offers some advantage Yet countless advertisers .

are spen ding fortunes to ma ke tha t attempt in

p r1nt
“
.

Mine is the original Be sure to get the .

genuine A ll those are simply vari ations of the

.

plea Give me th e money which you give to

,
'

O thers It h as no efiecr whatever Al l of us have

. .

too many selfish purposes to consider those of

Others A man nOt willing to b id for pa tronage
.

on an altruistic basis h as no place in a dvertising

or in selling Y ou and I would not ced e an ad
.

vantage to anyone a t our expen se Then don t '

expect tha t Others are so d ifierent

'

Permit me to use this Van Camp example as

evidence of very common shortcomings Several .

able advertising men cr ea ted impressive arguments .

But not one of them knew the situa tion Ha d they .

gone from house to house and interviewed house ,

5
.

wives they woul d ha ve reached different conclu

,

si ons But that wa s too much trouble They

. .

were dealing with a man who knew as little as

they did a bout the existing conditions Their .

whole idea was to impress tha t man with some

interesting copy They never got by A D Lasker
. . . .

He was practica l He knew that unless he sold

.

th e goods no temporary a dvanta ge could count

, .

80 he sought out to the be st of his a bility th e

, ,

manwho coul d sell the goods .

Let me pa use here to emphasize the fact tha t

favor does nOt count Plea se th e manwho knows .
1 02
. LI FE I N ADVE RTIS I NG
MY

comp ared them with h ome ba ked bea ns with-

,

op and mushy beans below We .

when ba ked in home ovens ,

to di gest A nd how we .

ba ked in seal ed conta iners so no fla vor could esca pe

, .

We told j us t th e same story that any rival could

have told but all Others thought the story was
,

too commonplace .

Then I noticed that men at their noonday

luncheons downtown Often ordered pork and beans .

These dishes were factory ba ked A pparently these

-

menliked factory ba king better t han home ba king ,

as did I .

So we sent out men to supply Van Camp s to '

restaur ants an d lunch counters Soon we h ad th ou .

sands of places serving them at noonda y We .

announced the fu r told the number of places

, ,

e stima ted how ma ny men were every day going

some wh ere for Van Camp s And tha t set women

’

thinking .

Housewives were ready to quit ba king beans at

home It was a long hard ta sk We went after
.
, .

—
th ose housewives the 94 p er cent —and told them
how to qui t easily We told and pictured th e
.

d ifierence in results
'

Told them how many of

.

their men folks were buying ba ked beans down

town .

There we h ad th e arguments on our side We .

could ba ke better beans than any woman coul d

ever ba ke at home But we could not ba ke better
.
 MY sE V E N rE E N
'
mm 1 03

beans than our rival s So we centered our attack

.

on th e wea k spots ma de Van Camp s seem the

'

one way out A nd we crea ted an enormous

.

demand Not only tha t but the Van Camp brand

.
,

comma nded a much high cr price than our rivals '

Then Van Camp began producing eva pora ted

milk First in one plant later in seven or eight
.
,
.

He wanted to advertise that but we advised him ,

aga inst it Evaporated milk is a standa rd product

. .

It must be made to certa in standards to meet

government requirements One cannot esta blish .

or cl a im an a dvanta ge on n a tural or stand ard

products One might as well say buy my eggs

.
, ,
"
because they come from Hillside Farm Or my .

butter or my lard Ma ny millions of dollars ha ve

,
.

been wasted in trying to tie pe ople to some certa in

brand of a staple ; to brands of flour or oatmeal ,

an d to many sta ple products like those A bout .

all one can sa y is : B uy my brand Give me the .

money that you give to Others Insist tha t I get .

it
. Those are nOt popul ar appeals .

I anal yz ed the situation on evaporated milk I .

found that certa in brands regardless of a dvertis , .

ing dominated and controlled certa in markets

, .

Some they h ad held for many years against all

efiorts to displace them Th e only rea son seemed
'

to be a familiar brand Housewives na tura lly .

continue on th e brands they know .

SO I devised a plan for ma king VanCamp s Milk

'

fami liar In a page ad I inserted a coupon good

. .
,
1 04 MY 1 e m ADV
.E RT ISI NG
at any store for a ten cent can We pa id the
-
.

grocer his reta il price For thr ee weeks we.

an nounced tha t this ad would appear . A t the .

same time we told the story of VanCamp s Evap

’

or

a ted Milk .

We sent copies of these ad s to all grocers and .

,

told them tha t every tustomer of theirs would

receive one of these coupons It was evident t hat .

they must have Van Camp s Milk Every coupon

'

meant a ten cent sale which if they mi ssed it

-
, ,

would go to a competitor .

The result was almost universal di stri bution ,

and at once .

We proved out this plan in several cities of

moderate size Then we undertook New Y ork
.

City Th ere the market was domina ted by a rival

.

brand . Van Camp had slight distri bution In .

three weeks we secured largely by letter 97 p

, er ,

cent distribution Every grocer saw the necessity

.

of be ing prepared for tha t coupon demand .

I nthe meantime we announced in the newspa pers

th e coupon tha t was to appea r We told house .

wives wha t to expect in this milk A nd we tried .

to convert them from bottled milk to evapora ted .

Then one Sunday in a pa ge ad we inserted the .

coupon This just in Grea ter New Y ork A s a

. .

resul t of tha t a d 000 coupons were presented

. .

We paid to th egrocers to redeem them .

But homes were trying VanCamp 3 Milk '

after rea ding our story and all in a single day

, .
1 06 MY 1 e IN ADVE RTISI NG
.

The time came when rivals used our sample plan

an d we h ad to i nvent something else Mill ions .

of homes h a d by that time bee n converted to

evaporated milk The sale h ad reached .

ca ses annua lly The main question th en was to

.

esta blish a familiar brand .

Then in new cities which we tried to capture we

offered a secret gift We Ofiered to ma il the house
'

wife a present if she sent us the la bels from six

Van Camp cans Or we piled wrapped presents in
.

th e grocers store windows without telling wha t

'

they were . A ny woman could get one by buying

six cans of Van Camp s
'
.

Curiosi ty is a strong factor in human na ture and ,

e specia lly with women De scribe a gift and some .

,

will decide tha t they want it more will decide ,

th at they don t But everybod y wants a secret

’

Th ere are things to consider in such an ofier

'

Th e gift must nor be di sa ppointing It should be .

somewhat better than women are led to expect .

Then the ofier must be treated in a rather insi d uous

'

way .

The result of this offer was to induce countless

women to buy six ca ns of Van Camp s Mi lk They
'

paid regular price but they received a gift whi ch

,

ma de the bargain attractive The gift cost more .

than our profits on the sale But milk is in da ily .

consumption There is hardly a limi t to wha t

.

one can p ay to get a new user esta blish ed The .

 MY sE VE N rE E N m a ns '
1 07

six cans ma de Van Camp s a familiar brand The

'

user h a d rea d a ll about Van Camp s She was

'

rea dy to find it superior So she asked for Van .

Camp s when she needed a new supply We

'

ca ptured and held many a big mar ket in tha t way .

The reader ma y sa y this is sampling it is sch em ,

ing a nd merchandising not dignified a dvertising ,

as we know it I have no sympa thy with dignified

.

an d orthodox a dvertising We are in business to .

get results The finest pala ver in the world if it

.
,

fails to p a
y is usele
,
ss Hund reds of millions of
.

dollars every year are being wa sted on it

, ,
.

I want to sell wha t I ha ve to sell and sell it a t ,

a profit I want the fi g ures on cost and result We

. .

ca n pose a s a rtists an d as geniuses for o nly a little

while Business men find us out Those who ha ve
—
. .

tried tha t plan ha ve perished every one I know .

But a rea l result getter never loses his cha rm

-
.

We meet men sometimes whose idea s are centered

on the non essentials They want to boa st of
- .

thei r accomplishments A nd they a re often big .

,

men in some ways One can easily please them if

.

he wishes to sacrifice a ll practica l idea s for ad ver ,

ti si ng to them is a ma ze But do th a t a nd you a re

.

bound to lose The ultima te object of business is

.

profit Cater to any other side and you will

.
,

shortly find yourself discredited .

I ha ve lost many an account beca use I refused to

featur e an institution Or to foster some persona l
.

pride But I ha ve always found tha t the seekers

.
1 08 MY m a nvnx nsm o
'

for profit were in the vast ma jority Men are

.

crying for new wa ys to ma ke money .

those ways find out how to p

,
r omOte them an
, d
you will have offered ten times the work one man
ca n ever do
. Not literary work not work which
,
"
lea ds your lady friends to say Tha t s wonderful
’
.
,

But practical selling No man save a dilettante

.

will ever try for anything else .

I IO MY LI FE IN ADVE RTISING
to shorten our walk back home There are .

pleasanter experiences than sitting on a boiler on

a gloomy night wa iting for it to explode and ,

contemplating the long muddy roa d ahead .

But that experience made me an automobile

enthusiast In the th e since then I ha ve written
.

successful automobile ad s a bout some twenty cars

. .

In my early da ys with Lord 81 Thoma s Hugh ,

Chalmers bought out the Thoma s De troit car and -

,

he ca me to consult me about it Mr Chalmers . .

was a remar ka ble man He h ad been it was said

.
, ,

the highest paid sales manager in the Uni ted States

-
,

with the Na tional Ca sh Register Company I .

learned much of salesmanship from him A nd I .

was gra tified to now that in all our yea rs together

he and I never disa greed .

The problems in automobile advertising then

were different from the problems now For year s .

th e situa tion wa s constantly changing like a ,

kaleidoscope One h a d to keep well informed to

.

strike the responsive chord .

I featured Howard E Cofi n then chief engineer

.
,

for the Cha lmers Company Y ou will nOte that .

wherever possible I inject some personality into

an a dvertisi ng ca mpaign This h a s always proved
.

itself an impressive idea People like to deal with

.

men whose names are connected with cert ain

accomplishments They would rather do that I
.
,

have found tha n deal with soulless corporations

,
.

Naming an expert in an a dvertising campai gn

 A UTOM OB I LE ADVE RTISI N G II 1

indicates a man of unique a bility and prominence .

He may be unknown to the public He generally .

is at the start But when a manufacturer fea tures

.

him people accor d him respect He soon becomes

,
.

famous then his name becomes anexclusive fea ture

,

of grea t value Howard Coffin was unknown

.

when I fir st fea tured him A dvertising gave him .

such prominence tha t he was ma de hea d of th e

A ircraft Board in the war .

For somewha t simil ar rea sons an individual s

’

name is usually better than a coined na me on a

product A nd far better than a trade mar k It
. .

locates the sponsor as a man proud of his crea ti on .

It is far easier to m a ke a man famous than an

institution Consider how much names count in
.

theatrical productions in the movies or in auth or

, ,
v

ship They are often names created for the purpose

. .

It is also so in merchandising .

In those early days Cadilla c and Cha lmers cars

—
sold at a bout the same price a round
Ca dillac h a d anolder reputation and it was a much
handsomer car But the fea turing of Howard E
. .

Coffin gave to the Chalmers a distinction which

brought it grea t success .

We met Other conditions as they ca me up We .

found a growing impres sionth at automobile profits

were excessive We met the situa tion with hea d
.

lines announcing Our Pr ofit is 9 Per Cent

,
.

Then we sta ted the actual costs on m any hidden

parts The tOtal was over $700 and it omitted
.
,
1 1 1. LI F E I N ADVE RTISI NG
MY

all the conspicuous parts like the body up , ,

h olstery etc
,
.

Tha t brings up another point in advertising

th e a dvanta ge of being specific Pla titudes and .

generalities ma ke no more impression than water

" ” “
on a duck To sa y Best in th e world
.
, Chea pest ,
“ "
in the long run The most economi cal etc
, ,
.
,

d oes not crea te conviction Such claims are ex .

pee red Th e most carefully censored ma gazines

.

accept them a s merely expres sions of a salesma n

trying to put his best fOOt forward They are not .

cla ssed as falsehoods but as mere exaggerations , .

They proba bly do more harm than good beca use ,

they indica te a looseness of expression and ca use

people to discount wha tever you say .

But when we ma ke specific and defini te cla ims ,

when we state acrual figures or facts we indicate ,

weighed and mea sur ed expressions We are telling .

either the truth or a lie People do not expect big .

concerns to lie The y know that we cannot lie in

.

the best mediums So we get full credit for those

.

cla ims I shall ha ve Other occa sions to cite the

.

a dvanta ges of d efin i te specific claims ,

.

The Hudson Company was an ofish OOt of the

'

Cha lmers Company Mr Chalmers was interested . . .

The Hudson Company was organized beca use the

Cha lma s Company was over manned in the selling -

end Howard E Cofil nwent with the Hudson and

'

. .
,

I fea tured him there But we went further We . .

pictured and named our board of forty eight -

1 14 MY m a nvnnnsm o '

owed some more than they coul d p

ay .

Mr Willys could nOt return his deposits so he

.
,

sought for a way to O btain the cars .

"
He said : If you are bankrupt you cannot con
tinue the business .

" "
No they replied : we a re quitting
,
.

Then suppose I can continue it Mr Willys ,

.

“
said Will you turn it over to me debts and
.
,

a ll ?
’

They told him they woul d Th e defaul ted p ay .

roll wa s $45 0 Mr Willys set a bout to raise it

. . .

He borrowed some money from the h Otel cler k .

He h ad a little of his own The next morning he .

called the workmen together and paid them the

wages due Then he sa id : Get together a car
. .

Find parts enough and quickly We must raise ,

.

more money .

