Claude C. Hopkins > Quotes

“The man who wins out and survives does so only because of superior science and strategy.”
― Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising -

“When I find what seems to be the right course I always wish to keep it. There may be another way to success, even to greater success. But the chances are against it. The ways to great success in any line are not numerous. When a certain method has proved itself profitable I hesitate to drop it, until I have found and proved a better method by some local tests. The best way found to sell a product to thousands is probably the best way to sell other thousands.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising

“If a thing is useful they call it work, if useless they call it play. One is as hard as the other. One can be just as much a game as the other. In both there is rivalry. There’s a struggle to excel the rest. All the difference I see lies in attitude of mind.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising

“None but those who regard advertising as some magic dreamland will ever try to sell without sampling. Another”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising

“We are influenced by our surroundings. The prosperous mingle with the prosperous, so do those of certain likes and inclinations. The higher we ascend the farther we proceed from ordinary humanity. That will not do in advertising. I have seen”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising

“Again that limelights a principle in advertising. People are like sheep. They cannot judge values, nor can you and I. We judge things largely by others’ impressions, by popular favor. We go with the crowd. So the most effective thing I have ever found in advertising is the trend of the crowd. That is a factor not to be overlooked. People follow styles and preferences. We rarely decide for ourselves, because we don’t know the facts. But when we see the crowds taking any certain direction, we are much inclined to go with them.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising

“The maker of an advertised article knows the manufacturing side and probably the dealers side. But this very knowledge often leads him astray in respect to customers. His interests are not in their interests. The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in the position of the buyer. His success largely depends on doing that to the exclusion of everything else.

This book will contain no more important chapter than this one on salesmanship. The reason for most of the non-successes in advertising is trying to sell people what they do not want. But next to that comes lack of true salesmanship.

Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are written to please the seller. The interest of the buyer are forgotten. One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print, when that attitude exists.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

“A man who has made a success desires to see others make a success. A man who has worked wants to see others work. I am that way. Countless young people now flock to my home, but the welcome ones are those who work, whether young men or young women. A boy having a good time on his father's money has always been offensive to me. So, to a degree, a young woman.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, My Life in Advertising

“These are all common principles of salesmanship. The most ignorant peddler applies them. Yet the salesman-in-print very often forgets them. He talks about his interest. He blazons a name, as though that was of importance. His phrase is, “Drive people to the stores,” and that is his attitude in everything he says. People can be coaxed but not driven. Whatever they do they do to please themselves. Many fewer mistakes would be made in advertising if these facts were never forgotten.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

“THE product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, an atmosphere, which you place around it.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923): 1923 Library of Congress Facsimile Edition

“It is a very shrewd thing to watch the development of a popular trend, the creation of new desires. Then at the right time offer to satisfy those desires.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising: Complete and Unabridged

“He said, “Multiplies itself in lather 250 times.” "Softens the beard in one minute." "Maintains its creamy fullness for ten minutes on the face." "The final result”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

“Give samples to interested people only. Give them only to people who exhibit that interest by some effort. Give them only to people whom you have told your story. First create an atmosphere of respect, a desire, an expectation. When people are in that mood, your sample will usually confirm the qualities you claim.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923): 1923 Library of Congress Facsimile Edition

“And the few who cheat you are not generally the people who would buy. So you are not losing purchasers, but the samples only.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923): 1923 Library of Congress Facsimile Edition

“Don’t be like a salesman who wears conspicuous clothes. The small percentage he appeals to are not usually good buyers. The great majority of the sane and thrifty heartily despise him. Be normal in everything you do when you are seeking confidence and conviction”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising: Complete and Unabridged

“We are now sampling phonograph records.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923): 1923 Library of Congress Facsimile Edition

“These become a part of the organization’s equipment, and a guide to all who follow. Thus, in the course of decades, such agencies become storehouses of advertising experiences, proved principles and methods.”
― Claude C. Hopkins, Scientific Advertising (1923): 1923 Library of Congress Facsimile Edition