Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [140]
The benefits of adjectives also showed up in non-experimental studies. An analysis of 73 full-page magazine ads, found that the number of adjectives in the headlines was positively related to the readership of the ads (Rossiter 1981). Similar results were obtained in an analysis of 168 ads from Iron Age and Food Engineering, in which the number of adjectives in the headline was positively related to the percentage of people who “started to read” the ad, and a higher percentage of people who kept reading (Soley and Reid 1983).
7.6.3. Use familiar words and phrases
The secret of all effective originality in advertising is not the creation of new and tricky
words and pictures, but one of putting familiar words and pictures into new relationships.
Leo Burnett, 1940s
Starting in the 1950s, Wonder Bread used a tagline, “builds strong bodies eight ways.” The phrase became part of U.S. culture. A 1960s Volkswagen ad by Bernbach played on that familiar phrase by referring to its eight models with the tagline, “Volkswagen builds strong bodies eight ways.”
Simon (1974) discussed the importance of familiarity in recall. He said that when grandmasters in chess are shown a chessboard position from an actual game, they typically remember the exact position on each of the 20 to 25 pieces, whereas ordinary players can place only half a dozen. However, if the chess pieces are placed randomly, grandmasters are little better than amateurs at remembering positions.
Familiar words are quickly understood. They help sweep the reader along. In contrast, unfamiliar words and complex phrases cause readers to pause and to look backwards in the sentence. They focus on the words rather than on the message.
Familiarity also extends to grammar. Common-usage by the target market should generally take precedence over correct grammar, because the grammar should not call attention to itself. Thus, many people say, “It’s me” rather than, “It’s I.” While the latter is grammatically correct, it might seem odd to many people and thus distract from the attention paid to the message itself.
One way to determine whether the wording is familiar to the target market is by testing alternative copy versions using samples of potential customers. However, for little cost, you can get a rough idea of frequency of words by doing Google searches. For example, Jaguar automobiles built a campaign in 2006 around the word “gorgeous.” My Google search found that “beautiful” was about six times more common than “gorgeous.”
Evidence on effects of familiar words or sayings
Support for this principle is modest, primarily based on received wisdom and our quasi-experimental analysis:
Print ads with familiar words or sayings resulted in better recall and persuasion. Our WAPB analysis found 14 pairs of print ads in which one ad used familiar words or sayings, while the other ad did not. For example, a Sony ad that said “it keeps delivering exceptional sound even when it’s dripping wet” had a recall score thrice that of another Sony ad that stated that “Sony turns eensy into eensy-weensy.” To judge familiarity, we used Google searches. For example, a search of ‘exceptional sound’ brought in about 26 times more results than ‘eensy-weensy.’ Recall for ads with familiar words and phrases was 1.32 times better than for the other ads.
We also analyzed non-experimental data in WAPB. In comparison with the industry norms for each ad, the average persuasion score for the 210 ads that used common words and phrases was 6 percent higher than the comparable score for the 68 ads without familiar words and phrases.
7.7. Wordplay
In 1955, the Bulova Watch Company attached a watch to a ball and sent it over the Niagara Falls. The announcer said, “Watch it; it’s going over … down into that raging torrent … buffeted and jolted by the forces of that terrific current … and here it is still ticking