Monday, July 21, 2025

#213 Headlines


 #213   Thursday 31 July 2025

 https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2025/07/213-headlines-dupe-dupe.html

Posted by Denny Hatch 

 

 "The Wickedest of All Sins Is to Run 
An Advertisement Without a Headli
ne."
                                     
 —David Ogilvy  

 

 

This artsy-craftsy, zero-headline ad ran as a full page in Fortune magazine. Because it had no offer, nothing to sell, nothing to entice the reader into reading the copy (the paltry total of 13 words!), no coupon or order mechanism, no address or phone number to ask for more information, it was impossible to come up with the ROI — Return on Investment. 

This is like peeing in blue serge. It makes you feel good and nobody notices.
  
 

 In the world of advertising, they are called headlines.
 

• Newspaper journalists call them heds.

• On book covers, special reports, white papers, articles, short 
   stories, blogs and press releases they are called titles.

 • On memos and e-mails they are the subject lines.

 • On a direct mail envelope the illustration and text are 
    the teaser.

  Whatever the medium — a headline, title or teaser — it's what 
    your reader sees first.

• "The headline selects the reader." 
    —Direct marketing guru Axel Andersson.

 "Writing headlines is one of the greatest journalist arts."
    —Claude Hopkins 

•  "Headlines, subject lines, teasers and titles are the hot pants 
     on the hooker." 
    —Bill Jayme

•  "Headlines make ads work. The best headlines appeal to 
     people’s self-interest or give news."         
    —John Caples 

•  "Long headlines that say something out-pull short headlines 
     that say nothing."
    —John Caples

•  "Remember that every headline has one job. It must stop 
    your prospects with a believable promise." 
    —John Caples 

•  "In TV, it’s the start of the commercial. In radio, it's the first 
    few words. In a letter, the first paragraph. Even a telephone 
    call has a headline. Come up with a good headline, and you’re 
    almost sure to have a good ad. But even the greatest writer 
    can’t save an ad with a poor headline. You can’t make an ad 
    pull unless people stop to read your brilliant copy."
    —John Caples

•  Don't ask questions in teasers and headlines that can be
    answered yes or no. This gives control of the communication 
    to your reader." 
    —George Duncan

 

              The Lodestar of the Crown Jewel in My Library,
                             OGILVY ON ADVERTISING:
I do not regard advertising as entertainment or an art form, but as a medium of information. When I write an advertisement, I don't want you to tell me that you find it 'creative.' I want you to find it so interesting that you buy the product. When Aeschines spoke, they said, 'How well he speaks.' But when Demosthenes spoke, they said, 'Let us march against Philip.'


                                   David Ogilvy on Headlines
The headline is the ticket on the meat. Use it to flag down readers who are prospects for the kind of products you are advertising. If you want mothers to read your advertisement, display MOTHERS in your headline. And so on. Conversely do not say anything in your headline which is likely to exclude any readers who might be prospects for your product.

On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. It follows that if you don’t sell the product in your headline, you have wasted 90% of your money.    

The headlines that work best are those which promise the reader a benefit.


Headline Length. In headline tests conducted with cooperation of a big department store, it was found that headlines of 10 words or longer sold more goods than short headlines. In terms of recall, headlines between 8 and 10 words get the most coupon returns. In the average, long headlines sell more merchandise than short ones — headlines like our: "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock."


News and headlines. Headlines that contain news are sure-fire. Time after time we have found that it pays to inject genuine news into headlines. 

 Simple headlines. Your headline should telegraph what you want to say — in simple language. Readers do not stop to decipher the meanings of obscure headlines.

Localize headlines. 
In local advertising, it pays to include the name of the city in your headline.


Typography.
The more typographical changes you make in your headline, the fewer people will read it.


Capital Letters.
Set your headline, and indeed your whole advertisement, in upper/lower case. CAPITAL LETTERS ARE MUCH HARDER TO READ, PROBABLY BECAUSE WE LEARN TO READ in lower case. People read all their books, newspapers and magazines in lower case.


