Reason Why

John E.
Kennedy's
Reason-Why Advertising
Published By:
Internet Marketing Mastery
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Page 1
.You Must Do the Sum to Prove it

.To Whom are You Advertising
.The Responsive Chord In Advertising
."Let There Be Light"
They Who Blindly Follow The Blind
Fortunes Wasted in Following "Will-O'-the-Wisps"
.Why Some Advertisers Grow Wealthy While Others Fail
Making Sure of Results From General Advertising
How Mail Order Advertising is Tested
.How To Test Out General Advertising
How Shall We Know Good Copy?
John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising
You Must Do the Sum to Prove it

Chapter I
Advertising should be judged only by the goods it is conclusively
known to sell, at a given cost.
Mere Opinions on Advertising copy should be excluded from
consideration.
Because opinions on advertising are conflicting as opinions on
Religion.
Forty per cent of all the people in the world are Buddhists, and
are of the Opinion that Buddhism is the only true religion.
Twelve percent of the worlds people being Roman Catholics, are
firm in the Opinion that the remaining 88 per cent are wrong, and
sure of damnation accordingly.
Eight per cent of the worlds people being Protestants believe that
both the Buddhists and Catholics, and all others, are deplorably
ignorant of the only true faith, which of course must be their own
particular sect of Protestantism.
And, neither Buddhist, Catholic, nor Protestant, can convince the
2 per cent of Jews that their opinion is wrong and should be
changed.
This is a side-light on the inconsistency of mere Opinion.
Religion must continue in the realm of Opinion, because no one
can decide which Creed is right, and which wrong, till he dies and
finds out the facts for himself.
Page 2
And, no mere man who died has ever come back to Earth to
settle the dispute.
But, it is different with advertising, as it is with mechanics or with
medicine, all three of which can be conclusively tested.
Many advertisers, however, seem satisfied to spend their money
on mere Opinions about advertising when they might have
invested it on Evidence about Advertising.
These are the Advertisers whose business must die before they
can be convinced that general publicity (merely Keeping-theName-before-the-People) is wrong and Salesmanship-on-paper
right.
They blindly gamble in Advertising when they might have safely
invested in it.
If they were to buy any other kind of service, except Advertising,
they would demand tangible proof of its efficacy before they
spent much money on it.
If they hired a Salesman, for instance, they would expect him to
prove he was earning his salary by making a satisfactory Record
on Sales.
They would not accept, for long, statements from him that he
was making a General Impression on the Trade for his salary.
Nor would they be satisfied with the statement that he was
Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People profitably enough to
compensate for lack of Sales.
Nor would they enthuse over a report from him that he was
Influencing Sales for their other salesmen.
What the Advertising Employer would demand from his Salesman
would be profitable Orders.
Page 3
He would demand Sales, clearly made by the Salesman himself,

each sale carrying a given profit over cost for the Employer.
That is just what the Advertising Employer should demand from
his Advertising Expenditure, too-Sales--proven Sales, carrying a
satisfactory profit.
And, if he insists upon it he can get the kind of advertising which
will actually produce Sales instead of a vague general influence
on sales.
Because, true Advertising is only Salesmanship-on-paper after
all.
When it is anything less than Salesmanship it is not real
Advertising, but only general publicity.
And, general publicity admittedly claims only to Keep the name
before the people, -- to produce a general impression on the
Trade, and to influence sales for the salesmen.
It makes the same lame excuses as would be made by a
Salesman who failed to earn his salary in actually selling goods.
But General Publicity, or any other advertising, should be
judged by the selfsame standards as the Salesman is judged,
viz., by the goods it is clearly proven to sell at a given cost per
dollar invested in it.
Page 4
In an opinion test, people hesitate to reveal their

selfish motives. For example, in an opinion test of life
insurance advertising, an ad with the headline, What
would become of your wife if something happened to
you? out pulled an ad with the headline, To men who
want to quit work someday. When these same ads
were subjected to a mail-order sales test, the results
were reversed.
John Caples How to Make Your Advertising Make Money
Page 5
To Whom are You Advertising?

Chapter II
MR. ADVERTISER!
You spend your money to tell People what youve got to sell.
Now, what kind of People can afford to buy your particular
Goods?
What income must they possess to be probable Consumers of
your Advertised Product? How many possibilities of Sale has your
product per thousand average Readers?
These are all vital factors in the framing up of your campaign,
and in the prospects of Success from it.
Here are some Census figures upon which we base our campaigns
and calculations. In the year 1900 there were 15,964,000
Families in the United States.
These families averaged about five persons each, or a total
population of 75,994,575.
Fifty-one per cent of that population lived in the country -- 10 2/3
per cent was Semi-urban, and 38 1/3 per cent lived in cities and
towns.
The newspapers and periodicals these families read had a total
circulation of 8,168,148,749 copies per year.
That means 512 copies per year per family, or nearly two copies
per day for each family.
Now comes the astonishing part of the census figures.
Page 6
Nearly33 per cent of all these families had an average income of

less than $400 per year, or about $80 per capita.
Only21 per cent of these families had an annual income of $400
to $600.
Only15 per cent of these families had an annual income of $600
to $900.
Only10 1/2 per cent of them had an annual income of $900 to
$1,200.
Only7 1/2 per cent of them had an annual income of $1,800 to
$3,000.
And, of the automobile class only 5 per cent had an income of
over $3,000 per family, or $600 per capita.
Now, wouldnt that set you thinking?
Suppose you have Pianos to sell through advertising, how many
Families of the total that read newspapers and magazines could
afford to buy one?
Then, how many of these are already supplied?
That estimate shows your Possible Market through Advertising,
and indicates the way that market must be approached.
It also shows about how many readers you must pay to reach
who cannot buy your Piano, no matter how much your advertising
makes them want it.
And it also shows the futility of writing Catchy Copy to attract
the greatest number of readers for your advertisement.
What you need is not numbers of Readers, but class of readers.
Page 7
That very limited class you must convince, when you once get its
attention, or you lose all profit from your piano advertising.
You must make up in Conviction and Selling-force for what you
lose in possible number of purchasers with such a proposition.
But, when your product is something which can be used by the
Masses, it is then a better subject for advertising.
Because, you then have about 85 per cent more possibilities of
sale, among average readers, than you would have had with a
Piano or automobile.
The current mistake in advertising to this great 85 per cent of
average families is that of talking over their heads, in terms and
thought-forms which are unfamiliar or unintelligible to them.
Observe that not one of this great 85 per cent of families has an
income of more than $1,800 a year, or $360 per person.
Observe also that the Average income of this great 85 per cent is
less than $500 per year, per family, or $100 per head.
We must not expect the Average of such people to have classical
educations, nor an excessive appreciation of art and inference.
Neither are they as children in intellect, nor thick-headed fools.
They are just average Americans of good average intelligence,
considerable shrewdness, and large bumps of incredulity.
Most of them might have come from Missouri because they all
have show me! ever ready in their minds, when any plausible
Advertising Claim is made to them.
But, they are willing to be Shown when the arguments are
sensible enough, as well as simple enough, to appeal readily to
their mental make-up.
Page 8
They are not suffocating for want of pretty pictures and pleasing
phrases in Advertising.
What they are most interested in is, Show me how to get more
for my money of what I need for existence and comfort rather
than for luxury.
This great 85 per cent of readers has a peculiar Habit-ofThought or Mental Caliber of its own which responds most freely
to a certain well-defined form of approach and reasoning.
To strike the Responsive Chord with the class of Readers aimed at
is to multiply the Selling-power of every Reason-Why given and
every line of space used.
So a few Pointers upon this will be in order for our next chapter.
intelligently as in merchandise.
Page 9
The Responsive Chord in Advertising

Chapter III
ADVERTISING is just Salesmanship-on-paper.
It is a means of multiplying the work of the salesman, who writes it,
several thousand-fold.
With the salary paid a single salesman it is possible, through advertising,
to reach a thousand customers for every one he could have reached
orally.
It is also a means of discovering, and developing, new customers where
they were not previously known to exist.
These facts are mentioned here because few businessmen have a correct
idea of what true Advertising should consist of.
To start with the wrong point-of-view, on an advertising campaign, is to
grope, experiment, and speculate, with an appropriation which should
have been invested as intelligently as in merchandise.
True advertising is just Salesmanship multiplied.
When we multiply nothing by ten thousand we still have nothing
as a result.
When we multiply a pretty picture, or a catch-phrase, or the mere
name of a firm, or article, a thousand times we have
comparatively nothing as a result.
But when we multiply one thousand times a good, strong, clearly
expressed Reason-Why, a person should buy the article we want
to sell, we then have impressed, through advertising, one
Page 10
thousand more people with that reason than if it had been told
verbally to one person by the same salesman.
Of course, cold type usually lacks the personal influence of the
salesman and, because of this even Salesmanship-on-Paper
needs to be stronger -- more convincing and conclusive than
salesmanship need be by word of mouth.
Besides, when we multiply anything a thousand fold, at a large
expense for the mechanical process of doing so, it is wisdom to
see that the thing to be multiplied is as nearly perfect as we can
get it.
Nothing multiplied by one thousand costs just the same for the
mechanical expense of multiplying it, but the net result is nothing
-- less that expense.
This is why so many advertising campaigns fail.
Because, the good folks who spend their money for space have
no definite idea of what should occupy it.
When we clearly understand that Salesmanship alone should fill
it, we all know, in a general way, what that means, though each
of us might go about it in a different way.
Salesmanship-on-Paper means convincing readers that they
should buy the article we want to sell.
Many good salesmen find it impossible to do this convincing on
Paper because the customer does not stand before them, with his
facial expression as an index to the line of talk the Salesman
should use in that particular case.
This is where the creative power of the Salesman-on-Paper
becomes vitally necessary.
Page 11
He must, first of all, analyze the proposition thoroughly -- master

the full details of the thing to be sold, then lay out a strong
logical line of argument upon it, lime-lighting the good points,
and subtly masking the bad ones out of the readers mental
vision.
All this, however, is just what any good Salesman-on-the-Road,
or Salesman-in-the-Warehouse, could, should, and probably
does, do.
But, a glance at the advertising pages of current publications will
show how comparatively few Advertisers adopt these first
principles of Salesmanship in their copy.
However, it is after this that the true genius and power of able
Salesman-on-paper must be exerted.
That consists in the staging of the arguments, to fit the audience.
A given argument, presented in a certain form of thought and
expression, will strike responsively in the minds of a given
number, among the class of people aimed at, in each thousand.
If that per cent be high, it means large profit to the advertiser -large returns.
If that per cent be low, it means that the advertisement has not
convinced, has not struck responsively upon the particular class
for whom the article advertised is best adapted, notwithstanding
the sound argument used.
This peculiarly Responsive quality in an advertisement may be
called its Personality.
Observe that it need not be the Personality of the writer at all,
but the personality which he estimates will best fit the particular
class of people who compose the largest field of sale for the
article advertised.
Page 12
This intangible Personality feature may be likened to the keynote

of a church, or of a music hall.
It is well known that every such building will respond most fully
(in sound) to some one particular musical note of the scale, in
proportion to the interior size and shape of the structure.
This, a note which sounds full, clear, and vibrant in one such
edifice, will sound thin, flat, and harsh in another.
Because, it is not the Responsive chord of the second building, as
it is of the first.
The musician who could look at the inside of a church, then
declare its Responsive Chord, from an estimate, would be in
kindred position to the Advertising writer who could most
profitably fit the Personality of his Reason-Why Salesmanship to
the class he aims at.
To strike the Responsive Chord full and true, with that class,
would mean 100 per cent in possible results, from the arguments
deduced.
To strike a chord which sounded harsh, uncongenial, or
unfamiliar, to that class, would be to arouse latent antagonism or
distrust.
Either of these would discount the effect of the same logic, from
25 to 50 per cent.
That is why the successful Salesman-on-Paper must possess
Imagination, as well as logic.
He must be able to form a clear conception of the class he aims
to convince.
Page 13
He must estimate how the average mind of that class is likely to

work, under a certain argument, and under a certain mode of
expressing it.
Then, he must be able to create the personality, in his mode of
expression, which will strike the most responsive chord with the
greatest possible number.
Some few advertisers possess this power of creating a personality
which fits responsively the mass of humanity -- the great 85 per
cent.
And this ability to estimate the average mentality, the Habit-ofThought, of the Class aimed at, with the power to create a
personality in the copy which will fit it most agreeably and
familiarly, is what the Reason-Why Salesman-on-Paper must
have, in addition to the logical arguments of the Salesman in any
other field.
The difference in Results between copy written by two equally
bright men may be, and often is, 80 per cent, though the same
space be used in each case, to sell the selfsame article.
That difference consists, first of all, in the quality of argument,
the Reason-Why that each of the two lines of copy contains,
and next in the Personality with which these arguments have
been invested, in either copy, so as to strike the most Responsive
Chord with the class of readers aimed at.
The faculty of taking the mental measure of a given class, and
gauging their Habit-of-Thought is a sort of Instinct, such as
guides the Timber-Explorer, who travels a hundred square miles
of forest and estimates closely just how many thousand feet of
timber are on it, though he never counts a tree.
That sales of timber lands running into millions of dollars have
been regularly made on this instinctive knowledge of a single
Page 14
man, is evidence of the general accuracy, and reliability, of such

trained, and instinctive estimates.
This same faculty has more to do with successful Salesmanshipon-Paper than is generally recognized.
And, it is rare enough to be interesting.
Page 15
"Let There be Light

Chapter IV
NOW, let us be frank!
Let us look at this subject of Advertising squarely, and dissect it.
Let us discard all prejudice or predilection, and accept only
Evidence, in our final
Let us cut out sentiment, precedent, and Popular Opinion, and
treat the subject as though we had never heard of it before and
came from Missouri.
If, for instance, we had a load of Hay to sell how would we
attempt to sell it?
Would we show our customers the Daisies that grew in it, ask
them to note the Style of the loading, the fine pair of horses that
draw it, and the Vandyke or Otherwise beard of the
Would we tell him this is the same kind of Hay as was raked by
Maud Muller on a
Guess not! -- eh?
Wed tell him of the nutritious qualities that particular load of Hay
possessed, for the feeding of horses, and then wed name the
price delivered, show why the hay was worth it, and let it go at
that.
Now, if our customer lived at a distance, and we must sell him
the Hay by letter, how would we proceed?
Quote Maud Muller to him -- then refer to the Daisies, the
Horses, the Beard? No, sir -- not for a moment!
Page 16
We would confine ourselves carefully to the feeding qualities of

our Hay, and to the advantages of buying while the price was
right.
But, suppose we had five hundred loads of this Hay to sell,
instead of one load, and did not know just where to write to in
order to sell it.
Thats when wed Advertise!
But does the fact of our going into Print mean that we must go
into Literature, Art, or Clever Conceits in space-filling too, in
order to sell our Hay through Advertising?
Are we not still trying to sell just Horse feed? How can we expect
the picture of Maud Muller on a Summers Day to help us close
a deal with an unpoetical party who has Horses to Feed, and who
must do it economically?
The Horse owner knows good Hay when he sees it, and he will
know it from description almost as well as from sight.
When he needs good Hay then the most interesting thing we can
tell him is a description of the Hay we have to sell, and why it is
good, and why it is worth the price.
No amount of Maud Muller picture, or Association of Ideas will
sell him Hay so surely and quickly as plain Hay-talk and Horsesense.
But the Advertiser will be told that in order for an Advertisement
to sell goods it must first be seen and read!
He will also be told that in the mass of reading matter
surrounding your Advertisement your Space must be made more
attractive than the rest, in order to be seen and read by the
largest possible number.
Page 17
Now, at first sight this line of talk looks logical enough, but how
does it dissect?
Suppose you have a pretty Maud Muller advertisement about your
Hay, with a fancy border of Daisies all around it, and a delicate
vignette of the Judge looked back as he climbed the hill!
You would certainly attract the attention of many more Readers
with that advt. than with the bald caption of Hay delivered, at
$8.00 a ton.
But, the man who wants Hay is the only party you can get back
the cost of your advertising from, and you can interest him more
intensely with the Hay caption than with all the Maud Muller
kind of advts. in the publication field.
And, you can afford to lose the attention of 400,000 Readers
who have no use for Hay, if you can clinch sales for your fine
hundred loads with the few people who do need it.
Observe that it is not necessary to attract the attention of every
Reader in a 430,000 circulation, in order to sell 500 loads of Hay.
But it is vitally necessary that you convince at least five hundred
probable Purchasers that you have the kind of Hay they need, at
the price they can afford to pay for it.
If an advertisement, in a circulation of 430,000, costs $60 and we
have a profit of $1.00 per load on Hay, we need only sell one load
each to sixty people in order to pay expenses.
But, if we attract the attention of 80,000 people by our
advertisement, and sell only thirty loads of Hay to them, we
would then be out $30, and must credit the balance of our
Advertising investment to General Publicity -- to Keeping-theName-before-the-People --etc., in the vague hope that some
other day these people may perhaps buy Hay from us, if we then
have it to sell.
Page 18
That mistaken idea of Attracting the Attention of the greatest

number, for a given price, is what costs fortunes to Advertisers
annually.
The striving to Attract Attention instead of striving to positively
Sell Goods is the basis of all Advertising misunderstanding.
So long as Attracting Attention remains the aim of Advertisers,
so long will the process of attracting it remain in the hands of
Advertising Men who affect the Literary and Artistic attitude,
rather than the plain, logical, convincing attitude of the ReasonWhy Salesman-on-Paper.
And, great are the Advertising Writers temptations to use
Attractive copy at the expense of Convincing copy.
artistic, dignified, High-grade, etc.
There is popular applause for the Writer of catchy General
Publicity, which attracts attention even though it does not sell
goods.
But, there is no applause for the Writer of prosaic Salesmanshipon-Paper which is forceful enough, and convincing enough to
actually sell goods in volume.
This is one reason-why Catchy Advertising is so current, and
true Reason-Why Salesmanship-in-Type so rare.
Another reason is the far greater cost to produce studied ReasonWhy Salesmanship-in-Type than to produce four times as much
catchy General Publicity.
A still further reason is that the Makers of General Publicity
know they can never be held to account for definite results from
the latter kind of Copy, because nothing definite is promised
through it.
Page 19
-- To Keep-the-Name-before-the-People.
-- To Make a General Impression on the Trade. -- To Influence
Sales.
-- To Protect the Market.
These are the vague nothings promised the Advertiser by the
Makers of General Publicity.
These are the fractional parts of Advertising he gets in return for
an outlay which could have brought him back 150 per cent
instead of 30 to 90 per cent of his outlay for Space.
Remember that Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-Paper will do all
that General Publicity.
And, in addition to this, it can actually, positively, and
conclusively Sell Goods, through Retailers (or by Mail), in
sufficient volume to pay 50 to 300 per cent profit on the
investment in Space it occupies.
...there were maybe four or five men in the U.S. who were able
themselves to do advertising, because they inherently felt it
within themselves -- but none of them knew how to teach it and
define it. Kennedy was the one man who did. Albert Lasker - The
Lasker Story
Page 20
They Who Blindly Follow the Blind

Chapter V
CARLYLE compared Mankind to a Flock of Sheep.
He said, Stretch a rope across a country path, about a foot and a
half from the ground.
Then drive a flock of Sheep over it!
When the Bell-weather (or leader) has jumped that elevated
rope lower it to the ground
Every sheep in the flock that follows will jump a foot and a half in
the air over that same
They follow the Bell-weather blindly, -- unreasoningly, -- without
regard to changed They dont jump for the same reason that the
Bell-weather jumped, but just because they say another Sheep
jump a given height, at a given spot.
Carlyles comparison fits the Advertising situation like a blister.
There be flocks of Sheep innumerable in the Advertising field,
Neighbor!
When Sapolio used the Spotless Town jingles (merely to revive
mental impressions created by previous logical advertising), the
flock of Sheep ran amuck on jingles, regardless of their
application to other purposes.
When Uneeda Biscuit appeared on the market to fill a colossal
waiting demand for a fine-cent package, it was backed by an
appropriation the mere volume of which must create asensation
with Retailers (whether it actually sold goods to Consumers or
not).
Page 21
This, in turn, was followed by a brood of inane trade-marks