They did put together a car and Mr Willys , .

shipped it to a friend in A llentown Pa With it ,

.

‘
he sent a letter somewha t a s follows : Dear A lbert :
I ha ve shipped you an Overland car sight draft ,

with bill l ading a ttached It is necessary tha t you .

accept it for I ha ve ca shed the sight draft an

, d ha ve
used the money .

" "
Dea r A lbert did accept it Then they m ade .

up Other cars and shipped them in the same way .

A bout four in five of them stuck The demand .

came for more cars and the problem of financing ,

beca me acute .

Mr Willys went to the creditors with his famous

.
 A UTOM OB I LE a nvnnnsm o 115
'

inimi ta ble sm ile He said : You will get nothing

.

if you close us up for we ha ve nothing t h ere B ut

, .

give me a chance and I will try to pull through

an d p a y you every doll ar we owe The creditors .

a ccepted tha t proposition because they saw no ,

Other way out .

Mr Willys raised some more money a very

.
—
littl e and went on Soon the factory ca pacity
-
.

was oversold There was no time to build more

.

plants so he erected tents A nd in those tents

,
.

he ma de tha t sea son I believe , ,

I do not vouch for all th e figures I am telling .

the story from memory But the essentials are .

correct and indica tive .

Then M r Willys decided to go back to Elmira

.

an d build a factory there Th a t was his home town . .

While he wa s shaving one night to ta ke th e tra in ,

his agent in Toledo called him up He told of a .

—
plant in Toledo th e Pope Toledo plant which— -

“
was closed and bankr upt He sa id : Come and .

see it Y ou will find it wonderfully equipped A nd

. .

you will find steel enough and parts enough to p ay

”
the price they ask .

A s a resul t M r Wi llys stopped 05 at Toledo

, . .

He walked through the plant the next day then ,

went on to New Y ork and bought it The next .

d ay he sailed for Europe When he returned he .

found tha t his people had sold the steel alone for
far mo re than the cost of the pl ant .

A s I sa id before t hi s story may nor be qui te

,
1 16 MY L IFE I N ADVE RTISING
‘

accura te but it ill ustrates the point I bring out

, .

The essentials are there .

The next sea son I took up th e Overl and ad ver

rising — the first a dvertising they ever did I .

a n a lyzed the situa tion to find its most appea ling

fea tures . But nothing in all the da ta I gathered

a ppea led to me like the r oma nce So my first .

a d s were hea ded

. The Wonderful Overland Story .

I told how demands from users h ad led John E .

Willys to underta ke to supply them How that .

demand h a d grown and grown until it was ,

necessary to erect a plant of tents .

A ga in tha t limelights a principle in a dvertising .

People are like sheep They cannot judge values

.
,

nor can you and I We judge things l ar gely by

.

O ther s impressions by popul ar fa vor We go

’

.
,

with the crowd So the most effective thing I

.

have ever found in advertising is the trend of the

crowd .

That is a factor nor to be overlooked People .

follow styles and preferences We rarely decide .

for ourselves because we don t know the facts

’

, .

But when we see the crowds ta king any certa in

direction we are much inclined to go with them
,
.

I showed in my advertising how the crowds

were going to Overland automobiles I told how .

th e demand h a d forced a bankrupt concern into

solvency Then how it crea ted a tent city Tha t
. .

presentation set people th inking A nd they fol .

1 18 MY I N ADVE RTISI NG
prod uct to thousands is proba bly the best wa y to
sell Other thous a nds .

Every a d in my opinion shoul d tell a complete

.
, ,

story It should include every fact and argument

.

found to be va lua ble Most people I figure rea d .

, ,

a story but once as they do a news item I know

, .

of no rea son why they should rea d it a gain So I .

wish them to get in tha t one rea ding every con

‘

A ny complete story told over and over is bo und

to gr ow monotonous to the man who rea ds all
ad s . It bores the man who writes it Both the .

writer and reader come to long for a change .

I S tudied the Reo situa tion then went awa y to ,

consider it The car was built by Mr R E Olds

. . . .
,

one of the original motor car bui lders I considered -

.

tha t fact the existing misfortunes and all com

, ,

petition tha t afie cred the case The di fficult con

'

di ti ons ca lled for efie ctive mea sures

'

In a few da ys I went back and told Mr Olds .

tha t I woul d underta ke the advertising on three

conditions The first was that he name the new
.

model Reo the Fifth That to give a distinctive name

.

an d to empha size the fact tha t we h a d a new model .

The next condition was that Mr Olds sign the .

ad s . Tha t to gain full effect from his great reputa

tion I told h im I woul d wr ite ads he would be
. .

proud to sign and he agreed ,

.

Then I stipulated tha t he call it My Farewell

"
Car . Tha t to signify a degree of fina lity and hi s
 A UTOM OB I LE ADVE RTI SI NG 1 19

satisfaction with it But he replied I don t

'

.
, ,

intend to retire I said th at was unnecessary

. .

Sarah Bernhar d t ma de seven farewell tours He .

could ha ve two or thre e Every farewell is subject .

to reconsidera tion .

So we came out with ads hea ded My Farewell .

" “ ”
Car and signed R E Olds Designer . The .
,
.

a d s were wr itt en to typify the man the man of

.
,

rugged honesty of vast experience

,
The man who .

knew The man who scorned to do anything but

.

the best that was possible regar dless of its cost , .

Th e manwho put his reputa tion far ahea d of profit .

The campaign from the start was a sensationa l

succes s Reo the Fifth became a t once the most
.

conspicuous car of th e year A new era dawned .

for the Reo Company and th at era h a s continued

,

until tha t concern is one of the soundest and most

successful in the field .

The most successful automobile a dvertising I

ever did resulted in disa ster due to Other causes , .

Tha t was the Mi tchell advertising I was called .

there to meet an emergency A s alwa ys I ga ve an .

,

enormous amount of study to the a utomobile

situation to current idea s and trends I concluded

,
.

tha t the best key note was e fi ci en -

cy Efi ci ency .

was then a popular subject with men in all lines

of business .

The Mi tchell Company h ad an a ble efi ciency

expert They h ad a very efi ci ent plant So I came
. .
 LI EE I N ADVE RTISI NG
MY
“
out with ads headed John W Ba te Efi ci ency
.
, .
,

Expert an d I told of the man and his methods

, .

That campaign was also a sensation I never .

knew any automobile advertising to bring so many

inqui ries Sales started a t anamazing rate I h ad
. .

struck the popular chord Buyers of motor cars .

wanted a bove all else economies due to efi ciency

, , .

Soon the company wa s on the road to great success .

It was recapitalized in a large way But the car .

was a fizzle Its engineers h ad skimped in every

.

detai l Hundreds of cars came back and every

.
,

car sold blight ed the name Mitchell The larger .

the sa les th e worse became the ruin The very .

success of the adver tising with the car tha t was ,

ofie red led to destruction We pla yed too high

'

.
,

a n Ote for the pr oduct we h a d to sell The ba d .

reputa tion was so widely spread tha t recovery

proved impossible That formed another lesson .

i n advertising .

In I was called on to advertise the Stude !

ba ker car For several years I h ad been out of the

.

a utomobile field I h ad to educa te myself in

.

ex isting condi tions Tha t is always essential . .

One can never S trike the right chord until he

knows the trend of popular opinion .

I studied the situa tion for weeks Studeba ker .

h ad been a tremendous success The multiplying .

sales incr ea sing assets and profits h a d become a

, ,

stock mar ket sensa tion I concluded that those

-
.

facts al ways encoura ging to men watchin g th e

,
 MY LIEE I N ADVE RTISI NG
from being influenced by the ad It indicates lack
.

of sincerity It suggests an efiort to sell A nd we

'

. .

are all on our g ua r d when somebody apparently , ,

is trying to get our money away .

The only way to sell is in some way to seem to

offer super service It may be ofiered in a crude
'

-
.

way The ma jority of advertising successes h a ve

.

been accomplished in crude ways They struck .

a hum an chord in a huma n way They seemed to

.

“
Offer wanted service . That is why so much fine
"
advertising fails to bring results People ar e .

wary of it A nd why so many successes are m ade

.

in ways that seem crude They are ma de by super

.

sa lesmen who forget themselves .

 Cb a pter El e ve n

T I R E A DV E R T I S I N G

T WA S also my IOt to pioneer tire advertising .

Tires h a d been a dvertised somewhat since

bicycle days but with scarcely more th an a name
, .

Th e G oodyear Company h ad for many years been

customers of our agency I believe tha t their
.

expenditure never exceeded per year N 0 .

body suspected that tires could be popularized .

One da y it occurred to us that we could incr ease

our advertising busines s by increa sing accounts on
our books . Thereafter that became our dominant
p rinciple
. A long those lines we grew to be on e of
th e largest agencies in the world .

Commissions to advertising agents are paid by

th e publishers Not for changing accounts from
.

one agency to another but for increasing th e

,

volume of a dvertising We should earn our p

. ay .

One way is by seeking and developing new ad ver

ti sing oppo rt unities A nother
. is by m a king it
possible for ex isting advertisers to mul tiply ex
pendi tures .

I have rarely ta ken an account from another

a dvertising ag ent I have never tried to do so
.
,

sa ve where a big opportunity wa s being spoil ed

by wrong methods Nearly all my large accounts
.

have been of my own creation I ha ve started .

a s
 MY e n I N ADVE RTI S I NG
with small sums sometimes and made the ad ver ,

tising grow out of earnings Such develop ments

.

form the rea l satisfactions of a dvertising .

Th e G oodyear people after much persua sion

, ,

were induced to enlarge their expe nditure For .

the first sea son they ga ve us It seemed

to them a reckless amount .

Th ey were then pioneering what they ca lled th e

straight side tire
-
I h ad heard a bout it but did
.
,

nOt know what it was A d s a bout it h ad fre

. .

quently come to my desk I was interested bOth

.

in tires and in advertising but was never enough

,

impressed to learn wha t stra ight side meant - .

I asked them a bout it and they showed me th e

di fference between straight side and clincher tires
-
.

I a sked the rea son for that difierence Th ey told

'

me the straight side would not rim cut A nd

- -
.

that type of construction h ad size for size 1 0 p er , ,

cent grea ter air ca pacity .

“
Then why I a sked don t you emp
, , hasize ’

those results ? R esults are what men are after .

Th ey care nOt how you get them .

Tha t was a new idea to them They were manu .

fas turers interested ma inl y in a type of construc

,

tion Being interested in manufacturing details

.
,

they na turally ta lked them to the public .

Th ere lies the chief reason wh y no manufacrurer

shoul d ever conduct his own advertising Few .

a ttempt it now The advertiser is too close to hi s

.

factory Hi s own interests tend to blind him to

.
 MY LI FE IN A DVE RTI SI NG
the name imply it So the name told our main .

story It formed anad in itself Our main purpose

. . .

then was to induce motorists to use this type of

tire on all wheels in all weathers Th at h as since .

become the custom largely thr ough th at influence,

.

Th ere is a great a dvant age in a n ame tha t tells

a story . The name is usua lly displa yed Th us the .

right name may form a rea son a bly complete a d .

which all who run may read Coining the right .

name is often the ma jor S tep in good advertising .

NO doubt such names often double the results o f

expenditures Consider the value of such nam es
.

as M ay Brea th
-
Dyansh ine 3 inOne Oil Palm
, ,
- -
,

olive Soap etc ,

.

A nother problem we h ad to solve was to get

dealers to carry tire S tocks Few of them did so in .

those days Th ey bought from the Goodyear

.

branches as they sold We prep ared a large news .

paper campaign and ofiered to name in each ad

'

a ll the dealers who S tocked Th e minimum .

requirem ent was a stock In a few months .

we induced some dealers to stock Goodyear

tires on that basis A nd tha t campa ign did much
.

to change the whole complexion of the tire

business .

This naming of dealers in local advertising is an

a lmost i rresistible inducement to stock Few .

plans are more efiecti ve NO dea l er likes to see hi s

'

rivals na med in a big campa ign and his own name

omitted Th e more who join in the plan th e

.
 T IRE
ADVE RTISI NG 117

easier it is to get Others I have often secured on .

new products almost uni versa l distribution in thi s

way .

The Goodyear campaign was one of my greatest

successes It pl aced Goodyear tires in th e lead
. .

Never have I met ch anging situa tions in more

efieCti ve wa ys Th e advertising grew from
'

to nearly per ye a r .

Still I lost it Th ere developed a desire for

.

institutiona l advertising which I never could

approve It is na tural Great success brings to
. .

most men a desire to boa st a little But boasting .

is th e last thi ng people want to hear Men like .

to picture thei r plants to tell how they grew and

, ,

to preach a little on methods and policies Tha t .

may be satisfying but it isn t s alesmanshi p N o

’

.
,

man in advertising or in anything else can afiord

'

, ,

to ofiend his own principles The moment he

'

compromises for money s sa ke he is lost N ot as

’

a success per ha ps but a s an artist

, , A s a manwho .

contributes to his profession or ca lling and brings

it to higher levels .

Th ere lies the ca use of most conflicts in ad ver

rising The layman pays the bills He na turally
. .

a ssumes the right to dicta te He is not ap t to .

exercise that right in the early stages Th e scheme .

is too new to him But ther e comes a time when

.

he feels that he is also an advertising expert It i s .

curious how we all desire to excel in som ething

outside of our province .

 LIP E I N ADVE RTISI NG
MY

That leads m any men astra y Men ma ke money .

in one business and lose it in many others They .

seem to feel that one success ma kes them super

business men .