Surprinting.
Never deface your illustration by printing your headline over it. Old-fashioned art directors love doing this, but it reduces the attention value of the advertisement by an average of 19 percent.  Newspaper editors never do it. In general, imitate the editors; they form the reading habits of their customers.
 


Blind Headlines.
Some headlines are “blind." They don’t say what the product is, or what it will do for you. They are about 20 per cent below average in recall.

Humor. Don't use humor or puns. People don't buy from clowns.

From OGILVY ON ADVERTISING. 
    —David Ogilvy

Three of the Most Powerful (and Successful!) 
Advertising Headlines in the 20th Century!

Note: These three ads appeared in Julian Lewis Watkins' masterpiece: THE 100 GREATEST ADVERTISEMENTS 1852-1958 — WHO WROTE THEM AND WHAT THEY DID.

All three ads have order coupons in the lower right corner. No phone numbers. (These were created decades before telemarketing.) No email address. To order a product took work on the buyer's part: you had to fill 
out the little coupon by hand. Then cut it out of the newspaper or magazine, insert it in an envelope, address the envelope, lick the envelope flap, lick and affix a First Class Stamp and finally go to the post office to mail it.

 

    Below is Perhaps the Most Legendary
    Headline in the History of Advertising. 

 

This ad ran in myriad newspapers for many years as did many imitations. It was written and designed in 1925 by 25-year-old cub copywriter John Caples. He had a 60-year career and went on to become CEO of the advertising agency BBD&O that today has 15,000 employees spread across 289 offices in 81 countries.


As Victor O. Schwab, of Schwab & Beatty wrote in the November 1939 issue of Printers' Ink Monthly, "When an advertisement does a noteworthy job all of us can learn something from it, no matter what it is selling. Mr. Schwab had in mind the ad that sold a million books: How to Win Friends and Influence People. That is, it had sold a million books between December 1936 and November 1939. The sales to date aren't terribly important here; any ad that brings in cash for a million copies in three years via the coupon route, is one whale of a great ad!"
     —Julian Lewis 
Watkins.

Written and designed in 1918 by Maxwell Sackheim who, with Harry Schermann, founded Book-of-the-Month Club in 1926. This masterpiece ran continuously for 40 years without change, with the exception of slipping a new and better testimonial into the copy occasionally.

 Takeaways to Consider.

These headlines were not slapped together as afterthoughts. For master copywriter Claude Hopkins copy was secondary to headlines. He often spent:

 
"... hours on a single headline. Often scores of headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For the entire return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of readers. The best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing.

"The vast difference in headlines is shown by keyed returns... The identical ad run with various headlines differs tremendously in its returns. It is not uncommon for a change in headlines to multiply returns from five or 10 times over."

Hopkins' observation directly relates to all other writing. A poorly written headline, subject line, teaser or title guarantees poor readership.

Consider the schlub of a corporate executive who spends hours — perhaps days — writing, rewriting and perfecting a career-changing email and then slams out the first idea for a subject line that pops into his or her head and hits SEND!

Copy wizard John Caples echoes the wisdom of Claude Hopkins on the importance of headlines: 
   
 

•  "What do people see of advertising? Headlines! What do you yourself see of advertising as you glance through a newspaper or magazine? Headlines! What decides whether or not you stop for a moment and look at and advertisement or even read a little of it? The headline!

 •  "Now, I spend hours on headlines—days if necessary. And when I get a good headline, I know that my task is nearly finished. Writing the copy can usually be done in a short time if necessary. And that advertisement will be a good one — that is, if the headline is really a 'stopper.'

  •  "What good is all the painstaking work on copy if the headline isn't right? If the headline doesn't stop people, the copy might as well be written in Greek.

  • "If the headline of an advertisement is poor, the best copywriters in the world can't write copy that will sell goods. On the other hand, if the headline is a good one, it is a relatively simple matter to write the copy."

 

These four prior paragraphs apply to all communications today — 
print, online, TV.

###

 

  

 A Riveting Rave Review of Denny Hatch's Masterpiece.