launched on the Advertising field after it and because of it.
When Ivory Soap Publicity appeared on the scene, with its full
pages of pretty pictures, and its Five per cent of Selling Effect,
the Sheep concluded that, too, must be the best ever in
Advertising, so they promptly got in line and leaped the
imaginary rope.
Then we had an epidemic of empty catch-phrases, following hard
upon Good Morning! Have you used Pears Soap?
This, regardless of the fact that Pears much parodied phrase had
a foundation of a hundred years in accumulated advertising to
tide it over its period of mental aberration.
Where are these false Gods of Advertising today?
Spotless Town is off the map, and Hand Sapolio is now being
advertised on the good
old Reason-Why basis that built House Sapolio.
The old-time brood of Try-a-bita, U-want-a and such other
Uneeda chickens, has gone home to roost long before the tolling
of Curfew bell.
Uneeda Biscuit itself, with the millions of trust money behind it,
can keep up the Publicity bluff better than it can afford to admit
the mistake of starting it.
But there are unwilling admissions of a Change of Heart, in such
of their advertisements as The Food Value of a Soda Cracker,
and other recent type copy.
Page 22
Where is that meteor of General Publicity, the Cremo Cigar,

which one-time flashed across the horizon of Advertising, with its
million-dollar outlay for Bill-Board display in Newspaper space?
It, too, has gone into eclipse.
Study the Ivory Soap advertising of the present and watch it for
the future.
You will find in it, month by month, less pointless picture, and
more Reason-Why, though its Advertising Sponsors will hate to
admit the change of attitude their later experience has compelled.
Pears Soap no longer says Good Morning, nor quotes, in place
of it, any other catch-phrase. Yet, their once famous line is
enshrined forever in the minds of old Fogy Advertising Men, who
swear by the Pears catch-phrase, but who never buy Pears Soap
as a result of it.
Meantime such Stars in the firmament of General Publicity, have
lighted the way to ruin for a few dozen flocks of Sheep who
thought they were following reliable Bell-weathers when they
were only following Fads.
And, every new Fad, started in a large way by any big Advertiser
(who has money enough to burn a big Bluff, and pride enough to
sustain that Bluff till he can quietly change his play), will be
applauded, copied, and advised by those who do not
themselves understand the Compass, and so must follow the lead
of others as incapable as themselves.
But, is there, you ask, any reliable Compass by which an
Advertisers barque may be safely steered to success?
There is, Reader, a Guide practically as reliable to the Advertiser
as is the Compass to the Mariner.
Page 23
Its guidance is not based upon mere Opinion, nor on Guess-work,

nor on blind following of the Blind.
It is based upon carefully tabulated Results derived from Actual
Tests made with different kinds of copy, in different mediums,
compared year after year on scores of different Advertising
propositions.
By this means the exact earning power of each piece of Copy,
may be told by the number of Inquiries it produced for a given
cost, and the number of direct Sales that resulted from the
Inquiries.
Not only this, but the relative earning power of each publication is
thereby accurately revealed by the Cost of Inquiries and Sales,
through each particular medium in which the same copy is run,
without regard to mere circulation claims.
The results from any one Mail-Order account using a given kind of
copy, might only indicate the effectiveness of that kind of copy
for that particular article.
This would afford no conclusive evidence as to how that kind of
copy might work with a different sort of Mail-Order proposition, or
in General Advertising.
But, when a given kind of Copy produces almost a uniform kind of
Result for different Mail-Order accounts, and does it consistently
for years, it means something definite and indisputable to
Advertisers.
And, when that same kind of Copy is tried out in General
Advertising, for goods sold through Retailers, with the same
consistent sort of Result (judged by Records of Comparative Sales
in different, but equivalent territory), it, too, proves something
definite and conclusive that Advertisers cannot afford to ignore,
Page 24
no matter how partial they may be to their own pet fads in

Advertising or to friends in the Advertising business.
So Kennedy sat down and wrote that campaign. As a
result, I believe where they were spending $15,000 a
year and going to quit -- showing you the power of
advertising -- within four months, out of receipts, they
were spending $30,000 a month, and within six months
were one of the three or four largest advertisers in
America, and within eight months were doubling and
trebling their plants. The Lasker Story
...you must show how he is going to benefit, and you
cannot do it unless you have the faculty of putting
yourself in his place...The experienced writer...picks the
motive that is strongest, and presents it from the
viewpoint of the reader alone...Description of your
product is necessary. But description, no matter how
interestingly done, will never sell your product by the
thousands. It is what it will do for the one who buys it
that counts! The Robert Collier Letter Book
Page 25
Fortunes Wasted in following Will-o-theWisps

Chapter VI
KEEPING-THE-NAME-BEFORE-THE-PEOPLE, and Keeping everlastingly - at - it!
That, dear Reader, is General Publicity -- a Glory-Game, under
a convenient alias. Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People, and
Keeping-everlastingly-at-it, may incidentally influence the sale
of goods, providing no competing line is being actually Advertised
through Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-Paper.
But, the main object of such General Publicity may be less
mercenary, more altruistic, Attract Attention; -- Interest the
Public with pretty pictures and cute catch-words; --Encourage
the Publisher by paying him for plenty of unoccupied white
space;--and lastly, pay some Agency a commission to spend the
money with the least effort and the most fire-works.
It is well enough, in its way, of course (like the Carnegie
Libraries).
But, what is here objected to is that some folks, who ought to
know better, call this General Publicity by the name of
Advertising.
Now, Advertising is, and should be, simply plebeian
Salesmanship-on-paper --a mere money-making means of
selling goods by the quickest and cheapest method.
There is no Glory in this Reason-Why Salesmanship- on-paper-no applause for it,--no admiration,--just Profit.
Page 26
Because, it is simply common sense brought to bear directly upon

the selling of Goods. That is its province--just selling goods over
the counter or by mail.
If you want to find out how few goods General Publicity Copy
(Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People) will actually sell, test
some of what you are now using, in a Mail-Order way,-to sell
goods, mark you (not merely to give away Calendars or
Samples).
That is the test that shatters advertising Idols and dispels
Publicity illusions.
You may have the smoothest Catch-phrase that ever
happened,--you may be thoroughly tickled with you Witty
Wording, Pretty Platitudes, and Artistic Illustrations.
You may feel Cock-Sure that you have a kind of Advertising which
couldnt fail (so long as the Salesmen do its work in addition to
their own).
But, suppose you should try to actually sell goods by mail with it.
If your World-Beating Advertisement, that everybody sees and
admires, costs you $2.00 per Inquiry--and if another kind of
advertisement you dont like at all brings equally good Inquires,
in the same space and same mediums, at 40 cents each, then
youve learned something you can never afford to forget.
That is the kind of experience which makes one sit up, and
think hard, before he recovers from the jolt it gives him.
And when he comes to he then sees a Great White Light. Under
this new light some of the things he thought he knew before fade
out into vapory Will-o-the-Wisps, and he longs for things
tangibly proven.
Page 27
When he observes now a hoary old Mail-Order Advertisement,