Th ese men would nOt venture to di cta te to a

surgeon Or tell a lawyer how to win a certain
.

ca se Or an artist how to paint a picture They

. .

re cognize technical knowledge in voca tion s like

those But nor in a dvertising which seems so
.
,

simple to them beca use it aims at simple pe ople

,
.

They do not realize that no lifetime is long enough

to learn much more than the rudi ments .

l a ter I advertised Miller tires The situa tion .

h ad changed entirely Buyer s i n general h ad come

.

to regard good tires as a bout alike It was .

neces sary to upset tha t impression and to secure

a prefer ence in some wa y .

Mi ller tires were largely used on bus li nes on

the Pacific coast I secured the data and the records
. .

The figures on buses using Miller tir es were i m

pressive The mileage records were surprising
. .

Th e trend toward Miller s in commercial uses was

significant .

I ma de those facts the key nOte of my campaign

-
.

The ordinar y tire buyer ma kes no comparisons .

He rarely keeps track of tire mileage Wh en he .

does so it is not done in a scientific way But he

,
.

knows tha t l arge tire users do nOt adopt a certain

ma ke on g uess I played on that knowledge I
. .

sta ted in exact figures the resul ts of compariso n s .

1
30 MY LI F E I N ADVE RTISI NG
There is one of the greatest questions in merchan
dising A n unadvertised line without consumer
.

demand must depend on distributors A nd they .

demand a big toll But however large you ma ke

.

it somebody else will bid higher The margin

,
.

soon diminishes to insignificance .

If you are an advertiser creating consumer ,

demand you must ignore to some ex tent th ese

,

intermediary factors Treat them fairly but do

.
,

not p a y them for wha t they ca nnot do The jobber .

will ch arge you if you let him hi s expense of

, ,

competition The dealer will compare your

.

allotted profits with profits On lines he owns .

They do nOt figure tha t in one case you do th e

selling ; in the Other they do it all .

Most lines which I ha ve advertised have never

employed a salesman The whole idea h as been .

to win consumers and let them sell to dealers and

to jobbers Those who have tried to sell to con
.

sum ers then to dealers and jobbers have attained

, ,

prohibitive expense One must choose Margins

. .

in selling are nOt sufi cient to accommoda te both

factors .
 Ch a pter Twel ve

E A R LY H I STOR Y O F P A LM O L I V E

E O R G A N I Z E D in our agency an ad
"
visory board over which I presided We .

announced tha t anyone could bring there ad ver

ti si ng problems in person or by letter an

, d receive
,

without Obligation the advice of the best men in

our a gency . Some sixteen able advertising men
sa t around the ta ble . They offered an inviting
opp ortuni ty to adverti sers existing or prospective
, .

Some hundreds of men with dubious prospects

ca me th ere and we advised nineteen in twenty of
them nor to proceed The men who hesita ted
.

were large advertisers who h ad most at sta ke .

That is generally so in this line .

Our object in these mee tings was to foster good

advertising to warn men a gainst mista kes and to
, ,

try to di scover in the ma ss Of suggestions some

jewels of advertising opportunities Under the .

same policy we published numerous books offering

a dvice ba sed on our many experiences We felt
tha t our Own interests depended on the prosperity
of advertising as a whole Mista kes and disasters
.

hurt advertising One conspicuous success may

.

encourage many ventures No doubt our helpful

.

an d unselfish policy was a large factor in th e

1 31
1 31
. MY LI F E I N ADVE RTISI NG
growth of advertising during the past twen ty
year s .

One morning there appeared at our meeting

Mr B J Johnson of the B J Johnson Soap Co of
. . . . . .

Milwaukee With him ca me M r Charles Pearce

. .
,

a newly appointed sales m ana ger who wa s seeking

-

a way to m a ke good They came to discuss

.

—
Galvanic Soa p a l aund ry soap A fter due con .

sidera tion we advised them against entering tha t

a dvertising field It is too d ifi cult too hard
.
,

fought to offer encoura gement to a new a dvertiser .

On the facts we cited the owners soon came to

a gree with us .

Then we a sked if they h ad anything else Th ey .

sa id th at they h a d a toilet soap cal led Palmolive ,

made with palm and olive oils It h a d slight .

d istribution ; they h a d nOt considered it as an

a dvertising possibility .

A t tha t time the men around the ta ble only

dimly recognized the strength of the beauty appeal .

We wer e destined to later develop on that line

some of the greatest advertising successes There .

is no stronger appeal to women One man sug .

gested that Cleopa tra used palm and Olive oils .

A nother reminded us that Roman be auties did

likewise Gradually we came to recognize the
.

germ of an advertising opportunity and we asked ,

the soa p ma kers to let us ma ke an experiment

-
.

We suggested a trial in Grand Ra pids Michigan , ,

an d we estimated that it could be made for a bout

1 34 MY LI F E I N ADVE RTISI NG
for a prod uct which ca me to them first as a g ift .

But when we ourselves buy the article just as the ,

consumer does we S how supr eme confidence in

,

the belief that the article will plea se We Will .

“
Buy is a much better headli ne than I o Cent -

”
Ca ke Free .

Then th e buying method forces dealers to stock

the product you Offer No salesmen are needed
. .

Simply ma i l a proof of the coupon a d to dealers . .

Point out the fact that practically every home will

receive it . A lso tha t the coupon is as good as a
M e Women will nOt throw it away If one
. .

dealer fails to redeem it another dealer will We .

gain by this plan universal distribution immed i

a tely a t modera te cost That is of course the
.
,
.

first essential in advertising .

Run in any communi ty a few ad s announcing .

a buying offer an d you are sure of a prett y general

rea ding of your proposition Then when the page
.

ad. appea rs with the coupon a ll who are inter

,

ested in your product wi ll present it Thus we .

gain in two weeks a general understanding of our

prod uct and users by the th ousands .

I ha ve never found tha t it pa id to give either a

sample or a full size packa ge to people who do not
-

request it . We must arouse interest in our product

before it h as value to anybody I consider p . ro

mi scuous s ampling a very b a d pl an indeed Prod .

ucts handed out without a sking or thrown on the

doorstep lose respect It is di fierent when you
'

.
 A RLY H ISTORY OF P ALMOLIVE
E 1 35

force people to ma ke an eflort or when you buy

'

the product at reta il price on request .

Such was the plan we used in Benton Harbor on

the initial Palmolive ad s . Th e cost including ,

the redemption of coupons was $700 I believe

, , .

A s a resul t several thousand women were started

on t hi s soap with full knowledge of its qualities
an d pur po se Then we waited to see the efiect
'

. .

Wha t would users do when they tried the soap ?

The answer to that question is the most vital
factor in a dvertising .

N ow I come to some figures which may not be

exact This ca mpaign was S tarted in 1 9 1 1 My
. .

memory may be somewhat but not seriously at

, ,

fault Th e repea t sales in Benton Harbor paid for

.

the a dvertising before the bills were due We .

knew then we h ad struck a responsive chord We .

knew we h ad a winner .

We tried the same test ads in numerous Other

.

ci ties a lways with like results I believe tha t

, .

they spent a bout in local advertising to

prove th at our appea l was efiecrive A lways th e .

a dvertising pa id for itself as we went along Then .

we went into magazines and gained na tiona l dis

tri buti on and sale in wa ys I S h all describe .

Let me pause for a few remar ks In the tales I

.

recite in this history there is no desi re to over

empha size any parts I played Our a gency was a n

.

Organiza tion of experienced men who worked

together Th e hea d of the agency often said tha t

.
1
36 LI EE I N ADVER TISIN G
MY

we never succee ded for any body who could not

ha ve succeeded without us I do nOt agree wi th .

him On most of our succe sses we were the ones

.

to di scover and develop th e a dvertising op por

ta n itics That was naturally so beca use tha t was

.

our business Th e plan the theory and th e

.
, ,

strategy of t h e advertising all were our crea tio ns .

But one necessi ty was an accepta ble product .

That depended on the ma kers Ano ther necessity .

was good business ma na gement I consider th e .

Palmolive success as particularly d ue to tha t after

th e route was discovered The leadi ng factor was
.

th e Ch arles Pearce who came to us tha t fa teful

morning in 1 9 1 I
Th e purpose of this business b iography is nor
to cla im personal credit It is to point out to
.

th ose wh o follow me certain pri n ciples which I

discovered by hard work I ha ve no wish to .

minimi ze any Other person s part or hurt anybod y s

’ ’

ss is crea ted by one man

p ride N o
. bu sine .

A fter those local news paper tests on Palmolive

i t was decided to atta in nationa l di stribution
q u i ckly Th e
.re we followe d the same lines as in

our local efforts We contracted for a pa ge in the

.

S a turday Eveni n nd d ome j om a l

’

g P erl a La i es H .

There we inserted a coupon good at any drug

store in the country for a ten cent ca ke of Palm -

olive We sent a dvance proofs of tha t pa ge to

.

d ruggists everywhere giving figures on the circul a

,

tion by local ities an d po inting out th at the coupon

,
1 38 MY LI F E I N ADVE RTISI N G
than in Old days Both p ersonal salesmanship
.

an d a dvertising are more Costly than they were .

Quick volume is more profita ble than slowly

developed volume When one p roves th a t a plan

is right and s afe the great object is qui ck develop

ment A ttain the maximum as soon as you can
. .

Th e simple things ea sily understood striking , ,

popular chord are the appeals which succeed

,

with the ma sses They often sound to the intel

.

lectual like excerpts from Mother Goose Dutch .

Cl eanser chases dirt Ivory Soap floats Gold Dus t

, ,

Twins do your work Children Cry for Castoria

—
, ,

Keep Y our Schoolgirl Comp lexion such things

win the nine tenths - .

I once knew a manwho was advertising business

books They were instructive based on ex cep
.
,

ti onal experience books that any business man

,

should read But the publisher coul d nOt sell

.

them at a p rofit He consulted an advertising

.

expert in our Ofi ce A bout all the expert did was

.

”
to suggest the announcement Your name will ,

be printed in gilt on each book We might .

na turally say tha t such an announcement to a

business man would not prove importa nt But it .

made t hat set of books a success It gave the .

books some distinction some p ersona lity that ,

won beyond all the logical arguments

,
.

A life insurance company solicits business by

mail from men considered wise The usual argu .

ments would stir few men to action But this .

 EA RLY
ALMOLI VE H I STOR
1 39 Y or P

company sta tes that a leather covered memo -

ra nd um book with his name in gilt is waiting for

his acceptance Simply tell them wh ere to send
.

it A t the same th e tell them the date of your

.

,
—
birth etc facts on which to present an insurance
.

proposition .

This offer I believe goes only to men of affai rs

, , .

Men who are supposed to be a bsorbed in large busi

ness problems But it gains a reply from a very
.

lar ge percenta ge Those men of affairs dislike to .

think that some little book which belongs to

— —
them perhaps a tencent bo ok is being over -

looked Such is human nature

. .

Now back to the Palmolive Company The suc .

cess of Palmolive Soa p led these good people into

many advertising adventures Most of them wer e .

fizzle s as with the majority of such undertakings

, .

Neither they nor we h a d the magic to do the im

possible things .

One was Palmolive Shampoo They h ad on tha t .

no unique cla ims It wa s simply a good shampoo . .

“
The appea l presented wa s Buy my brand instea d ,

of the Other fellow s an d such appea ls never go

’

far .

In an island near Japan there grows anoil famous

for growing h ai r I have before me photograph s of.

Japanese women standing on chairs with their hair

floa ting on the floor The whole supply of the oil .

h ad been contracted for ye ars by French ha ir tonic -

ma kers The contracts h a d expired I urged the

. .
1 40 MY LI F E I N ADVE RTISI NG
Palmoli ve people to secure tha t oil and argument ,

but the cost was hi gh .

I do not know what h a s been done on Palmolive

Shampoo by merchandising methods But I ha ve .

h ad much experience with Other shampoos A nd I .

know that nobody zin a hard fought field h as ever

‘
-

succeed ed without some exceptional cla i ms .

On the Other side let me recite the experience with

Palmolive Shaving Cream That was a logica l .

a d apta tion of the fame of Palmolive Soap But .

cer ta in facts h ad to be considered Practically all .

the users of shaving cream were wed ded to certa in

brands Perhaps most of them h ad used those
.

bra nds for years and they liked them Our prob
, .

lem was to win users from one brand to another .

One can hardly claim in a s having soap ex cep

ti onal eflccts That is not logica l Some of the
'

. .

greatest soapma kers in the country ha ve studi ed

-

shaving soaps for years But they ha ve never stated.

in exact terms their accomplishm ents .

I sent out some research men to interview menby

the hundreds I a sked them what they most desi red
.

i na sha ving cream Then I took those answers to

.

M ilwaukee then the home of Pa lmolive and sub

, ,

mitred them to V C Ca ssidy chi ef chemist I sa id :

. .
,
.

”
These are the factors men want They ma y get .

them in Other sha ving creams but no body yet h as ,

told them Give me a ctual data on these results as

.

app lied to Palmolive Sha ving Cream ’

.

L M en w ant ed a bundant la th er C assidy prove d .

1 41
. MY LIFE I N ADVE RTI SIN G
can nOt go into a well occupied field on th e Si mp
-
le
“ "
a ppea l buy my brand
, That is a selfish appeal
.
,

repugnant to all One must offer exceptional service

.

to induce people to change from favorite brands to

your s The usual advertiser does not offer tha t ex
.

ce pti ona l service It cannot be exp

. ected But giving .

exact figures on tha t service which Others fail to

supply may esta blish grea t a dvantage .