By Oluchi Samuel
10 December 2024

An official OnlineBookClub.org review of Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.

               5 out of 5 Stars

To make a lot of profit, business owners need to understand and employ marketing. As the name implies, Method Marketing by Denny Hatch is a book that educates readers on method marketing. The author also shares the stories of some people who employed method marketing.

Marketing is the business of acquiring customers and continually thrilling them. Method marketing, on the other hand, is the ability to get inside the heads and under the skin of the people you are marketing your product to. Direct mail is the largest advertising medium, and it is the medium a lot of method marketers build their businesses on. The author shared the stories of some marketers with huge businesses. These marketers were Father Bruce Ritter, Martin Edelston, John Peterman, Bill Bonner, Bob Shnayerson, Curt Strohacker, David Oreck, and William Kennedy. They owned businesses like The Boardroom, J. Peterman Company, Agora Publishing, The Eastwood Company, The Oreck Corporation, and Western Monetary Consultants. He shared their stories, how they started their businesses, and he also dropped points for marketers to pick up from their experiences.

This is a wonderful book with lots of great lessons in marketing. I loved that the author shared some successful marketers' experiences. He used these stories to educate us. He discussed how they started their businesses and some of the mistakes they made along the way. These real-life stories made me understand his lessons quite well. I appreciated them. Readers who are planning on venturing into these businesses could learn a great deal from these stories. The author also exposed me to some businesses I hadn't heard of before, like The Teaching Company, Agora Publishing, Quest/77, and The Oreck Company.

Copywriting is a business venture I have been meaning to start. Luckily for me, I got the opportunity to read this book. The author showed the significance of copywriting and also shared tips on how to write a great copy. It gave me insights and taught me how good a copy should be written. The story of the First Bank of Troy was one of the stories I loved. The president of the bank, Frank O. Brock, operated a customer-friendly business. He paid personal attention to all his customers. He would go over lists of customers and call or give personal notes to them at least once a month. As a novice in marketing, I appreciated the appendix the author added at the end of the book. It saved me a lot of trips to the dictionary.

For all these reasons, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. It is an amazing book that all marketers should read. There was absolutely nothing to dislike. I found one error, showing that it was professionally edited. I recommend it to marketers and people planning on venturing into marketing, as it contains a lot of tips to flourish in marketing. 

METHOD MARKETING
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
You can request a sample
And Read the First 31 Pages FREE.

  ###

 


Sunday, June 15, 2025

#212 CT Syndrome

https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2025/06/212-ct-syndrome.html

 

Wednesday, 18 June 2025

 

Posted by Denny Hatch.                

  

       My Revolutionary Way of Coping 
         With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. 
 

The Illustration Above May Be a World First. 
Nothing Like This Seems to Exist. Anywhere. 

I woke up last month and the first three fingers of my left hand — thumb, index and middle digit — were numb. I assumed blood hadn't circulated... or something.  I exercised and rubbed my fingers and they were okay in 20 minutes. Same thing happened a day later.

Called my wonderful concierge doctor, Gary Dorshimer, and left a message about numb fingers. His assistant called me right back. "That's very probably carpal tunnel syndrome," she said. "Get a wrist splint." 

I Googled "Wrist Splint." Here's a sampling of what comes up. 


 

I bought one of these splints at my local pharmacy and started wearing it.

And also Googled "Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." This Google AI paragraph came up:

Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a common condition that affects the median nerve in the  wrist. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS),  the prevalence of CTS is estimated to be:
    — 5%: of the general population [
±15 million in the US].
    — 10-15%: of women between the ages of 40 and 60.
    — 3-5%: of men. 

I wore my boughten wrist splint 24 hours a day (not in the shower). A couple of mornings later I awoke with three very numb fingers. Not painful. Numb! Out of a possible 10, this numbness was an 8 or maybe 9.

Of course, my fingers were numb! They were out there. Not cared for. Wanting attention.  

