Being Specific

Plat­i­tudes and gen­er­al­i­ties roll off the human under­stand­ing like water from a duck. They leave no impres­sion what­ever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Low­est price in exis­tence,” etc. are at best sim­ply claim­ing the expected. But superla­tives of that sort are usu­ally dam­ag­ing. They sug­gest loose­ness of expres­sion, a ten­dency to exag­ger­ate, a care­less truth. They lead read­ers to dis­count all the state­ments that you make.

Peo­ple rec­og­nize a cer­tain license in sell­ing talk as they do poetry. A man may say, “Supreme in qual­ity” with­out seem­ing a liar, though one may know that the other brands are equally as good. One expects a sales­man to put his best foot for­ward and excuses some exag­ger­a­tion born of enthu­si­asm. But just for that rea­son gen­eral state­ments count for lit­tle. And a man inclined to superla­tives must expect that his every state­ment will be taken with some caution.

But a man who makes a spe­cific claim is either telling the truth or a lie. Peo­ple do not expect an adver­tiser to lie. They know that he can’t lie in the best medi­ums. The grow­ing respect in adver­tis­ing has largely come through a grow­ing regard for its truth. So a def­i­nite state­ment is usu­ally accepted. Actual fig­ures are not gen­er­ally dis­counted. Spe­cific facts, when stated, have their full weight and effect.

This is very impor­tant to con­sider in writ­ten or per­sonal sales­man­ship. The weight of an argu­ment may often be mul­ti­plied by mak­ing it spe­cific. Say that a tung­sten lamp gives more light than a car­bon and you leave some doubt. Say it gives three and one-​​third times the light and peo­ple real­ize that you have made tests and comparisons.

A dealer may say, “Our prices have been reduced” with­out cre­at­ing any marked impres­sion. But when he says “Our prices have been reduced 25 per­cent” he gets the full value of his announcement.

A mail order adver­tiser sold women’s cloth­ing to peo­ple of the poorer classes. For years he used the slo­gan, “Low­est prices in Amer­ica.” His rivals all copied that. Then he guar­an­teed to under­sell any other dealer. His rivals did like­wise. Soon those claims became com­mon to every adver­tiser in his line, and they became commonplace.

Then under able advice, he changed his state­ment to “Our net profit is 3 per­cent.” That was a def­i­nite state­ment and it proved very impres­sive. With their vol­ume of busi­ness it was evi­dent that their prices must be min­i­mum. No one could be expected to do busi­ness on less than 3 per­cent. The next year their busi­ness made a sen­sa­tional increase.

At one time in the auto­mo­bile busi­ness there was a gen­eral impres­sion that prof­its were exces­sive. One well-​​advised adver­tiser came out with this state­ment, “Our profit is 9 per­cent.” Then he cited actual costs on the hid­den costs of a $1,500 car. They amounted to $735, with­out includ­ing any­thing one could eas­ily see. This adver­tiser made a great suc­cess along those lines at that time.

Shav­ing soaps have long been adver­tised “Abun­dant lather,” “Does not dry on the face,” “Acts quickly,” etc. One adver­tiser had as good a chance as the other to impress those claims. Then a new maker came into the field. It was a tremen­dously dif­fi­cult field, for every cus­tomer had to taken from some­one else. He stated spe­cific facts.

He said, “Soft­ens the beard in one minute.” “Main­tains its creamy full­ness for ten min­utes on the face.” “The final result of test­ing and com­par­ing 130 for­mu­las.” Per­haps never in adver­tis­ing has there been a quicker and greater suc­cess in an equally dif­fi­cult field.

Mak­ers of safety razors have long adver­tised quick shaves. One maker adver­tised a 78-​​second shave. That was def­i­nite. It indi­cated actual tests. That man at once made a sen­sa­tional advance in his sales.

In the old days all beers were adver­tised as “Pure.” The claim made no impres­sion. The big­ger the type used, the big­ger the folly. After mil­lions had been spent to impress a plat­i­tude, one brewer pic­tured a plate glass room where beer was cooled in fil­tered air. He pic­tured a fil­ter of white wood pulp through which every drop was cleared.

He told how bot­tles were washed four times by machin­ery. How he went down 4,000 feet for pure water. How 1,018 exper­i­ments had been made to attain a yeast to give beer that match­less fla­vor. And how all the yeast was for­ever made from that adopted mother cell.

All claims were such as any brewer might have made. They were mere essen­tials in ordi­nary brew­ing. But he was the first to tell the peo­ple about them, while oth­ers cried merely “pure beer.” He made the great­est suc­cess that was ever made in beer adver­tis­ing. “Used the world over” is a very elas­tic claim. Then one adver­tiser said, “Used by the peo­ples of 52 nations,” and many oth­ers followed.

One state­ment may take as much room as another, yet a def­i­nite state­ment may be many times as effec­tive. The dif­fer­ence is vast. If a claim is worth mak­ing, make it in the most impres­sive way. All these effects must be stud­ied. Salesmanship-​​in-​​print is very expen­sive. A salesman’s loose talk mat­ters lit­tle. But when you are talk­ing to mil­lions at enor­mous cost, the weight of your claims is important.

No gen­er­al­ity has any weight what­ever. It is like say­ing “How do you do?” When you have no inten­tion of inquir­ing about ones health. But spe­cific claims when made in print are taken at their value.

About the Author

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