Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [173]
Which of the following two headlines is more effective?
A. Are you afraid of making mistakes in English?
B. Do you make these mistakes in English?
9.1.3. Lead the reader into the body copy
Create a headline that will encourage readers to continue reading. Consider using such words as “why,” “how to,” or “these” in the headline; they invite the reader to continue. In the lead-in above, Headline B generated far more inquiries because the word “these” led the reader into the copy (Caples 1932).
This principle is important for products that have strong arguments, where advertisers want customers to read the ads.
Avoid using words or punctuation that might cause the reader to stop. Use familiar words rather than vague or difficult words. Use punctuation, such as a question mark, that encourages the reader to continue reading. Ogilvy advised against using periods (full stops); they tell the reader to stop. Therefore, when the text is worth reading, avoid using periods at the end of the headline.
I examined All-American Ads: 20s (Heinmann, 2004). It contains approximately 865 ads published in the United States during the 1920s. Only 3 percent of the headlines used periods. However, today, periods are used frequently. Pick up nearly any nearly any magazine or newspaper and check for yourself. In addition, our WAPB analysis found that of the 422 full-page print ads with headlines (many of them with strong arguments), 75 percent had periods in the headline. Current practice seems misguided with respect to use of this free principle.
Evidence on effects of leading readers into the copy
Our quasi-experimental analysis supports this principle with respect to the omission of periods:
Print ads without periods in the headline had better recall. Our WAPB analysis of data found 20 pairs of print ads with strong arguments, in which one of the ads used a period in the headline while the other did not. Recall for ads without periods was 1.20 times better than for the other ads.
Are short headlines more effective than long ones?
9.1.4. Keep the headline short for low-involvement products only
Short headlines are desirable only for low-involvement goods. Do not worry about the length of the headline for high-involvement goods. Tell readers all they need to know—while avoiding unnecessary words, of course.
Long headlines can help to convey pertinent information for high-involvement products. Antin (1993), an advertising expert, claimed the following 38-word headline was effective:
To the thousands of people who’ve tried to call for reservations on the Auto-Train™ and gotten a busy signal:
1. we’ve doubled our phones
2. we added many more agents
3. and we’re now taking your calls seven days a week.
Evidence on effects of short headlines
Our analysis of quasi-experimental data supports this principle:
Print ads with shorter headlines had better recall for low-involvement products, but poorer recall for high-involvement products. Our WAPB analysis found 31 pairs of print ads for low-involvement products in which the number of words in the headlines in each pair differed by two or more. Recall for shorter headlines was 1.07 times greater than for the other ads. However, the situation was reversed for the 118 pairs of ads for high-involvement products. Recall for longer headlines was 1.11 times greater.
A review of unpublished eye-tracking studies from Germany led to the conclusion that readers viewed most full-page print ads for about two seconds. During this scan, they spent the most time viewing the visual, followed by the headline (Franzen 1994, #5.3). Given that people read at about three or four words per second (Just and Carpenter 1987), the headline’s message should be quickly apparent and easily understandable, especially for low-involvement ads.
9.2. Pictures
In 1867, French artist Jules Cheret had the idea of using artistic