Ta ke the example of Mazda lamps or tungsten ,

lamps in general The claim tha t they give more

.

light than carbon lamps ma kes S light impression .

Everybody expects one sell er to cla im a dvanta ge

over Others But when you S ta te tha t tungsten
.

lamps multiply efi ci ency three times over tha t is ,

something for all to consider .

Back of all of which lies the principle of personal

salesmanship Al l advertising S hould be ba sed on
.

that Meeting a woma n at h er door is much like

.

meeting h er around h er evening lamp The same .

principles of sal esmanship apply A nd advertising .

is salesmanship imprint -
 Cha p
ter Th i rteen

P UF F E D G R A I N S A ND Q U A KE R O A T S

N E of my grea test successes came a bout

through advertising Pufled Whea t and Pufied
' '

Rice A nd it came a bout in this way

. .

Mr H P Crowell the president of Th e Qua ker

. . .
,

Oats Company was a friend of an Old a ssocia te of

,

mine Tha t a ssoci ate urged Mr Crowell to learn

. .

wha t I could do to help him So one day Mr . .

Crowell called me to h is ofi ce and said something

‘
like this : We have our long esta blished advertis -

ing connections and they are sa tisfactory But we , .

have many lines nOta dvertised If you canfind one .

whi ch ofiers opportuni ty we will experiment with

'

you We will spend

. or over to p rove out

your ideas .

I looked over the line and I found two ap p eal ing ,

p roducts One w as ca lled P uffed Rice ; the other

.

was ca lled Whea t Berries The Rice wa s selling at .

1 0 cents then an d the Whea t was a dvertised a t 7

,

cents The sales h ad been declining The ma kers

. .

were convinced tha t the products could not succeed .

I selected those prod ucts beca use of their unique

appeals I urged th em to change the name of Whea t
.

Berries to Pufled Whea t so we could a dvertise the

'

two p ufle d gr a ins together I asked them to change

'

p P d R 1 5 cen s an d
'

rices so , tha t ufl e ice sold at t

841
1 44 MY L IF E IN ADVE RTIS I N G
PuEe d Whea t at 1 0 cents This added an average
.

of pe r cas e to t h ei r billi ng price Th a t ex tra .

gave us an a dvertising appropriation I was sure .

tha t extra price would nOt reduce the sale in view ,

of our a dvertising eflorts A nd it gave us a fund to

'

develop new users .

I went to the plants where these puffed gra ins

were ma de Professor A P A nderson the inventor
. . .
,

of p ufi ed gra ins accompanied me During ni ghts

'

.
,

on th e tra in and da ys in the factories we studied th e

possibilities .

I learned the reason for p ufi ng I t exploded ever y .

food cell I proved tha t it multiplied the grains to

.

eight tima normal si ze It ma de every a tom a vail

.

a ble a s food .

I wa tched th e process where th e grains were S hot

,

fr om guns A nd I coined th e p
. hrase Foods sh OI ,

from guns .

That idea aroused ridicule One of the grea test .

food advertisers in the country wrote an article

a bout it . He said tha t of all the follies evolved in
food advertising this certa inly was the worst The .

”
idea of appealing to women on a Food sh Ot from
guns was the theory of animbecile .

But tha t theory proved attractive It aroused .

curiosity A nd tha t is one of the grea test incenti ves

.

we know in dea ling with human na ture .

The theories behind this puffed grain campaign -

a re worthy of deep considera tion It proved itself .

the most successful campai gn ever conducted on

1 46 MY LITE I N ADVE RTISI N G
grains So we finally proved tha t magazine ad
.

verti sing w as o ur only possibility .

Then we distributed millions of samples promi s

cuously The samples themselves did not win many
.

user s .We had to fir st esta blish an interest a re ,

sp ect .

So we S topped giving samples to uninterested

people Then we published ad s in tens of mi llions
. .

of ma gazines each with a coupon good at any

,

grocery store for a p a cka ge of M ed Whea t or

Pufled Rice
'

The people firsr read our story If

. .

they cut out the coupon it was beca use our story
,

h ad interested Those people welcomed the pack

.

a ge an
, d they found wha t they looked for in it .

Tha t is so in all sampling It never pays to ca st

.

samples on the doorstep They are like waifs Give

. .

samples only to people who ta ke some astion to

acqui re them beca use of an interest crea ted Give .

the product an a tmosphere Otherwise it will .

never ma ke a lasting impression .

A nother thing we l earned was this : We pu blished

tens of millions of a ds which offered Puffed Whea t
.

free to anyone who bought Puffed Ri ce The o ffer .

was ineffective as all such ofiers are It meant

, .

S imply a price reduction It is just as hard to sell

.

a t a half price a s at a full price to people not con

verted Al l our millions of ads on those lines

. .

brought us few new users .

So advertisers always find it A coupon good for .

half the price is small inducement A coupon which .

 D GRA INS AND QUA x E R OATS 1 47
TU TTE

requires ten c ents for a sample appe als to a sma ll

percenta ge Remember that you are the seller

. .

You are trying to win customers Then ma ke a .

tria l ea sy to the people whom you interest Don t .

’

a sk them to p ay for your efforts to sell them .

Economy on th is point multiplies the cost of sell

ing Inquiries for free samples may cost
. cents
ea ch A sk 1 0 cents for the sample and the inquiries
.
,

ma y cost you or more To gain that 1 0 cents

.

you may be losing one dollar A nd you may sta rt .

only one fifth as many users for the money that you
-

spend That is one of the grea test foll ies in ad ver

.

ti si ng .

p ufled
'

My success on g ra ins led t h e Qua ker Oa ts

Company to ask me to S tudy their Other proposi

tions gTh e ma in one wa s Quaker Oats There I
. .

ma de one of the grea test mista kes of my life

I figured that The Qua ker Oa ts Company con
trolled a large percenta ge of the oatmeal busi ness .

If we could increa se the consumption of oa tm eal ,

we would reap most of the benefits So I planned .

my first campa ign on those li nes .

I sha ll not describe the methods They were far .

reaching an d effective so far as they could go

, I .

employed hundreds of men to gather da ta for me ,

but I was wrong The eating of oatmeal h a s for

.

centuries been regarded as important Everybod y .

knows th e value of oa tmea l Those who do nor

.

employ it ha ve a rea son ha rd to overcome .

I ranan ed uca tiona l campaign on a new and ap

1 48 MY L ITE I N ADVE RTI SI NG
pealing line But it did nOt p
. ay We found that .

converting new users was a very ex pensive proposal .

No new user would p a y us in hi s lif etime th e cost

of his conversion .

That is so in many lines For insta nce convert

.
,

ing people to the tOOth brush to secure new tooth

pa s re us ers New converts I figure cost at lea st
.
, ,

No tOOth paste ma k er could get tha t cost

-

back in deca des .

Ne w habits are crea ted by general educa ti on .

They are crea ted la rgely by writers who occupy free

space I have never known of a line where indi
.

vidual a dvertisers could profita bly cha nge ha bits .

If tha t ca nnot be done on a big sca le it cer ta inly ,

cannot be done on a small scale Every line every .

,

word directed to that end is a was te No one can

,
.

profita bly change ha bits in pa id print The ad .

ve rti ser comes in when those ha bits are ch anged .

”
He says ; Here is th e right method .

Many millions of dolla rs have been wa sted by

a dvertisers who do not recogn ize tha t fact They .

ai m a t people not yet school e d to use the products

which they offer The idea is fine and altruistic

.
,

but it never ca nbe ma de to p ay .

A ll my la ter a dvertising on Qua ker Oats was

a imed at o a tmea l user s I never tried to win new
.

users . I simply told existing users the a dvantages

we Ofiered A nd we gained la rge results on those
'

lines .

Our grea test resul ts came dur ing the war when ,
1 50 m L IEE I N ADVE RTISI NG
a test Lea rn wha t the housewives sa id We named
. .

it Quick Qua ker Oa ts .

So we ma de a test in a few towns We oflered to

'

buy the fir st pa cka ge to try We told every user we

.

did not care whether they preferred Qua ker Oa ts or

Quick Qua ker Al l we wanted to know was their
.

p reference Some .
9 p
0 er cent of those user s voted

for Quick Qua ker A nd now Qui ck Qua ker gives

.

to Qua ker Oats a decided advanta ge .

Al l of which teaches us lessons of vast impor

tance Our success depends on plea sing people By
. .

an inexpe nsive test we can l earn if we plea se them

or n or We can guide our endeavors accordingly

. .

Two minute Oats fa iled because the unique fla vor

-

did not appeal to most people But Quick Qua ker .

gave to the Qua ker Oa ts Company a new hold on

the oatmea l business The difference was decided
.

by submi tting the question to a few thousand house

wives at small expe nse Tha t canalways be done
. .

One can a lwa ys learn what is wanted and wh a t is

nOt wanted without any considera ble risk
, .

That is a bout the only way to advertising suc

cess Perhaps one time in fifty a guess may be
.

right But fifty times in fifty an actua l test tells

.

you what to do and a void .

 Ch apter F ourteen

P E P S O D E NT

HE grea test success of my career so far h as

been made on Pep sod entTooth Paste Its pro .

moter h as been a ssociated with me for twenty two -

years We have ma de millions together in ad ver

.

ti sing enterprises When I went with Lord 8:

.

Th oma s he was quite despondent He oflere d me a

'

large sa lary to idle and wait for him to find some

mutual opportunity .

He beca me involved in irrigation projects in

Tucson Ar izona There th e nights are long and
,
.

lonesomeness omnipotent So he courted the ac

.

quaintance of the health seekers there and one of

-
,

them h ad evolved this toorh pa ste .

Wh en he brought it to me I tried to di scourage

him It wa s a technical proposition I did not se e
. .

a way to educa te the l aity in technica l tOO th pa ste -

theories He insisted on a fifty cent price when

.
-
,

twenty five cents ha d been the usual price for a

-

tooth paste .

But he was persistent So I fina lly agreed to

.

underta ke the campaignif he gave me a six months

’

option on a block of stock which he did , .

I read book after book by dental authorities on

the theory on which Pep sod ent wa s ba sed It was .

dry rea ding But inth e middle of one book I found

.

I !!
 MY LI FE IN A D V E E I I sI No ' '

a reference to the mucin pla ques on teeth which I ,

afterwar d ca lled the fil m Tha t ga ve me anappeal

.

ing idea .

I resolved to advertise thi s tooth pa ste as a creator

of bea uty To dea l with that cloudy film
. .

The na tural idea in respect to a tooth paste is to

ma ke it a preventive But my long expe rience h a d
.

ta ught me that preventive mea sures wer e nOt p op u

lar People will do anything to cure a trouble but
.
,

little to prevent it Countless advertising idea s

.

have been wrecked by nor understanding that pha se

of human nature Prevention oflers slight appea l
.

to humanity in general .

Th en I wa s urged to present the results of neglect ,

the nega tive side of the subject But I h ad learned .

tha t repulsive ideas seldom won rea ders or converts .

People do nor want to read of the penalties They .

"
want to be told of rewards Laugh and the world
.

laughs with you weep and you weep alone

, .

Peopl e want to be told the ways to happiness and

che er .

This p oint is important Every advertising cam.

pg a i n dep e nds on its psychology Success o r fa il ur e

.

is determined by the right or wrong appeal Scores .

have tried to scare people into using a certa in tOOth

p a ste. N ot one h a s succeeded so far a s I know , ,

save where they appealed to troubles a lready

crea ted Folks give little thought to warding ofl
'

di sa sters Their main ambition is to a tta in more

.

success , more hap p in ess more bea ut ,y mo re cheer ,

1 54 MY L I FE I N ADVE RTISI NG
lines like food products the word free was ap
, ,

peal ing It multiplied the rea ders of our ads The

. .

ofl er of a s ample seemed a na tur a l wa y to sell

'

But when we came to something perta ini ng to

hygiene the psychology was different We were .

professing to offer people benefits of vast impor

tance When we fea tured a gift like a brea kfast
.
,

food it mini mized our importance It ma de us

,
.

tra ders s imply see king to sell not scientists seeki ng

, ,

to benefit When we fea tured a free ofler at the top

'

of our a ds we divided our results by four

. .

Such things are n0t ea sy to discover When we .

a dvertise a dessert a n d fea ture a free package it ,

harmoni zes with human na ture When we offer a .

“ "
hygi enic help and ma ke the word free a chi ef
appea l we di scredit a ll the factors which can bring
,

us converts .

I spent much th e to learn this I wasted some .

money But I always knew immed ia tely by my

.
,

keyed coupons the efi ects of my every appeal !I

'

.
,

learned my mista kes in a week I never spent much .

money on any wrong theory I discovered quickly .

the right and the wrong .

Here we are dealing with one of the greatest suc

cesses in advertising A tooth p a ste which despite
.
,

a ll opposition came to rule the world

, Toda y it is .

sold in 5 2 countries It is advertised in 1 7 lan

. .

gua ges including the Chinese and in each our ap

, ,

p ea l h a s proved equa lly efiecti ve

'

We came into a field well occupied During all .

 P B P S OD B NT 1
55
of our advancement we h ad countless competitors .

We won over them all and ma de Pep sod e nt in a few ,

short years the star dentifrice success Thi s was

,
.

no accident .

The Pep sodent Company was organi z ed on a

sma ll ca pital Most of the investment went into
.

office fixtures and ma chinery A ll men connected .

were old a dvertisers They woul d never ha ve i n

.

vested much in trade creating without a ssurance of

qui ck return .

