Scientific Advertising

Scientific Advertising is a book written by Claude C Hopkins in 1923 and is cited by many advertising and marketing personalities (such as David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, and Jay Abraham) as a "must-read" book. According to Paul Feldwick, it has sold over eight million copies.[1] David Ogilvy wrote that "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times. It changed the course of my life."[2]

The book is cited as being the original description of the process of split testing and of coupon-based customer tracking and loyalty schemes. In the book, Hopkins outlines an advertising approach based on testing and measuring. In this way losses from unsuccessful ads are kept to a safe level while gains from profitable ads are multiplied. Or, as Hopkins wrote, the advertiser is "playing on the safe side of a hundred to one shot".

The book is widely considered the foundation of direct marketing.

In the TV-series Mad Men, season 1 episode 11, the character Peggy Olson reads Scientific Advertising to prepare herself for work. She is a copywriter.

References
  1. Feldwick, Paul (2015). The Anatomy of Humbug. Leicestershire: Matador. p. 6. ISBN 978-1784621-926.
  2. David Ogilvy: Ogilvy on Advertising. Pan Books (London and Sydney). 1983, p. 203 (without "at any level")
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