Breakthrough Advertising was highly recommended to me by a friend and consultant, who credited it with helping build many profitable businesses, all of which relied on copywriting to sell products and services.
I was initially hesitant to pick up on its $150 price tag (since it's out of print), which has since risen to $300. It previously sold for $500+. It's also available now via a sales page that claims Mrs. Schwartz has the blessing of a reprint.
Regardless, I'm glad I picked it up, as it has had a huge impact on the way I write and communicate.
Why is Breakthrough Advertising so expensive?
List prices for used copies of Breakthrough Advertising are expensive because the book's opening time was limited in 1966, but it has since become a cult classic in the marketing industry. The price is higher on Amazon because sellers there are listing the book and shipping it from Titans Marketing Re-Print.
Breakthrough Advertising: Benefits
Breakthrough Advertising is a dry read if you're not into advertising or a related field. I recommend the book for:
Advertisement
Marketing
copywriting
Fiction/Non-fiction writing
entrepreneurs
You can expect conclusive advertising:
improve copywriting skills
Improve understanding of effective advertising
improve written communication
Increase your ability to sell through writing
develop an understanding of consumer psychology
develop rhetorical sales skills
The value of the book is mostly in the sections in understanding the markets, and the psychology of selling and buying - or, communicating convincingly and effectively.
Breakthrough Ad: Criticism
Much of the book has been taken by dissecting specific examples. Schwartz was a mail-order copywriter, and most examples are long-running advertisements in magazines and letters. Obviously, the style of these advertisements is quite old.
Most of the book deals with manipulating people's behavior and desires. This may sound daunting, especially considering that most of Schwartz's work and examples were in more shady workspaces such as weight loss products, correspondence courses, tobacco products, and more.
basic concept
Schwartz does an excellent job of quantifying the role of imitation in society. Basic Principle:
role of copy
It is not possible to create problems, or create solutions - only to make existing problems and solutions clear and actionable for the reader.
The copywriter uses three tools in his work: his own knowledge of people's hopes, dreams, desires, and feelings; its customer's product; and the advertising message, which links the two.
Steps to write an effective copy:
The book explains these steps for copying:
Consumer Need: What is the will of the public that makes up this market?
Consumer Awareness: How much do these people know today about how your product satisfies their desire?
Consumer sophistication: How many other products have been presented to you?
Each step is carefully described throughout the rest of the book.
collective will
The collective will is defined as "the public dissemination of private need".
[Advertising] can simply take the hopes, dreams, apprehensions, and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions, and concentrate those pre-existing desires into a particular product.
The Collective will fall into two categories:
Standing force (people's instincts, widespread technical problems)
Forces of Change (Consumer Trends, Mass Education, Effective Economy)
The forces of change (trends) are harder to predict and exploit than enduring forces such as the desire to be attractive, or the desire to be well-liked. The trend towards bigger, wider cars is cited as an example. Auto manufacturers who attempted to buck this trend failed to sell cars, even when the car was better than the big "status symbol" cars in every practical way.
When examining a product or service being sold, you can expect it to satisfy 3-4 wishes. You have to choose the most important desire to satisfy in advertising.
Side note: Schwartz also discussed the long-lasting impact on trends, which have apparently become a lot more critical and easier to manipulate for social media and micro-celebrities. In Schwartz's time, the control of influential product choice was less accessible. (Though probably more impressive for those who could.)
state of awareness
Determining "consumer awareness" is one of the most powerful tools of indecisive advertising.
Identifying the state of awareness is the key to functional copywriting. A consumer who is ready to buy only has to show only the brand and the low price to buy. A consumer who doesn't know they have a problem the product can solve will react to a brand and price with indifference, or ignore it. However, a brief description of their problem will grab their attention and move them down the funnel in the direction of making a purchase.
Schwartz divided consumer awareness into five stages:
Problem and Product Awareness: The prospect wants to buy, just needs an invitation to do so. (price, brand.)
