Influencing rational thoughts by influencing the animal brain.

We have two systems of thought: System 1, our animal mind, is fast, instinctive, and emotional. System 2 is slow, deliberative, and logical. System 1 is far more influential. In fact, it guides and steers our rational thoughts. System 1’s inchoate beliefs, feelings, and impressions are the main sources of the explicit beliefs and deliberate choices of System 2. They’re the spring that feeds the river. We react emotionally (System 1) to a suggestion or question. Then that Sytem 1 reaction informs and in effect creates the System 2 answer. Learn how to affect your counterpart’s System 1 thinking, his … Continue reading Influencing rational thoughts by influencing the animal brain.

Go for the customer, and for the customer alone. Forget the wholesalers, jobbers, retailers, etc.

And if customers want your product, the jobbers and retailers will flock by dozen to carry your product. They will come to you. Many of the wrecks in advertising come from trying to sell things over and over. One first sells to the jobber, and he demands a large percentage. Then he tries to sell to the retailer. He wants free goods and extra margins. Never forget that. Jobbers and retailers have their own brands. What trade they can influence is never directed toward products you control. If they can influence sales, they make four times as much on products … Continue reading Go for the customer, and for the customer alone. Forget the wholesalers, jobbers, retailers, etc.

In national advertising, every word is worth 10$. Every word that is worth less should be cut.

Never repeat. A salesman who wastes his time might cost 1$ per hour. But an ad which does like things is wasting $10 per word. That can make the difference between profit and loss. Most success comes through efficiency. Most failures are due to waste. -My life in advertising, p.115 Continue reading In national advertising, every word is worth 10$. Every word that is worth less should be cut.

Where economy is a necessity most people like to defy it.

When silk shirts cost $15 they became so common among laboring men that other classes went to broadcloth. My experience on cosmetics prove that a low price on perfumes, etc., does not appeal to the girl who should economize. She demands what the “best people” use. Many people around me, working at small wages, consider cost far less than I do. Suggest a thingto them because it is economical and you arouse opposition. You hurt their pride. But direct your appeal to those who do not consider cost and they like to be included. -My life in advertising, p.111 Continue reading Where economy is a necessity most people like to defy it.

No advertising campaign can educate readers into a new habit profitably, none.

No one can profitably change habits in paid prints. Instead, the advertiser comes in when those habits are changed. He says “Here is the right method”. Converting new users was a very expensive proposal. No new user would pay us in his lifetime the cost of his conversion. -My life in advertising, p.95 Continue reading No advertising campaign can educate readers into a new habit profitably, none.