We secured that quick return In our first test .

city we spent which came back with a profit

before the advertising bills were due We tried .

Other cities and they panned out in like way

,
Then .

our backers a dvanced l arge sums of money on a pl a n

that h ad proved a certa inty Thus we esta blished .

in one year a na tion wide demand and a world

-
,

wide demand in four years .

Consider this underta ki ng I know of nothing in .

all advertising so successful in a big quick wa y ,

.

One series of ad s which I prepared would ha ve

.

wrecked it in three months Y et I h ad a t th a t time

.

spent nearly thirty years in a dvertising I h ad .

learned from hundreds of campa igns .

I caught my mista kes by the coupon caught —

them quickly I reversed my stra tegy at once De
. .

fore we went very far I h a d found the way to qui ck

,

an d sure success simply by watching returns

, .

A hundred tooth pa ste ma kers might S tart out

-
,

as a hundred have an d fall down Simply beca use

,
.
156 MY LIEE I N ADVE RTISI N G
they were wedded to some theory whi ch human
na ture fa iled to approve They did n0t learn their
.

mista ke beca use they did not qui ckly check results
, .

So they wrecked themselves on rocks whi ch could

ha ve been a voided .

I ma de for myself a million dollars on Pepsoden t

—ona proposition which at fir st I refused to under
ta ke Just beca use by countless teS ts I learned the
.

right human psychology .

Wha t is the lesson ? It is that none of us canaf

ford to rely on judgment or experience We mus t .

feel our way New problems require new ex p

. eri

ence . We must test our underta kings in the most

exact way possible Learn our mi sta kes and cor
.

re ct them Wa tch every appealing lea d

. .

A fter this experience I can cite a hundred ways

,

to a dvertise a tooth paste wrongly A nd I can .

prove the mista kes But a hundred men might

.

follow each to the rocks if they h a d no gauge on

res ul ts .A hundred men ha ve done so So P ep so .

dent oflers the best argument I know for being

'

guided by actual data .

1 5 8 MY L I FE I N ADVE RTISI NG
or a border You will get anad which looks more
. .

a ttractive but you will double th e cost of replies

,

an d sa les .

This fact should be accepted for this economy ,

principle after thousands of tests on hundreds of

,

lines h as become practica lly universal A nd it

,
.

proves that waste of space is folly in any line of ad

verti sin g Th a t inc
. l udes large type or borders or , ,

pictur es that don t help to sell Al l ad s woul d be

’
. .

set like good mail order ads if th e same rigid tes ts

- .

were applied .

Tha t is the hardest fact for anad writer to learn .

-

or an a dvertiser to comprehend The na tural in .

sti nCt is to m a ke the a d a ttractive One must . .

remember however ads are not written to

, , .

amuse but to sell

,
And to sell a t the lowest cost
.

possible Ma il order advertising ba sed on ac

.
-
,

curate figures on cost and result shows th e best ,

ways known to do that .

A nadvertiser who once came to our agency was

selling a five dollar articl e by ma il His replies
- .

were costing 85 cents ea ch his sales a bout ,

each The advertising wa s becoming unprofita ble

.
,

so h e sought a way to lessen cost of sales We p re .

pared an ad which the advertiser rej ected it

.
,

seemed so unattracti ve Another agency prep a red.

a l arger more a lluring a d

, which the advertiser .
,

tried But hi s cost p

. er reply was on an
ar ticle whi ch sold for $ 5 Then he tried our ad and .
,

the Cost p er reply was 42 cents So we secured the . .

 S OME MA I L DE R E x pE RI E NcES
OR
-
159

a dvertising an , d our cost p er reply kept around 42 .

cents for years We cut his old cost in two A nd

. .

tha t on
,
replies pe r year mea nt a very big ,

item to him But countless advertisers without a

.

trace on cost are judging ads by appearance And . .

they are losing as heavily as this mandid on anad .

which cost him per reply Th a t is why so .

much money is wasted in a dvertising People do .

not know their costs and they will not be guided ,

by those who do So I ha ve alwa ys done some ma il

.

order a dver tising to help me keep my feet on the

round
g .

A t one time I took up the a dvertising of house

furnishings by ma il on insta llments While I was .

doing this the business developed to p er

y ea r
. Th a t ta ught me countless things One learns .

a grea t dea l a bout human na tur e in s ellin g goods on

credit by m ail .

The problem does nOt end with the first sale to a

customer The ca talogs are expensive Landi ng a
. .

customer in this line cosrs money A percentage of .

the customers fai l to p ay as a greed SO profit depends

‘
.

on making the most of customers who are honest .

Selling them aga in and again Ma iling bulletins on .

special Offers Watching accounts to sell something

.

more when p ayments ar e completed Induci ng one

customer to interest Others .

One day when I ca lled on this concern I nOted a

big buildi ng next door I asked a bout it and they .
,

told me it belonged to a firm tha t sold womens ’

I 60 MY L I TE I N ADVERTISIN G
g arments by m a il on inst a llments just a s we sold ,
“
fur ni shings I said : Why do you let such a con
.

cern grow up next to you ? Why dont you sell th eir ’

"
line ?
That led us to organi ze a similar concern I .

urged them to give it a woman s name We se ’

.

lecte d a ca pa ble middle a ged woma n and pictured

,
-

h er in every ad We h a d h er S ign the ad s and we

. .
,

made our appea l from one woman to anoth er .

These ads did nOt mention i nstallmm ts ) They

. .

dealt with the subj ect of credit They appea led to .

young women who desired to appear at their best .

They pointed out wha t it meant in a woman s '

career Then this woman Oflered to help them out

'

by giving them six months to p ay for spring clothes .

The Offer was fla ttering nOt humilia ting It , .

showed symp a thy an d understa nding The evident .

desire was to serve In reality our offers were the

.

same as those ma de by the people next door but our ,

a ttitude was di fleren We ma de our six months

' '
t .

credit seem like the thirty day credit which richer -

women get at their stores .

A s a result we dom ina ted tha t field from th e

,

start Before long the business next door was

.
,

closed Cold commercialism could not compete

.

with the a tmosphere we created Nor coul d boasted .

benefactions appeal like the offer of fai r trea tment

from one woman to another .

Just that change inpresentation created an enor

162 . MY LI EE I N ADVE RTISI NG
Any woman who receives such a fla ttering Ofler will
'

try to find some wa y to utilize it .

So wi th the garment seller She m ore like letters -

.

to the house furn i shing customers She told them

- .

they h a d with h er an open credit account They .

could order whatever they wished without sending

money Just order the garments sent on approval
. .

A nd those house furnishing customers by the thou

-

sa nds bought women s garments from the woman

'

who wrote them so politely .

We started a like business on men s clothes Then

'
.

by ma king a customer in one line a buy er of anoth er

we multiplied the ordinary res ul ts Nobody on a .

single line could compete with such a combina tion .

Such are the ramifica tions of advertising Sa les

—
.

—
manship in print in principle is just the same a s
, ,

salesmanship in person The store offers a bargain

- -
.

to tempt people there The object is to try to sell .

Other things and right salesm anship will do it

,
An .

a d writer must never forget th a t he is a simple

.
-

sa lesma n an d the more he sells the better he will

,

prosper .

One more ma il order experience will i llusrrate

-

a nother pha se I took up the advertising of a con

.

cern which for thirty years h a d sold garments for

women and children by ma il on credit This .

field is well occupied It h a s been profita ble The . .

annua l s a les of some concerns in this line run into

M y millions .

A ll Ofle r a cosd y catalog Some ads Ofler specia l

' '

. .
 S OME MA I L -
OR
DE R Ex pERI E NC E S 163
— —
barga ins perhaps cer ta in articles a t cost to in
duce people to write for the ca talog A s a result .
,

the woman who writes for one ca talog is ap t to

write for three or four
—
.

Then comes the main d ifi culty the problem of

inducing women to buy from your ca talog rather
than from Others .

Say it costs cents to induce a woman to write

for your ca ta log Th e ca talog with its pictures in
.
,

colors costs 35 cents at least Thus you ha ve an

,
.

investment of 60 cents in each inquirer Th e res ults .

depend on the sa le p er ca t alog .

The woman who writes to one advertiser in this

line usually writes to three or four Wh en she .

comes to ma ke a selection she h a s four ca ta logs

,

before h er A ll present attractive appea ls The

. .

one from whi ch she orders depends largely on

cha nce or fancy .

One must recognize tha t Your cost of p .re

senting th a t ca talog to h er is 60 cents perhaps , .

If four advertisers are presenting such ca talogs to

h er the tOta l cost is
,
The avera ge sale as ,

p e r experience is around $ 1 0
,
80 the a dvertisers.

combined are spending pe r cent to ma ke that

a vera ge s ale .

The profit d epends on swinging your way more

tha n the a vera ge sa le Tha t wa s the problem
.

which brought those advertiser s to me .

I devised this scheme : When a woman wrote for

our ca talog I went to our card file and discovered
164 MY L I FE I N ADVE RTISIN G
whether she was a new or old customer If she .

wa s a new customer the sales mana ger wrote h er a

,
“
letter to this efiect: We are very glad to ha ve your
'

inqui ry We welcome new patrons to our fold I

. .

w ant to extend you tha t welcome in a practical

way I inclose my card On it is written instruc
. .

t i ons to refer your order to me I want to s end .

with that order with my compliments a little

, ,

present for you I will not sa y what it is but I am

.
,

sur e it will delight you .

To Old customers he wrote this : I am gla d to

a gain receive an inquiry from you The whole .

profit in our business is ma de by the customers who

stay with us year after year It costs money to get.

new customers but the Old ones who remai n cost

,

us nothing So I wish to Offer you a token in

.

apprecia tion of the fact th a t you continue wi th us .

When you send your order inclose this card of ,

mine It instructs our people here to refer your

.

order to me Then I will include a little gift to

.

”
S how our a ppreci ation .

Wha t was the resul t ? A ll inquirers for the

ca talog old or new customers received tha t card
, , .

It did nOt mention the gift beca use curiosity ,

ma kes a S tronger appeal than description But .

every inquirer h ad tha t card before h er If she .

ordered from one particular ca talog she could send

that card and receive the gift So she tried h er .

best to order from that ca talog The sales p er .

ca talog were thus en ormously increased .

166 MY ADVE RTISI N G L I FE IN

been less than 3 p er cent So I advertised tha t .

p —
rofit a profit of
3p er cent I promised not to .

exceed it We were content with tha t profit and

.
,

our prices were fixed on tha t ba sis .

Here was one of the oldest ma il order concerns -

in this line one of the largest

, The prices they .

quoted on 3 p er cent profit must be pretty close to

minimum One could nor expect to ma terially

.

decrease them So those quOta tions despite all

.
,

Others guaranties were a ccepted a s bottom prices

'

.
,

That is another illustra tion of how actua l figures

count . Claim s are always discounted Sa y .
,
‘
Lo west prices in existence and people ignore
you Many may ma ke like cla ims But say tha t
. .

you sell at 3 p er cent net profit an d most people ,

believe you They do nOt expect you to lie in

.

rega rd to definite figures They know you m e t .

li e in the better publications .

Th ose are some of the plans whi ch I evolved to

increa se mail order sales They meant little to
-
.

me directly Ma il order advertising is nOt worth

.
-

th e efl ort from the S tandpoint of the a d writer

'

-
. .

But it kept me facing the fact tha t all sorts of

a dver tising is ba sed on ma il order principles We -
.

must always sell our goods at a profit We must .

alwa ys outsell O thers to succeed A ny ad writer . .

-

who proceeds on any Other theory is doomed to

quick defea t .
 Cb npte r S i x te en

R E A S O N S F O R S UC C E S S

OW let me try to summarize the rea sons for

my success for the benefit of those who will
follow By success I meanthe p
. art s I pla yed in devel

oping grea t ad vertising enterprises most of which ,

continue A dvertising men are expected to do tha t

. .

In advertising we serve th ree interests a ll of ,

th em a llied but distinct First comes the publisher

.

who pays us our commissions He pays to the .

a gen cy an average of 1 5 p er ce nt on the amount of

the advertising Tha t is pa id for expected service

. .

The best ser vice we can render lies in the develop

ment of new advertising opportunities He expects .

us to increa se the general volume of a dvertising by

starting new proj ects or showing the way to
profitably increase the old .

Publishers learned tha t I served t hem well I .

m om for instance the first ad I ever read on

, , .

a utomobiles I did much of the pioneer work in

.

tha t line including the first ads on Cha lmers

,
.
,

Hudson and Overland Publishers regarded me

,
.

as a lea der in tha t developmen t The first important

.

tire advertising was the campaign which I evolved

on No Rim Cut tires for Goodyear Its ama zing
- - .

proved to all tire makers that this line

-

needed advertising .
x68 LI FE I N ADVE RTISI NG
MY

Tooth paste advertising was ra ther insignificant

-

before Pe p sod ent ca me into the field Tha t quick .

success was one of the ma rvels of a dvertising and ,

now many millions are spent every year to foster

dentifrices NO doubt the success Of M ed Whea t
.

an d P ufled Rice ga ve impetus to cerea l advertising

'

The remar kable success of Pah oli ve created much

soa p a dvertising .

My help in creating business for the m aga zines

an d newspa pers led the publishers to help me .

They ha ve opened for me many fine opportunities ,

ust be use they believed th t my s rvice in ad

j ca a e .

writing would increa se thei r revenues .

A nother interest we s erve as a d writers is th e .

-

a dvertising agency Ma ny of the best accounts in

.

agencies are the accounts developed from sma ll

beginnings there Nearly all the accounts I

.

handled were of tha t sort Often much is a t sta ke .

on these advertising possibilities A mista ke may .

ruin a fine prospect Mediocre service may resul t

.

i n a sma ll account where a big one might ha ve

been Tha t is why competent ad writers are paid
. .
-

such large incomes .

In my ca se I started with Lord 8; Thomas at

pe r week But we soon
. a greed tha t the

right plan was a commission ba sis Then the .

agency pa id me on l y for ser vice which proved

p rofita ble to them On the Other hand I received
.
,

wha t I earned Under that plan I earned in com

.

mi ssions as high as ina year A ll earne d .

1 70 MY LI FE I N ADVE RTISIN G
During th ose two yea rs I accepte d no account for
myself By tha t I mean an account On which I
.

obtained commissions I wanted no one to say .

tha t I used my position to secure revenue for myself .

A s a result my own revenue dr opped severely

, .

But Mr La sker always knew tha t his interests

.

would come ahea d of mine He trusted me im .

p y
li ci tl A t.one time to help comp e ns,a te he ga ve ,

me a check for for writing S eesntefir

'

—
Tha t was one grea t factor inmy career th e con
fid ence I engendered That was due to my Scorch
.

a ncestry A t one time Mr Lasker ma de me a

. .

trustee under his will A gain and aga in I refuse d

.

to acceptfrom hh more th a n I felt I ea rned When .

my contract called for one third the commission I -

refused to a ccept it on accounts where I did n Ot

a ppe ar to be a vita l factor A bout the only dis .

a greements I h a d wi th Mr Las ker referred to hi s .

d esire to overpay me .

That a ttitude I consider a vital factor insuccess .

A n a bsolutely fa ir division One on the crest of .

the wave may Over play his hand for a little time
-
,

but nor for long Business is money ma king a nd

.
-
,

a ssoci ates will find a way to elimina te anyone who

cla ims too large a share .

The third element in a dvertising is th e advertiser

h h se lf I put him third beca use he se ems to come
.

third in my conception of advertising We cannot .

serve the publisher or the advertising agent with o ut

 ASONS F OR S UCCES S
RE 1 7;

ser ving him But the p ublisher pays our com

.

missions the advertising a gent selects and employs

,

us The advertiser who is a beginner ma kes a slight

.

specula tion on us Old advertisers who change .

from one a gency to another are not very valua ble

clients They ha ve failed in their ambitions In a
. .

large percenta ge of cases the reason for fa ilure

cannot be corrected So they usua lly switch again . .

The a dvertisers I value most are nOt those who

come with large appropri ations I could list .

scores of such advertisers who have no prospect

of a tta ining thei r desir es Ea ch succeeding agent .

loses reputa tion and prestige when he attempts the

h p ossi ble .

The most valua ble clients are those who come

to us with new opportunities in a dvertising They .

are many But the opportunity consists of a test

.

campa ign costing under , The agency com

mission on such a campa ign is $75 0 The cost of .

developing a test campa ign rarely runs under

i f a competent manis employed The men .

in ch arge may spend wee ks in reading and in

The sta ke in such ca ses is la rgely with the

agency The advertiser usua lly gets his mon ey
.

back wh a tever the outcome The real sta ke i s

, .

ma de by the agency .

Fa il ur e means tha t the advertiser loses a trifle ,

th e agency loses much Succe ss ma y mean millions .

to the advertiser To the agency it means 1 5 p

. er
; 7; MY I N ADVE RTIS I NG
cent commission on the advertising just so long as
he holds the advertiser s good will and approval ’

SO I feel no Obliga tion to ana dvertiser who permi ts

me to ma ke a test M ine is the specula tion
. .

Tha t is why I p lace advertisers last in this

ca tegory But on the success of the advertiser
.

depends everything else We owe O bliga tion to th e

.

publishers who p a y us our commissions We owe .

obligation to the agency which gives us our chance .

Our lea st obligation is to the advertiser yet every ,

thi ng depe nds ou his attitude .

Success in advertising depends on these three

elements Thr ee interests must be sa tisfied and
.
,

all of them are cryi ng for profits The only way .

to plea se all of them is to profita bly develop what

you underta ke .

I have devoted myself to the advertiser Through .

h is success must come my success wi th the others .

I forget the rest The advertiser who fails in a

.

large way becomes forever a denouncer Of adver

ti si ng .I know tha t failur e is inevitable in a large
percent age of ca ses So I never involve the
.

a dvent ur er to an y l arge ext ent before we are sure

Of a profit If he fails the fault lies in the product

.
,

or conditions um the advertising

,
Hi s loss i s .

little or nothing If he succeeds his winnings may

.
,

run into millions .

How have I been able to win from this situa tion

so many grea t succes ses ? Simply because I made
so man y mista kes in a small way and learned some ,
1 74 MT LI TE I N ADVE RTISI NG
should econom ize Sh e demands wha t the best
.

pe ople use
'

Many people around me working atsmall wages

, ,

consider cost far less th an I do A woman who .

does our washing and who arrives in h er own ca r

, ,

h as a fad for antiques She picks up many pieces

—
.

of value pieces we are glad to buy from h er when

sh e becomes involved

The p roudest pe ople I kn ow are th e people wh o

work on my country place Suggest a thi ng to
.

them beca use it is economical an d you ar ouse

oppositi on Y ou hurt thei r pride But dir ect your
.

appea l to those who do n Ot consider cost and they

like to be included .

That is a single example of th e things we learn

by contact from the people who form 9 5 p er cent

of our customers A ma ica is a land of equali ty

. .

Every campaign th a t I devise or write is ah e d

a t some indi vidua l member of this va st ma jority .

I do nOt consult managers and boards of dir ectors .

Their viewpoint is nearly always distorted I sub .

mit them to the sh p le folks around me who typ ify

A merica . They are our customers Their reactions .

are the on l y ones tha t count .

There is another field a bly occupied It is

, .

typified by the advertising of Cadill ac cars People .

Of sm a ll incomes ean well be excluded But th ose .

are n m the grea t a dvertising fields I ha ve confined

.

“ "
my app ea ls to the common p eople to the prod ,

m m which they buy

 Cb a pter S e ve nte e n

S C I E N T I F I C A DV E R T I S I N G

H R O UG H a b ook I wrote my name h as

become connected with Sci entific A d ver
"
ti sin g . Tha t is,a dver tising ba sed on fix ed
p
r in
ci p les and done according to fundamm tal la ws I
learned those principles through thirty six years -

of traced advertising Th rough conducting cam

.

s on some hundre ds of difleren

pg n
'

a i t li nes Th rough .

comparing on some lines by keyed returns thou

, ,

sands of pieces of copy A lways since I sent out

.
,

my first thousand letters to the th e when $5

yearly was being spent on my copy I ha ve h a d to ,

face records on cost and result So I ha ve naturally

.

proved out many fundamental s whi ch should

a lwa ys be a pplied .

I h a ve little respect for most theories of ad ver

tising beca use they h a ve nOt been proved They
, .

are ba sed on limit ed experiences on exceptional

,

conditions Some lines seem to succeed on methods

.

of advertising which every tra ced return proves

h p o ssi ble
. Th e reasons for success ha ve little to
do with the advertising The l ine may ha ve suc
.

cee d e d in spite of the a dvertising Many un .

advertis ed lines be come hi ghly successful beca use ,

of some wanted qua lity which pe ople soon d i s

cover Or because dealers are in some way induced

.

x 75
1 76 MY LI TE I N ADVE RTI SIN G
to feature it Or beca use of a name which in itself
.

tells an appea ling story .

Cream of Whea t is anexample The name alone .

tells the story So with Spearmint Gum A ll

. .

successful g ums ha ve succeeded through fortun a te

names There is almost no story to tell There

. .

are n o grea t distinctions The very men who .

succee ded wit h on e na me fail ed aga in and again

with Others
A ny conclusion s drawn from such ex periences
.

“ '

are bound to lea d Other s a stra y The ca ses where .

they apply are rare Safe principles are evolved.

only by those who know with rea sonable exact

ness wha t the advertising d oes and who compare ,

results on many lin es with thousands of pieces of

copy . Mail order advertising gives the most
-

exact ba sis but most a dvertising can be so con

,

d ucted as to give an approxima te guide .

To a pply scientific advertising one must recognize

that ads are sa lesmen One must compare them ,

on e by one on a sa lesman s basis an d hold them

'

, ,

responsible for cost an d result TO advertise .

blindl y teaches one nothi ng and it usually lea ds ,

to the rocks .

I ha ve descri bed in this book some of the methods

b y which we trace results But we find tha t some .

methods which succee d in one line cannot be

applied to another We find that some methods
.

which are profitable are nOt one fourth so efl ecti ve

'

as Oth ers 80 regardless of principles we must

.
, ,
1 78 L I TE I N ADVE RTISI N G
MT

Forget yourself entirely Have in your mind a .

typical prospect interested enough to rea d about

,

your product Keep tha t prospect before you

. .

Seek in e very word to increa se your good h p ressi on .

Say onl y wha t you thi nk a good salesma n should

say if tha t prospe ct stood before hh Then if .
,

you could sell in person you could sell in print

,
.

Do nOt boast Nor a bout your plant or your

.

output Not a bout anything more inter esting to

.

A im to get act i on
p
you than to your rospect BoaS ting is repulsi ve
Your reader is pe rusing a
.
. .

ma gazine or newspaper She h as paused beca use

.

your subject or your hea dline attracts h er But in .

a moment she will be inter ested in h er rea ding an d

will usua lly forget you In some way in your .

cli ma x inspire immedia te action in those interested .

A coupon is the usual wa y People cut it out . .

They do nOt lay aside their magazine or newspa per ,

but they clip the coupon to remind them of some

th ing they decide to do A woman lays it on h er
.

desk a ma n slips it in his vest pocket Then on

, .

some convenient occ asion it turns up for action .

It is sent in for a sa mple or for further informa tion .

Then you ha ve a chance to follow up that interest .

Countless tests h ave proved that coupons multiply

returns I have seen many tests ma de by mail order
.
-

houses oflering ca ta logs Some a ds h a d coupons ;

'

. .
,

some did nOt The difference in re turns was

.

enormous .

People are dila tory They defer action then

.
,
 ADVE RT ISI NG
SCI EN TI TI C 1 79

forget Many ana dvert i ser loses in t hat wa y most

.

of his half ma de converts One cannot afl ord tha t

'

-
. .

“ "
There are Other ways to get action Th e week .

sa les have that in View Th e retail oflers which

'

a pply to a certain da y or hour Lh i ted Oflers of

'

every sort Something to induce prompt action

.
,

to avoid p rocrastina tion is always an h p ortant ,

factor .

Frivolity h as no place in a dvertising Nor h as .

humor Spe ndi ng money is usually serious busi

.

ness Th is does not apply to amusement ad ver

.

ti si ng but it does to all other forms Money

, .

represents life an d work It is highly respe cted . .

To most pe ople S pending money in one direction

,

means skh p i ng in another So money spending .

-

usua lly h as a serious purpose People want full .

val ue They want something worth more to them

.

tha n the sa me amount spe nt in Other ways would

buy .

Such su bj ects should nor be trea ted lightly N o .

writer who really knows the average pe rson will

ever trea t it lightly Money comes slowly and by
.

sacri fice Few pe ople have enough The avera ge

. .

person is constantly choosing be tween one way

to spend and another A ppea l for money in a light
.

“ ”
some way and you will never get it Sunny Jh .

"
proved tha t so did Spotless Town , So did .

ma ny Others whi ch are long forgotten Nobody .

ca n cite a permanent success built on frivolity .

People do not buy from clowns

180 LIFE I N ADVE RTISI NG
MY

Never seek to amuse Tha t is nor the purpose .

of a dvertising People get their amusements in

.

the rea ding matter columns The only interest

-
.

you ca n Ofler p rofita bly is something pe ople want

'

Do nOt try to compe te wi th the S tories or the

news columns with the pictures or the cartoons
,

in their field Y ou may win a ttention but nOt

.
,

valua ble attention Most of the pe ople you .

a tt ract in this way ha ve no inter est in your subject .

The ad columns and the readi ng ma tter ha ve

.
-

their separate pur poses Y ou cannot fool people .

by any resemblance None should a ttempt it if .

he could Wh at does it profit an a dvertiser to

.

a ttract a rea der who h a s no interest in his subject ?

A ny product worth a dvertising if rightly p re ,

sented h as more interest than a story It mea ns

,
.

,
—
economy or help or plea sure perhaps for years ,

to come A musement is transient Why sacrifice

. .

your grea t appea l to secur e a moment s fickle

'

attention ?

A dvertising means sal esmanship to millions .

Because of its big field it is very expensive In .

nationa l a dvertising the a verage cost i s at least

$ p
1 0 e r wo rd One must figure tha t Ma ke every
. .

word count to the limit Cut out every word which .

is not worth tha t $ 1 0 Never repe at This should . .

be done without stilted efl ects but it must be done

'

.
,

A salesman who wa stes his time who sa ys us e ,

less things and repeats may cost $ 1 p e r hour ,

.

But an ad whi ch does like things is was ting $ 1 0

.
181 LITE I N ADVE RTISIN G
MT
-

Thi s ma y nor be a se vere handica p but it is al ways ,

a detrimen t Wh y not follow th e usual and

.

natural

a dvertising Th e incl ina tion is to use pictur es

. .

The tendency h as grown until many advertisers

pya fr om to per d ra wing .