Product Awareness: The customer knows about the product but doesn't want it yet.
Desire aware: The customer knows his desire but not the specific product.
Need to be aware: The customer has a need but has not considered products to satisfy it.
No Awareness: Clients are completely unaware that they even need to be resolved.
The first level requires zero creativity to make a sale and each level requires an increasing level of planning and creativity.
I found it valuable because I do a lot of copy work in keyword groups to capture search traffic. Schwartz's set of Specials Reviews
What's is a more nuanced version of the level of consumer awareness I usually settle for.
overcoming potential objections
Four ways to overcome objections that block sales:
Simplify a complex problem.
Increase value by redefining the product to meet additional needs.
Reduce price (or redefine value in terms of value).
Eliminate alternatives: Destroy other ways for possibilities to fulfill a wish (full chapter devoted to this).
Understanding Irrational Consumer Behavior
One of the most interesting findings I found from Breakthrough Advertising was the description of irrational desires and purchases. Why is the desire for a status symbol so much that one buys a car that is twice as big and expensive as it actually is?
There's a lot of meat in the chapter, but the main thing is that you should be aware of the character roles, and avoid playing them directly.
For example, advertisers can satisfy men's desires by suggesting that smoking tobacco makes you more masculine. But since it is absurd to say this, it is clearly shown: the star of cigarette commercials by making cowboys and similar masculine fanatics.
Camouflage: Match the material to the context
Schwartz shows examples of designing full-page advertisements to fit the context of the journal or paper in which they are published. These are largely crafted for context, matching the format and style as well as the tone and voice of the reference brand. Why? Mainly, to borrow credibility from context.
This chapter was surprisingly relevant to current trends in content marketing and includes many common tropes such as citing celebrity advocates, references in large publications, etc.
In an online context, this is why Google AdWords or content marketing is so much more effective than random banners, even if they are algorithmically targeted to a reader's profile based on a plethora of data. Customers are "banner blind" because the banner does not match the context of the content they are voluntarily linking to.
Actionable Conclusions from Breakthrough Advertising
Determine leadership, awareness, and sophistication and sell to that specific group. Effective copy can only act on one group at a time.
Products satisfy the desire to fit in or achieve more or less a condition than it satisfies the actual problems. "At least half of all purchases today cannot be understood in terms of function alone." In 2018, I would argue that it is over 90%.
The title should never be sold. Headlines or any "first impression copy" have only one job: tell them to keep reading. (Unless the customer is in the ultimate state of awareness and only needs the brand/price to buy.)
To remove objections: Simplify the problem, increase the value, reduce the cost, or invalidate the alternative solution.
Preventive products are sold to someone who cares about the prospect, not the prospects themselves. Example: Life insurance. A person is unlikely to buy unless the aggrieved family members are convinced that they will suffer if an accident occurs.
The cost of running a successful ad
It's worth noting that, unlike many copywriting gurus, Eugene Schwartz had the skin at the game and practiced what he preached.
Most of the advice I find online or in popular copywriting/advertising books comes from "gurus" who are great at selling this method but have limited success in actually implementing their strategies. This is completely understandable: I will certainly never publish the strategies I use in my work that have been the most influential.
Breakthrough advertising is exempt from this category because the game featured Eugene Schwarz's skin: he usually worked for address lists instead of money and actually spent his money reselling his customer's new products. Was. (Mostly his own books.) He always waited until later in life to write about his strategy and process, which I take as a good indication of how the book would include more impressive details.
Arthashastra writer Naseem Taleb proposed a concept to predict the value of books based on their age – a book that is read after 25 years will live 25 more, while books published this year will last for another year. Will go will become obsolete.
Given that Breakthrough Advertising is still read 52 years after its 1966 publication (even if only by a specific audience), I expect this insight to remain relevant for the rest of my working life. I keep revisiting it whenever I need inspiration or guidance to explain, even outside the marketing world.
