Chapter twelve of My Life in Advertising, Hopkins works on the Palmolive soap account.
Following Hopkins’ playbook, the ad agency offers to buy the beauty soap for whomever brings in a coupon. Palmolive uses this offer to force quick distribution in retail stores, because no business wants the customer going elsewhere. The customers become hooked because the rule of reciprocity says that something done for them, the free bar of soap, will increase their desire to give back.
You must have an extraordinary claim to make a dent in a crowded market. Image by Nesster, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Over 100 years ago, steam-powered automobiles were a novelty to many and a luxury to the few who could afford them. With time, the technology improved and the cost dropped.
Do you like to barbecue? How about baked beans, do you like them?
I like baked beans especially at a barbecue. They’re sweet, with a touch of tomato, brown sugar, and pork. They remind me of summer days and paper plates.
But I don’t eat baked beans weekly.
Summer barbecue in 1913. I don’t know if they served baked beans. Looks refreshing, doesn’t it? Photo courtesy Orange County Archives
Apparently in the early 1900s, baked beans were all the rage. People couldn’t get enough. Baked beans were frequently homemade. They would sometimes ferment while cooking. Other times they would explode in the 16 hour cooking process. That didn’t stop anyone.
I am blown away at the number of medical commercials on TV these days (in the US). They’re a huge portion of the evening broadcast. You can’t watch network television without being warned of ED.
What’s the TV suggest today? Visual Messages play a large part in our receptiveness to an advert. Photo “Television” by dailyinvention, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
No one wants to hear the bad news of health issues. Instead, we’re fed commercials of attractive actors frolicking in a meadow. The visual message is Happiness, even as the voice-over suggests the medicine might cause exactly what it’s trying to prevent. Everyone is interested in a sunnier life.
When you’re shopping, how closely do you monitor the price tags? We tend to think we’re very price-conscious. We do pay attention to price, it’s true, but there are many more factors at work.
Price is often one of the least important concerns when we find the right item.
For example, we can get generic shoes at many stores. Do you buy the cheapest shoes you can? Or do you look for something that expresses a bit about your personality? If not shoes, maybe you prefer that people use your title when addressing you. Maybe you like to see your name in lights. Maybe you drive a fancy car.
Everyone has a desire to express and elevate their status, and the right item to do that will make someone say, I gotta have this, price be damned.
Chapter 6 of My Life in Advertising, Personal Salesmanship. While Claude C Hopkins worked at Swift and Company selling the lard substitute Cotosuet to home users, the company was having a hard time selling to bakers. The price was higher than the competition.
Hopkins insisted that price has nothing to do with salesmanship, and he sets out to prove it.
People want status, prestige, and recognition. Printing the bakery name on an advertisement was reason enough to buy the placards for the window, and with it, the Cotosuet used in the baked goods.
Have you ever cooked with shortening? It’s a shelf-stabilized, hydrogenated vegetable oil. Shortening has less water and a higher smoke point than butter, and it’s cheaper to produce than lard. Perfect for pastries, I’m told.
Cotosuet Shortening
Shortening doesn’t appeal to me to cook with. Maybe I don’t make enough pastries. Maybe it’s the hydrogenated aspects. Maybe all I can think of is swimming with friends after greasing ourselves up. Yep, this happened.
Chapter Five! Hopkins moves to Chicago to work at Swift and Company, the large meat-packer and food-service company.
His first account is to sell a lard and butter substitute called Cotosuet, a shortening made from cottonseed oil and hog fat. Delightful.
Hopkins conceives the idea to partner with a new local grocery store and a local bakery. They bake a huge cake for the grocery’s opening, selling the Cotosuet to visitors to the store. The store opening is crazy busy. People everywhere come to see the massive cake. The social proof was hard to resist — everyone was buying the Cotosuet so it must be desirable. They sell out of their shortening. Soon after, Hopkins and his team replicate the success in town after town, selling trainloads of Cotosuet.
Hopkins agrees that this may have been a stunt, but warns that “dignity doesn’t get us far. No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration.” [tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]No argument in the world can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration. [/tweetthis] His stunts sold his product, repeatedly. For Hopkins, sales alone defined success for an advertisement.
“The way to sell goods is to sell them. The way to do that is to sample and demonstrate, and the more attractive you can make your demonstration the better it will be for you.” [tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]”The way to sell goods is to sell them…. to sample and demonstrate” -CCHopkins [/tweetthis]
I’ll admit it, a good demonstration can certainly sell products! I’ve bought a set of steak knives that impressed the hell out of me — from a late-night infomercial! Oh, the shame. Think about one time when you’ve been sold by a good demonstration and let us know in the comments below!
Swift and Company made all kinds of crazy things. The plain-speak in these ads is typical of Hopkins’ style. “My mama used wool soap”, Boston Public Library, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
Check out this totally fantastic photo from 1989. My family was just moving into our new home.
I had just turned 10 years old. The shorts say it all.
I was looking for a photo of the kitchen carpet in this kitchen from when my grandpa owned the house. I couldn’t have hoped to find a gem like that photo above.
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Hopkins opens Chapter Three with a story. The summer after highschool graduation, Claude C. Hopkins took a job as a school teacher on the weekdays and a preacher on the weekends.
“The saver & the worker get the preference of the men who control opportunities. And often that preference proves to be the most important thing in life.” —CC Hopkins, My Life in Advertising
One weekend his mother’s strict congregation asked him to speak. Claude had developed new ideas about religion, different from his strict upbringing. He knew this opportunity would test his relationship with his mother. Claude spoke at the church anyway. His mom was, let’s say, not happy. She took him to a restaurant and broke up with him.
Hopkins couldn’t afford to eat regularly, and craved hot pie for dinner. Photo “Mmm… chicken pot pie” by Jeffreyw, Flickr, CC-By-2.0
In Chapter Two of My Life in Advertising, Hopkins writes about his childhood jobs. Hopkins learned the importance of a good product or good service. He cornered the flier delivery in his hometown by being the only boy to deliver to all of the homes on his routes. The other kids weren’t so thorough. Consistently great service attracts business.[tweetthis display_mode=”button_link”]Consistently great service attracts business. [/tweetthis]
Later, during his door-to-door sales work, Hopkins learned that selling with a demonstration or a sample made selling many times easier. Persuasion without a sample was far more effort. Samples, samples, samples! This is the cornerstone of his later career. Continue reading “My Life in Advertising: Chapter 2”
This is my first post directly related to Executive Summaries for the Persuasion Reading List. I’ll be posting notes and lessons from books focused on Persuasion and Influence, to save everyone time from reading the full text. In the process, I hope we can have some discussion and learn a lot about methods of Persuasion.
We’re going to start with My Life in Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins. Hopkins was a pioneer in effective advertising in the early 1900s, working to standardize his methods into what he named Scientific Advertising.
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