CHAPTER ELEVEN : Information

An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject. The library of an advertising agency should have books on every line that calls for research. A painstaking advertising man will often read for weeks on some problem which comes up.

Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts to use. But some one fact may be the keynote of success.

This writer has just completed an enormous amount of reading, medical and otherwise, on coffee. This to advertise a coffee without caffeine. One scientific article out of a thousand perused gave the keynote for that campaign. It was the fact that caffeine stimulation comes two hours after drinking. So the immediate bracing effects which people seek from coffee do not come from the caffeine. Removing caffeine does not remove the kick. It does not modify coffee's delights, for caffeine is tasteless and odorless.

Caffeineless coffee has been advertised for years. People regarded it like near-beer. Only through weeks of reading did we find the way to put it in another light.

To advertise a tooth paste this writer has also read many volumes of scientific matter dry as dust. But in the middle of one volume he found the idea which has helped make millions for that tooth paste maker. And has made this campaign one of the sensations of advertising.

Genius is the art of taking pains. The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far.

Before advertising a food product, 130 men were employed for weeks to interview all classes of consumers.

On another line, letters were sent to 12,000 physicians. Questionnaires are often mailed to tens of thousands of men and women to get the viewpoint of consumers.

A $25,000-a-year man, before advertising outfits for acetylene gas, spent weeks in going from farm to farm. Another man did that on a tractor.

Before advertising a shaving cream, one thousand men were asked to state what they most desired in shaving soap.

Called on to advertise pork and beans, a canvass was made of some thousands of homes. Theretofore all pork and bean advertising had been based on "Buy my brand." That canvass showed that only 4 per cent of the people used any canned pork and beans. Ninety-six per cent baked their beans at home.