Ogilvy on Advertising

Do not, however, address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing each of them a letter on behalf of your client. One human being to another, second person singular.

I have come to regard advertising as part of the product, to be treated as a production cost, not a selling cost. It follows that it should not be cut back when times are hard, any more than you would stint any other essential ingredient in your product.

It pays to write short sentences and short paragraphs, and to avoid difficult words.

In everything you do, keep your eye glued to the heavy users. They are unlike occasional users in their motivations.

His attitude to the creative process can be summed up in three things he said: 1 ‘There is an inherent drama in every product. Our No. 1 job is to dig for it and capitalize on it.’ 2 ‘When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either.’ 3 ‘Steep yourself in your subject, work like hell, and l

What is marketing? I once heard Marvin Bower define marketing as objectivity. I cannot beat that.

Five tips 1 Never allow two people to do a job which one could do.

According to Professor Hall, the most successful commodity products differentiated themselves in one of two ways: either by low cost or by having the best reputation for quality or service.

Headlines get five times the readership of the body copy. If your headline doesn’t sell, you have wasted your money. Your headline should promise a benefit, or deliver news, or offer a service, or tell a significant story, or recognize a problem, or quote a satisfied customer.