Individuality

A per­son who desires to make an impres­sion must stand out in some way. Being eccen­tric, being abnor­mal is not dis­tinc­tion to covet. But doing admirable things in a dif­fer­ent way gives one a great advantage.

So with sales­men, in per­son or in print. There is unique­ness which belit­tles and arouses resent­ment. There is refresh­ing unique­ness which enhances, which we wel­come and remem­ber. For­tu­nate is the sales­man who has it.

We try to give each adver­tiser a becom­ing style. We make him dis­tinc­tive, per­haps not in appear­ance, but in man­ner and in tone. He is given an indi­vid­u­al­ity best suited to the peo­ple he addresses.

One man appears rugged and hon­est in a line where rugged hon­esty counts. One may be a good fel­low where choice is a mat­ter of favor. In other lines the man stands out by impress­ing him­self as an authority.

We have already cited a case where a woman made a great suc­cess in sell­ing cloth­ing to girls, solely through a cre­ated per­son­al­ity which won.

That’s why we have signed ads some­times — to give them a per­sonal author­ity. A man is talk­ing — a man who takes pride in his accom­plish­ments — not a “soul­less cor­po­ra­tion.” When­ever pos­si­ble we intro­duce a per­son­al­ity into our ads. By mak­ing a man famous we make his prod­uct famous. When we claim an improve­ment, nam­ing the man who made it adds effect.

Then we take care not to change an indi­vid­u­al­ity which has proved appeal­ing. Before a man writes a new ad on that line, he gets into the spirit adopted by the adver­tiser. He plays a part as an actor plays it.

In suc­cess­ful adver­tis­ing great pains are taken to never change our tone. That which won so many is prob­a­bly the best way to win oth­ers. Then peo­ple come to know us. We build on that acquain­tance rather than intro­duce a stranger in guise. Peo­ple do not know us by name alone, but by looks and man­ner­isms. Appear­ing dif­fer­ent every time we meet never builds up confidence.

Then we don’t want peo­ple to think that sales­man­ship is made to order. That our appeals are cre­ated, stud­ied, arti­fi­cial. They must seem to come from the heart, and the same heart always, save where a wrong tack forces a com­plete change.

There are win­ning per­son­al­i­ties in ads as well as peo­ple. To some we are glad to

lis­ten, oth­ers bore us. Some are refresh­ing, some com­mon­place. Some inspire con­fi­dence, some cau­tion. To cre­ate the right indi­vid­u­al­ity is a supreme accom­plish­ment. Then an adver­tis­ers grow­ing rep­u­ta­tion on that line brings him ever-​​increasing pres­tige. Never weary of that part. Remem­ber that a change in our char­ac­ter­is­tics would com­pel our best friends to get acquainted all over.

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Last 5 Posts By Michel Fortin

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