Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [172]
9.5. Typeface
9.6. Layout
9.1. Headline
you must write the headline first, and then having done that,
the art … illustrates the headline.
Albert Lasker (famous advertising executive), early 1900s
According to Presbrey (1929, p. 68), the headline was the outstanding addition to English print advertising in the 1700s. Benjamin Franklin played a key role with his ideas of adding white space above and below the headline, using a larger font size (such as 14 point), shortening the headline to a phrase, and centering it.
Ogilvy said that he wrote 104 headlines and tested 26 of them with associates before he came up with his 1958 classic: “At 60 miles an hour the loudest noise in the new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock.” His ad ran only once in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and Sunset. It was so successful that Rolls-Royce sales in the United States tripled for that year. Unfortunately, Rolls-Royce could not handle the increased demand and its quality deteriorated. Therefore, it cut back on advertising and changed agencies (Glatzer 1970). Interestingly, in 1933, Charles Brower of the BBDO agency had written a Pierce-Arrow automobile ad: “The only sound one can hear in the new Pierce-Arrow is the ticking of the electric clock.”1
9.1.1. Use descriptive headlines for high-involvement products
Headlines should catch the readers’ attention and lead them into the copy. This is especially applicable for utilitarian products with strong arguments. While this principle might seem like common sense, many ads do not use it. For example, of the 304 WAPB high-involvement print ads with headlines, only 31 percent of the headlines were descriptive.
Headlines are also important for Internet pages because people are seeking information about products. Each page should have a different descriptive headline to guide visitors and to inform search engines.
Evidence on effects of descriptive headlines for high-involvement products
Our analysis of quasi-experimental data supports this principle:
Print ads with descriptive headlines had much better recall. Our WAPB analysis found 24 pairs of print ads for high-involvement products in which one ad had descriptive headlines, while the other headline did not describe any product benefits or features. For example, a Bendix fan clutch ad with the headline, “Introducing the only fan clutch with a three-year, 300,000 mile warranty,” had much better recall than a Bendix ad headlined, “Look for the label that delivers durability.” Recall for the descriptive-headlined ads was 1.52 times greater than for the other ads.
9.1.2. Include the brand name in the headline
It is important to mention the brand in at the beginning of an ad, which typically means that it should go in the headline. This is especially relevant for well-liked brands. The brand alerts readers and provides a good first impression. In addition, it is expected to be more relevant for low-involvement products in which the advertiser has only a brief opportunity to capture attention.
This is an old principle. Starch (1914) recommended including the firm or brand name in the headline. Ogilvy claimed that if the headline does not state the brand name, most people would never know which product was being advertised.
Some experts advise using the brand name as the object in the headline. Consider this successful example of an ad for bread from Bill Bernbach: “You don’t have to be Jewish to love Levy’s.”
Evidence on the effects of using brand names in headlines
Our analysis of quasi-experimental data on print ads supports this principle:
Print ads with brand names in the headline had much better recall and persuasion, especially for low-involvement products. Our WAPB analysis found 24 pairs print ads for low-involvement products, in which one of the ads used the brand name in the headline while the other did not. Recall for brand name ads was 1.49 times better than for the other ads.
We also found 40 pairs of high-involvement ads where one ad included the brand name in the