“Our prices have been reduced 25 per cent”
“Our net profit is 3 per cent”
“The final result of testing and comparing 130 formulas”
The 3 claims above are all drawn from chapter 7 of “Scientific Advertising”, called “Being Specific”.
The point that Claude Hopkins makes throughout the chapter is that when you make a specific claim in your copywriting, it is evidence that you have conducted research and tests. As a result, people are much more inclined to believe your claims.
“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 prices 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 carelessness of truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements that you make.”
This last point is critical, especially in situations where you’re already dealing with a high degree of scepticism or resistance from the reader. If you’re in a highly competitive market, you cannot afford to have the reader instantly dismiss your claims and move on.
Markets such as weight loss or the biz-op market, for example, are extraordinarily crowded and prospects have seen many, many competing products making the same sort of claims.
Hopkins provides a number of examples (note how much more convincing that would be if I’d said “3 examples”!) of this idea in practice.
One is the legendary Schlitz Beer ad where he went into great detail in the copywriting about how the beer was brewed to back of the claims of “purity”. Schlitz went from an also-ran to the #1 position in their market and stayed there for many years.
This lesson is as relevant today as when Hopkins wrote the book. Perhaps even more so in an age where customers are pressed for time and are bombarded with messages. Generalities and platitudes will simply be ignored or not even noticed.
Hopkins closes the chapter with these words…
“No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying, ‘How do you do?’ when you have no intention of inquiring about one’s health. But specific claims when made in print are taken at their value.”
[…] “Scientific Advertising In The 21st Century” – Part 7 “Being Specific” […]