If you were in Paris this Spring. You could n't make a bit better selection of the latest styles than you can make by looking through the pages of our catalogue. If 156 Nurserymen dropped into your office. . . And said, "Mr. Wood, last season we saved a lot of money on our packing and got far better results than ever before . . . You'd prick up your ears and want to know how it was done, would n't you? These men are too busy to come and tell you this, but if you 're willing to take our word for it . . . 156 nurseries packed their stock last Spring with KEEPDRY. And almost all of them have written us expressing the conclusion given above, and saying that they will use KEEPDRY a good deal more extensively this year than ever before. If I came to you-sat across from you at your desk-and said that I could tell you how to get more business for less money than it costs now Or, if I said that I could show you how to save 25 to 75 cents out of every dollar you spend for printing... You would not let me get away before you had this information. Now I can't come to you in person, but I have come to you by mail-twice-and made identically this offer. If we had said at the beginning of this letter that we were enclosing our check for $100 you would be interested and doubtless highly pleased; you would certainly read the letter through to see why we were so liberal. You will find we overlooked the check, but we expect to tell you in a few words how we can save you that amount many times over. AWAKENING DESIRE, WINNING BELIEF DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION OUTLINE Part I, The Reason Why appeal: A. In the Reason Why appeal, the information with which your Description and Explanation supplies the prospect, is information which makes an appeal to the reasoning mind. B. In employing Description and Explanation, awaken in the prospect a desire to possess your product: (1) By telling about the product from the standpoint of the prospect. C. In employing Description and Explanation, win the prospect's belief in your product: (1) By being definite. (2) By avoiding exaggerated claims. Part II, The Short Circuit appeal: A. In the Short Circuit appeal, many of the same principles apply in the employment of Description and Explanation that apply in its employment in the Reason Why appeal. There is much the same need: (1) For telling about the product from the standpoint of the prospect. (2) For being definite. (3) For avoiding exaggerated claims. B. There is, however, a highly important difference between the employment of Description and Explanation in the one appeal and its employment in the other: (1) In the Short Circuit appeal, the information with which your Description and Explanation supplies the prospect, is information which makes an appeal to the emotions, and not (as is the case in the Reason Why appeal) information which makes an appeal to the reasoning mind. DESCRIPTION AND EXPLANATION "Tell him (the prospect) what the product will do for him, rather than describe the product itself. . . . Unconsciously, the prospect sees how the product will help in the day's work, or make his life happier, or improve Little Johnnie's appearance, as the case may be. "Avoid too many technical words, for the message might pass over his head. Describe the product in the prospect's own language, so that he can get your message easily. The recipient of your letter is too busy to figure it out, and if it puzzles him, it is a candidate for the waste basket."-R. D. Brigham in "Printer's Ink." IN N the Reason Why appeal, the aim of Description and Explanation is to tell about your product 1 in such a way that the prospect will regard the product as one which directly meets his needs. The information which your Description and Explanation supplies the prospect is information which makes an appeal to his reasoning mind. In the Short Circuit appeal, on the other hand, the aim of Description and Explanation is to tell about the product in such a way that the prospect will regard the product as one which gratifies his emotional desires. The information which your Description and Explanation supplies the prospect is information which makes an appeal to his emotions. (1) Description and Explanation in the Reason Why appeal. Were the prospect to visit your salesroom, he would likely be supplied with information which would cause him to regard your make of tractor as one which directly meets his needs. He would see then what the tractor "looks like"; and consequently its rugged, stalwart appearance would be associated in his mind with endurance. When he looked at the strong, powerful motor and listened to your explanation of its construction, he would begin to believe in its superior endurance. This 1 For a discussion of the employment of Description and Explanation in telling about your type of product, and in telling about your central selling point, see Chapter X, page 131. belief would be strengthened when you went on to explain in definite detail the consistent service a motor so constructed would render in planting and harvesting the crops of his farm. At this stage of the sale, the prospect has adequate information concerning : (A) The physical appearance of your product. (C) Its uses as applied directly to his needs. These three points of information correspond to the three kinds of Description and Explanation: (A) Direct-describing the physical appearance of the product. (C) By Use-telling of the service it will render the prospect. (A) Direct Description. The Reason Why appeal, being concerned with a product that meets a need, lends itself less frequently to the employment of Direct Description than it does to the employment of Description by Use and Description by Make-up. Occasionally, however, Direct Description may be effectively employed in the Reason Why appeal, as is the case in the following excerpt from an advertisement: Over the hill of traction progress has come the massive KellySpringfield Caterpillar Tire for Trucks-the greatest advance in solid tire construction since the beginning of the industry. Its elephant-footed sureness and lasting economy have immediately appealed to the heaviest truck users in the world. . . As a new force in world industry, the Kelly-Springfield Tire has taken its place among the mighty. The careful selection of three words "massive," "elephant-footed," and "mighty"-is responsible in large measure for the picture that this brief description creates for us. (B) Description by Make-up. The following advertisement furnishes an example of Description by |