Claude C. Hopkins Quotes

People don't buy from clowns.

Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interests of the buyer are forgotten.

The advertising man who spares the midnight oil will never get very far.

Literary qualifications have no more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship. One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly, and convincingly, just as a salesman must.

Do nothing to merely interest, assume or attract. This is not your province. Do only that wins the people you are after in the cheapest possible way

Lust is a monstrous sin which altereth, marreth, and drieth the body, weakening all the joints and members, making the face bubbled and yellow, shortening life, diminishing memory, understanding, and the very heart.

The product itself should be it's own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and atmosphere, which you place around it

We cannot go after thousands of men until we learn how to win one.

Names which tell stories have been worth millions of dollars. So a great deal of research often precedes the selection of a name.

Genius is the art of taking pains

Ads are not written to entertain. When they do, those entertainment seekers rare little likely to be the people whom you want. This is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad writers abandon their part. They forgot they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead of sales, they seek applause

"Best in the world," "lowest price in existence, " etc are at best claiming the expected. But superlative of that sort are usually damaging. They suggestion looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make

Picture what others wish to be, not what they may be now

The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science.

The one just consider the average reader s only once a reader, probably. And when you fail to tell them in that ad is something he may never know

A man coined to superlative must expect that his every statement will be taken with some caution

Changing people's habits is very expensive

Don't, to gain general and useless attention, sacrifice the attention that you want

Scientific advertising has altered many old plans and conceptions. It has proved many long established methods to be folly

If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way.

Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring

Whatever claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete.

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

Advertising is much like war, minus the venom

People will not be bored. They may listen politely at a dinner table to boasts and personalities, life history, etc. But in print they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They was to be amused or benefitted

The man who wins out and survives does so only because of superior science and strategy.

The only readers we get are people whom our subject interests. No one reads ads for amusement, long or short... Give them enough to take action

This is no lazy mans field

Fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject

In the old days, advertisers ventured on their own opinions. The few guess right, the many wrong. Those were the time of advertising disaster

Impressive claims are made far more impressive by making them exact

The writing of headline is one of the great journalistic arts. They either conceal or reveal am interest

Most national advertising is done without justification. It is merely presumed to pay. A little test might show a way to multiply returns

Never be led in new paths by the blind

Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or profit. They seek service for themselves

Every reader of your ad is interested, else he would not be a reader. You are dealing with someone willing to listen. Then do your level best. That reader, if you lose him now, May never again be a reader

The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, "hey there, Bill Jones" to get the right persons attention.so it is in n advertisement

Curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives

Address the people you seek, and them only

The compass of accurate knowledge directs the shortest, safest, cheapest course to any destination

Don't think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view.

The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific

One may gain attention by wearing a fools cap. But he would ruin his selling prospects

Almost any questions can be answered,cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that's he way to answer them - not by arguments around a table

On most lines, making a sale without making a convert does not count for much. Sales made by conviction - by advertising - are likely to bring permanent customers. People who buy through casual recommendations often do not stick

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck.