A Tale as Old as Time…

Here’s a timeless marketing tale from page 37 of Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins:

Two advertisers offered nearly identical food products. One offered the product for free. The other promoted the retail price (15 cents) and offered a coupon to get the produce for $0.

With the couponing approach, it feels like the product “maker” has foot the bill for a valuable product so the buyer can try it for no charge.

Hopkins writes:

The first advertiser failed and the second succeeded. The first even lost a large part of the trade he had. He cheapened his product by giving a 15-cent package away. It is hard to pay for an article which has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling on a pass.

The other gained added respect for his article by paying retail price to let the user try it. An article good enough for the maker to buy is good enough for the user to buy. It is vastly different to pay 15 cents to let you try an article than to simply say “It’s free.”

Hopkins wrote this book in 1923. At the time, ideas like this one were revolutionary.

More than a century later, many of the strategies, tactics, and rules he laid out, still apply today…

…including the idea in that tale.

I read Scientific Advertising once a year. (It’s short; my version is just 114 pages.) Many of marketings core principles trace back to this book.

On Thursday, Ted Prodromou and I will discuss Scientific Advertising with members of the Mastermind Book Club.

Every month, Ted and I choose a great business book. Members meet near the end of the month (Thursday, 11/21 at 2:30 p.m. ET, this month) to discuss the book and how to apply its lessons.

You can join the Club for free (after re-reading this book, I’m thinking we should experiment with charging for membership and offering a discount to reduce the charge to $0).

Club members receive email reminders with links to the meeting.