No test tha t I know of proves s uch exp en se

p rofit a ble N or do I know of a ca se where colored

.

pictures paid better tha n black and white People - - .

use th em more and more but rarely on traced ,

a dvertising .

I am prepared to believe that on some lines like ,

fruits and desserts colored p , ietures ma y prove

p rofit a ble But . I know of no line as yet where on ,

trace d return s they ha ve warranted their extra

,

cost . A nd I h a ve ma de a good many comparisons .

A t one th e a grea t a dvertising journal appea led

for proofs tha t colored advertising pa id But no
such actua l proof h as yet come to my a t tention .

Tha t is a question for further ex p e rh ent Extra .

fine art work and colored art work ha ve not yet

proved their advantages If they do so in ce rtain
.

lines I doubt if ever th e results ca n be appli ed to

,

all lines .

Th e i ncentive i s nor allied to sa lesmanshi p .

One ca res little how a salesma n dresse s We regar d .

over dr ess as a fa ult

- So with salesmanship ih
.
-

p rint I h
. a ve never found a ca se wh ere fin e appear

an ce p ai d its Cost in extra sales And I know of no

.
 ADVE RTI SI N G
S C I E NTI TI C 18
3
on e else who h as done S o My idea is that fine art
.

work like fine language sh p

,
ly ma kes buyers ,

wary .

“
A noth er pri nciple taught by exp eri ence is that

ads S hould tell the full story

. People do nOt rea d .

a ds in series
. Th e a dvertiser who toda y a ttracts
.

them may nOt aga in get attention for months So .

,

when you get a reading present all your arguments

, .

In an advertising campa ign we find facts which ,

ap pea l and we reta in them We find Other facts

,
.

which don t appe al and we dr op them We find

’

.
,

these things out by fea turing our various ela h s

in hea dlines We find that one lead brings a grea t
.

deal of interest while another brings little or

,

none SO we gauge our appea ls accordingly

. .

Some will buy for one rea son some for another , .

But all appeals whi ch prove th emselves h p ortant

shoul d be included in every ad Otherwise our .

,

most convincing arguments fa il to rea ch our i n

terested readers
We ca nnot expect people to rea d our ads again .

an d again Our su b ject a ttracts them and they

.
,

give us brief a ttention It is up to us then to

.
, ,

convince them or forever lose their interest They .

will nor read another a d of ours if we fail to .

present in an enticing way something they desire .

We should nOt lose our opportunity Every a d . .

shoul d include whatever we ha ve found appea ling

to any considerable class .

Then there are different w ays of sta ti ng thi ngs .

184 MY LITE I N ADVE RTISI NG
Some are h p ressi ve some are nOt Superla ti ve
, .

el ah s do n O t count To sa y that someth ing i s

.

“ ”
Th e best ins th e world ma kes no h p ressi on

wha tever Tha t is an expected ela h

. The rea der .

ma y not blame us for exa ggera tion but we lose ,

much Of his respect He na tura lly minh izes

.

wha tever el se we ma y say .

When we say such things as The best product ,

" “
inexistence , The supreme crea tion of its ki nd ,

we may arouse onl y a smile at our frailties No .

re se ntment ma y be engender ed But wha tever

e lse we sa y is discounted .

People are pret ty well educa ted to the beli ef

tha t advertising must tell the tr uth Th ey know .

th at we cannot in the better mediums deliberately

, ,

mislea d them But they do nor regard superla ti ves

.

a s mislea ding beca use they never ar e

,
.

On the Other hand whenyou state actua l figures

, ,

definite facts they accept them at p

, ar Such .

d efini te statements are either facts or lies and ,

p eople do not expect tha t reputa ble people or

concerns will lie .

G ive actua l figures S ta te definite facts

, Ta ke .

the tungsten lamp as an example Say th at it .

gives more light than Other lamps and people are ,

but mildly h p re sse d Sa y that it gives 3 times

.

th e light of car bon lamps and people will realize,

tha t you have made actual comparisons They .

w ill accept your e lah s at p ar .

S in ve thi n Ind fi nit l h s l ea ve i n

o e r
y g e . e c a
186 MY LI F E IN ADVE RTISI NG
become disheartened An ointment for instance
.
, ,

or a germicide a trea tment for asthma or h a

, y
fever a rub for rheuma ti sm
, .

On some such things one app eal s to a sma ll

e cost of rea chi ng them in mediums

percenta ge Th
.

of universa l circula ti on is excessive It cannot .

come ba ck for deca des On Others th e cost of

.
,
’

securing a customer is many years return from a

customer . Repea t sal es are too far apart .

I know many products which every home shoul d

have The rea sons are convincing A large p
. er .

cen tage of homes can be sold on them but a single ,

purcha se h as for months and some times years .

The cost of securing a customer far ex ceeds th e

first sa le profit Further sales and profits are long
-
.

deferred The advertiser and the a dvertising man

become discoura ged long before the tide ca n turn .

The world is full of such things Things tha t .

appea l to the 1 p er ce nt Things tha t do not

.

repea t until funds an d pa tience are exha usted I .

ha ve seen many men of grea t abili ty d iscouraged

by such underta kings .

A nother thing to learn exactly is wha t sort of

hea dline most appeals A gain and again I ha ve
.

multiplied results from an ad by eight or ten by .

a sh p le change in head line .

A hea dl ine is intended to salute th e p eople you

desire to reach It is just like a bell boy in a hotel

.
-

calling for Mr Jones Here is a message for h h

. . .

01 like th e hea ding on a news article A ll of us .

 SCI E NTI F IC ADVE RTISI NG 1 87

depend on hea dlines to p oint out wha t we desire

to rea d .

Consider your ordinary readers Y ou have p re

sented to you perhap s a hundr ed times what you

,

h a ve time to peruse Y ou select your rea ding by

.

the hea dings So it is in ads . .

We must discover wha t appeals are most h

pressive We learn tha t by keyed tests by com
'

.
,

paring one headline with another We find that .

one sort of hea dline appeals to 1 5 p er cent of our

prosp ects and another to 5 0 p

, er cent We must .

use them accordingly .

A ny Other method involves tremendous waste .

A nyone can quickly prove tha t if he uses keyed

returns Good ad s on any line cannot vary gr eatly
. . .

They must be complete and completeness means ,

similarity Th e gr eat difference lies in the hea dline

. .

One a ttracts a certain percentage another ten ,

ti mes as many One must find tha t out if he ex

.

pects his advertising to appea l to a profita ble

audience .

One person presents a subject in a way to flatter ,

another in a wa y to humilia te One ba ses his .

e lah s on self interest a nother on service

-
One , .

tries to sell another tries to please These things

,
.

all a lter one s atti tud e of mind an d tha t i s what

’

leads to decision .

But psychology goes further It recognizes .

p ride an d individu ality One must k now how to .

a ppea l to tho se desires These th ings can hardly .

,
188 MY LI TE I N ADVE RTISING
be ta ught They come through kind ly instincts
.
,

through love and understanding thr ough desires ,

to plea se and serve No man out of tune with his

.

fellows can be ta ught them .

The best school I know is canvassing going ,

from home to home Many gr ea t ad writer s . .

-

spe nd half their time in that They learn by p er .

sonal contacts wha t wins and what repulses .

Then they apply their findings to appeals in print .

These factors must all be considered Th ey form .

the founda tion of advertising Suppose it wer e .

di fferent Anyone wh o can write a fa ir letter can

.

write a fa ir a d Suppose tha t ordinary presenta

.

tions without regard to the subj ect could sell

, ,

lines at a profit There would be no room in a d

. .

writing for men of ambition .

But such things can t be done Th e line i s

'

fiercely comp etitive Every ad is sur rounded by

. .

countless appea ls Every efl ort involves much

'

expense The manwho wins out and survives does

.

so only because of superior science and stra tegy .

He must know more must be better grounded , ,

must be shrewder than his rivals The only way .

to tha t end is to start with fixed principles proved ,

by decades of experience from whi ch you never ,

swerve .
1 90 MY LI TE I N ADVE RTI S I NG
themselves largely on lines I h a d taught them
, .

Fred Ma cey started selling furni ture by ma il In .

a fe w months he h a d an Ofli ce force of ni nety to

handle the business he develop ed Then he founded .

the Fred Macey Comp any which ex ists t oda y .

A W Shaw started building ofi ce systems Th en

. . .

he founded the maga zine Sy ri a n whi ch h as been ,

anenormous success M y roomma te E H Stafford .

,
. .
,

left his position to ma nufacture school furniture ,

an d built up the E H Stafl ord Comp any I feel

'

. . .

now as then that I was fully as well eq uip

, , ped as
they were save with courage I have been call ed
, .

on to do bigger things for Others tha n they ha ve

done for themselves But I always envi ed their .

independence which I spent thirty five years to -

atta in .

I ha ve helped a good many men to weal th and

—
position In many cases in most cases they
.
—
started practi ca lly without money The a dver .

rising h a d to ea rn its way It was the chief factor .

in the business often the onl y rea son for success

, .

In most mail order li nes that is evi dent It is true

-
.

in many other lines It is nOt d i fi cult to ma ke a

.

brea kfa st food a tooth pa ste medicine soap or

, , , ,

cleanser Most advertisers at the start employ

.

O thers to ma ke them Salesmen can aid but little . .

They a re usua lly nOt employed A bout ever ythi ng .

depe nds on the advertising .

I have told how such products are tested out ,

in a small way at the S tart The advertising man .

 M Y GRE AT
MISTAK E 191

does nine tenths Of the work The owner of the

- .

tra de mark ven tures little or nothing If the test

-
.

falls down the a dvertising man is the ma in loser

, .

He h as spent his time and talents If th e test suc .

ce ed s and the advertising extends the a dvertising ,

man gets a commission on the expenditures Th e .

profits go to others The advertising man beca use

.
,

he is anonymous fa ils to even get due cred it

, .

The business grows and the owners grow with

,

it inwealth and inpride A s it grows th e ad ver

, .
,

ti sin g m a n becomes less and les s h po rta nt Th e .

business acquires a momentum The th e comes .

when even mediocre advertising will keep it going

upward .A dvertising which could never ha ve
S t arted it .

Th e a dvertising man clings to th e m ethod s h e

est a blished He fears to change A s a ma tter Of
. .

fact it is seldom wise to change Th e best way

, .

to win new customers is usually the way tha t won

millions But the advertising becomes monotonous
.

to the men who read every ad They always come .

to want something new $ 0 the man who b uilds .

a big a dvertising account is pre tty sure to lose it ,

soon or late To keep up his volume and his earn

.

ings he must always be star ting new ventures .

I gradua lly came to speci al ize on prop ri eta ries

an d foods on products which people buy over and

,

over They Offer the grea t opportunities inadver

.

ti sing One sale articles are nOt so inviting Th e

.
- .

p rofit must be ma d e on tha t sale A rticles of tha t .

1 91 MY LI TE I N ADVE RTISI N G
kind appeal to the minority Th e a dvertising .

man s grea t profits come from products which

'

appea l to near ly every home a n d which must be

,

a dvertised forever Food products for instance

.
, ,

which mothers teach their Childr en to use and ,

which never should go out of fa vor .

But such products must be developed Th e .

process is often slow The advertising man h as

.

the ma jor share of the work and responsibility .

When he works for O thers as I worked for thi rty

,

five years he gets no fa ir share of the profits And

,
.

h e rarely becomes a permanent fa ctor so far as hi s ,

work is concerned .

I ha ve often figured wha t I would ha ve made

h a d I invested just my commissions in the stock
Of en terprises which I fostered The amount runs .

into m any millions The real rea son I did nor is

.

the h er tha t I never h ad sufi ci ent confidence in

myself But I pretended to i gnore commercialism
. .

M y cr ea tive work lay in a hi gh er sphere So for .

many years I watched Others ma ke money while ,

I ga ined ma inly a modicum of fame .

A n ambitious wife was the One who woke me

from tha t lethargy She h a d desires for which
.

money counted more than fame She pointed out .

how those who employed me always gained the

a dva nta ge in a monet ar y wa y .

Finally I considered h er viewpoint and after ,

many years of working for Others I started to work

for myself I ha ve alrea dy made more by sharing
.
1 94 an u r n IN
ADVE RTISIN G
Brothers announced in the papers tha t she woul d
a ppear in person tha t afternoon in thei r bea uty

department on the fourth floor I sent an emissary .

there and she found the floor crowded Every

,
.

Other depa r tment on the floor h ad to yield its spa ce

to accommodate the women who flocked to see

Miss Hopper .

Ed na Walla ce Hopper h a d a ttained a grand

mother s age Many Of th e older women had seen
’

h er in h er prime back in the early nineties Sh e

’

.
,

met them looking l ike a girl Of ninet een with ,

ha ir fig ure and complexion like a debutante s

, ,
’

Every woma n Of course was anxious to learn the

, ,

secrets of h er youth and beauty .

The manager of Mandels a dvised h er to ca ll on

“
me He sa id : Y ou should ca pita lize tha t fame
.

Of your s Y ou should teach Oth er women to do

.

"
wha t you have done .

The next day Edna Wallace Hopper cal led on

me She brought with h er countless articles which
.

h a d been published a bout h er A lso many pages .

she h ad writt en herself on this subj ect Of youth

extension .

I
?
Th a t d a y I found my th eo ry Here w a s a woman .
,

th e most ta lked a bout woman in A merica -

A .

woman who h ad made herself a famous bea uty

thirty five years a go A woman who h ad kept
-
.

that beauty to a gr and Old age A nd all through .

bea uty helps s he h a d search ed th e whole world

to discover .
 M Y GRE AT MISTAK E 1 95

I made a contract with h er She was to give .

me h er formulas h er name and prestige I was to

, , .

prepare those products for Other women exa ctly ,

a s she used them She h ad spent fortunes to secure

.

those formula s She wa s th e most prom inent

.

example living of wha t beauty helps could do .