Health bores me. Many geezers love talking (and talking, talking, talking) about their ill health. (We call that the "organ recital.") Doctors' appointments are a kind of hobby and time killer — a welcome activity that breaks up their boring day. I am fascinated by doctors, but don't like to bother them. They are busy as hell, often under great pressure... on call 24 hours... it must be a checkered life.

As a committed direct marketer, I did some basic research on carpel tunnel syndrome and discovered two fierce marketer foes: the "Wrist Splints" crowd vs. the "Squeeze Balls" crowd.


 

Nowhere on the Web did I find an illustration of a hand in a wrist splint holding a squeeze ball. The Obvious Logic:
The wrist splint seems to be designed to help line up the median nerve in the wrist. The squeeze ball works the fingers. Ergo: maybe I should wear the wrist splint and hold a squeeze ball for finger relief. I tried combining the two.

Obvious Problem:
A squeeze ball will roll out of your splinted hand the minute you drop off to sleep. Duh. For that reason I ordered the little blue rubber 
Fanwer Finger Exerciser Squeeze Ball ($14.99 Amazon Prime) at the far right in the illustration above. It has 4 finger holes and lotsa little rubber spikes to keep the blood moving in my fingers, even when I'm asleep. And it shouldn't fall off when I'm asleep.

I Caved.
If I spent the rest of my life in a wrist splint and clutching a spiky blue rubber thingy, I would come off as a world class weirdo nut. What's worse, half the new people I meet would see this thing and ask, "What's that?" Whereupon I'm in yet another dreary discussion of carpal tunnel syndrome. 

I called Dr. Dorshimer's office to arrange for Carpal Tunnel surgery and was scheduled for three weeks. I met with Andrew Sobel, M.D. in a Penn Medicine facility a few blocks from our apartment. Young, personable, smarter than a whip and terribly nice, he explained what would happen and gave me a date and time.

I had had the same surgery 25 years ago on my right wrist; it was a quick outpatient procedure by a good guy. As I recall, he did it right in his office. No anesthesia. I don't think I went to a hospital. In the words of my favorite author, Patrick O'Brian, "As easy as kiss my hand." 

In the two weeks prior to this upcoming operation I wore the wrist splint and blue rubber doohickey with finger slots and spikes for 24 hours a day (excluding showers).

During that two week period I had one brief teensy numbness in my thumb. Period. Other than that, this revolutionary combo of splint & squeezer worked just fine for me.

The 30-or-so-minute operation took place in a modern Penn Medicine operating facility with myriad nurses, helpers and other procedures with other patients. It went off without a hitch. Minimal discomfort. Was sent home with several pages of To-Do Post-Op stuff.

The Cost.
We're insured, so I don't expect a bill. (Thank you, thank you, Mr. Late President LBJ, for Medicare! I pray Medicare won't be canceled by the current administration or some bizarre  Muskrat.) I asked Google the cost of CTS surgery and Google's A.I. replied:
The cost of carpal tunnel surgery can vary widely, but generally ranges from $1,550 to  $10,273, depending on factors like insurance coverage, location, and the type of procedure. Without insurance, the cost can be significantly higher, potentially reaching $6,928 per hand, 
according to CarpalRx. 

Final Note: I have no skin in this game. No guarantees. No sales pitch. No money on the table. No theft of copyright threats. This free blog post is my story. Hope it helps. I prowled the Web and found no product like this — no illustration like the one at the top of this blog post of my wrist splint coupled with a Squeeze Ball. If you are waiting for surgery — or haven't decided on surgery — this blog post might be helpful. Or not.

I thought the makers of wrist splints and squeeze balls might be interested and could make some money on this product and maybe want to give it a test. I Googled a bunch of the manufacturers of these various products and found the names of some executives and marketing folks, but nary a single email address. My guess: the direct marketing world is so befouled with scammers and scumbags — whose specialties are thievery and mischief that no reputable marketers want have their email names and addresses available to bad guys and bad gals. (Example: in the past month we were getting 40-50 telemarketing calls per day!  We disconnected our land line of 89 years. If you want to get in touch with me — say maybe you'd like to subscribe to this free blog, criticize my logic or give me hell — email me at: dennyhatch@gmail.com).


-30- 

 Word Count: 1098 

   

 A Riveting Rave Review of Denny Hatch's Masterpiece.

By Oluchi Samuel
10 December 2024

An official OnlineBookClub.org review of Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.

               5 out of 5 Stars

To make a lot of profit, business owners need to understand and employ marketing. As the name implies, Method Marketing by Denny Hatch is a book that educates readers on method marketing. The author also shares the stories of some people who employed method marketing.

Marketing is the business of acquiring customers and continually thrilling them. Method marketing, on the other hand, is the ability to get inside the heads and under the skin of the people you are marketing your product to. Direct mail is the largest advertising medium, and it is the medium a lot of method marketers build their businesses on. The author shared the stories of some marketers with huge businesses. These marketers were Father Bruce Ritter, Martin Edelston, John Peterman, Bill Bonner, Bob Shnayerson, Curt Strohacker, David Oreck, and William Kennedy. They owned businesses like The Boardroom, J. Peterman Company, Agora Publishing, The Eastwood Company, The Oreck Corporation, and Western Monetary Consultants. He shared their stories, how they started their businesses, and he also dropped points for marketers to pick up from their experiences.

This is a wonderful book with lots of great lessons in marketing. I loved that the author shared some successful marketers' experiences. He used these stories to educate us. He discussed how they started their businesses and some of the mistakes they made along the way. These real-life stories made me understand his lessons quite well. I appreciated them. Readers who are planning on venturing into these businesses could learn a great deal from these stories. The author also exposed me to some businesses I hadn't heard of before, like The Teaching Company, Agora Publishing, Quest/77, and The Oreck Company.

Copywriting is a business venture I have been meaning to start. Luckily for me, I got the opportunity to read this book. The author showed the significance of copywriting and also shared tips on how to write a great copy. It gave me insights and taught me how good a copy should be written. The story of the First Bank of Troy was one of the stories I loved. The president of the bank, Frank O. Brock, operated a customer-friendly business. He paid personal attention to all his customers. He would go over lists of customers and call or give personal notes to them at least once a month. As a novice in marketing, I appreciated the appendix the author added at the end of the book. It saved me a lot of trips to the dictionary.

For all these reasons, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. It is an amazing book that all marketers should read. There was absolutely nothing to dislike. I found one error, showing that it was professionally edited. I recommend it to marketers and people planning on venturing into marketing, as it contains a lot of tips to flourish in marketing. 

METHOD MARKETING
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
You can request a sample
And Read the First 31 Pages FREE.

  ###

 

Sunday, May 18, 2025

211 Bosh/Bash Ad

  # 211 Blog, Wednesday 21 May 2025.

https://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2025/05/212-boshbash-ad.html 

 
Posted by Denny Hatch 


The Most Expensive Advertisement
In the History of the World.

This Creepy-Crawly Cringe-Worthy 2025 Super Bowl TV Ad
Cost a Mind-Blowing $17 Million for 60 Seconds of Air Time!



URGENT NOTE: After you have clicked on the link below to see this nutsy-Fagan unbelievably gross and grotesque TV Spot, here's how to get back to my blog commentary:
 

Go to the very top left of your screen and  look for these two arrows....

              
                      Click on the Back Arrow at Left. 
               You'll be instantly returned to my blog post.
              
 
HERE'S THE LINK TO THE $17 MILLION 60-SECOND AD:

 
      Additional Note: If you want to view this Macho Mishegaas
        one or more times, you can click on the
Right Arrow at the
        top left and you'll recapture the video. In this mode, 
        the two arrows act as a toggle switch. 

         Thank you! —DH

 = = = = = = 
 

Super Bowl ads can be drop-dead fascinating. To reach the audience of 126 million viewers on Sunday, 9 February 2025, the base price for advertisers was $16 million for 60 seconds of air time — plus an estimated $1 million paid to the ad agency and performing "talent" for creating and producing the actual spot/commercial. Total tally: $17 million for those 60 seconds when you ducked into the john.

The list of advertisers was announced a week before the game. I downloaded 42 advertisers and links to their actual ads which I alphabetized. Booking.com was first. I clicked on the link, watched a gaggle of ugly, noisy Muppet puppets (including Miss Piggy) and jotted down some notes. 

 The second ad was the above from Bosch USA. It was (and is) unbelievably gross — and the subject of this serious blog post.

 

The Eight Inviolable Rules of Advertising

Compiled by Denny Hatch Over 60 Years.

 

Rule #1: “The only purpose of advertising is to make sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.” 

—Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising

 

Rule #2: “Your job is to sell, not entertain.” 

—Jack Maxson, freelancer, creator/designer of the Brookstone catalog

 

Rule #3: “If it doesn’t sell, it’s not creative.” 

—Credo of Benton and Bowles, Chicago, in the 1930s

 

Rule #4: “Every time we get creative we lose money.” 

—Ed McCabe, president of BMG Music Club

 

Rule #5: “Beware of humor in advertising. People don’t buy from clowns.”
—David Ogilvy

 

Rule #6: The 7 emotional hot buttons that make people buy:
Fear – Greed – Guilt – Anger – Exclusivity – Salvation – Flattery 

—Bob Hacker, Axel Anderssen, Denny Hatch

 

Rule #7: “The prospect doesn’t give a damn about you, your company or your product. All that matters is, ‘What’s In It For Me?’” 

—Bob Hacker

 

Rule #7a: "Always listen to W-I-I FM."

Direct Marketing Old Saw

 

Rule #8: “Always make it easy to order.”  

Elsworth Howell, CEO, Grolier Enterprises

 



Meet 56-year-old Aussie Adman David Droga. He started as
a fledgling copywriter at the giant FCB  (Foot, Cone & Belding) with 120 offices in 80 countries with 8,000 employees.

In 1996, he moved to Singapore to become Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Singapore and Regional Creative Director of Saatchi Asia. Droga was promoted to Executive Creative Director of Saatchi & Saatchi London in 1999. In 2002, Advertising Age awarded Droga the World's Top Creative Director.

       “Saatchi & Saatchi London won Global Agency of the Year at the Cannes International Advertising and both Advertising Age and Adweek named Saatchi Agency of the Year. In 2000, Publicis Groupe acquired Saatchi and in 2004, Droga was promoted to Worldwide Chief Creative Officer of the Publicis Network, which took him to New York City in 2005.

Droga founded his own agency, Droga5 in 2006. The name Droga5 comes from the number-coded laundry tag his mother sewed on his clothes to help differentiate his clothes from his brothers at boarding school." —Wikipedia

 


About Denny Hatch's Marketing Blog.

As co-founder, co-publisher with my extraordinary wife, Peggy, and as editor of the newsletter, WHO'S MAILING WHAT! one of our earliest subscribers was a true direct mail marketing wizard (and lovely guy) the late Malcolm Decker. He once said to me:


"There are two rules — two rules  only — in Direct Marketing:        
'Rule #1: Test Everything. Rule #2: See Rule #1.' "

 

It's clear to me that David Droga is not — and never was — a classically trained marketer. With no reply mechanism, it is impossible for a viewer to contact the advertiser and order product. You want it, you buy it retail? Ergo, no way to measure ROI — Return on Investment. With no ROI, ain't no way to measure the success or failure of an ad. These Super Bowl ads make tons of money for the networks and advertising agencies. Alas, the corporations and their stockholders ponying up cash for these seven-figure entertainment extravaganzas take huge monetary losses. They get their jollies off by amusing their friends, families, colleagues, competitors and getting media coverage. I'm reminded of the caption of a cartoon where two giant railroad engines in Sweden crashed head-on into each other at full speed. One onlooker said quietly to his companion, "Dat been one helluva way to run a railroad."  

  

Droga's CV

The Wikipedia entry on David Droga (above) highlights  immediate acceptance into the smarty-pants glitterati and creativity of Mad. Ave.'s Saatchi & Saatchi, Publicis Groupe, Cannes International Advertising Festival, Advertising Age, Adweek. In other words, fugedabout the drudge work and arithmetic of testing — "allowable cost-per-order," "affordable CPM" and "cost-of-goods-sold." Leave the nuts-'n'-bolts and antiquated "rules" such as testing to the old-timer wonks — Max Sackheim, John Caples, Harry Scherman, Vic Schwab, John Stevenson, Fred Briesmeister, Bruce  Barton, Stan Rapp, Tom Collins, Lester Wunderman, Elsworth Howell, Bob Hacker, Axel Anderssen, Bill Bernbach, Maxwell Dane and David Ogilvy to name a few.

A Bizarre Takeaway to Consider

I watched this thing over and over trying to get inside David Droga’s head. What the hell was he thinking? Suddenly the final frames popped into my head.

 

 

I had never heard of Bosch. This $17 million dollar TV ad wasn’t selling anything. Rather maybe it was bent on making “Bosch” into a kind of weird homonym for “bash.” People in the ad (and watching at home) are bashed all over the place — physically and emotionally.

 

David Droga Came up with the Homophone/Word-play "Bosch" as "Bash!"

             "Brand Recognition?"
               No! I'd call it "Brand Wreckognition
!"


I invite you to have a look at David Droga's weird Manifesto.

 

https://droga5.com

 

 

 P.S. From Denny:
I received some terrific comments on the blog from readers. Skip the pitch for my "Masterpiece" below and go directly to the end of this post.
    You'll find some nifty correspondence. You are invited to contribute to the discussion. Than you. —DH

 ###

 

  

 A Riveting Rave Review of Denny Hatch's Masterpiece.

By Oluchi Samuel
10 December 2024

An official OnlineBookClub.org review of Method Marketing by Denny Hatch.

               5 out of 5 Stars

To make a lot of profit, business owners need to understand and employ marketing. As the name implies, Method Marketing by Denny Hatch is a book that educates readers on method marketing. The author also shares the stories of some people who employed method marketing.

Marketing is the business of acquiring customers and continually thrilling them. Method marketing, on the other hand, is the ability to get inside the heads and under the skin of the people you are marketing your product to. Direct mail is the largest advertising medium, and it is the medium a lot of method marketers build their businesses on. The author shared the stories of some marketers with huge businesses. These marketers were Father Bruce Ritter, Martin Edelston, John Peterman, Bill Bonner, Bob Shnayerson, Curt Strohacker, David Oreck, and William Kennedy. They owned businesses like The Boardroom, J. Peterman Company, Agora Publishing, The Eastwood Company, The Oreck Corporation, and Western Monetary Consultants. He shared their stories, how they started their businesses, and he also dropped points for marketers to pick up from their experiences.

This is a wonderful book with lots of great lessons in marketing. I loved that the author shared some successful marketers' experiences. He used these stories to educate us. He discussed how they started their businesses and some of the mistakes they made along the way. These real-life stories made me understand his lessons quite well. I appreciated them. Readers who are planning on venturing into these businesses could learn a great deal from these stories. The author also exposed me to some businesses I hadn't heard of before, like The Teaching Company, Agora Publishing, Quest/77, and The Oreck Company.

Copywriting is a business venture I have been meaning to start. Luckily for me, I got the opportunity to read this book. The author showed the significance of copywriting and also shared tips on how to write a great copy. It gave me insights and taught me how good a copy should be written. The story of the First Bank of Troy was one of the stories I loved. The president of the bank, Frank O. Brock, operated a customer-friendly business. He paid personal attention to all his customers. He would go over lists of customers and call or give personal notes to them at least once a month. As a novice in marketing, I appreciated the appendix the author added at the end of the book. It saved me a lot of trips to the dictionary.

For all these reasons, I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars. It is an amazing book that all marketers should read. There was absolutely nothing to dislike. I found one error, showing that it was professionally edited. I recommend it to marketers and people planning on venturing into marketing, as it contains a lot of tips to flourish in marketing. 

METHOD MARKETING
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