The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales. (p.7)
That is so in personal salesmanship as in salesmanship-in-print. Fine talkers are rarely good salesmen. They inspire buyers with the fear of over-influence. They create the suspicion that an effort is made to sell them on other lines than merit. (p.7)
Successful salesmen are rarely good speech makers. They have few oratorical graces. They are plain and sincere men who know their customers and know their lines. So it is in ad writing. Many of the ablest men in advertising are graduate salesmen. The best we know have been house-to-house canvassers. They may know little of grammar, nothing of rhetoric, but they know how to use words that convince. (p.7)
No one reads ads for amusements, long or short. Consider them as prospects standing before you, seeking for information. Give them enough to get action. (p.8)
Others look for something queer and unusual. They want ads distinctive instyle or illustration. Would you want that in a salesman? Do not men who act and dress in normal ways make a far better impression? Some insist on dressy ads. Thatis all right to a certain degree, but is quite important. Some poorly-dressed men, prove to be excellent salesmen. Over dress in either is a fault. (p.8)
So with countless questions. Measure them by salesmen's standards, not by amusement standards. Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you want. That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause. (p.8)
( Claude C Hopkins - Scientific Advertising )