On those lines we have founded a large cosmetic

business ’

We have never h a d a salesma n We have neve?

.

a sked a dea ler to buy We ha ve confined our

.

efforts to th e consumer We have tried to win

.

women s respect for the research Miss Hopper h as

’

conducted Then we ha ve let those women induce

dea ler s to supply them . 4
A grea t many ma kers starting out try to sell
, ,

their products two and three times over .

try to sell the wholesa ler and the wholes aler

,

toda y wants some per c ent He can do nothing.

for us save to fill the orders tha t we bring He .

quotes his business ex pense largely made up of ,

efiorts to get business fr om his competitors He

'

wants us to p ay our share though it ma tters nor

,

in the slightest to us from whom a dea ler buys .

His salesmen can do nothing for us .

The reta iler tries to profit to th e utmost from

every new adventurer Send a sa lesman to him
.
,

an d he is bound to demand some advanta ge He .

wants a dozen free in ten or some such extra profit

,
.

A ny such concession is a handicap hard to over ,

come Your wh ole success depends on the con

.
I 9 6 u m IN
ADVE RTISI NG
sumer consumer is induced to demand
what you Ofler th e dealer will Obtain it If the
'

.
,

dealer wants it the wholesaler will supply it

Many of the wrecks in a dver tising come lg
.
,

om
'

trying to sell things over and over One first sell s .

to the jobber and he demands a large percenta ge

,
.

Thenhe tries to se ll to the retailer He wants fre e .

goods and extra margins Y et all the result s .

depend on the consumer All your wholesa l e .

demand all your reta il demand depends on your

, ,

influence with the consumer .

Never forget tha t Jobbers and reta ilers h a ve

.

th eir own brands Wha t trade they can influ ence

.

i s never d irected toward products you control .

They ar e nOt trying to give you a whip hold If -

.

they ca n influence sa les they m a ke four times as

,

much on products of their own .

In tha t fact li es one of the most pitiful pha ses in

advertising a dventures Th e advertiser spends h i s
.

money to convert consumers Then h e pa ys s ales .

men to sell his goods to jobbers and to reta ilers .

He gives concessions and inducements just to get ,

them to supply the demand he creates A s a resul t .

,

ther e is little left for him A nd h e must p a y all

.

th e expenses .

One ca n never win out in that way It is like a .

man who tries to do business with excessive over

h ea d He bears the expense the risk and the
.
, ,

!f ort a nd his profits ar e dissipated

,
.
1 98 MY LI FE I N A nvnnne o'

Let t hose who can deduce from this

suggestion an d direction. I ha ve poin t
out the only ways to success in a dver tising . Those
Let one
deci de what is best.
 Ch a pte r Ni netee n

S OM E T H I N G S P E R S O N A L

S T H I S is ecord Of success in my p
a r ar

ti cular line Of endea vor an d an urge to ,

O th er s
, it ma y be well to set down something
a bout my
pr ivate life m y idiosync r a,sies h a bits , ,

and desires a s these are rela ted to wha t I ha ve

gained by success .

I have always been an addicr to work I love .

work as Other men love pla y It is b Oth my .

occupation and my recrea tion A s a boy the .

,

necessity for self support aft er sch ool hours kept

-

me from the playgrounds A s a man my desire to .

,

learn all that I coul d a bout salesmanship h as kept

me from wa sting th e The only game I ever .

learned is business To me it h a s beenall a bsorbing

.
-
.

I have never played baseball golf or tennis My , , .

mother s Scorch Presbyterianism prohibited danc

’

ing cards and thea ters and I ha ve never in la ter

, , ,

ea r s learned to enjoy them I h a ve owned a uto

y .

mo biles since their ear liest introduction but I ,

rarely drive myself ,

.

My chief philanthropy h as been teaching boys

an d men to love work I h ave long beeninterested
.

in an association which ta kes delinquent boys

from th e juvenile courts and puts them to work on
a farm . It has sa ved m any hun dreds Of boys in
1 99
1 C! ) LI FE I N ADVE RTISING
MY

that way Ingoing to Chi cago from my country

.

h ome I arrive at six o clock in the morning For

'

yea rs I went immd ia td y to Grant Park where

scores of tramp p
s were sl eeping on ne spa er s an

I spent anhour or more in trying to interest th em

d
w ,

in work I am a director of the Volunteers O f

.

America and my p ,articular interest is in pr i son

work I have accompani ed Maud Ball ington

.

3ooth in h er l ectures in Joliet prison I ha ve .

h elped to supp ort Hope House in Chicago a ,

temporary home for th e prisoners we get out on

p role M y p incip l cont ribution to tha t efl ort
'

a r . a
“
h as been a Sunda y afternoon l ecture on The Joy

I have written magazine articles to argue that

bOth boy s and girls should work I ha ve ever .

insi sted tha t my unmarried sister keepat work as

I do , for th e sake of h er happiness She is sti ll .

teach ing in th e high schools of Grand Ra pid s I .

sen t one Of my daughters to work on the stage .

Th e Other one married soon after gradua tion from

Smi th College She went to work as a moth er
.
,

—
then as president of women s clubs two at one
'

time Thento some extent as a lecturer M y wife

. .

works some fourteen hours a da y She is Our chief .

gardener and as such h as developed the fine st

,

flower gardens in Mi chi gan Hundreds of people.

from near and far come to view them every summer .

She manages a l arge coun try home which is al ways

fill ed with guests We figure tha t we serve here
.
m m un m m vn m m o
am sure th at mencanbe h ap
pg
n b n I p n
'

a s t
, as y o

Th e ha ppiest man I know is a nei gh bor Of mi ne

wh o ne ver mad e m ore than p e r m on th O ut .

of that h e sa ve d enough to build six sma ll houses

whi ch he rents Then he retire d on th e income

He sp e nds hi s summers on my la ke wor ki n g i nhi s ,

ga rden s ; hi s winters in Florida I O fte n go do w .n

to hi s corta ge for a lesson in content .

Unt il th e income tax was esta blished I kep t no

o d of my earnings Their volume mea nt
rec r .

nothing to me Their up s and downs di d not afl ect

'
.

me in th e least My wife collects all my revenues

.

an d pays all the bills I never sign a check I

. .

ha ve not th e slightest idea of the money invested

inmy coun try pla ce or the cost of any item Know .

ing these costs would ma ke me unhappy beca use ,

of something mother bred in me But the genera l .

rea lization tha t these th ings cost much money does

nOt afleCt me at all

'

In my personal expenses I am very e conomica l .

I have alway s dressed ra th er sha b b ily Until my .

wife rebelled I wore ready ma de clothes Now I -

dodge expensive ta ilors A t the present writing I

.

have not ha d a ne w suit in two yea rs My limit .

on shoes is WhenI go to a h Otel I order in

a modest way .

This is all recited to indica te that my incentive

for work wa s nor money Nor was it fame or.

p osition I care n
. Othi ng for either out here i nth e
 S OME
N GS P E RS ONAL TH I

woods among simple people where I ha ve built

my home All things are handica ps which in any
.

way seem to place me a bove my fellows Here in .

the coun try we all meet On equality .

I ha ve worked for the fun of worki ng and be

cause work became a ha bit with me Then l ater .

i n business beca use I realized th at somebody h ad

to do a deal of hard work to get a dverti sing out
of its swad d ling clothes .

Lord 8: Thoma s first Oflered me a positionwhen

'

I wa s twenty five living in Grand Ra pids I went

-
, .

to Chicago to discuss the opportunity with the

founder s of the business The agency ha d no .

copy writers then It was largely a brokerage

-
.

business bidding aga inst Other agencies on a fixed

,

a mount Of spa ce The adver tisers prepar ed their

.

Own a ds an
. d sent electrotypes The profitable .

part Of the business was in developing schemes to

get advertisers to spend money The proposition .

was made to me be cause I h ad proved myself a

scheme maninthe Bissell Carpet Sweeper Company .

There was no thought of profit to the adver tiser .

I was young and inexperienced but I h ad sense ,

enough to realize that such ideas Of adver tising

coul d nOt go far My trai ning h ad already taught
.

me the necessity for tracea ble results SO I declined .

the proposition of Lord 8: Thomas with its 60 ,

p er cent increa se in sala ry an d continu e d my ,

p
str uggles to sell r oducts at a profit It wa s six teen .
 MY u r n IN A nvaa nsI NO '

years thereafter when Lord 81 Thomas under ,

d iEerentaus pices agai n invi ted me to join them

, .

What ha ve I ga ined by these many years Of ex

cep ti on p
al ap lica tion ? I ha ve g a ined wh a t O thers

ga in by medical re search by spending their li ves

,

in a la bora tory My life work ha s been resea rch

.

i nadvertising Now I ha ve the p

. rivilege Of settin g
down my findings for the men who follow me I .

have th e hope tha t the record will sa ve to many

the mista kes of the pioneers and the years that I
spen t to correct them . I ha ve gained what
Thomas A Edison h as gained by h i s twenty hours
—
.

a da y th e sa tisfaction Of knowing tha t I have

di scovered some enduring principles .

Ma ny argue tha t advertising i s changing that ,

th e tim es call for something n ew Ce rta inly the

.

tempo of life in A merica is changing Fads .

,

fancies and desires change like a ka leidoscop

, e .

Certain styles in advertising are changing It is .

an d always h as bee n neces sary to give to every

carn pga i n a di fferent key n Ot e -
I
. mita tors never

succeed But human nature does nOt change The .

ri nciple s set down in thi s book are as en rin

p d u g
a s th e Al ps
.

A dverti sing i s far more difi cult than i t used

to be because th e cost is hi gher and there is so
much a ble competition But every new difficul ty
.

increa ses th e necessity for scientific advertising .

A s I write th is I look down a beautiful la ke to

which I first ca me as a boy of six A t th e end i s a
.
 MY LI FE I N A D V Ea nsI N O
'

—
than I have more Of true happiness and co ntent .

I tra ce t hat to the love of simple things of co mmo n

,

people which ma de my success in a dvertis ing

,
.

Here at our week end parties I meet many suc

-

cessf ul men in a most intima te way . I envy no ne

Of them . Th e happiest are those who li ve close s t
to na ture an essential to advertising succe ss 30
,
.

I conclude tha t this voca tion depending as i t do e s

,

on love and knowledge Of the masses Oflers ma ny

'

rewards beyond money .

TE E END
 A DVERTI S I NG C OP Y
B y Gs oaoa B Horn en x rss, MA
. .

Chairmanof the De partment o f A d vertising and Marke ting,

NewYork University
firs t comp lete trea tise onthe wri ting of advertising cop y
shows how to write a d ve rtise me n ts th at combin e li terar
y
me rit and pullin power The re a re a l a rge number of prae ts
.

cal I llustrat i ons rom actual ad

C ONS TRUCT IVE S AL ES MANS H I P

By J OHN A S te ve nson
.

Se cond Vi ce President of the Equita ble Life A ssurance Society

of the Unrted S tates
A n actual record of the method s ex p e rie n ced salesmen h ave
use d i nsecuring prospe cts, ob taining th e i nter view and ge ttin
“
They are nor tri ck waya of making i nd Ivid
”
the ord e r .

sales, hur are the tri ed me thod s of b uildin g a permanent

d i entele
.

C OMP ET ITORS

This book sets forth the achie ve ments of trade associ ations
d community o rganisations i nforward ing grou ad ve rtising
an
b comp eti tors an
on how such ca mp
d by loc
aigns may be organ ized and the tech
p
T e re a d er is

nique used incarrying the m

S CI ENT I F I C S ELLI NG A ND
A DVERT I S I NG
B y A ar rrua Dunn
The necessary p oin ts of successful salesman shi
p are h ere set
forth ona scientific b a rs for the an d o f ad verti si ng me n, sales
manage rs, manufacturers, me rchan t
s . T h e a uthor h a s sold
millions of d ollars worth of securi tres dri lled and e ducated
’
,

salesmen , and con d ucte d la rge sales o rga nrz a i

t ons.
 S ECURITY S P ECULA TI ON
Th e Dazzling A dven ture
B y Lavarmcs H Sw an.

Contai ns much th atwill interestth e more n

co ser vative

I NDUSTRI AL CREDITS

half th e b ook is di scussion, in e very

workmanlike manner, and th e oth er

HO W TO GET A H EA D
FI NA NCIA LLY
By Wuwur A . Sca m s:

—B arr ns
o
'
.

BUS I NES S A ND I NVESTMENT

FORECA STING
B y RA Y Vance

For P rofit .

H a rp er 8 B r o th e r s
P ublishers S i m 1 81 7
 B r Hans e n Anu s Gre eorrs

B r He r “ . Wooowu n
“
Not only th e ep ic of a wornans b e ttles in New York for h er p
’
lace
inth e eun, b utit is a stud y inb usineu p sy ch , th e b eet, th e raci eet
I ha ve ever ree d
"
.
—
B enj a min e Ce ase es, New York
-

A MUS I CIA N A ND HI S WIP E

Br Mas Re ctum
. nn Kove rr

MY LIF E A ND TI MES
Br J n orm K J n on .

fas cinating story of th e life of th e famous

" “
th e Third Floor B ack and Th ree Menin

?‘
full of h umani
o fl

B r A G Gu nma n
. .

H ARP ER B ROTHERS