that seems at first sight stupidly simple and countrified, he looks
twice into it, to see if it isnt carefully loaded with hidden Selling
Effect and subtle Conviction, under its guise of rural simplicity.
If he notes it running for years, without change, he no longer
jumps to the conclusion that the Man who pays for it is merely a
Chump, serving his costly apprenticeship to our own Guild of
advanced Advertisers.
No,--he looks closely at it now for the hall-marks of
Salesmanship, and where he finds it running for months, without
change of copy, he concludes there is some potent reason for it.
Because, he then feels that, had he as sure a means of keeping
tab on results as this Mail-Order Advertiser, he, too, might be
using some stale copy in General Advertising, instead of
changing it often (without evidence) from bad to probably worse.
If he had tried over fifty different changes of copy that had
pleased him better than the Stale One, and had found (as others
have done) that Inquiries from them cost $1.20 to $2.90 each, he
would be mighty glad to go back to the good old Chestnut
which produced Inquiries
He would look upon that Ancient Ad let in the light of a tried and
trusted Friend.
If he were asked to sell out his business he might well appraise
that bit of much-used Ancient History at a price that would make
many Ad-smiths gasp.
And, why shouldnt he appraise it high up in the thousands?
If we spend $100,000 per year for Space and fill that Space with
copy that costs $1.20 per inquiry (by mail, or over the counter),
we get only 83,334 chances of Sale out of our appropriation. With
Page 28
the Antique Ad let, or its skilful equivalent, our $100,000 would

have produced 250,000 Inquiries at an average of 40 cents each.
These 250,000 Inquiries would have cost us $300,000 to secure
at $1.20 each.
Why isnt the proven 40-cent Advertisement worth all it saves,
viz., $200,000 per year, so long as it continues to produce
Inquiries averaging 40 cents each, instead of at $1.20 each?
Well,--why isnt such an Advertisement worth more than the
space it occupies each time it is published?
What is the something in a successful Mail-Order Advertisement
that makes it pull equally good Inquiries at a fraction of previous
cost?
It is the same something that would make Advertising sell
goods over the Retailers counter, through General Advertising, at
correspondingly low cost.
That mysterious something is just Printed Persuasion, and its
other name is Reason-Why Salesmanship-in-Type.
It is that sapient something which makes one Advertiser rich in
a few years, while lack of it ruins others who buy their Space
equally cheap, pay 5 per cent less commission, and spend equally
large appropriations.
That something is Reason-Why and Conviction, saturated into
the copy, so that the Reader must believe the statements of
merit thus claimed for the article.
Mere brilliance in Advertising fails utterly to produce such
profitable results (sales) if it lacks conviction. The seeing,
admiring, or reading with interest, of an Advertisement by the
Page 29
Public, avails little in dollars and cents, to the man who pays for
the space, if it fails to CONVINCE the Public.
And, that conviction can be imparted, without accident, at will, by
the few Advertising Man who have closely studied the thoughtprocesses through which Conviction is induced, provided they
have had the guiding light of experience with the facilities for
comparing Results obtained from a large variety of Mail-Order
Copy.
These results have invariably shown that it is far better to repeat
one single Advertisement fifty times, if it be full of Conviction,
than to publish fifty different Advertisements that lack as much
Conviction, no matter how attractive, clever, or artistic, they may
be.
In other words, one sound, convincing Advertisement will sell
more goods than fifty brilliant, catchy, strikingly displayed Ads
that have less conviction in them.
The only mission of true General Advertising is to Sell Goods, by
driving the People to the stores armed with such reasons and
convictions that substitution will be difficult or impossible.
When Advertising is not selling goods (through Conviction), it is
not doing as much as it can be made to do.
So, any Advertiser who accepts mere General Publicity or
Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People for his money, when he
might have had all that and a positive selling force combined with
it, is losing half the results he might have had from the same
Space filled with sound Reason-Why Advertising.
Nature is an endless combination and repetition of a
very few laws. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Page 30
Why Some Advertisers grow Wealthy while

others Fail
Chapter VII
Largely because they spend their money for Space, under the
delusion that Space filled with anything Catchy is Advertising.
They believe Money Talks in Advertising, even when it says
nothing. They forget that Space costs the same, whether we fill it
with Pictured Nothings or with
And the difference, in Results, between two kinds of copy,
costing the same for space, in a single advertisement, has often
exceeded 80 per cent, as authenticated Records on test cases
prove.
General Advertisers, who have no means of tracing direct results,
and who spend their money for General Publicity, may smile at
this.
But, Mail-Order Advertisers know it is true.
These are the kind of Advertisers to whom Advertising is not a
blind speculation, but systematic eye-open investment.
Their records show the precise cost of every inquiry for their
goods through advertising, because their every Advertisement in
every Medium is separately keyed.
They can thus gauge accurately the relative earning power of
each separate bit of copy published at their expense, and of each
medium in which that copy has been inserted.
Page 31
They thus know what kind to avoid, as well as what kind to use.
Please note that the current definition of General Publicity is
Keeping-the-Name-before-the-People.
Retailer.
When we speak of General Advertising we mean copy which
sells goods through the
(Note that General Advertisers are NOT hereby advised to GO
INTO MAIL-ORDER BUSINESS). However, GENERAL
ADVERTISING should possess as much positive SELLING-FORCE
and CONVICTION as it would NEED to actually and profitably
SELL Goods direct BY MAIL.
Here is the actual experience of a well-known national Advertiser,
who sells a $5.00 article by mail only.
This Advertiser has proved that a certain fixed average per cent
of his Inquiries convert into direct sales through his follow-up
system.
Each equally good Inquiry is therefore worth a certain fixed price
to him, which he can pay with profit.
One single piece of copy has been running for that Advertiser
(practically without change), in all mediums used, for over six
years. Over $300,000 has been spent in repeated publication of
that single bit of copy.
Why?
Because, it produced results (Inquiries and Sales) at lower cost
than any other copy ever run for them in eight previous years.
The first month Inquiries from the best prior copy cost about 85
cents each.
Page 32
Repetition of that copy for two years wore out some of its
interest, so that Inquiries from it finally cost an average of $1.85
each.
New copy had been tried a great many times during the twoyear interval, written by many different Ad-smiths, but no other
Advertisement ever produced the Inquiries at less than $1.85
average.
Some of the copy that looked good enough to try, cost $14.20
per Inquiry. And that was better looking copy than half of what
fills General Publicity space in costly mediums at this very
minute.
Consider what the knowledge derived from a large collection of
certified data, like the above, would mean, if placed at the
disposal of General Advertisers who now go it blind on copy.
If the $5.00 article had been sold through Retailers, in the usual
way, without accurate means of checking results from every
advertisement, it is more than probable that the $14.20 kind of
copy would have been used continuously.
Because, that was the catchy kind, so much in favor with
General Publicity Advertisers.
And, it would have been considered good copy so long as the
salesmen did its work, in addition to their own, the General
Results being credited in a general way to General Publicity.
But, it would clearly have required fourteen times as much of that
$14.20 kind of alleged Advertising to produce the same
amount of selling effect upon the public as the 85-cent kind of
copy (which averaged about $1.00 per inquiry over the two
years) actually did produce.
Page 33
Let us figure this out more conclusively:

The Blank Company spent $75,000 per year, for space, with copy
producing Inquiries at about $1.00 average.
It would thus have cost them about fourteen times as much, or
$1,050,000 per year, to sell as many of their $5.00 articles
through the $14.20 kind of catchy copy as it actually did cost
them to sell the same quantity with the $1.00-per-Inquiry kind
of copy.
Good Reader, get that thought clearly into your mind, for were
talking cold facts now.
What was it worth to the Blank Company to get a new
Advertisement which would pull Inquiries at the old rate of 85
cents each, when its most successful copy had worn out, after
two years use, so that Inquiries were finally costing it $1.25 each
on average?
Figure it out and youll see that one single piece of such copy
would be worth a third of their $75,000 yearly appropriation, viz.,
Inquiries for their goods and resulting Sales.
But Reason-Why Copy did better than that, when applied, on
test.
It reduced the cost of Inquiries, for the selfsame $5.00 article, to
41 cents average, during the first two years it had been running.
(It is still running, after six years use).
The earning power of every dollar trebled by the mere
substitution of Reason-Why Copy for the best copy the Advertiser
had used in eight years prior to that substitution.
An Advertising appropriation of $75,000 made equal in proven
earning power to what $225,000 would have earned with the
Page 34
copy which preceded it, and which was producing Inquiries at

$1.25.
That single piece of Reason-Why copy, which ran practically
without change for about four months, had in that time produced
approximately 60,976 Inquiries.
These were worth $1.25 each to the Advertiser (or $91,464 in
all), though their cost was reduced to 41 cents each, with an
actual outlay of about $25,000.
In four months that one piece of copy had thus earned $66,466
more, for the Advertiser, than the $1.25 kind of Copy used
immediately before it had produced from the same investment.
And, what made it pull Inquiries by mail is precisely what would
make it produce Inquiries verbally for the goods through
Retailers, by the use of intelligent Reason-Why and Conviction in
the Copy.
This is only one of many actual instances that could be
cited.
The secret of business is to know something that
nobody else knows. Aristotle Onassis
On the average, five times as many people read the
headlines as read the body copy. It follows that unless
your headline sells your product, you have wasted 90
per cent of your money. Ogilvy On Advertising
Page 35
Making Sure of Results from General

Advertising
Chapter VIII
THE first tangible Return from the Advertisers money, when
invested in Space, (whether that Space be filled with General
Advertising or with Mail-Order Advertising,) is an Inquiry for
his goods.
That Inquiry may be verbal to a Clerk over the counter, or--it
may be by Mail, in a
But, in either case, it is just an Inquiry for the goods, of one sort
or another.
It is the first practical evidence that the money spent is earning
something tangible in return.
Now--it may take twice or three times as much Conviction in
Copy to make a Consumer write an Inquiry for goods, and post it,
as it would have taken to make that same Consumer inquire
verbally for the goods advertised, when passing a store that
should sell them.
But, when he does inquire verbally from a Retailer, there are
twice or three times as many chances of substitution, of Dontkeep-it or Heres-something-better, as there would have been
if that same Consumer had written direct for it by Mail.
Therefore, the Advertisement which sends Consumers to
Retailers, should be as full of Conviction as the successful MailOrder Advertisement, in order to fortify that Consumer against
substitution, Dont-keep-it, and Heres-something-better.
Page 36
Because, if the Advertisement fails to thus fortify the Consumer

with Reason-Why and Conviction, it may simply send him to the
Retail Store to be switched on to a competing line of goods with
which the Retailer is heavily stocked, or which his Clerks favor
the sale of in preference to ours.
In that case the Advertising we pay for would sell goods forour
non-advertising Competitors.
Half the money spent to Keep-the-Name-before-the-People
results to-day in this substitution of non-advertised articles for
the articles advertised through General Publicity.
General Publicity Copy, when tested, is found in almost every
case too Weak to sell goods profitably by Mail.
And, any copy which is not strong enough, or convincing enough,
to sell goods by mail, is not strong enough to make the Consumer
resist substitution, and the Dont-keep-that-kind influence of
Retail conditions.
General Advertising Copy, to succeed, profitably, must
therefore cause not only a verbal Inquiry for the goods, but must
also have enough strong conviction saturated into it to make the
Consumer insist upon getting the goods he asks for, against
probable substituting influence.
It must therefore give him better Reasons-why he should buy
our goods than he is likely to hear from the retail Salesman for
the competing goods that Salesman may want to substitute.
And, it must give him these Reason-why in such lucid thoughtform that he can understand without effort, so impressively that
he will believe our reasoning Claims.
It must accomplish this in spite of his natural distrust of all
Advertised statements.
Page 37
This means that we must put into General Advertising Copy the
precise qualities that would be necessary to sell goods profitably
by mail.
More than half the people who inquiry for Advertised goods out of
Curiosity as a result of General Publicity (Keeping-the-Namebefore-the-People, etc.) do not buy them when they see them.
Because the competing goods look just as fine when shown and
recommended by the Substituting Salesman.
The Curiosity Inquiry having no firm foundation of Reason-Why
under it cannot combat the personal influence of the Salesman.
This is why not more than a fourth of those who, out of mere
curiosity, buy the first package, through General Publicity, ever
buy the second or third consecutive package of the same article.
Because they do not buy on Conviction.
Meantime, it usually takes about all the profit in the first purchase
of any Generally Advertised article to pay the cost of
introducing it to the Consumers notice, through Advertising.
But, with Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-Paper, results are
insured and far more cumulative..
Because, a Consumer need only be convinced once, through
Reason-why, Salesmanship-on-paper, that the article is what
he should, for his own sake, buy and use.
When we thus convince him, we achieve more than fortifying him
against substitution.
We also help his imagination to find and recognize, in the article
advertised, the very qualities claimed and proved for it in the
Copy.
Page 38
These qualities he might never have discovered for himself, nor

appreciated if he had casually discovered them, in a mere
Curiosity purchase.
Because, through General Publicity, his attention had only been
attracted, not compelled and enduringly impressed with a
logical understanding of these qualities.
But, when once convinced in advance of purchase, through
Reason-Why Salesmanship-in-Type, that the qualities claimed
for the article do exist in them, he starts using that article with a
mental acceptance of these qualities.
And, because he begins using the article with an advance
knowledge of, and belief in, its good points, his appreciation
becomes permanent if the goods merit it.
He therefore makes a second, third, and further consecutive
purchases of that article as a result of having once read a single
convincing Reason-Why advertisement about it.
This is where large and cumulative profits must come to the
General Advertiser--on the second, third, and continued
purchases by Readers of the first advertisement that reached
their Convictions.
These conviction qualities in copy are shown, by test, to be just
as necessary in Advertising designed to sell goods profitably
today, through Retailers to Consumers, as they are to sell goods
direct by mail to Consumers.
That is why every Advertisement for goods to be sold through
Retailers (against substitution, and Dont keep-it influences),
should have as much positive selling force, Reason-why and
conviction in it, as would be necessary to sell the goods by mail
direct to Consumers.
Page 39
The difference in Results from Space in which this direct selling

force of Reason-Why has been used, and in results from similar
space filled with General Publicity, is often more than 60 per
cent.
Conclusive tests on Copy have clearly proved this, and preceding
article cites a vivid example of it from actual experience.
Any Advertiser who uses mere General Publicity when he might
have all that and, in addition, a positive Selling force combined
with it is losing 50 per cent to 80 per cent of the results he might
have had from the same identical appropriation.
Selling tests made on various kinds of Copy and Mediums have
proved this for Reason-Why which is the Heart and Soul and
Essence of all good Advertising.
...the average salesmans call costs $178, a letter
$6.63, while you can reach a prospect through
advertising for only 17 cents. Ogilvy On Advertising,
1983
There are always thousands of people on the verge of
buying a car, held back only by some secret caution.
E.B. White
We are not here to sell boilers and vats, but the
potentiality of growing rich beyond the dreams of
avarice. Samuel Johnson
Page 40
How Mail Order Advertising is Tested

Chapter IX
CHOOSE a list of reliable Publications, for a representative
months advertising.
Run Current copy in half the number of these publications for that
month.
Key each advertisement, in each publication separately, so you
will know just which advertisement and which publication each
Inquiry results from.
Then, run Reason-Why Salesmanship-in-Type copy in the
remaining half of the publications, keying each advertisement
separately, in each publication so you will know which
advertisement and which medium each Inquiry comes from.
By keying is meant that you change the reply address in each
advertisement, and in
Thus, in Munseys you say Address 86 State St.; in Womans
World, 75 State St.;
and in Wallaces Farmer you say 6th floor 86 State St.; while in
another you say 8th floor 75 State St., for instance.
By arrangement with the Post Office all replies to these different
addresses will be put into your Letter-box, regardless of street
address on envelope.
Now, you can tell by the envelope address on each Reply or
Inquiry which publication, and which particular piece of copy in
that publication, produced it.
Page 41
Then, when the Inquiries from the competing advertisements

cease coming, you can total up the number of Inquiries each
publication produced from each particular advertisement.
Now, having the total number of Inquiries from each individual
advertisement in each medium, you divide that number into the
cost of the Space used for each piece of copy, in each publication.
This will give you the exact cost, per Inquiry, from each separate
piece of copy, in each publication.
The cost per Inquiry with your other current Copy may then be
intelligently compared with the cost per Inquiry through ReasonWhy Salesmanship-on-Paper.
Now, cross the copy for the second months Advertising Test.
By this is meant,--insert your other current Copy, which appeared
last month in Munseys, in this months Wallaces Farmer, for
instance.
And, the Reason-Why copy which appeared last month in
Womans World you now insert in Munseys of this month.
This gives a fair distribution of Mediums to each competing
Advertisement. When the Inquiries cease coming from this
second months insertion, make the same record as before of
Cost per Inquiry, for each piece of competing copy from each
publication.
Then, add the total number of Inquiries obtained from your other
current Copy, during the same period.
Then divide that total number into the total expenditure for Space
used in publication o that Copy.
Page 42
This will give the average cost per Inquiry, with the kind of Copy
you have been regularly using.
Now, compare this with the average cost per Inquiry obtained
from the same publications, at the same identical periods, with
Reason-Why results.
The difference between the cost per Inquiry with the two kinds of
Copy will then be a reliable Index to the relative Earning Power of
the two competing kinds of copy.
Now, use the same Follow-up (Booklets and Letters), on all the
Inquiries from both Sources.
The percentage of Sales which results from each of the two
competitive groups of Inquiries and Follow-up will then determine
the relative Profits to the Advertiser from each kind of Copy.
No Test on earth can be more conclusive than this, and none is
easier made.
And, what such a Test reveals (in difference between Results
from two different kinds of Copy) would stagger the average
Advertiser.
An extensive series of such Tests, carried over a long period of
Time, with many differing propositions, has proved a fine
consistency in Results.
It proved that the Reason-Why kind of Advertising which sold
Washing Machines by mail at one-third the cost of other Copy
sold them, would, when applied according to the individual needs
of the different articles, also sell Violins, Shoes, or Pianos, in
about the same ratio.
Moreover, it has been found that the something in Copy which
sells these Goods by Mail (at one-half to one-third the cost other
Page 43
Copy sells them), will also sell them through Retailers over the
Counter.
That something is Selling Force,--Conviction-- Salesmanship-saturated into the Copy, with sound Reasons-Why as the
foundation.
It is the salient something which makes millionaires of some
Advertisers in a few years, while other Advertisers, spending the
same amount of money for equally good propositions, go broke.
Now the kind of Advertising which works these Miracles of
Success may be the kind you personally like least, quite contrary
to your preference in fact.
But, Advertising is not really intended to merely please the
Advertisers fancy.
Its first, last and only duty is to Sell Goods for him, and to sell
them at less cost than they can be sold without it.
The kind of Advertising which will be found to do this at lowest
cost is Reason-Why Salesmanship-on-Paper.
Which is based not on what you like best to read, but on what
records prove will sell the most Goods to Readers, per dollar of
outlay.
The secret of business is to know something that
nobody else knows. Aristotle Onassis
As a general rule the most successful man in life is the
man who has the best information. Benjamin Disraeli
Power flows to the man who knows how. Elbert
Hubbard
Page 44
There is only one way...to get anybody to do

anything...And that is by making the other person want
to do it. Dale Carnegie
If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult
problem ...break the problem into parts, and handle
one part at a time. Robert Collier
I have always noticed that the man who gives the
most for the money, gets the most business. Vash
Young
Page 45
Copywriting Secrets Collection How to

Test Out General Advertising
Chapter X
SELECT two Cities of about the same population, in
approximately the same climate, and with equally good
newspapers.
St. Paul and Minneapolis are fair examples,--but scores of
other equivalents can be named or chosen.
Check up carefully the quantity of the Advertised Goods in
these two cities which the Retailers have on hand at a given
date.
Then ask them to keep record (on a blank form you supply)
of the goods in your advertised lines which they stock within
the next four months.
Then, run in one of the two competitive cities the General
Publicity you have already been using.
At the same time run in the other competitive city Reason-Why
Salesmanship-on-Paper.
Spend for each kind exactly the same appropriation, and make it
sufficiently liberal to show some results on the second month.
Continue this competitive copy for four months, which is the
minimum time on which General Advertising can be made to
produce a fair measure of Results.
Page 46
Then, on a certain day, send out enough men to check up the

