My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising

I’m not a copy writer or an expert in advertising nor marketing. But after reading this book i feel i am more than competent to “hire” the right copy writer or ad person to do my marketing work. If you can only apply one thing from the book is to not allow ad people to waste your hard earn money on humor ads. They might be entertaining and memorable BUT they dont make people buy which is number one thing of the fundamentals of advertising, to sell!!

Claude Hopkins is one of the first, if not the first, successful direct-response marketing practitioners (from what I understand).All the the direct-response copywriting and marketing giants that came after him (people like David Ogilvy) studied his work and recommend it to serious students of the subject.Of the two books, Scientific Advertising is more useful. It presents the rules of successful advertising. Some of it you may already know from other books. If so, it will still remind you what to do in your own marketing endeavors and strengthen your belief in it.The other book, My Life in Advertising, shares biographical details and famous case studies. It’s worth reading too.

By far, this two-in-one edition published by McGraw-Hill of Claude Hopkins' two seminal works on advertising is the best. The other editions that I've seen mainly of "Scientific Advertising" (published a lot more recently than this one) are, in my opinion, sloppy and carelessly put together: full of errors and omissions.Not so with this book.Here, you get a very clean and clear reprint of the 1966 edition. More than 300 pages of Claude Hopkins' unparalleled wisdom based on decades of field-tested experience in the trenches. It makes for great reading (without all the errors of the later editions)!"Scientific Advertising" is a handbook of best practices, a field guide to what works best. "My Life in Advertising" is a business biography (autobiography) that contains priceless accounts of both victories and defeats, wins and losses, throughout Hopkins' career. We all can learn from both the mistakes and the milestones attained by this gifted and dedicated master!I'll admit I was a little surprised to find that there is no mention anywhere that 1966 marked the 100th anniversary (CENTENNIAL) of Hopkins' birth! Oh, well. A small and forgivable oversight.This fascinating volume makes a terrific (and inexpensive) textbook on direct-response advertising and copywriting. Much to learn from this pioneer of modern advertising that still applies today. If I were you, I wouldn't hesitate one minute to get this book -- specifically THIS EDITION -- into your marketing and copywriting library. Pronto!

Claude C. Hopkins (1866-1932) was a pioneer in the advertising industry. This volume consists of his two books: Scientific Advertising written in 1923, and My Life in Advertising written in 1927. NBC and CBS were founded around the time of Hopkins' retirement, so his work predated the broadcasting era. The media of his time were newspapers, magazines, and direct mail."Salesmanship-in-print is exactly the same as salesmanship-in-person." If the purpose of advertising is to sell, then its effectiveness can be measured by resulting sales volume. Hopkins tested ads on a small scale before risking money on a large-scale campaign. He also compared results using different headlines in order to discover the best performing approach."Never seek to amuse. That is not the purpose of advertising." Hopkins would likely be disturbed by a great deal of modern advertising where creativity overshadows salesmanship.Hopkins used free trials to successfully penetrate markets, but he felt the word "free" cheapens a product. Instead he would say, "We will buy your first package." He did not find it effective to give away samples to people who did not request them."Some say, be very brief... That would be an unthinkable handicap... Every ad. in my opinion, should tell a complete story. It should include every facet and argument found to be valuable. Most people I figure, read a story once, as they do a news item. I know of no reason why they should read it again."The vocabulary sounds surprisingly modern, with a few exceptions here and there, such as dilatory, folly, palaver, rudiments, and trifle. The prices (one cent postage stamp) and car brands (Chalmers, Hudson, Mitchell, Overland, Reo, Studebaker) add a bit of early twentieth century flavor.Scientific Advertising (100 pages, 21 short chapters) may be purchased as a standalone volume. The autobiography (200 pages) adds additional context through stories about various campaigns.With today's trend towards data-driven decisions and increased scrutiny of marketing budgets, this 85-year-old book is surprisingly relevant. While some of the techniques from Hopkins' time may no longer be effective, the fundamental message of Scientific Advertising is timeless.

Many sales and marketing guru's and copywriters for that matter, cite Claude Hopkins as a major influence in terms of the techniques they learned from his work and the principles he explains in the many mini case studies and examples in these two works.I agree with the guru's the man was a genius, I have copies in my collection of various ads that Mr Hopkins created. Not only was he a great copywriter he understood how to structure deals to generate interest, using coupons and direct response mechanisms, that can easily be applied to today.Here's a quote to end this review.`Argue anything for your own advantage and people will resist to the limit. But seem unselfishly to consider your customers desires, and they will naturally flock to you.'It's one of those books you need to read a few times, making notes in the margin, asking yourself the question. How can I apply this to my business?

What a genius of advertising this guy was. So many valuable lessons to learn here. One would think that being as old as this book is, and how advanced marketing is these days. The advise could be redundant. Not true.

Although the book is about advertising principles used a hundred years ago. I've found out that many of them could be adapted very successfully

I bought this for my husband it arrived very quickly & we were kept informed. I can't comment on the book itself but my husband think it's fab!!

My son said it was very interesting