amount of the Advertised goods in the hands of each Retailer at
the end of the four months.
Add to the total of goods on hand, at time of starting Test, the
goods since stocked in each City.
Then subtract from this total the Advertised goods remaining on
the Retailers Shelves, in each City, at end of the four months
Advertising test.
The difference between will show the quantity of your Advertised
goods actually sold to Consumers, in each city, during the four
months period of actual selling test.
The difference between the Value of goods sold in each City
during the test period will then be a reliable index to the relative
Selling Power of the two Competing kinds of Advertising used.
Now, cross the copy in each City for four months longer.
Use Reason-Why in the City where you previously used only
current General Publicity, and vice versa.
Check up the goods on hand at end of the second four months
again, as before.
When you find the difference in Sales (with the same expenditure
for Advertising) to be again heavily in favor of the Reason-Why
copy (as in the first four months), you will have made a Copy
Test, that may save you over 25% to 50% of your National
appropriation every year afterwards.
This test may, at first sight, seem a lot of trouble to undertake.
Page 47
But, is not 25% per annum of your Advertising Appropriation

worth that trouble? And, what is it worth to know conclusively for
all time, the relative value of General
Publicity as actually compared with Reason-Why advertising in a
downright Selling Test?
A difference of 66 per cent between two such kinds of Copy on
equivalent tests has often been proved.
Isnt that a sufficient difference to make you sit up and think hard
about what fills the Space you pay for monthly?
There would be no advantage to be gained by sowing
a field of wheat if the harvest did not return more than
was sown.
Napoleon Hill
The man who will use his skill and constructive
imagination to see how much he can give for a dollar,
instead of how little he can give for a dollar, is bound to
succeed. Henry Ford
Advice to copywriters: When you are assigned to write
an ad, write a lot of headlines first. Spend hours writing
headlines -- or days if necessary. If you happen to
think of a headline while walking along the street or
while riding in a bus, take out pencil and paper and
write it down. John Caples How to Make Your
Advertising Make Money
Page 48
How Shall We Know Good Copy?

Chapter XI
The following chapter originally appeared as Article X in The
Book of Advertising Tests (subtitle: A Group of Articles that
Actually Say Something About Advertising), a book which
contains the exact same chapters as Reason Why Advertising
with the exceptions that the chapters are in different order and
there are two additional chapters.
One of those chapters merely told about the agencys Record of
Results but did not reveal any of its contents.
The other chapter (Chapter XI in The Book of Advertising Tests)
is the one that is reprinted here. It is about recognizing good
copy and is consequently very valuable. Enjoy it and Prosper.
How shall we know good copy?
By the Goods it is actually known to Sell, -- Mr. Advertiser!
Dont care how Bright, how Catchy, nor how Attractive the
copy is, or is not.
What we want to know is how much Goods will it Sell, per dollar
of cost, through Retailers or by Mail?
Selling-power is the only quality we recognize as Good, in
Advertising.
No mere Keeping-the Name-before-the-People will satisfy our
standards.
No mere Trade Stimulus nor General Influence on Sales will
recognize as real Advertising worth what it costs.
Page 49
No evasion of the Grand Issue -- Salesmanship -- is permitted

nor attempted in the Lord & Thomas Advertising Shop.
The Ad-smith whose copy wont actually and positively Sell Goods
enough to pay for the Space it fills, with a handsome profit on it
to the Man who pays the Bills, is working for some other Agency.
But how can we know copy which will positively sell goods,
before it is published at the Advertisers expense? -- you ask.
Well, this is how we know it Mr. Advertiser!
About one-fourth of the Advertising we place annually is MailOrder Advertising, for scores of different clients.
Every single insertion of each Mail-Order Advertisement for these
clients has been keyed separately, in each publication.
We thus know precisely how much each Inquiry for goods Costs,
from each different piece of Copy, in each Medium.
This information we record accurately in our Record of Results.
Then, we compare the Cost of Selling each line of Mail-Order
goods through the different kinds of copy used, and we find a
wonderful consistency in the figures.
A kind of Copy which produces Inquiries at low Cost for one
proposition, we find produces Inquiries for another entirely
different proposition in the same ration of low cost.
And the kind of Copy which Costs three times as much per
Inquiry, in the same publication, for one proposition will, we find,
cost practically in the same high ration on all other propositions.
The compilation of this data, covering a period of years, on a
large variety of Mail-Order accounts, has given us a reliable
Page 50
means of knowing just what kind of copy Sells the most goods for
a given investment in space.
It also affords us a reliable index to the relative Earning Power of
different publications,
using the same kind of Copy, at the same period of the year.
But, Lord & Thomass investigation through this Record of
Results has gone father than testing out Mail-Order Copy.
Because, when the qualities, in Copy, that produced consistently
large Results in Mail-Order Advertising had been located and
isolated, these same qualities were then applied to Copy for
General Advertising of Goods to be sold through Retailers.
Our Record of Results thus shows that the something which
made a given kind of Copy sell goods at lowest cost by mail also
made it sell goods at lowest cost through Retailers.
These qualities were Reason-Why and Conviction saturated
into the Copy, and presented in certain thought-forms that strikes
the most responsive cord with average Readers of
Advertisements.
The combination of these qualities, evolved through our Record
of Results, is a formula as exclusive with Lord & Thomas as the
formula of the famous Liqueur Chartreuse with the Monks who
control its secret.
This kind of Copy we call Lord & Thomas Salesmanship-onpaper.
The relative Selling-Power of each piece of this copy we can judge
in advance, by comparing it with Results obtained previously
through kindred kind of Copy, used for equivalent Propositions, as
registered and compared in our Record of Results.
Page 51
Half the money I spend on advertising half. John

Wanamaker
If you want to understand today, you have to search
yesterday. Pearl S. Buck
When a customer enters my store, forget me. He is
king. John Wanamaker
It is one of the beautiful compensations of this life that
no one can sincerely try to help another without helping
himself. Charles Dudley Warner
Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with
advertising until he has read this book [Scientific
Advertising by Claude Hopkins] seven times. It
changed the course of my life. David Ogilvy
Page 52

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John E.

.You Must Do the Sum to Prove it

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

You Must Do the Sum to Prove it

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

He would demand Sales, clearly made by the Salesman himself,

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

In an opinion test, people hesitate to reveal their

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

To Whom are You Advertising?

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Nearly33 per cent of all these families had an average income of

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

The Responsive Chord in Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

He must, first of all, analyze the proposition thoroughly -- master

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

This intangible Personality feature may be likened to the keynote

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

He must estimate how the average mind of that class is likely to

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

man, is evidence of the general accuracy, and reliability, of such

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

"Let There be Light

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

We would confine ourselves carefully to the feeding qualities of

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

That mistaken idea of Attracting the Attention of the greatest

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

They Who Blindly Follow the Blind

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

This, in turn, was followed by a brood of inane trade-marks

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Where is that meteor of General Publicity, the Cremo Cigar,

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Its guidance is not based upon mere Opinion, nor on Guess-work,

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

no matter how partial they may be to their own pet fads in

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Fortunes Wasted in following Will-o-theWisps

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Because, it is simply common sense brought to bear directly upon

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

When he observes now a hoary old Mail-Order Advertisement,

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

the Antique Ad let, or its skilful equivalent, our $100,000 would

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Why Some Advertisers grow Wealthy while

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

John E. Kennedy's - Reason-Why Advertising & Intensive Advertising

Let us figure this out more conclusively: