THEMIND OF THE BUYER

A PSYCHOLOGY 0F SELLING

HARRY DE ! TER K IT S O N , PH D . .

m mmm
MA CMILLAN C O MPA NY
I 929

An rig h ts res erved

PRIN TED IN THE U N ITED STA T ES OF A M ERI CA

.1

BY T HE M ACM ILLAN CO M PANY

Sat up a n d e le c t ro t yp ed. Pub lish ed Sep tem ber, 921

1
 PR EF A CE

Th is b ook is written for the progressive

salesman , adverti er, sales corresponden t
s
for every one Who is engaged in influ encing
’

men to b uy It does not d eal with the tec h

.

n i que of selling ; e ach form of selling has i ts

own technique which must be separately ac

quire d Rather it deal s with principles It

. .

recognizes that c e rtain el ements are common

to all forms of selling . Th ese el ements are
cert ai n occurre nces within the mind of the
b uyer Whether direc ted by word of mouth ,
.

by p en or by picture , th e mind must p e rforc e

pass through certain stages en rout e to the act
o f purchase . It is to d e sc ribe these mental
proc e sses that th e book is written .

Such a work m ust n ec essarily d e al with

profound psychologi c al questions Such men
.

tal proc esse s as attention , int erest, d e sire,

and confid enc e re quire voluminous treatm e nt
in the literature of th e oretical psychology .

T he author has e ndea vored in this pre senta

tion , howev er, to rob them of their forbidding
W

7 5 3 4 75
vi P RE F A CE

dryn ess b y st
ripping away technic al terms
an d sub stituting words of current b usi ness

usa ge .

Two outstanding i deals ha v e governed th e

preparation of the work ( 1 ) To show the
reader how to take the psychological point of
view to ward the b usiness of selling ; ( 2 ) to
teach that in investigating the sal e p sycho
logically we must employ the m e thods of
scienti fi c measurement By repetition and ex
.

ampl e the author has emphasize d th ese two

ideals If he sh al l have made th em cl e ar he
.

will h av e accomplished his chi ef aim whether

he teaches a great amount of psychological
fac t or not .

The psychologist reader will di sc e rn a

-

studi e d av oidanc e of the spiritistic conception

of mind The mind is here conceived as an
.

orga ni c unity Though exposition of this

.

point of vi ew is withh eld , as unseemly in a

b oo k of this kind , still the phraseology will
b e found to fi t it, without at the sam e time
affrighting the non psychological re ad e r un
-

fam il iar with the controve rsi e s about the

mind b ody relation This avoidanc e of meta
-
.

physic al disputations is further h elped by the

consistent emphasis upon the buye r s be ’
h avior Obj ec tiv e descriptions are largely
.
 P RE F A C E vii

use d A n d since our obj ecti ve psychological

.

nom e nclature is not cl utt ered with spiritisti c

connota tions the aim of b eing scienti fi c and
,

at th e same time understandable is more eas ily

achi eved .

Grate ful acknowledgmen ts are due to J B . .

Lippincott C ompany for p ermission to use

certain passages and cuts from the author s ’
“Manual for the Study of the Psycholo y of
g
Advertising and S elling, with which thi s
may be used as a text ; to th e editor of The
Sci en tific Mon thly for permission to reprin t
portions of Chapter ! III ; to th e e ditor of
West ern A dvertisi n g for permi s sion to re
print portions of C hapter V ; to Professor
W F Book for re ading the manuscript and
. .

making helpful suggestions ; an d to th e many

students at The University of Chicago and
at I ndi ana University who by th eir keen
,

interest and th eir sci entifi c z eal have st im u

late d th e author to prose cute his quest towards
a scienti fi c approac h to the mind of the b uye r .

H D K
. . .

June, 921
1 .
 CON TEN T S

IN TRO DU CT IO N

I THE S TREA M or T HOU G H T IN T HE SALE

STA GE ON E —ATT EN T IO N
II IMPO RTA NT F ACTORS IN A TTRACTIN G A TTEN
TION
T HE IN F LUEN CE or REPETITION

IV S ELLIN G To THE COLLECT IV E BU YER

S T AGE TW O —INT ERES T

V How TO AROU S E IN TERES T IN A C OM M ODITY
VI Goon F EELIN G A RE! U IS ITE

T HE IM A GINATION or THE Bum

S T A GE T HREE —DES IRE

STA GE F O UR —CONF IDEN CE

I! CONF IDEN CE AN D Goon WILL

ST A GE F IV E —DECIS O N A ND ACTION
I

T HE P OWER or REASON

!I IN STIN CTm F A CTons

ix
x C O NTENTS

C R A P? “
! II SU GGES TION IN THE SALE
! II I T HE P S YC H OL OGICAL MO ME NT

ST A GE SI! —S ATISF A CT ION

SATIS F ACTION T HE GO AL

BIB LI O GRAP HY

I N DE! 0 . o. a u a
 C H AP TER O N E ,
f
T
T H E S REA M or T H O U G H T IN T H E SALE
'

Successful lling d emands p sych ol ogi cal p oint

se

of view . A sal e is an inte raction b e tw een two

peopl e who are exchan ging economic goods .

This interacti on consists of a se ries o f change s

occurring in b oth b uye r and sell e r Th e lat .

ter makes c ertai n moves which call forth re

sp on si ve move m e nts from th e form e r .

The moves mad e by the se ller may consist

of v arious thin gs : di splay of goods ; verbal

descriptions ; picture s ; eve n th e proffer of a

friendly cigar Th e responses of th e buyer
.

may be equally variable : e ntering a store for

a box of candy di splaye d in th e wi ndow ;
reaching into the pocke t for a coin ; sending
for a catal og ; di spatching a writte n ord e r .

In the light of such variable conditions we

must recognize as forms of selling : adver
ti sin g window display , sal e s corre spondence,
,

an d p e rsonal sal e smanship .Although each

of these m odes of selling ha s its peculiar
probl ems and m ethods al l have on e ai m in
,

3
4 T H E MIN D O F THE BUYER
—
common to influ ence th e mind of the b uyer .

A ny s eller, th en , who wish es to be successful ,

—
must study the mind of the b uyer i n oth e r
word s mu st t ake th e psychological point of
,

Th e mind
'

!
r am
a.
‘

In disc ussing th e
st e .

mind o f th e buy e r we may p rofitably use

’
James s figure of speech and pictu re it as a
strea m consisting of th e sum total of mental
,
-

proc esse s going on within th e indi vidual :

id eas sensations feelings, volitions and ac
, ,

tions There are two characte ristics of the

.

stre am which d e se rve sp ecial notic e

Chara ct eri sti c s of th e mental stream .

1 The mind never stands still It is in

. .

constant motion The thoughts of on e m o

.

m e nt are quickly replaced by o th e rs Th e .

mind of the buyer in a sal e consists of a pro

cession of s e nsations feelings, and willings
,
.

F rom the b e gi nning to the conclusion o f th e

sal e these fl ow along like a stre am .

2 . The mind is complex It is not a simple .

thing that we are dealing with , but an organ

ism of many qualities and powe rs It will .

b e our task in this book to d e scrib e this

stream ; to slow it up and examine i ts con
t ents W e shall analyz e it in two directions
.

longitudinal ly and cross se ctionally I n th e -

.
 STREA M O F T H OU GH T IN SALE 5

first case we shall divid e it into se ve ral rather

we ll defin e d stages, each of which we sh al l
-

study separately In th e second, we shall cut

.

cross sec tions at critical points and e xamin e

-

th e cont e nts m inutely und e r our psy chological

microscope .

Th e stag es in a sal e Th e m e nta l stre am of

.

th e buye r may b e divid e d into six stage s

Atte ntion
I nt e re st
D esire
Confi d e nc e
D ecision and
Satisfaction

F IG. 1 . The s tream of th ou g ht in a sale.

p
( Re d
ro uc e d by kin d p e rm ission of J B Lipp i Comp an
n co tt y f ro m th e
M
anual for th e Stud y Ad
. ,
’
auth o r s
“
of the Psycholoy of vertisi ng
an d

Th e orde r j ust mention e d may not b e

strictly adh ere d to in every sale For in .

stanc e confid ence may preced e d esire an d

,

e ve n intere st
; intere st may come simultane
ously with attenti on G enerally speaking,.
6 THE MIN D OF T HE BUYER
however, the ord e r give n ab ove will trul y
re pre se nt conditions, e specially in the initial
purchase of an article .

W e shoul d also recogniz e th e fact that th e

sta ge s are not nec e ssarily e qual in length .

The i ni ti al pulse of atte ntion may last but a

mom e nt b efore m e rging into int e rest Inter .

est may th e n e ndure for an hour Moreover . ,

a single stage may vary in l ength unde r dif

fe re n t circumstances . Int e re st may endure
fo r a minute an hour, a day or a year
,
.

Cross sectional analy si s of th e stream Though

-
.

we shal l re gard the mind as an e ve r fl owin g -

stre am , still we sh al l occasionally b e oblige d

to act as though we could stop it At im.

portant sta ge s we Shall re tard it and tak e

cross sections of it
-
. W ere we to repres ent
th ese diag ram atic al ly we shoul d use a circl e
similar to that of Figure 2, and r epre s e nt th e

sensations, id e as, and feelings of th e buye r

by symbolic d e signs . W e should b ear in
mind throughout that this proc edure is re ally
an artificial on e Strictly sp e aking we can
.

not stop th e mind in its flow and mak e d e ta iled

pictures of i ts cont en ts Neverth el e ss we shall
.

employ th is method as far as possibl e b eing ,

j usti fi ed by the facts thus obtai nable and th e

cl earness of analysis thus made p ossible .
 STRE AM OF T H OU GH T IN SALE 7

Other point s of i w In taking the psycho

v e .

logical point of vi ew we do not m e an to imply

that th e only probl e ms in se lling are those
o f a psychological nature Particularly im .

portant are those of an ethical and economic

na ture And before proc eedi ng with our
.

9 . Cross-m tion of s tre am of thou ght .

p
( Re roduced by kind p ermission of J B i L pp i tt C mp y f
n co o an rom th e
M
anual fo r the St ud y P y h l g y f Ad
. . ,
“
ant hor n ve rtismg
'
o f the s c o o o
and Selling
”
)

psychological d e scrip t ions we should obse rve

th e re lations b e tw ee n th ese seve ral points o f
vi e w .

Wh en we re gard a sal e from th e ethical

poin t of vi ew we stre ss th e rightn e ss o r wrong
n e ss of the transaction W e ask : Is this.

practi c e right ? A re the goods b eing sold at

a fai r p rice ? A re th ey b eing sold with a
consi deration for the rights of comp e titors ?
8 TH E MIN D OF T HE BUYER
The ethical Side of selling is exceedingly im
porta nt from the sta ndpoint of th e w elfare of
soci e ty And it is gratifying to note that the
.

standards of ethics in th e busin e ss world are

rising W e shal l pre sent som e evid enc e for
.

this in a lat e r se ction of th e boo k ( page

Wh e n we regard a sal e from the economic
point of vi ew we asksuch questions as these :
What are th e sourc es of the commodity und e r
consid eration ? What agenci e s are re quired
to bring it from sourc e to b uyer ? What are
th e s eparate el e m e nts that e nter in to de
te rmi n e the p ri ce It is needl e ss to e num e rate
?

more questions Every b usiness man formu

.

lat e s score s of them daily ; for whether on e

n eglects oth e r points of vi e w or not, on e is
bound to consider th e economic point of view .

Importan t as are th e se two aspec ts of the

sal e we shall not stre ss them in this b ook .

W e shall ass um e that no reader will und e r

take any practic e whi ch is not e thic al ly j usti
fie d. And we sh al l assume th at the proi es
si on al economi sts Will take c are of the
economic issu e s invol ve d So we shall con
.

c entrate our attention upon the psychological

as p ec ts .

In unde rtaking to psychologize about the

c onduct of the buyer, let it b e unders tood that
1
0 T HE MIN D O F THE BUYE R A

an d wills ; and he sought to determin e whence

it c am e and wh ere it went after d e ath .

’
Aristotle s kind of psychology endured for
many hundreds of years, in fact, until the
seventee nth c e ntury Ab out this time Locke,
.

Hum e and others began to assert : Though we

have b ee n trying for c enturi es to discove r th e
nature origin and so urce of the soul , we have
,

n o t succ ee ded
. Let us, then , ab andon thes e
questions and relegate th em to th e realm of
things b eyond our ken I nstead le t us ob
.

se rve th e eve nts that occur during th e life tim e

of an individual In oth e r words let us con
.
,

sid er th e mind onl y as it relates to man s ’

b odily conduct .

This advice was heeded and psychology

“
cam e to b e d efine d as th e science of mind ”

“
or consciousn e ss ”
This de fini tion endures
.

at the pre sent t im e , colore d in th e popular

’
mind by relics of Aristotl e s mystici sm .

Sinc e the middl e of th e nineteenth century

an other conception of psychology has arisen .

During the nin eteenth cent ury the physical

i
sc e nces— physics an d ch emistry d eveloped—
—
greatly ; and th e biological sci enc e s botany ,

z oé logy, and physiolo g y — arose Under the

.

i nfl uence of these d evelopm e nts, psychology

began to change in subj ec t matter and method
-
.
 STRE AM O F T H O U GH T IN SALE 1
1
(1 ) T he influenc e of b odi ly conditions upon
th e mind cam e to b e more cl e arly recogni z e d ;
and ( 2) th e m e thods used in the other rapidl y
developing scienc e s were timidly applied .

Many of th e se methods work ed , particularly

those u se d in th e investigation of anim al be ‘

havior As a result psychology cam e to b e

.
,
“
d efined as th e sci enc e of consciousn e ss an d
‘

”
b e havior .
( Some extremists have gon e so
far as to l e ave out the word consciou sn e ss and
“
call it th e sci ence of This defini
tion , though n ot vitally obj e ctionabl e to mos t
psychologists of to day , n eve rth el e ss carri es
-

som e und e sirabl e implications Accordi ngly

.

we shall adopt a slightly diff e re nt wordi ng :

“th
e sci e nc e which ai ms to describ e and ex
”
plain th e conduct of living cre ature s .

A fter this bri e f historical resum e th e read e r

may unde rstand why in th e popul ar mind
psychology continu es to be ide ntifi e d with
mystical, abstract , and e th e real things He .

may al so see that the real progress of th e

sci enc e has b ee n away from mysticism ; that
“
to d ay it is j ust as matte r of fact and e arthly
-
”

as th e scienc e s of physics, ge ography, and

astronomy . This kinship with th e oth er

sci enc es will b e shown more clearly in our
n ext paragraph wh e re we sh al l disc uss th e
1
2 T HE MIN D OF THE BUYER
m ethod of psycholog y and show that it is
identical with th a t e mploye d by oth e r scie nc e s
Scient ifi c meth od—e xp eriment
.

In desc rib
.

'

ing and explaining th e ac tion s of th e buy e r,

psychology e mpl oys the m e thod common to
—
all sci e nces exp erim e nt . Th e proc e dure of
an e xp e rim ent may be d e sc rib e d as follows
1 To observe th e ph enom enon und er c on
.

sid e ration. To obse rve syst e matically not ,

spasmodi cally or spora di cally I nd eed , to be

.

thoroughly scientifi c we must make our ob

se rvation s under care fully controll e d condi .

—
tion s usually in th e laboratory wh e re we can
control th em more e asily than in th e hurly
“
burly of e ve ryday life By control we mean
.
”

to arrange conditions so that we may rep eat

o ur obse rvations ( fo r in making sc i e ntific
meas ure m ents we c a nnot rely upon m e rely
o n e ob servation ) watch on e factor at a tim e ;
and change condi tions at will In bri ef an .
,

e xp e rim e nt is
“a s eri e s of ob se rvations which
”
can b e rep eat ed isolate d and vari e d
,
.

2. We must rec ord our m easures .We

must use gre at care in doing this ; d escribing
ex actly th e conditions und e r which we p e r

form our exp e rim e nt so that anoth e r e xp e ri

,

m ente r working und e r th e sam e conditions

may se cure similar re sults . W e record our
 STREAM OF T H OU GH T I N SALE 1
3

re sul ts be it und e rstood , in math ematical

,

te rms Accordingly a v e ry importa nt part

.

o f our re cords will b e figur e s .

3 . O ur n ext step is to ta bu la te th ese fig

u re s in ord erly array th e n to summariz e th em ,

in a concise form so that th ey may be re adily

p e rc eived .

4 . O n th e basis of th e resul ts secured we

draw c on c lusi on s .

I n order to illustrat e this proc e dure we

shall give an e xp e rim ent which is som e ti m es
p e rform ed in th e psychologi cal laborato ry :
C
A P S Y H O LO GI A L E! P ER IMEN T C
( A dap te d from C H . . L abo ratory M an ual o f
Judd ,
“

P sycho lo gy by kind p e rmissio n o f G inn Co )

”
.

H old p a ge 1 5 d ire ctly in fro n t o f the e yes at a di stanc e

o f ab o ut twe nty in c hes Tho u g h t he se two line s are e qual
.

le n g th ( 1 0 c e n t im ete rs 4 in che s ) th e h o rizo n tal lin e a p

: !
, .

e ar s t b sho rt e r t h an th v e rtic al o ne T h e re is
p o e e . a

p sy c h olo gic al fac t at the b o tt om O f th is n ame ly t h at

: th e ,

app aren t len g t h o f a line de pe n ds to so m e de g ree upo its n

p os it ion. T h is m u c h is e v id e nt fr om c as u al o b se rv ati o n .

But to h ave a scie ntific state m e nt o f the fac t we mu st state

how m c h e ff ect is p ro duc e d by c ha n g in g th l in e fro m e

the h orizo n tal to the ve rt ic al p o sitio n W e mu st m e asure

.

the e ffe c t a nd state it in m at hem at ic al t e rm s .

In o rde r t o do this c ove r the v e rtic al lin e wi th a p ie ce

,

o f p lain p ap e r se ttin g the p a g e up in fro n t o f the e ye s at

,

a di sta nc e o f twe nty in ches The n us in g the ho rizo ntal

.
,

lin e as a sta n dard draw o n a p iec e o f p lai n p ap e r a ve rti cal

, ,
1
4 T H E MIN D OF T H E BUYE R
line which appears to you to equal the horizo nt al line .

( Do not try t o m ak e allow an c e f or the discrep an cy which

I f you m eas u re the line you h a e j u st v rawn you will d

p r b b
o a ly fin d that it is le ss th an f h
o ur in c e s ; thus showin g

that you j u dged the line lon ge r whe n in the ve rti cal posi
tion than in the ho rizon t al A nd you c an sta te ho w m uch
, .

lo n g e r you j ud ge d it by sub tr actin g the le n g th o f your

Co p ie d line f rom the le n g th o f the stan d ar d But this sing le
.

obse rv at io n is n o t suffic ien t to p e rm it a sc ien t ifi c co n clusion .

In scie nt ifi c investig ation a sin g le obse rv ation is seld om relie d

up o n Yo u must m ake mo re me asures Co ve r up the line
. .

yo u j ust dre w an d d raw an o th e r ; c ove r it up and draw

s sive lin es co ve rin g e ac h line as soon as dr awn
su c c e , un til
,

you have drawn ten .

N ow m e as u re all the lines and re c o r d the len g ths ; ad d

them an d find the ave ra ge Yo ur se ries o f meas ures will
.

re se mble t he se ries be low show in g t he len gths o f li nes drawn

,

b y an ot he r expe rim ente r u nde r the se same cond itions The .

me asure s are stated in c en tim ete rs With a ho riz ont al lin e

.

o f t e n ce n time te rs ( fo ur in che s ) as a stan d ard the ve rtic al

line was dr awn ten time s with the followin g leng ths :

The ave rag e sho ws a difl erence o f

cen timet e rs b etween the horizo n t al stan d a rd

an d the ve rtical cop ies This g ives us soun d

.

b asis for concludin g that un de r the condi

tions o f the expe rime nt the ap p are nt le ng th
,

o f a li ne ch an g es fr om 1 0 ce ntimet e rs t o
ce ntimeters whe n the line is ch ange d
from ho rizont al to ve rtical .

IO) sss
O F TH OUGHT I N SALE 1
5
1
6 THE M IN D O F TH E BUYER
This was a typic al p sycho lo gi c al e xp erime n t con forming ,

to ou r fo rmu latio n ab o ve .

a
. W e m ade an o b se rvation surro u n d in g it with all the
,

c ar e p ossib le.

b
. We rep e ate d the o b se rv at io n be in g c are ful to m ain tain
,

cond itions un ch a n ge d A nd o u m e asures were fai rly c o n

. r

sist e n t By follow in g o u r p roc e dur e a not he r e xp e rim e n te r

!
.

wi ll se c ure p rac tical ly the sam e resu lts .

0
. W e arran g e d c o n d it ion s so t hat we m ig ht ob se rv e

m e re ly o ne fac t o r ab o ut the line — the e ff c t o f p osit io n u p o n

e

app aren t le ng th W e is o la te d t hat fac to r disre g ard in g e f

.
,

f e ct o f p o sit io n u p o n a p p are n t th ic k n e ss b r ig ht ne ss e t c
, , .

d
. A g a in we arra n g e d con d it io n s so th at h ad we wishe d
we mi g h t have var ie d ou r obse rvat ions sla n t in g the lin e fi rst
,

at thirty d e g ree s th en at sixty

, .

9
. L as tly we m e asured the e ffe cts an d state d our co n
,

elusion in qua n t itati ve t e rms .

Three form s of scientifi c method W e may .

apply th e exp e rim e ntal ( sci e ntific ) m ethod

to probl e ms o f s elling in three forms
1 Statistical inve st igation of re turns
.
“ .

W e may arrange conditions in a selling cam

p ai g n so that th e re turns may be m e asure d .

By succ e ssiv e trials of di fferent m e thods and

comparisons b etw een re turns we may d e ter ,

min e W hich m e thod is th e most effe ctive .

Good exampl e s of this in th e fi eld of adve rtis

ing are furnish e d by Shryer .

“
This sci entific inve stigation of re turns ,

how ever de sirabl e it may b e, is many tim e s

not feasibl e Th e re turns from many sal e s
.
1
8 THE MIND O F THE BUYE R
legible h e adline To investigate this we
might enter the psychological laboratory ,
pose sampl e headlin e s through an instrum ent
c alled the tachist oscop e ; m easure the spee d
with which a numb e r of persons can p e rc eive
the headlines in the two ki nds of typ e ; ta bu
l ate our resul ts ; collat e th e m ; and conclude
W hich typ e is the more l egi bl e Many ap
.

plications of this form of sci entific m e thod are

desc ri b e d in the seve ral books on th e P sy
c h ol ogy o f Advertising. We may con fi dently
a ffirm that the method has demonstrated its
adaptability to the solution of a number of
probl ems of s elling With certai n problems,
.

howeve r, it can hardly b e used effectively,

owing in part to an in e vitable artificiality of
the laborato ry atmosphere .

3
. B ut we have n o t e xh austed the possi
bili ties of scientifi c method in the inve stiga
tion of problems of s elling In case neither
.

of the ab ove two m e thods is adapta bl e or in ,

case we wish to corrobo rate our findings b y

other kinds of information , we may secure
light from still another di rec tion O ur aim ,
.

b e it rememb ered is to discover with sci e ntific

,

accuracy the most effe ctive way to do a thing

b efore we proc ee d to do it If we cannot ac
.

c omplish this in th e marke t or in th e l ab ora

 S T REAM O F T H O UGH T I N SALE 1
9

to ry, we may appeal to the experi e nce of

other sell e rs who have fac e d our probl em ;
an d by obse rving their solutions, we may

gove rn our proc edure .

How discove r th eir experi enc es ? T o ask

th em would evok e contradictions and opinions
of diffe rent d e gree s of reliability Furth e r
.
.

more, since we se ek sci entific formulations

of our facts we must have figure s inst e ad of

opinions How shall we reduce the exp eri

.

e n c e s of sell e rs to num e ri cal t e rms ?

“
Th e answ er is U se the hi storical m ethod ”
, .

I nve stigate the practic es of th e sell e rs of th e

past an d observe the ways in which th ey
so lve d th e probl e ms that confront us .

F o r e xampl e in answ e ring “historically

,

the que st ion propound e d above : Is it in gen

e ral more profita bl e t o use upp er case or -

lower case typ e in headlin es on e would go

- ?
,

to the fi l e s of newspap e rs and magazin e s for

man y ye ars bac k , and asc e rtain th e p e rc entage
of headlines in sm al l l e tte rs An investigation
.

of th is nature by the author di sclosed the

fact that adve rtisers have b een using with

increasing frequ ency lower case hea dl ines
-
.

Wh ere as in 1 90 5 sixty three p e r cent of the

-

h eadlines in full page adve rtisements in the

-

Literar y Dig est were in lower case typ e, in -

20 THE MIND OF THE BUYER
1
9 20 the numb e r had incre ased to seve nty si x -

per c e nt ( Se e F ig
. v .
'

Another illustration of the “ historical

method : A numb e r of fi rms d e sire d to d e te r
mine the be st m e thod of selecting sal e smen .

1
910

F IG. 4 . Showing the increase in the use of lo wer-ease

typ e for hea dh ues betwee n 1
9 0 5 and 1
920
.

Th ey formed a coo perative burea u whi ch

examin ed th e practic e s of al l the fi rms ; tabu
lat ed them and combin e d th e resul ts, embody
ing them into a system by whi c h all might
select th eir sal esmen .

“ ”
In employing th e histori cal method we
m ake use of sev eral as sumptions
 S T REAM O F T H OUGHT IN SALE 21

a The practices which have p ersisted over

.

a p eri od of years have probably be e n of value .

W e infe r eith e r that those firms which did

not follow th e se practices did n ot mak e e nough
mon ey to enabl e th em to continu e to adver
tise ; or that those which did continu e to
adve rtise discovered th e di fferenc e b etween
,

valu el ess and valuable practic es and adopted

th e latter .

We must n ot assum e that sellers made th e se

change s as a result o f consc ious di scoveri es .

Th ey work ed mainly by tri al and error A s .

indicat e d in F igure 4 they discove red th e

,

us e fuln e ss of low e r case typ e in h e adlin es onl y

-

aft er a long exte nd e d pe ri od of exp e rim enta

-

W e may regard mod e rn selling practic e s ,

th en as products of unconscious e volution

,
.

I n th e struggl e for e xiste nc e in the world of

publicity c e rtain feature s have survive d be
,

cause of c e rtai n psychological el em ents of

st rength and fitness They ex emplify a sort
.

of economic
“survival of th e fitte st ”
.

b A second assum ption we mak e in

.

“ ”
u ti lizing the histo ri c al m e thod is that if
sell e rs had studi e d th e practic e s of th eir pre
decesso rs th ey might have avoid e d some e rrors
an d might h ave e liminate d muc h wastage .
22 T HE MIND O F T HE BUYER
A nd we assume that by su rveying the p rac
tices of the past and by discovering which ones
have survived and which hav e f ailed , we may
modify our practic e s and find a short er and
more economical road to business success .

W e re p e at that we are not proposing the

histo ri cal m e thod as a form ul a for the sol u
tion of all selling probl e ms We advoc ate it
.

m erely as on e form of sci e ntific investigation

which will permit us to suppl em ent and cor
roborate information secured by oth e r means .

Ind ee d we cannot regard eith e r one of these

m e thods as su ffi cient for the approach to sell
ing probl ems At b e st each throws onl y a bit
.

of light upon the entire situation .O ne

m ethod may be b etter adapted to on e type of
probl em than is anoth e r method And on e
.

may b e more adaptabl e to one type of problem

than to another type I n m ost c as es probably
.

two or all three of th e m e thods will b e found

useful ; e ach on e suppl ementing th e results
secured through th e oth e rs.

After this discussion of the history and

methods of psychology, the reade r will see
that modern psycholog y has no hint of hom e
pocus in its proc e dure ; that it is far from
being the m esm e ric gam e of popular fancy .

'

Ra ther th at it is a serious matte r oi la bora

 S T R E AM O F T HOUG H T IN SALE 23

tory apparat us, statistical ta bles and graphs .

Inste ad of donning the cre scent decorate d

-

rob e of the clairvoyant, the psychologist rolls

up his shirt sl eeves and e nt ers th e adve rtising
-

c opy roo m , th e factory , the mark e t— any plac e

wh e re human conduct may be found with a —
sli de rul e und e r his arm .

A s we e nt e r upon th e psychological study of

th e sal e we shall adhere as rigi dl y as possibl e
to the m e thod o f sci e nc e .W e sh al l avoid
the vague and e asy formulations of arm chair -

psychology, and end e avor to ma ke no state

ment which cannot be supported by facts se
cured through exp e rim ental research Wh e re
.

we l ack such information we shall att empt

to outl ine th e steps by which it may be se
cured Wh e rever we g iVe opini on we sh al l
.

label it as such Though this may prevent

.

us from making downright, dogmatic state

m e nts regarding c e rtain points that som e
readers would lik e to have se ttled ; still it
will testify to o ur ardor for tru th , and will
impre ss upon the read e r th e chi e f m e ssage of
th e book : nam ely, that the psycholog y o f sell
ing must be dev elop e d according to th e ri gi d
methods of exp eri m e nt .

“ ”
Rul e of thumb v ersus scientific psych olog y .

Aft er we have followed the hard and fast

24 T H E M I ND O F THE BUYER
procedure of sci e ntific m ethod in solving a
probl em , we can conclude : “I know ”
. T he
aim of sci e nc e is to g ive positive knowl edge
( th e word sci e nc e is d e ri v e d from t h e Latin
sci en tia ,
knowl e dge ) and it is this quality,
and oth e rs which we shall enum e rat e that ,

differentiate sci entific business psychology

from th e unsci entific psychology of most
busin ess men F or we must admit that suc
.

c e ssful busin e ss m e n use a form of psycholo g y .

Th ey d e sc ri b e and e xplain human conduct,

som e tim es in a very efl ec tive ma nn er In
.

what re sp e cts is th eir psychology diff ere nt

from th e sci e ntific brand ?

1 It is individu al Though valuabl e as

. .

far as it goe s, it is limite d by th e bounds of

’
o n e p e rson s e xp e ri enc e . It is th e re fore not
, ,

re prese ntative of all possible situations .

Sci e ntific psychology , how eve r, is based upon

a large ( th e ore tically infi ni t e ) number of ex
p e ri e n c e s drawn from all sourc e s
.

2. Rul e o f thumb psychology is particular .

T h e d evic e s which it te ach e s are applicabl e

only to situations which on e man has met .

The findi ngs o f scientific psychology, howeve r,

are ge n e ral in th e ir application .

3. Rul e of thumb psychology com es with

long painful and costly e xp eri e nc e O n the
,
.
S TA GE ONE AT T EN T I ON
 CHAPT E R TW O

I M PORTAN T FACTORS IN A TT RACTI NG ATT E NTION

Th e nature of attention I n th e pre c eding

.

chapte r we lik e n e d th e mind of th e b uyer to

a stre am cons tantly in motion and highly
.

complicate d W e formulate d our purpose : to

.

d esc ri b e and explain th e stre am in its fl ow .

The m ethod : to cut cross se ctions at va ri ous

-

importa nt stage s and to analyz e th e m unde r

o ur psychological microscop e .

The first stage that we shall analyz e is at

tention To se c ure th e atte ntion of the buye r
.

’
is th e sell er s first task I t is oft en fraught
.

with di ffic ul ty .
’
For the buy er s m ental
stre am is flowing along placidly charge d with ,

thoughts relating to his p e rsonal a ffairs Th e .

seller, who brings forward a n ew articl e,

foreign, p e rhaps to th ese aff airs is bound
, ,

to encounter som e di ffic ul ty in thrusting it

into th e stream H is task is more di ffi cult
.

from the fact that h e must place his com

m odity not m erely at th e e dge of the stre am
wh ere it may remain practically unnotic e d .

29
30 T HE MIND O F TH E BUYER
He must thrust it, as it were compl e tely into
,

the mid dl e of th e stre am O nly thus can he

.

sec ure for it a high d egree of atte nti on .

The ease with which th e se ller may do this

d ep ends partly upon the rate of fl ow of th e
stre am and partly upon the cont e nts of it .

Som etim e s th e current fl ows sluggishly , as

wh en the buy e r sits without occupation in a
street car and casts his ey e s careles sly from
-

on e adve rtising card to anoth e r O n such oc

.

casions it is e asy for th e seller to enter the

stre am .

At other tim e s the mind fl ows with torren

tial vehem enc e as when th e buyer is c on sum
,

mati ng a d e al on the fl oor of the st ock ex

change or watching an exciting b all game .

Und e r such circumstanc e s it is diffi c ult to

injec t a new obj ect into the c enter of atten tion.

Furth e r di ffi culty is encountered if the c on

ten t s of the mind are qui te foreign to the c om
modity und e r consideration . Under such
circumstances the seller is obliged to prepare
—
the mind b eforehand an operation ab ou t
which we shall talk in d e tail in l ater ch apters .

Wh ate ver the di ffic ul ti e s may be, the seller

must make a start by attracting the atten
tion H e nce we shall conside r some d evic e s
.

by mea ns of which to claim it No single rule

.
 ATTRA C TING ATT EN TI O N 31

can be l ai d down applicabl e to al l rat e s of

fl ow, all commoditi e s and all sal es m e di ums .

N eve rthel e ss th e re are c ertai n factors which

a re u sually eff ective .

Inten sity
. Th e first is intensity .
( By i n

te nse we mean Normally the mind

is ve ry s en sitive to strong stimuli : bright
lights, loud noises strong odors, severe pres
,

sures, extreme t emp e ratures int e nse pains

,
.

We shall more cl early und e rstand th e forc e

inh erent in intensity if we inq ui re its ori gin
and ra tiona le Wh e n we consid e r man his
.

to ri c ally we must re gard him as th e inh e ri tor

of va ri ous trai ts from past generations F or
.

many gene rations his forb ears have b ee n sub

j e c t e d to c e rt ain environm ental condi tions .

To those that j eopardiz ed th eir w elfare th ey

gave quick attention : for exampl e to bright
,

ligh ts which might put out th e eyes ; to loud

sounds which might split th e e ar drums T h e
-
.

individual s wh o fail ed to ta ke notic e o f such

things w ere inj ure d or kill e d Sinc e to att e nd
.

to inte nse things has te nd e d to prolong life ,

then th e habit has b ecom e ingrain ed within

,

the m embers o f th e human sp eci e s as an in t

eradi cabl e trait .

Many oth e r trai ts of the buye r may be thus

ac counte d for on an hereditary b asis . We
32 TH E MIND O F T H E BUYE R
shall d evot e an entire chapter to th em lat a
late r stage F or th e pres ent we shall pass
.

th em by m e rely noting th e exc ell ent re ason

,

why c e rtain kinds of obj e cts re a di ly attrac t

th e atte ntion .

This gi ve s us a hint as to the method of

arresting and p e n etrating th e m e ntal stre am
of th e buy e r : C hoose a stimulus stronger
than th e oth e r obj ects round about him In .

old e n tim e s th e town c ri e r used a b ell ; th e fish

monger a horn T o day the adve rtis e r uses
,
.

sh ri e king bill boards The sal e sman who de

.

p ends upon personal contact rarely uses in

t e nsity in attracting th e att ention of his
prosp ective customer ; probably b e cause of its
fre qu ent rud e n es s and vulga ri ty If he can
.

d evise som e el e gant and inoff ensive way,

howeve r of utilizing it h e will highly aug
, ,

m ent his chanc e s of se cu ri ng favorable atte n

tion .

Ext en sity T h e second factor is e xte nsity ,

.

by which we m e an siz e bign e ss, magnitude

,
.

Th e mind is ve ry susceptibl e to th e in fl u e nc e
of bign e ss In its rapid flow it may n e gl ect
.

the small obj e cts s eeking sh el t e r in its midst ,

and shove th em unh eedingly to on e si d e B ut .

it can hardly do so to the big ones An auto .

ist bowling along a country road can scarc ely

34 THE MIND OF T HE BUY ER
b y one who wishes to in fl uence the human
mind Prob ably we should regard it as ex
.

p l a in abl e b y th e same p i
r nciple we used in
’
e xplaining man s a ffi nity for int e nsity : as a

racial habit ( p e rhaps instinct ) wrought dur

ing th e struggl e for e xistence, wh e n man was
oblige d to tak e notic e of things large r than
himself in ord e r to escap e b eing ove rcome b y
th em .

What eve r be its e xplanation it off e rs a live

c ue to th e sell e r, and sugge sts that h e may i n

crease his chanc e s of succ ess by op e rating on

a large scal e . Th e practic e of successful
sell e rs ex emplifi es this .
“Probably no man
in th e world has more unquali fi e d b eli e f in
th e pow e r of !big ! adve rtising than William
W ri gl ey, Jr In the twelve y e ars since his
.

first great national campaign he has sp ent

more than to spre ad his m e ssage
in eight een language s across the civiliz ed
world ”
.
“As a result o f on e of his huge con
tracts e ach of th e str e e t, subway and
e l e vated cars in op eration in th e Unite d Stat e s

carri es on e or more of his cards . Abov e

Tim e s Square , N ew Y ork , flashes nightly an
”
el e ctri c sign which costs a year
.

“In 1 915 h e coll ecte d eve ry t elephon e di rec

to ry in the country and mail e d four sampl e
 ATTRA C TING ATT EN T I O N 35

sticks of his gum to th e list ed sub

sc ri bers . H e duplicat ed thi s campaign in
1 91 9 this time to more than
,
hom e s .

H is adverti sing exp e nditure s for th e on e y ear

” 1
pass the mark T h e tre m e ndous .

growth of adve rtising in gen e ral during th e

past tw e nty five y ears b ears similar evide nc e
-

of th e attractive pow e r of magnitude in th e

form of incre asing use of exte nsive spac e .

An inve stigation conducted b y th e author

show e d that th e numb e r of full page adve rtise -

m e nts in on e p e riodical increase d five fold -

in the decad e 1 91 019 -

.

Chang e O ur third proposition is that

.

c ha n g e has g re at value in arre sting attention

— c hange in any sens e : in inte nsity , e xte nsity,

or nature of stim ul us W e may test th e truth

.

of this in eve ryday life by noting that we are

aware that th e clock has b ee n ticking, only
afte r it has stopp e d .

Movement O n e v e ry common form of change

.

is movem e nt To it we g ive c e rtain an d

.

eage r re sponse Though for th e most part

.

unaware of it we shall find wh e n we stop to

, ,

think , that it b ulks importantly in our daily

life We sit for hours by th e oc ean gazing
.
,

at nothing b ut sw elling tossing, j ostling ,

A m eric n M g in e Marc h 1
a a az990 p 192 , , , . .
36 THE M I ND OF T H E BUYER

wave s ; we lie on th e ground absorbed in the

clouds that fl oat across our vision ; we sit b e
fore an open fire fascinat ed b y the eve r dart -

ing flam e s almost to th e point of hy p n oti za

,

tion .

How explain this fascination 9 P rob abl y

largely in te rms of inheri tance as we did our ,

a ffi nity for int e nsity and ext ensity In th e .

’
dista nt days wh e n man s progenitor stal ke d
in th e j ungl e s on e of th e most important
,

factors in life was movem e nt Th e ligh test .

flutte r of a leaf might indicate the pre se nc e

o f a hidd e n e n e my ; th e flick e r of a twig might

signify lurking d eath As a re sult o ur anc estor

.

was oblige d to give clos e attention to any

thing that moved If h e h ad failed h e woul d
.

have fallen victim o n e day to th e d e structive

forc e s surrounding him As a resul t th e 0 &
.

sp ri ng of p ri mitive man manife st e d inte nse

inte rest in moving things The trait , b eing .

us eful in pre se rving lif e b e came ingrained

,

within the m emb e rs of th e sp e ci e s and p er

sists to this day .

T h e re is anoth e r way of accounting for th e

in fl u e nc e of move m ent It fi ts into the very
.

nature of m ent al ity T h e mind is like a

.

stre am constantly in motion A moving oh

,
.

j ,
ec t then ,
h as a ready chance of secu ri ng a
 ATTRA C TING ATT E NTI O N 37

foothold in th e stre am Th e rel ationship may

.

be pictured by imagining t wo platforms one ,

( th e mind ) moving and,

th e other ( t h e obj e ct
of attention ) stationary To st e p from th e .

latte r to th e form e r require s consid e rable

’
efl o rt
. I f how eve r we start the second in
, ,

motion in th e sam e dire ction and at th e sam e

rat e as th e first we can ma k e th e transi tion
,

e asily. It is thus that a moving obj ect fits

into th e nature of th e onward flowi n g mental -

proc ess e s.

I n addition to this onward flow o f th e tota l

stre am there is a form of movem ent within
th e stream its elf Eddi e s are pre se nt, which
.

kee p the cont e nts of the stream oscillating

to and fro . Th e mind is so constitut e d that
it cannot hold an obj ect in th e c ente r for
longe r than an instant T h e read e r may t e st
.

this for himself by attempting to fixate

st eadily th e l e tter 0 Though he may try
.

his best to maintain it unchange d in th e c e nte r

of his attention h e will find that h e cannot
,
.

His att e ntion will wand e r from on e part of

the l etter to anoth e r from to p to bottom from
, ,

si d e to side ; an d pre se ntly off th e l ette r en

,
.

ti rely to a n e arby flaw in th e paper .

In fixing th e limits to th e tim e du ri ng

which on e can hold an obj ect in attention
38 TH E M I ND OF THE BUYE R
in a perfectly unchange d condition , p sy cholo
gists have di scove red som e evid enc e that the
p eriod may b e two or thre e minutes, but far
more commonly only a se cond or two i n
,

l e ngth Aft e r this l ength of tim e in the vortex

.

of th e stream an ob j ec t must gi ve way to an

one which has b een hoveri ng on th e

margin w ai ti ng for a ch an c e to we dge i tsel f

in Be it rem em b ered that at any one mo
.

m e nt there are many things variously di s

tributed in the m ental stream A c ro ss sec
.
-

tion would reve al a condition resembling that

pictured in F igure 5 where obj ect A ( let i t
,

b e a stree t car adve rtis em e nt of B unt e C ough

-

Drops ) gives way after a bri e f domina nce

ove r th e c e nt e r of att ention to obj e ct B ( an
,

adjoining adve rtisem ent of Arrow collars ) ;

 ATTR A C TIN G ATT E NTI O N 39

which in its turn gi ves way to ob j ec t C ( an

’
adve rt isem ent of Sloan s linim e nt ) .

Again such a cross section might be lik ened

,
-

to a kal eidoscop e in which minute pi e c e s of

va ri colored glass continually shift their posi

tions That which was at the center d ri fts

.

marg in ward and vice versa .

F rom this we se e that movement is a c apital

de vice for th e sell e r to use n o t m e rely in in
,

troduc in g his commodity into the center of

th e m e ntal stre am , b ut also in holdi ng it
th e re
. Now we see at least in part, the
,

mechanism by which we give attention so

spontan e ously to se lling d evic e s which em

body move m e nt : th e army of manikins in store

Windows f e ve ri shly plying saf e ty ra zo rs ; th e
-

di splay shoe s aridly stepping in and out of

p ans o f wate r .

’
The moving el ectric sign ofl ers e xc ell ent
opportunity for th e exploitation of mov e m e nt .

It is d e monstrably effective Th e re ad e r may

.

test himse lf t o night as h e wal k s down Main

stre e t . Le t him watch hims elf out o f th e
corn e r o f his eye so to sp e a k ; and he will fi nd
,

hims elf observing th e movi ng si gns almost

invariably H e wi ll be aware of th e m far to
.

the right and l e ft ; eve n o f those in the re ar,

fli ckeri ng in his eye glass es
-
He will notice,
.
40 T HE MIND OF THE BUYER
al so that a fai nt moving light attr acts atten
,

tion more quickly than a strong stationary

one .

A fi eld with still greater possibilities of de

velop m en t is th e moving picture .Here is
movem ent incarnate, the consu mmation of
’
man s ag e long dre ams and cravings And man
-
.

worships at th eir sh ri n e ni ghtly , be h e ri ch

or poor, young or old, savant o r imb ecil e H e .

tri e s to j ustify his infatuation by elaborate

reasons of an e sth e tic , social or e conomic
nature : the cin ema offe rs a va ri e d e nt e rtain
m e nt ; is always j ust around th e corn e r ; cos ts
onl y about a q uarte r B ut these do not fully
.

account for his int e re st F or wh en th e plot

.

is vapori sh , th e humor in ane , th e vamping

“old stuff ” h e still atte nds with seemingly i n
,

satiabl e avidity T h e cinema as a s elling

medium has not y e t com e into its own N e ve r
.

th eless it w il l undoubtedly d evelop into a

valuabl e ally for th e s ell e r b ecause it e m
,

bodi e s a feature to which m an is passionately

e —
inclin d movem ent .

Simulat ed or sug g est ed movement . So strong

is our affini ty for movement that we respond
to th e m e re sugge stion of it An automobil e
.

which is picture d as moving pl eases us more

than one which appears to b e stan di ng still .
42 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
variety . In b ackground , type and illustration ,
o n e m ay achi e ve , than k s to the inventions of

mod e rn printing, a number of stri king effe cts .

Th es e va ri eti e s num erous as they are con

, ,

sti tute only a fraction of th e numb e r possibl e

in the re alm of color And effective as are th e

.

former, they pal e b esid e the latter .

Several lin es of proof point to th e overp ow

ering attractiven ess of color For on e we
.
,

nee d go no furth e r than eve ryday obse rvation .

When th e early s e ttl e rs of Am erica wante d

to make an attractive p ri ce to the Indians di d
th ey off e r b lack or gray b eads ? We are n o t
to ld so Rather do th e chroni clers emphasiz e
.

“colore d ” beads It is said that th e mail

.

ord e r houses have found colore d catalogs to

b e v ery su p e rior to those in black and white .

More sci e nti fi c proof from th e laboratori es is

reported in the voluminous literature upon
the sub j ect .

If our c uriosity leadI m to inqui re why

color attracts th e attention so much more
easil y than g rayness , we may fi nd a partial
ex planation in the fac t that the light waves
for colors travel farther th an do those for
grayn e ss Whatever be the re ason , we may
.

confide ntly employ color when eve r possibl e .

 A T TRA C T ING ATTENT I O N 43

Other effects of color Before concluding

.

this inadequate treatment of th e subj ec t

we shoul d point out that color may be use ful
n ot only in attracting attention . I t may also
hold atte ntion Again it may arouse pleasur
.

abl e feelings The f eelings may com e from

.

int ri nsic pl easure giving quality o f th e color ;

-

th e n may b e transferred to the obj ect b eing

—
sold an e n d evid ently sought in th e colo ri ng
of the conta in e rs of certain brands of face p o w

der O r it may giv e pl easure by reason of c er

.

t ai n ideas it arouse s within th e buye r I n se ek .

ing to use color we fac e a large group of qu e s

ti ons relating to th e appropriate n ess of color
to commodity W e shall m e rely recogniz e th e
.

e xistenc e of these for th e pre s e nt res e rving

,

th eir d e tail ed consideration for a later chapter .

Summary . I n discussing th ese four factors

intensity, extensity, change and color we have ,

n o t exhaust e d the list of d e te rminan ts of a t

te nti on which are available to the sell e r W e .

have m erely touched upon four which fit into

th e outlin e of thi s book . Anoth e r in parti e n
— —
lar re petition is so important that we shall
use it as th e b asis of our next chapte r .

N o ra — F or discussion o f th e theo re t ical as p ects o f co lo r

the re ad er is re fe rre d t o the b ib li o g rap hy .F or p r ac t ic al
ap plicatio ns in the field o f adve rtising the re ade r is re fe rred
t o the well kn own boo ks on that subj e ct
-
.
 C HAPTE R THREE

TH E I NFLU E N CE or RE E TIT I O
P N

Rep etition win s attention If we cannot forc e

.

our commodi ty into th e c e nt e r of attention

by any of the devices m entioned in the pre
ceding chapter, or by virtu e of its int ri nsic
m erit and approp ri aten ess to the conte nts of
’
th e b uy e r s mind we may h ave recourse to
,

—
another factor rep etition M e re b ald brutal
.
,

rep e tition goes far in attracting att e ntion .

This fact is crystalliz ed in th e old proverb,

“ onstant dropping wears away ston e s ”
C .

W e have fre quent verification of this fact

in eve ryday life O ft e n wh e n we are asl eep
.

a sound occurs without awaking us th e fi rst

tim e th e second or th e third
,
As it per
.

siste n tly recurs , however, it forces its way

through th e murk of uncons ciousn ess and

arous es us And th en as we look b ack we recall
.

that th e sound had b een there vagu ely ( in th e

margin of th e mental stre am ) for some time,
but had r equired repetition to be efl ec tive .

F or an explanation of the great powe r resi

44
THE INF LU EN C E O F RE P E T I TI O N 45

d ent in re p etition we a re d ri ven to a con

,

sid eration of th e brain and n e rvous system .

I n ord e r for a thing to aff e ct th e mind it must

e nt e r th e pathways to t h e brain These path .

ways a re som ewhat resistant to new impres

sions but af ter rep eat e d assaul t they op en
,

up and p e rmit acc ess to th e brain .

Anoth e r form of e xplanation is the assertion

by som e psychologi sts that man is innately
credulous that h e is inclin e d to acc ept as
,

tru e eve ry sta t em ent h e hears In the course .

of exp e ri e nc e , how ever, the adult person de

velop s inhibitions which make him sop h isti

,

cated and re sistan t To overcom e this re

.

si ste nc e re quire s consid e rabl e batte ri ng To .

this factor is due th e effectiveness of many

sales names like Un ee da Though the buy er
-
,
.

may resist the repetitions of this name for a

tim e h e eventual ly com es to b elieve that h e
,

doe s n ee d a biscuit and makes the purchase

,
.

I t is this coe rcive pow e r of repetition which

justifi e s th e so call e d display advertising con
-

stitutin g so great a part of modern publicity .

Many a firm advertise s on bill boards th eater -

,

programs, and the like wh e n it knows it can,

not effe ct an imm ediate sal e But by keeping .

i ts nam e and commodi ty b e fore th e mind of

th e public it hop e s to d e rive a c umul ative
,
46 TH E MIND O F THE BUYER

effect th at wil l ul timately bring about ac tion .

During the World W ar man y firms which h ad

al re ady sold th eir e ntire output to the govern
ment contin ue d non e the l e ss to use a great
amount of advertising space, hoping by rep e ti
tion to ret ai n a place in the mind of the public .

And th eir course of action was j ustified b y

this psychological p ri ncipl e we are now con
si deri n g .

Rep etit ion influences memory This leads us

.

to rec og niz e that rep etition doe s more than

merely force the me ri ts of a commodity upon
the attention of the buyer It imp ri nts th e
.

m essage deeply within his m emory F or as .

a rule th e seller desires not merely to put his

’
message into the b uyer s mind b ut to k eep it
,

there that it may instigat e purchase time after

time R epetition , then is a pow erful agen t
.
,

with which to overcom e th e w ell known for -

g e tful n ess of the human race which would

naturally tend to relegate a commodity to the
margin of the m ental stream .

Distribution of rep etition s W e may v ary th e

.

effecti veness of our re p e titions by the way

in which we di stri b ute th em over a p eri od of
time By repeating our m e ssage at c ertain
.

intervals we may incre ase th e ret entivenes s

,
’
of the b uyer s mind .
THE IN F LUEN C E O F REPETIT IO N 47

The matter may be expl ained by imagi ni ng

a cas e wh ere we are announcing a n ew articl e
in a monthly maga zine Let us a ssume that
.

we have decided upon eight inse rtions for th e

year . How sh al l we most effectively dis
tri bute th em ? A number of alte rnatives are
possibl e ; eight consecutive insertions in the
first eight, last eight or any eight succ essiv e
,

issue s ; four in th e first four issu es of the

y ear, four in th e last four and so 0 1
,
1 Though
.

we cannot say for c e rtain what is the b est

distribution for eve ry sp ecific articl e still we
,

may make som e profitabl e gu e ss by considera

tion of c e rtain facts prove n by l aboratory
demonstration
Afte r much inve stigation of m emory , p ey
c h olog ists have discove re d that facts onc e im

pre sse d upon th e mind te nd to slip away at

—
an un eve n rate rapi dl y at fi rst , then more
and more slowly until the amount re tain e d
re ach e s a constant l evel and stays th ere The
.

matte r is g raphically represented by a curve

of forge tting, similar to that of F igure 6,

wh ere th e greate r part of th e mat e rial is for

gotten almost imm edi ately and a small e r part
remains relatively constant ( as shown by th e
lin e A B )
.
48 THE M I ND O F THE BUYE R
It is not inconc eivabl e th at thi s condi tion
holds good for th e memory of things seen in
advertisem e nts If so let us speculate upon
.

the profitabl e ways of distributing repeated

adverti sem e n ts Th e author has ventured to
.

l ay out a reasonabl e distri b ution upon th e

curve in Fi g ure 6 Since forgetting tak e s
.

ay Ju . Jl . Aa . 86 .
l l

F ig . 6 Sh ow in g a theoretically p ossible di strib ution o f

.

e ig h t ad ve rtiseme n ts amon g twe lve issues o f a m o nthly

m a g az ine .

place rapi dl y at fi rst, let the e arly an nounc e

m e nts come at fre qu ent interval s Since th e .

rate of forgetting is slower toward the e n d

o f the peri od le t the late r announcements

come at l e ss fre que nt b ut reg ul ar interval s .

Th e ge n e ral principl e is to a dapt the numb e r

a n d re gula ri ty of re p etitions to th e amount

and constancy of th e materi al re tain ed Th e .

obj ect, in g raphic te rms is to raise the line ,

 50 T HE M I ND O F T HE BUYE R
modi fi cations sometim e s of ve ry conside ra bl e
,

importanc e, without b eing itself conscious of

the proc ess until i ts results prese nt them
,

selve s to consciousn e ss in th e n ew ide as , or

,

n ew combinations of ideas which th e proc e ss ,

”
has e volve d .

An insta nce relate d by C ol e ridge illustrates

this strikingly
A c as e of this kin d occurred in a R oma n Ca tholi c town
in Ge rmany a y e ar o r two b e fo re my a rriv al at Gottmge n ,

an d had n ot t he n c e ase d t o be a f re qu e n t su b j e ct o f co n

ve rsat io n A y oun g wom an o f fo ur or five and twe nty

.
,

who co u ld n e it he r re ad n or write was se ize d wi th a ne rvo us

,

fe ve r ; durin g w hich ac c ordin g to the asseve rations o f all

,

the p rie sts an d m o nk s o f the n e ig hb o rh oo d she b e cam e ,

p os ses s e
, d an d ,as i t app e ar e d,b y a v e ry le a rn e d de vil She .

contin ue d in ce ssan tly talkin g L atin Gree k an d H eb re w

, , ,

in ve ry p om p o us t on es an d wit h mo st d istin ct e n un ci ation .

This p ossession was r e n d e re d mo re p ro b ab le by the kn own

fact that she was or h ad been a he re tic Voltaire hum o r .

o us ly ad vise s the d e vil t o d e c lin e all acquain tan ce with

med ical m e n; an d it w ou ld h av e bee n m o re to hi s re p utatio n ,

if he h ad t ak en this ad vic e in the p rese nt ins tan c e Th e .

case had attrac t ed the p art icular atte n t ion o f a you ng

hy i ian an d by his statem en t m any em inen t p hysiolo g ists
—
p s c ,

and p syc ho lo ists visit ed the t own a n d cr os s e x am i n e d the

g ,

c ase on the spo t Shee t s ful l o f he r ravin gs we re taken

.

down from he r own mo uth an d w ere foun d to consist o f

,

se n te nc es co he ren t a n d int e llig ib le each f o r it se l f b ut with

, ,

little o r n o c onnec tion with e ac h o the r O f the H eb r ew a

.
,

sm all p o rt ion o nly co u ld b e tr ac e d to the B ible ; the t e

mai nde r see me d t o be in the R abb inic al d iale ct A ll trick or .

con sp iracy was out o f the qu es tion N ot only had the

.
TH E I N F LUEN C E O F R EPE T I T IO N 51
yo ung w oman e ve r b ee n a simp le harmless creat ure ; b ut she ,

was e vid e ntly labo rin g u n de r a ne rv o u s feve r In th e t own .

,

in whic h she h ad bee n reside n t f o r m an y ye ars as a se rvan t

in difl e ren t familie s no solutio n p rese nte d itse lf The yo un g
‘

, .

hy sic ian h owe ve r de te rm ine d t o re trac e he r p as t li fe ste

p , , p
by step ; for th e p atie nt he rself was incap able o f re turning
a rat ional an swe r H e at le ngt h succee d ed in discove ring
.

the p lac e whe re he r p aren ts had live d ; travelle d thithe r ,

fo un d them de ad b ut an u ncle survi ving ; and from him

,

le arne d that the p at ie nt ha d be e n ch aritably take n by an

,

o ld P ro tes t an t p asto r at nin e y e ars o ld an d h ad remain ed ,

’
with him some ye ars e ven till the old man s dea th O f this
, .

p ast o r the u n c le kne w no th ing b ut t ha t he was a ve ry g ood

,

m an . W ith g re at d ifficu lty and aft er muc h se arch our

, ,

yo un g me d ic al p hilosop he r disc ove re d a niece o f the p asto r s ’

,

who had live d w it h him as his ho use k ee pe r an d had in ,

herite d his e ffe cts She rem em b e re d the g irl ; re lat ed that
.
,

her ven e rable u ncle had be en too in dulg ent an d co uld not ,

be ar to h ave the girl scolde d ; that she was willin g to h ave

’
ke p t he r b ut that afte r her p atron s de ath the g irl he rself
, ,

re fuse d t o stay A n xio us inquiries were the n o f co urse

.
, ,
’
m ade con ce r nin g the p a st o r s habits ; and the solut ion o f the
h no me n o n was soon ob ta ine d F o r it ap p ea re d th at it had
p e .
,
’
bee n the old m an s custom f or years to walk up and d own
, ,

a p assa g e o f his house in to whic h the kitche n d oo r ope ne d ,

an d t o re ad to hims e l f with a loud vo ice out o f his f av o rite ,

books . A conside rable n umb e r o f th ese we re still in the

’
ni ece s p osse ssio n She added th at he was a very le arne d
.
,

man and a g re at He b r aist A mong the bo oks we re fo un d

.

a c ollection o f R abbinical writin g s to gethe r with se ve ral o f ,

the Greek and L at in F athe rs ; and the p hy sician succee de d

in identifying so m an y p assa ge s with those taken do wn at
’
the y oun g woma n s bedside th at n o doubt could remai n in
,

any rational min d c onc e rn in g the tru e o rigin o f the im

p ressions made on he r n e rvo u s sy stem

”
.
52 THE MIND O F THE BUYER
T his c as e shows in e xtreme form what may
happen in lesse r d e gree to any b uyer An .

adve rt ising app e al to which he pays little at

tention at th e tim e, may , if rep eated often
enough , l e av e an impre ssion which will at some .

later ti me in fl u ence h im to buy The read e r

.

may t e st his own m e mory in this respect in the

following paragraph :
What trade names fi rst come into your mind
.

in connection with th ese commoditi e s : Lini

m e nt, gum , cough drops, camera , watch ,
garter, roofing, paint, talcum powd e r ?
In connec tion with each of thes e c ommodi
ties it is probable th at a certai n name arose
—
instantly that on e w hich ap pe a rs most fre
qu ently on car c ards, bill b oards, newspap e rs
- -

and magaz in e s It is lik ely that if the re ader

.

w e re buying th e articl e for th e first time, he

would buy this c e rt ai n kind Though in his
.

daily life he probably had not p ai d much

att ention to th e se flaring signs, still h e was
“ ”
impre ss ed subconsciously , as it were, and
wh en he came to b uy , h e would act accord
in gly. This fact is j usti fi cation for the lib eral
“
use of display
”
adve rt ising .

Repe tition affects the sal e in other ways

than through atte ntion and m emory It may .

influen c e l ater stage s of con fi dence and de

T HE INFLUEN CE OF REPETITI O N 53

We shall not pause here to di scus s

th e se, howeve r preferri ng to pl umb th e stage
,

of intere st before p as sing on t o the later

sta g es of the sal e
.
 C HAPTER FOU R

SELL I N G TO T H E CO LLE CTIVE BU YE R

Definition of p ubli c
A good deal of the
.

selling of to day is done to p eople en m a sse .

A car card stri kes not m erely one person at

-

a tim e but a carful A n ewspaper advertise

,
.

m ent falls under th e eye s not of one indivi d ual

but of a group T he persons who are s e rve d
.

by any selling medium constitut e a collectivity

“ ”—
-
Ross calls it a public which we may de
fine as a group of di sp e rsed individuals h av
ing similar id eas , feelings and ac tions, intensi
“
fied b y the consciousn ess of their collecti v e
n e ss
It shoul d b e noted that a public is not a
simple arithmetical summation of individual
minds Nor is it a n ew sup e r mind transc end
.
-

ing its components It c ambe r ega rded a s on e

.

min ds composing it are alm ost id e ntical in

certain resp ects T hen , b ecause eac h m em ber
.

of th e g roup know s t hat a ll the h th e r mem

b ers hol d opinions id e ntic al with his, he feels
54
SELLING TO C O LLE C TIVE BUY E R 55

more strongly than he woul d without such

social support It is in such a se n se , th en ,
.

that we speak of a coll ective mind as different

from th e indi vidual minds composing it .

N ewspap ers and magazines ofi er good in

ternal evid enc e of th e existence of th e col
le c tive mi nd .T h e edi tor w rite s in the plural
number, implying that he is spok e sman or
ch airman of the group H e emphasizes this
.

“
relationship by using such pras es as, E ditor s ’
Easy C hair, ” “ ’ ”
T h e E di tor s Drawe r ; b y
heading his feature sections “F riend of
” “ ” “
the Peopl e , C olumn for Worke rs, O ur
”
Boys and Girls ; implying that he is seated
in the midst of his re ade rs, all of whom con
sti tute a psychical family .

W e may assert, th en , that psychological ly

,

speaking, the reade rs o f a sal e s medium con

s i tute an entity , a public , which is n o t a loose
t
agg regation of isolated and indi vidual mi nds
but an organic union , coal e sced into on e col
lec tive mind in th e sense j ust m entioned .

Each publi c unique Th e re is further compli

.

cation in the fact that each public is unique .

The C hic ag o A m eric a n public , for example,

differs fro m that of the E ven ing P ost T he .

re ade rs of the C oun try Gen t lema n difl er from

the read ers of the F ireside Comp anion .
56 THE M I ND O F THE BUY E R
We do not disregard th e
fact that an in .

di vidual may b elong to more than one pub lic .

H e may at the sam e tim e b e a read e r of the

N ew York Tim es th e N ew R ep u
,
blic,
the
Con g reg a ti on a list and th e Comm erc ia l an d
,

F in a n cia l Chron ic le; in which fact is in

v olve d no anomaly or myst e rious splitting o f
p e rson al ity It m e ans simply that when on e
.

reads the Tim es h e is entertaining id eas that

are being shared with a certa in numb e r of
oth er p eople ; and wh e n h e reads the Con
g g
r e a ti on a lis t he is ent e rt a ining mental te n

ants id entic al wi th those in the minds of

anoth e r group of p e ople .

S al e s and adve rt ising managers frequ e ntly

-

compl ai n about th e multiplicity of medi ums

which th ey mus t use in carry ing th eir mes
sage to the b uying public They regard it as.

a misfortun e As a matt e r of fact such multi

.
,

p li c i ty is an advant a ge ; it simpli fi es the task

of the advertiser . Th e re is not simply on e
“
infinite ly l arge buying pub lic , out of which ”

a selle r may win a fe w c ustomers There are .

“
many b uying publics .
”
N o t all of them
care for e ve ry commodity, o r e ve ry type of
a certai n commodity F ortunately th ey are
.

sifted out and are group ed , with refere nce

to taste s, a b out certain periodic al s . T he
58 THE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
2
. E c onomic Facts shoul d b e gathered
.

showing the property hol di ngs, earni ngs, e tc .

Some p eri odi cal s have gathered such facts for

distri b ution to inte reste d space b uyers -
.

3. Soc iolog ical What is the soc i al level

.

of the public ? What are the leadi ng occupa

tions repres ented ; the sports and rel ax ations ?

Th ese data are di ffi cult to gather and often
can b e ascertained only indirec tly T he chief .

di ffi culty comes in expressing them in numeri

c al terms O ne p e riodical overcame this in
.

g e n i o usly b y collecting tel e phone di rec to ri els

of the country and asc e rtaining what per
’
centa ge of i ts sub scrib ers names appeare d
therein T his di d not furni sh a complete de
.

sc ri ption of the soc ial status of its public , b ut

it gave an indication .

These examples indi cate t h at sellers are

aware of the di fl eren ces e xisting b etween pu b
li e s and are seeking to m e asure them seien
tifical ly Successful as they are , however,
.

they ha v e omitted on e important form of in

ve sti g ation which we shall call
,

4 .
Psychol ogi cal Some of the g reatest
.

differences betw ee n publics are mental

ideas, fe elings, motives, and the like People .

v aguely recognize these differences ; they say

that the ! Monthly is read by high b rows “ -
”
SELLING T O C O LLE C TIVE BUY E R 59

th e Y Monthl y by “low ”
brows ; that one
-

“ ”
newspap e r controls the l abor vote ; another,
“ ”
the wet el ement If these differences e xist
.

surely we ought to be abl e to m easure th em .

True the task will b e di fficul t ; for psychical

,

things are obscure and el usive F urthermore,

.

th e status of psychology as an accurate scie nce

is so recently e stablish e d that we do not yet
“ ”
have p sy ch olog ic a yard sticks with w hich
-

to measure all kinds of m e nt al things .

In th e eff ort to secure such measuremen ts I

the author undertook an investigation of
seve ral periodicals, and discovered a technique
which re ve al e d di stinct psychological diff er
en c es and p e rmitte d their mathematic al pre

sen ta tion Though th e se differences are n ot

.

of a nature to be marke dl y signi fi cant for a d

verti sin g an d s elling, th ey a re neverthel e ss

striking e nough to e ncourage us to hop e that

we may ultimately develop methods that will
b e practically applicable to th e two fold prob
-

lem which the advertiser fac e s : what m edium

to use and how adapt copy to each on e ?
,

By way of preliminary approach the follow

ing simpl e procedure was planned an d exe
c uted : Two pe ri odicals were chosen which
are commonly all eged to serve diffe re nt p ub
lic e— th e C hicago E vening P ost an d the
60 THE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
Chicago A meric From the editori al , news
an .

an d feature columns of six parall el issues of

the se two papers, approximately fiv e thou

san d words were taken in consec utive ord e r
—an e qual numb e r from each n ewspaper— an d
tab ul at ed accordi ng to the numb er of syll abl es
th ey contai ned .

T he resul ts are shown in T abl e I , in terms

of the p e rc e ntage of words containing more

than two, three, etc , syllables These fi gures

. .

show that th e n umb e r of words ove r two syll a

bl e s long in the P ost is gre at e r than that in
th e A m eric a n by seve nty p er c e nt ; this ratio
hol ds for all the polysyllabic words .

T ABLE I .

Showing p e rce nt age o f wo rds con tainin g m ore th an 2, 8 ,

4 a n d 5 syll able s in Chic ag o Even in g P os t , Chicag o A meri
can ,C en tu ry an d A meric an m ag azines .

O ver ? O ve r s O ve r 4 O ve r 5

.7

Pe r cen t
S E LLING T O C O LLE C TIVE BUYER 61

In ord er to see if such a test would reveal

similar difle ren c es be twee n two magazin es ,

th e C en tury and A m eric a n magazin e s w e re

li k ewise examin ed R e sults as shown in
.
,

Tabl e I answ er our inquiry positiv ely Th ey

,
.

show that th e numb er of words ove r two

syllabl e s in l ength in th e Cen tury is gre ater
than th e corre sponding numb e r in th e A meri
c a n magazin e by thirty six p e r c e nt ; th e num
-

her ove r three syllabl e s by fifty nin e p er c ent ; -

th e numb e r ov e r four syllabl e s by sixty seve n -

p e r c e nt ; and the numb e r ov e r five syllabl e s

by 1 0 0 p er c e nt
.

I n continuation of th e s earch for int el

l ec tu al di ffe re nc e s t h e l ength of se nt enc e s
,

was n ext m easured F rom parall el issu es and

.

columns of th e sam e four p e ri odicals ( on e

issu e each of th e n ewspap e rs and two each of
th e magazin es ) a total of 800 0 s ente nc e s w er e
take n in consecutive ord e r Th e numb er of .

words in e ach s ent enc e was comput e d and

record e d by te ns That is se nt e nc es conta in
.
,

ing from on e to ten words w e re group e d to

geth e r those from ten to tw enty tw enty to
, ,

thi rty , and so forth T h e p e rc e ntage s are

.

shown in Tabl e II Th ese re sults show a

.

“ ”
greate r numb e r of long sentenc e s in th e
P ost than in th e A m eric a n C onsid e ri ng any
.
62 T HE MIND OF THE B UYE R
T AB LE II .

Showi ng pe rce nta g e o f se nt enc e s o f v

ariou s len g ths in
Chic a g o E veni ng P o st, Chicag o A me ri c an , Cen tu ry an d
z
A meri can m ag a in es .

O ve r O ve r O ve r O ver
11
0
-
1
0 90 30 40

Diff e ren ce

A m e ric an

Di fferenc e

O ver Ove r O ver O ver Ove r O ve r

50 60 7O 80 90 1
00

. 8

’
Di fl e rence

A me rican

Difl e renc e
‘

thi ng over twenty as a long sentenc e —the

m edian l engt h is between ten and twenty
we find a diff e re nc e of That is whereas ,

the A m eric an h as p er c e nt ,
the P o st has
m
'

p e r cent ,
an a ount gr e ater by thirteen
per c e nt .

Th e di ff ere nce in fav or of the magaz ines

again favori ng t e Cen tury amounts to
h —
thi rty three per cent
-
.
S E LLING T O C O LLE C TIV E BUYER 63

Th e author doe s not re as on from th ese fin d

ings that a sup eri ority in numb e r of long
words and sent e nc e s prove s conclusively a cor
respon di ng inte ll ectual sup e riori ty Cl early.

long words and long se ntenc es are not an

absolute c rit eri on of eruditi on o r short on e s
of ignoranc e N ev e rth el ess we must admit
,

that in th e long run th e chanc e s favor a

,

gre ate r numb e r of long words b eing asso

ci ate d with more e nlighten e d p e opl e . M e as
urem en ts mad e b y various vocabulary te sts

have shown that th e re are m or e words in th e

v ocabulari e s o f th e more e nlighte n e d ; h e nc e
we might e xpec t a gre ater number of lon g
words th e re . V

If we shoul d grant th e vali di ty of such as

sum p ti on s ,
howe ve r we still shoul d recog
,

ni z e that th e kind of m e as ures we have j u st

made are still ve ry fragm e ntary T he p ey .

c h ol og ical di ffe re nc e s b e tw een p e riodi c al s, and

esp ecially those di ffe re nces that interest the

adve rtiser, are much broade r Particularly.

important are those of an emotional ord e r,

such as tastes int ere sts, and th e like
, .

Such differenc e s might conc eivably be

shown as follows : I n each pe ri odi cal be ing
investigated , measure th e amount of spac e
devoted to each kind of re ading matter ( ex
64 T HE M I ND O F THE BUYE R
cluding adve rtis em ents ) Classify th e contents
.

unde r such h e adings as Politics Financ e, R e

,

lig ion , Lit erary C ri ticism ,

Sci enc e Sports, ,

e tc . Th en chart the resul ts so as to show th e

proportionate amounts o f spac e devot e d to
mat e ri al of e ach class.

Such a study of two magazin e s ( pool ed

m e asures of four issu e s e ach sam e months )
,

gave resul ts as shown in Tabl e III By thus .

statistic al ly studying various p e ri odicals th e

sell e r may prepare a tabl e ( see Table I V )
showing th e amount of spac e in e ach p eri odical
d evoted to th e subj e ct n eare st to his p artic u
lar commodity ; and from it may infe r th e
d e gre e of intere st h eld by a public toward e ach
fi eld F or surely in the lon g run th e re is a
.
, ,

close relation be twee n th e taste s of th e re ad ers

of a p eri odical and th e amount of spac e de
vot e d to various topics .

Th e amount of spac e d evot e d to adve rti se

m e nts of various kinds of commodi ty might
n ext be statistically examin ed And th e se ll e r,
.

using our histo ri cal crite ri on set forth on

page 21 ,
might se ttl e o n tho se m e diums that
d evot e a c e rtain p er c ent of spac e to mate
rial s relating dire ctly to his commodity F or .

e xample a market e r of tennis paraphernalia

,
66 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYER
th ey serve, may be di scovered and measured .

With addi tional labor and collabora ti on be

twee n psychologic al laboratory and adverti s
ing copy room , we may hope to develop a kin d
-

of m easure m e nt which may ultimately b e of

great service to the adve rtise r .

A dapt copy t o medium . After having de

cided what mediums to use, the advertise r
wh o is alive to the psychological factors
involved in selling to group buye rs, will
d evise for e ach m edi um a pi ec e of copy which
will be appro p ri at e to th e psycholog ical
characte ri stics of th e public that reads it A .

good exampl e of such adaptation which was

succ e ssful ly mad e eve n if it coul d not be based
upon sci e ntifi c diffe re ntiation b etwe en pub
lic s, is reported by Mr Frank F ehlman who,
.

as sal e s manager of H W Gossard C ompany,

. .

plann e d an ad ve rtising campai g n involving

’
th e use of el e ve n national woman s magazines .

H e was convinc e d that e ach of these periodi

cals se rved a typic al group of women , an d
that his copy should b e adapted to the per
son ali ty of each of these types Lacking
.

mathematic al characte ri zation of th e se types,

h e sought the e ditor of each magaz ine and
a sked for a description o f the typical re ader,

as he , th e editor, visualiz ed her The adver

.
SELLING T O C O LLE CT IVE BUYE R 67

ti eing copy wri ter th e n compose d a diff erent

pi ec e of copy for the top half of each adver
tisem en t, tied up with the edi torial polic y
of th e magazine .

F or e xample the policy of Good H ouse

,

keepi n g had b ee n closely knit around Dr .

Wil ey and food t e sts The magazine guaran

.

te ed i ts advertise m e nts ; h ence the ide a of

guarante e was w ell ground e d in th e mind of
th e re ade r of the magaz ine. Accordingly th e
h e adline over a picture of a gal axy of moving
picture b e au ties garb ed in th e Gossard
product was “T ested and Proved by the
,
”
Gre at e st Stars in the Film World .

’
Woma n s H ome Comp ani on had b een con
ducting a campai gn for b etter fi lms In order
.

tofi t in with this policy the following hea dl ine

was employed with th e picture : “Better
— —
Film s B eautiful Stars Gossard C orsets .
”

“Th e n we wrapp e d o ur full page in V o ue

g
in th e smart, aristocratic , ha ute wire atmos
p h e re o f th e lady o f the limousine who pays
twenty five dollars for a corset with th e non
-

chal an ee with which you or I spend a cent

for a ne wspaper We knew that the headl ine
—
.

of this adve rtisem e nt in V og ue

“ The Regal
”—
Beauty of Dora Rogers would h ave th e
right effect on th e haughty, double c hinned
68 THE M IN D O F THE BUYE R
soci e ty dowage r whose corsets contri b ute so
vital ly toward th e re gality of h e r figure as she
swe eps from her Rolls Royc e into th e e ntrance
-

of Sh e rry s
’ ”
.

Aft e r citing other adaptations of copy to

medium this w ri te r concludes : “W e are now
so thoroughly convinc ed of the n ec essity of
linking up copy with th e e ditori al ton e of th e
magazin e that it is one of our strongest adver
tisin g polici e s .

If such profi table adaptations can b e ef

fec ted without th e use of sci e ntific m e asure
m e nts, surely after we have refin e d a tech
ni qu e similar to that sugge sted in this chapte r,
we shall be abl e to mak e much more efl e c tive
a daptations of sales appeals to th e publics
we are trying to reach .

F ashi on a ph en omenon of th e c oll ectiv e

min d O n e charact e ristic of group minds is
.

the ph enom enon which we call fashion . It

“
may be d efi ned as a se ri e s of re curri ng
chan ges in the choic es of a g roup of peopl e
which , though th ey may be accompani ed by
”
utility are not d ete rmin e d by it
, . F ashion
is one of the most important psychical factors
afi ec tin g mod e rn selling E very on e rec og
.

niz es its forc e, b ut few lay down any prin

SELL ING T O C O LL E C TIV E BUYE R 69

c ip le s by which a seller may turn it to his

account .

W e shall b e abl e to secure so m e light upon

this qu e stion if we analyz e fashion showing ,

what it is and how it op erates W e sh al l do .

this by ite mizing several of the most promi

n ent chara ct e risti cs conc e rn e d i n its b irth
and d evelopm e nt .

1 Th e first is unive rsality I t may attach

. .

its lf o an y kind of human con uc

e t d t —d ress,
sp eech ,
dancing ,
gai t h ai r dre ssing
,
-
A .

furt h e r form of its unive rsality is that it is

pre val e nt throughout th e human rac e On .

F ifth ave nu e and on th e palm fri nged beac h -

o f a South Sea island it flourish es with e qual

l ux u ri anc e and exub e ranc e .

2
. I t is not d e termined by use fuln ess ; in
d eed , many fashions th ri ve b ecause th ey are
conspicuously not useful F or exampl e on e
.
,

thing that makes French h eels fashionabl e

is that th ey hind e r a wom an from working
ve ry actively and th us t e stify to the world
,

that she is a woman of l eisure .

3
. A fashion at its inc e ption must have
so m e el em e nt of n ewn ess .

4
. I t ori ginally re pre se nts the d e si re of
som e individual to mark himself off from
others If a b elle on Ri ve rside D ri ve or in
.
70 THE MIND O F THE B UYE R
! ul ul an d sec ures a set of green beads when
h e r companions hav e none she there b y marks
,

h e rself as different from th e rest .

5. D ue to the next compone nt o f fashion

—
imitati on the other young wom e n in her se t
secure som e green b eads .

6 . In this imitation , we should observe

the higher indi vidual is imitated by the lower .

7 . As a re sult of this imitative ac ti on the

,

individual who was fi rst mad e conspicuous by

t h e new apparel is no longe r distinguish e d .

The situation may be g raphic al ly represented

by F igure 7 .

In the social group A B C D E F G , indi

vidual D adopt ed th e novel practic e of
w e a ri ng green beads thus raising h e rself above
the level of her companions When they , how
.

ev er, followed her exam pl e and put on g reen

bead s they raised themsel v es to her level

,
.
SELLING T O C O LL E C T I VE BUYE R 71

Finding herself again an undist inguish ed

m emb e r of th e group D adopte d som e n ew
,

orname nt ( p e rhaps bows on h er shoe s ) which

rai se d h e r again above th e common l evel .

Unfortunately, h e r infe riors are bound to co py

this fashion ; and so sh e will b e obliged to
search for anoth e r distinguishing mark .

8
. After many such changes it be come s
difi c ult to devise a n ew distinguishing mark ;
o n e is forced to reve rt to a f a shion which h ad

its vogue a long tim e b efore and di e d out .

Havi ng b een qui e sc ent for a long tim e , som e

tim e s a gen eration it possesse s the el ement of
,

novel ty in th e eye s of the n ew gen eration an d

answe rs th e purpose of a n ew obj ect of
fashion In oth e r words fashions move in
.
,

cycl e s Shoes range from wid e to narrow

.

’
toes, high to low h eels Wom e n s skirts osc il
.

late b etw een extrem es of l ength and shortn ess,

narrowne ss and width .

Is there som e favored l ength of tim e for

fashi on cycl es ? Va ri ous answe rs have been
give n B ut sp e culation is futil e Th e tru e
. .

facts can be sec ure d only by statistical investi

g ati on .

Such in e pitom e is th e inte resting story

, ,

of fashion in general The reade r may apply

.
72 T HE MIND O F THE BUYER
this sch ema to any fashion and may easil y
see its commercial implications .

Relation b etween fashion an d selling .Oh

viously fashion may stimul ate selling by
cre ati ng and furth e ring new d eman ds It.

may retard selling by reducing th e d emand

for an articl e which has cease d to be fashion
a bl e For th ese and other reasons the se ll e r
.

should study fashion statistically , if p ossible

,
.

By means of th e knowl edge thus obtained he

may e stimate what to b uy , how much of a
stock to lay in , when to pl a n for another
fashion and how long it may run
,
.

I n introducing a new articl e to the public ,

th e seller may succeed vast ly b etter if h e
studies th e psychology of fashion and acts
accordi ngly Thus h e may utilize l aw 4 by
.

showi ng th e b uyer how the purchase of this

commodi ty will give him indi vidual ity and
ascendancy over th e mass In ob servance of
.

laws 5 and 6 the s ell e r woul d seek as h is

,

fi rst b uy e r th e acknowledged leader of the

social g roup Th en he may inform the l esser
.

buye r that h e may distingui sh himself b y

doing as did the most distinguished m ember
of th e group .

Summary . I n this chapter we hav e shown

that the b uyer is not always appeal ed to in
S TAGE T W O I N T ER E S T
 CHAPTER FIVE

H OW TO A ROU SE I N TEREST IN A CO M M ODI TY

A tt ention may merg e into interest After the .

buy e r has given his initi al mom e nta ry atten

tion to a commodity, h e does on e Of two
things : eith e r he turns away in which case
,

he for th e tim e being c ea ses to b e a prosp ective

buye r ; o r h e continu e s to pay attention an d
remains a prosp ective buyer In the latter
.

case his att ention becom e s something more

than the mere intell e ctual aware n ess c on sid
e red as th e first sta ge O f the sal e It b ecom es
.

a de eper warm e r more rapt kind of attention

, , ,

so diffe rent as to constitute a new stage in the

stream Of thought and to d e se rve a n ew nam e .

We shall d enominat e it I nte rest In this .

chapter we shall di scuss th e nature Of inte re st

in general ; and in th e two following chapt e rs,
two Of th e d evic e s that mainta in it at high
—
p eak good feeling and imagination .

Definition s In d esc ribing int ere st we may

.

prop e rly start with a d efinition S e veral have

.

“
b e en formulated : Intere st is the recognition
77
78 T HE M I ND OF THE BUYE R
of a thing which has b ee n vitally con ne cted
—
with exp e ri e nce b efore a thing recognized
as Old .
” “Imp ul se to attend .
“Int e rest
naturally arouse s t e nd encies to ac t ” “ The
.

root id e a Of the t e rm s eems to b e that of b eing

engaged , e ngrossed , or entirely tak e n up with
”
som e activity b ecause of its recog nized worth .

“Int e rest marks the an ni hil ation of th e dis

tance b etw ee n th e p e rson and th e materials

and re sults Of his action ; it is a sign of th eir
organic u ni on .

Watch a b oy Of fourteen as he b ends over

a mystery tal e Blind and deaf to sights and
.

sounds around him h e th rows his e ntire b ein g

'

into the page We say he is interested T O

. .

achi eve such eff ects upon the reading publi c

would ful fill the d earest wish Of the advertis
ing copy writer F or, accordi ng to our last
-
.

d e fini tion of interest, wh e n the reader Of an

advertisem e nt is interested in the description
o f a thing he identifi es himself with it ; h e

makes an ima gi nary purchase ; if it turns out

to b e agree abl e he tri es to mate ri alize it by
actually purchasing the commodity .

F irst law of interest .How to c reate this de

gree of interest within the mind of the b uyer
is the que sti on b efore us T he answer may
.

be foun d in two psychological laws T he first

.
 H O W TO AR O USE INTER E S T 79

is : In order to c rea te in terest in a thin g ,

g ive in form a ti on a bou t it

We may see the .

force of this law if we examin e som e interest

in the course of developm ent Take the in .

terest of a typical young girl in a c e rtain

movi e actor She knows the name Of eve ry
.

picture in which h e has app eared ; his ag e

th e color of his hair, eye s and automobile .

She che ri shes these facts and fondl e s th em as

a p recious rosary with which sh e pays h er de
votions . They constitute the psychologi cal
ba sis of her interest The astut e press agent
.
-

knows thi s and at well tim e d intervals, he

,
-

l e ts slip through the pre ss a few items an d

anecdote s about the star which fan the inte re st
Of th e fair devotee to a still whiter heat .

S ell e rs in general may profit ably follow

this exampl e, disseminating i n formation about
th eir wares Progressive adve rtisers have been
.

making much use Of this devic e within the past

few y ears Probably th ey have n ot c on
.

sc i ously applied our rule ; b ut in studying the

eff ects Of the v a ri ous el e m ents in th eir ad

vertise me n ts they have discovered that i n

,

formation giving advertisem ents b ring re

-

sul ts ; and so th ey have increased the use of

them . Of 1 ’
000 adve rtisem e nts in Colli er s
Weekly for 1 9 02 only 220, or twen ty two per -
80 THE MIND OF T H E BU Y ER
cent were informational . I n the same
periodical for 1 91 9 th e p er cent had increased
to seven ty four
-
If we consider the doc tri ne
.

“ ”
Of survival Of the fi ttest applicabl e in the
realm Of advertising we may re asonably infer
,

that this feature has proved of con siderab le

s elling valu e .

In giving information a b out a commodity

it is d esirable to Obs e rve an important corol
lary to our fi rst law : Sta te th e n ew in terms
of t h e o ld
. F o r exampl e, in giving informa
tion about a n ew kind Of filing cabin e t which
’
will fi t into the draw e r of an exec utive s desk ,
desc ri b e som e di ffi cul ty which eve ry executi ve
fac es ; such as the n ec essity Of interrupting
an important confere nce to call a cl e rk and
wait for h er to fetch a record card . This
situation is already familiar to the b uyer ,

b eing a part of his daily exp eri ence . It is

fo r this reason a val uabl e starting point from
which the s eller may proceed to impart in
formation ab out his new product .

Cla ssifi cation . In thus utilizing Old int e re sts

the sell e r has a wide va ri ety to select from .

They may be classifi ed as innate and acquire d .

T hose in the first group are born within the

race As shown in Chapter 1
. 1,
man n a turally
82 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
whi c h we are using as our c hief selling point
— wate rproofness .T his is a di ffi c ul t task .

In b ringing it ab out James advises : “Next ,

step by step , connect with these fi rst Ob jec ts
an d experi e nces, the later Ob jects and ideas

which you wish to instil l Associate the new

.

with the old in some natural and t elling way,

so that the interest, b eing shed from point to
point, fi nal ly suffuse s the entire syste m of oh
”
j ts of thought
ec . Here the ad vertiser may
b egin to appeal to the acquired intere sts by
showing how th ese waterproof shoe s will save
mon ey and trouble b y eliminating the n eces
si ty of w e aring rubb ers . Many advertisers at
this step fail to make a smooth transition be
tween the Old id e a and the new on e T hey .

’
fail to show how Lincoln s birthday, which
they may b e referri ng to as a matte r of con
temporary interest, is related to their com
modity . T his is an important matter an d
deserves more than passing attention .But
we must proc eed with the task in hand .

We might group the acquire d inte rests, upon

which a sell e r may play, into two classes :
p ermanent and te mpora ry Th ose in the fi rst
.

class have enough vitality to p ersist through

out th e gre ater part O f a lif e tim e . Such are
p references for sugar ( o r sa lt ) on t omato es .
 H O W TO AROU SE IN T E RE S T 83

a particular political party or fratern al order .

T hose b elonging to the second group are of

less importa nce to the individual : interest in
a passing murde r trial , in the fi rst aeroplane
t ri p across the Atlantic , in a p e nding pre si
den tial election .

In choosing informational facts with which

to evoke intere st in a gi ven commodi ty, we
mi ght group them into four class e s : ( 1 )
sources of the raw materi al s, ( 2) processes
of manufacture , ( 3) facts about the m en wh o
compose the firm , ( 4 ) use s for the commodi ty .

By thus classifying th e thousand adve rtise

ments mentioned above we may di scover some
thing ab out the relative me ri t of th ese classes
of facts in advertising practice The resul ts .

of such arrange m e nt are presente d in per

centa ge form in Table V .

Showing rc t fr t
the p e en ages o f in o ma ional ad ve isemen s rt t
in Collie r We e kly fo r 1909 an d 1 919, g o pe ac o r u d
ing c rd
to the kin d f r t v
s o f in o ma io n gi e n r
e g ard
ing the commo i d ty .

P rocesses Pe rso n nel S ou rces

of o f t he o f R aw
Uses M anufactur e F
irm M a te rials Tot al
57 99 1
1 1
0 1
00
66 14 1
8 09 1
00

These figures show that the items feature d

most frequently are the use s to which the
84 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
commodity may b e put T his is true Of b oth
.

th e 1 902 and the 1 91 9 adve rtisem ents . In

de e d in the lat e r p e riod the fre quency is
, ,

great e r P e rhaps the e xplanation is that b y

.

d escribing use s the adve rtise r can get n e arer

to th e heart of his reader H e can talk about
.

the daily n eeds O f the reader in terms alre ady

familiar, and can show the relat ed uses for
the commodity , thus ex emplifying the true
course Of int e rest as we outlin ed it in earlier
paragraphs P e rhaps, too, th e effec tiven ess of
.

u se may b e attribut e d to th e h uman likin g

for activity .
’
O ne s re action to ward an Objec t
“
s eems to be innate ly in t e rms Of what is to
”
b e don e with it ?

F acts about proc e sses of manufacture ,

though form e rly second in fre qu ency , se em to

have lost som e Of th eir popularity , lik ewise
facts re garding th e so urc e s Of raw materials .

T h e value O f facts about th e p e rsonn el Of th e

fi rm how ever se ems to b e increasing ; the
, ,

perc enta ge having grown from 1 1to 1 8 dur !

ing the eighte en years covered b y the investi s

g ation .This may be indicative Of the growin g

intere st which soc i e ty is ta king in b ig b usine ss,

and particul arly in the personal aspect It .

require s to know income returns, amou nts

o f ex cess profi ts ; an d n atural ly desires to
 H OW TO AR OUSE INTERE ST 85

know ab out the characte r and ab ility of the

men at the head of the affairs Besid es, p eopl e .

like to read about successful men in order to

discove r th e secre t of th eir success .

Howsoever we expl ai n th e se qualiti e s, we

know for c erta in that during the great ex
p e nsion of advertising of the past twenty
ye ars, the use Of i nf ormation giving adver -

tiseme n ts has increas e d in the ratio from

twenty two to seventy four in a hundred And
- -
.

that among informational facts , certain

groups have b ee n num e ri cally favored ove r
others Th e enterprising copy write r who de
.
-

sires to profi t by the exp eri ence Of the past

may w ell adopt the practic e of arousing inte r
e st by means of informational copy and may ,

well consider se riously the re sul ts of our

investigation showing the relative value of
differen t classes of intere st evoking facts -
.

Second law of interest Leaving n ow the nu

.

limite d possib iliti e s of va ri ation in the spread

ing Of inf ormation ab out a commodity le t us ,

pass on to anoth e r phase F or there is another

.

psychological law Of int e rest : In order to

c rea te in terest in a thin g , ar ouse ac ti vi ty to
ward i t We may se e this law exemplifi ed
.

in the methods pursued by various organi za

86 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
tions in enlisting the interest of certai n
persons Wh e n a hospital desires to secure
.

a wealthy patroness it places her on the Board

Of Directo rs ; th en on some important c om
mittee As she b usies herself with the aff ai rs
.

of th e institution sh e becom e s intere sted in i t,

and soo n makes the hoped for fi nancial con -

tri b ution s .

O pportunities for the util i z ation of this

presc ri ption are numerous enough in direct
p e rsonal selling The salesman may induce
.

the b uyer to feel the texture of the silk, take

a ri de in the automob ile , try the piano A .

pertinent exampl e is g iven in this descripti on

of the method employ e d by salesmen sent out
to introduce a n ew cooking product to the
housewives of the country

The canvasse r knocke d at the doo r o f the house When .

the d oo r was Ope ne d t he c anv asser M ediately re moved

,

his hat p lacin g it o n the floo r o f the p iazz a o r o n th e rail

,

if on e we re h a n dy U sing a set p hrase such as : M adam I

‘
.
,

am h e r e t o sho w yo u C risco the n e w sho rte nin g

’he o ffe re d
, ,

her wit h his t wo han ds a p ail o f C risc o T he instan t that

.

’
the wom an t oo k th e p ail from the can v asse r s ha n d s he
drew a p en cil from his p ocke t and he ld it in his rig ht h and ,

at t he same time he dre w fr om a n o the r p oc ket a c o up on

wh ich he he ld in his le ft h an d Th is was so that the woman

.

co uld not h an d b ac k the p ail to the can vasse r The m ost

.

she co uld d o was t o drop o r p lace it o n the floor Then .

the c onversat ion started

!
.
 H O W TO AROUSE IN T E RE S T 87

O pport unities to arouse activity on the p art

of the buyer are n ot quite so numerous in ad

ve rtisin g .There are some however, which

,

when exploited , serve th e purpose admirably .

Here b elong coupons to b e torn oflr, requests

‘

for nam e s o f fri e nds and dealers , off ers of

prizes for th e solution of pu zzles reprodu c tion
,

of cartoons composition of limericks

,
All
.

th ese devices, which hav e established their

utility by their persiste nce in advertising de ,

rive th eir psychological j usti fi cation from

their ab ility to arouse inte rest through ac

Summary . W e have now answered the ques

tion posited at the beginning of this chapter .

We have made a psychological analysis of

interest ; have describ ed the kinds of interest
common to the human species ; and h ave
formul ated two laws for the development of
interest.

We have seen that these laws are not merely

theore tical formulations By an investigation
.

of advertising practic e we found their p rac

tical verification in the conscious or uncon

sc ious use of them b y successful sellers By .

a more minute analysis of the speci fi c stimu

lants to inte rest which h av e b een employe d ,
88 TH E MIND OF THE BU YE R
we have discov ered which on es are likely to
have th e strongest appe al .

It should be remark ed that though we may

s eem to have tre ated int e rest as a di stinct
stage of th e sal e, we do not th e reby imply that
it is entirely se parate from the oth e r stage s .

As a matt e r of fact, once it is aroused , it p er

sists throughout th e sale, in d e sire, con fi d enc e ,
d e cision and satisfaction .

W e shall now proc eed to discuss two com

p o n e n t s o f th e m e ntal stream — good f ee ling
—
and ima gi nation which are important stimu
lants to the growth of interest .
90 T HE MIND O F THE BUYE R
in connection with the stage of interest, and
we sh all re p e at it in discussing the late r
stages, esp e cially that of satisfaction where
,

we shall show that the sal e is not really con

summated until the buyer is in a completely
satisfied state of mind Meanwhile, in order
.

to understand the reason for good feeling at

the various stage s of t h e sal e we sh al l con
,

sid e r it as a general psychological factor ,

end e avoring to show what it is, an d how it

afi ec ts human conduct .

Pl ea santness reflect ed in b odily ch ang es In .

endeavoring to show how good fee ling facili

tates the act of purchase we must rec ogni ze
the fact that sta t es of fe elin g are character
istic ally accompanied by wide Spre ad b odily
-

activities. T hese consist of many varieties ,

“
often call ed e xpre ssions ”
. Som e are con
n ec te d with th e gross mu scles of the t runk ,

arms legs and neck

,
. O thers with the fi ner
musc les in the face and eyes Still others
.

with inte rnal organs hidden from the n aked

Some psychologists assert that su c h of these

movements as accompany plea sa nt feelin gs
represe nt a heigh tening of the bodily powers ;
and that those which accompany unpleasan t
feelings represent a depressing effect F or
.
 G OO D F E ELING A RE ! U I SITE 91

example, a scientist who inve stigated the

effect of v arious stimuli upon the extent of
the knee jerk discovered that pleasant music
-
,

increased the extent of the movem ent We .

cannot acc ept un q ualifiedly this thoroughgo

ing relationship between pleasantness and
h eighte ning of bodily powers, b ecause of c er
tain contradictory evid ence which we shall
n ot ente r into h e re N eve rthel e ss the theory
.

ofl e rs interesting possi b iliti es fo r speculation

concerni ng the power of pleasan t feelings over

the actions of the buyer .

Another view is som ewhat more credible ,

nam ely that pleasant fe elings with respect to

,

an objec t a re accompani ed by move m e nts to

ward while unplea sant fe elings a re acc om
,

p an i ed by move m e nts a way from, the object .

Something of this sort se ems to happ e n wh en

we make expe ri m e nts upon a sim ple organism
like the ammba Wh e n we plac e on e kin d
.

of object in his n eigh b orho od h e mov e s toward

it wh e n we place there anoth er kind of obj ect,

h e quickly moves away An infant re acts
.

similarly To a shiny b all dangling before his

.

eye s h e reach e s forth his hands ; from a sharp

pin h e draws away .

I t is probabl e that an adul t rea cts with

similar positiv e and n egativ e movements ac
92 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
cording as he is conf ronted with an obj ect
which is pleasing or displeasin g Sometimes .

his movements of expansion and retraction

easily discerni bl e At other times they
.

a re minut e an d p e rceptible only by m e ans of

,

delicate measuring instrum ents For though .

in the course of our civiliz e d existence we

learn to conc eal o ur outward manifestations
of feeling, we rarely succ e ed in repre ssing the
inn e r on es They occur without the interposi
.

tion of the will And they form a large ma

.

j o ri ty o f the signs o f unpl e asantn e ss They .

are as we say, instinctive —to be more thor

,

oughly di scusse d in Chapte r XI Though we .

shall n ot enumerate them here we sh all in,

dic ate their astoni shing multiplicity by men

tion in g a few . It is well known that the
sweat glands and saliva glands are afi ec ted
by strong feeling O th e r gland s not so well
.

known are also aroused , such as th e thyroid ,

pitui ta ry, pin eal , adren al .C hanges also
occur in the circulatory syste m ; th e heart
b eats change in rate ; and the art eri e s expand
as in bl ushing, or contract as in paling Elec
—
.

tric disturb anc e s occ ur man b eing a sort

of el ectric battery Chemical reactions occur
. .

Is this not proved by th e fact that the h air

may turn whit e in a single ni ght ?
94 T HE MIND O F THE BUY ER
Int e rpre ting good feeling as hilarious humor
th ey conceive th eir ri fle to b e that of a court
j est e r ; to manufacture a consta nt flow of wit
with which to keep the spi ri ts of the buyer
at a high pitch .

Some advertisers act on the sam e p ri ncipl e,

straini ng e very n e rve to evolve a humorous
story, picture or l im erick Wh e th e r this de
.

vic e is succ e ssful or not is seriously open to

qu estion. I f we se e k the t e stimony to be
found in the practices of the majority of ad
ve rtise rs we fin d scant use of humor as a

stimulant to good fe eling In an investigation

.

o f the advertis em ents appea ri ng in Co llier s

’
’
Weekly and H arp er s We ekly between 1 9 02
and 1 91 9, the author found that the num b er
of humorous adve rtis em ents n eve r e xceeded

seven in 1 00
. If we plac e any reliance upon
th e histo ri cal method as an ind ex o f succ e ssful
s elling practic e s, we may conclude that few
adve rtise rs have found hum or a val uabl e
selling aid .

P erhaps this appare nt lack of succ e ss is not

due to any intrinsic un p rofitablen ess in
humor or to any violent di sta ste for it on the
part of th e buye r T h e apparent success of a
.

few such mildly humorous d evices as th e dog

“ ’ ”
wh o hears H is Maste r s Voic e ; the Gold
 G OO D FE E LING A RE ! UISIT E 95

Dust twins ; an d th e
ch ee ry chef of C ream of
Wh e at suggests this Probably the fail ure
.

of c e rtain similar atte mpts is due to th e poo r

quality of humor e mployed To be funn y .

artistic al ly req uire s the se rvic e s of a real

humorist An adve rtise r may have first rate
.
-

“ ”
ability as a compose r of straight copy with
out b eing a cl eve r humorist I n recognition .

of this fact some adve rtise rs d e sirous of using

humor have lat ely c all e d in profe ssional

humori sts, particularly cartoonists and have ,

asked th em to prepare copy containing the

same funny situations that hav e already
caught th e public fancy Such comm e rcial .

izations of exp e rt hum or are too recent to

p e rmit us to draw conclusions Afte r suffi .

ci e nt trial , howeve r th ey may tell wheth e r

,

or not o ur pre vious failure s in humorous copy

were due to th e in eptn ess of copy write rs -

.

Other stimul ant s of g ood f eeling But humor .

is not the only m ethod by which to gen e rate

good feeling Pl e asantn e ss n eed not take the
.

form of hila ri ty It may b e esth e tic ; called

.

up by pleasing combinations of colors or pl e as

ing line s of a package It may consist of the
.

mild feel ing of recognition call e d up by fre

que ney of re p eti tion of th e sal e s m essage
( C hapte r III ) .It may be the feeling which
96 T HE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
in the prec edi ng chapte r we c alled inte rest,
generate d by th e linkage of old with new .

It may be on e of th e feelings accompanying

d e sire , wh e re p l easant old expe ri ences are
atta ched to n ew obj e cts vivi dl y projected into
the future ( C hapte r VIII ) . In an intense
form it may consist of some pl easant feeling
( in this cas e call e d emotion ) ac c omp anying
instinctive forms of reacti on di scussed in
C hapt e r X I.

Suprem ely importa nt is that form of pleas

an tn e ss which , in our final chapte r we shall

discu ss under the name satisfaction T here

, .

we shall suppl e m e nt this disc ussion by show

ing that good f e eling, which is the true goal
o f th e sal e , shoul d cons titute, indee d, the
gre at sub— stratum in th e mind of the b uyer .

Until th e n we shal l rest content with the con

te ntion of this chapter nam ely, that by means
,

of arousing pl e asant feelings the seller calls

,

forth within th e b uyer a numb er of in stin c

tive movements, gre at and small ; which release
a great amount of n e rvous e nergy , which the
seller may di rect into the ac t of p urchase .
98 T HE M I ND OF TH E BUYER
may have ta ctual images of things touched ;
au di tory images of things h e ard ; gustatory
ima g es of things ta sted ; olfactory images of
things smell ed ; and so on through th e entire
range of sensations .

The law of a ssociation . If we try to account

‘
fo r this power of ima g ing, we must re fe r
to the nature of b rain tissue which is so con
,

stituted that any ob j ect impre ssed upon the

senses makes a p e rman ent modification in the
b rain ; to recall the obj ect later, on e needs
only to revive this pathway O n e usually
.

accomplishes this revival b y stimulating an

oth e r pathway which was stimulated wh e n the
fi rst on e was made As a rule s everal path
.
,

ways are stimulated at once They are asso .

cia te d we say
,
. This, b ecause our experiences
are n e c essa ri ly related to e ach oth e r ; eith er
th ey follow closely upon each other s h eels ; ’
o r else they possess common el ements As
.

a resul t , when ever a new ob ject ( a commodi ty

for sale ) stimulate s on e pathway it reviv es
another at the sam e time .

Thus the s eller has the power to call up

within th e mind of th e buy e r any objects ex
p e ri e n c e d in t h e past ; r e viving th e m in th e
'

form of images F o r example, with the word

.

“W ri gley ” he may call up “gum ” which h as

, ,
T HE I MAG IN AT I O N OF T HE BUY E R 99

b een frequ e ntly ass ociate d with it Le t us

‘

obs e rve som e of th e charact e ristics of images

which the sell e r may utilize in furth e ring th e
sale .

Characteristics of imag es .

1 The fi rst, as we have alre ady said , is

.

vari e ty Image s may b e as va ri egated as th e

.

senses .

2
. C e rtai n kinds are more num e ro us than
oth e rs In point of numb e rs, visual image s
.

probably com e fi rst M easurem ents in th e

.

psychological laboratory have shown that

most p e opl e can use visual images more fre ely
than th ey can the other kinds Au di tory
.

images com e n ext The others occur with con

.

siderable l e ss frequency Some p eopl e a re

.

abl e, only with great di fficulty, to re vive, for

e xampl e , tastes and smells, e special ly those

onl y feebly impressed To test this, le t the

.

read er try to image the taste of coffee ( Be .

sure it is taste and n ot smell ) .

We do not mean to imply that images other

than visual and au di tory are abs ent from the
ordinary mind . The conclusion which we
would draw is that the sell e r will have greate r
lik elihood of calling forth visual images He .

shoul d therefore set his psychologic al traps

to catc h this kind Wh e n h e wishes to make
.
1
00 THE MIND O F T HE B UYER
the b uye r appreciate the glories of apples
from the Hoo d Rive r v alley he will b e able to
arouse me ntal vision s of apples more easily
than m ental tastes, smells and touch es “
.

This is to b e expected b e cause image s are de

rive d from previous sensory ex peri e nc e s ; and
th e ordinary buy e r has come into contact with
appl e s more fre qu ently through sight than
through his other se nses Assuredly , how eve r,
.

any of th e oth e r forms of image ry may a ri se,

and the seller m ay legitim ate ly app e al to any
variety that he wishes In dee d, in adve rtis
.

ing appl e s he might evoke m e ntal tastes an d

sm ells with great efi ec tive n e ss b ecause of
th e stre ngth and nov elty and p l easantn e ss
that would probably accompany th em .

.3 Images may b e either cl e ar or obscure .

S om e are so cl e ar as to be hardly distinguish

a bl e from ori ginal sensations Th e e xtre m e
.

fo rm of such self d ec eption is called hallucina

-

tion Not all image s come with this d e gree of

.

cl e arn ess how ever Som e are obscure fl eeting

,
.
,

and sk etchy, almo st to the vanishing point .

Many times on e tri es to image the voic e of an

absent fri end with no more revi val than per
haps a phrase or two and the vague sugg es »

tion of an intonation .

In view of this fact, the seller wh o inten ds

1
02 T HE MIND O F THE BUYER
To achi ev e this kind of definiteness is a
;
di fficul t task O ur l azy human nature temp ts
us L to followj the line of least resistan c e and to
‘

ue general -t erms We are prone to desc ri b e

s i .

“
all things with th e same words : wonderful ”
,
“gre at bargain ” “immens e saving ” . T hes e
,

are n ot desc ri ptive words at all ; they gi ve n o

hint of the nature or quality of the article .

T hey may with equal pertin e ncy b e appli e d

to a house and lot, an automob ile, a pair of
gloves, a b lock of oil stoc k .

O ne e xplanation of our pronen ess toward

the use of general , inde fi nite terms is the
poverty of our vocab ula ri es We h ave not
.

formed the habit of using words of va riety

su ffi ci e nt for th e d e signation of fi ne shad es
of m e aning . Th e remedy is obvi ous : develop
a ful l and exact v oc abulary In de sc ri b ing
.

a commodity , se arch out words w hi c h fi t it

e xactly and which repres e nt i ts v a r i ed q ual i
ti e s vividly in th e mind of the b uyer .

4 . I mage s may bring strong feelings in

th eir train Thi s is e specially true of infre
.

qu e nt but unusually vi vid images . In eu

circling th e sal e wi th pleasant feelings a s
recomm e nd e d in C hapte r VI , the seller may
use these with great pro fi t . T here are certain
ima ges th at general ly b ri ng pleasant feelings
T HE IMAGINATI O N O F T HE BUY E R 1
03

—images of ating ic e cream and si milar

e -

dainti e s Thes e are much use d by a c erta in

.

candy company in advertising its chocolat e s .

Th ere are oth e r image s that gen e rally bring

—
unpl e asant f eelings noisom e animals and
reptil e s
. B esid es such ge neral te nd enci es
th e re are likes and di slikes peculiar to c e rtain
—
in di vidual s idiosyncraci es d evelop e d in th e
course of exp e ri enc e T h e seller shoul d study
.

th em and use only those image s which have

p leasant asso ciati ons .

Empathy in the sal e O n e intere sting use to

.

which we oc c asion al ly put m ental image s is

“
in that process call e d e mpathy ”
E mpathy
.

“
may be defi n e d as th e proc ess of humanizing
objects, of r eadi ng or feeling ourselve s into
”
th em. We are so constitute d that we are
incline d to place ourselve s im agin ally into
situations that may b e presente d b e fore us .

W e do this som etim e s over so simple a thing

as a straight lin e If it slants at a c e rtain
.

angle without any visibl e m eans of suppor t

it gives us an uncomfortabl e feeling W e feel .

as though we w e re the lin e ; and to hold an

attitud e of such obliquity give s us uncomfort
abl e feelings of strain The read e r may note
.

such feelings as he looks at F igure 8 The .

line , a , with i ts overweighted to p , and the

1
04 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
triangl e, b, with its lack of poise, give
th e obs e rve r distinctly unpl e asant fe elings .

Archit ec ts make allowanc e for such conditions

in planning th e lin es of a building .Th ey
know that a b rupt corn ers give a feeling of
sharpness ; straight lin e s, a fe eling of hard
ness ; c urv es, a feeling of softness . When

b uil ding an unsupported marq ui se ov er the

entrance of a building, th ey usually tilt it
slightly upward as in F igure 8, c , rather
than b uild it on a horizontal plane F or .

they know that if it w e re horizontal , th e oh

serve r, with his e mpath e tic tend ency, would
feel that he ought to support it to ke ep it
from falling If it is already til ted upward,
.

howeve r, he do e s not feel obliged to push it

up any higher Sell ers should observe this
.

emp athetic te ndency in h uman nature and

should make allowanc es for it in prese nt
in g their wares Particularly important is
.
 —
S TAGE T H R E E D E S I R E
1
10 TH E MIND OF THE BUYE R
made through such an in ve stment He vir .

tually takes a pi e c e out of his past and pro

j e c ts it into th e futur e in
,
re l ation to the n ew

obj ect W e d e scrib e d this relation between

.

the n ew and th e old in Chapter V .

3
. This forward proj ection of the b uyer s ’
past is quite likely to b e in terms of th e images
discusse d in C hapte r V II Th e buyer cre ate s
.

picture s of himself bowling along the boul e

vards in the motor car no longe r as passe nger
,

but as d ri ver H e imagin e s th e things that

.

he will do with the di vidends from his oil

stoc k .

4
. Th e se trains o f images are pl easantly
toned ( see C hapters V I and V I I ) And
generally speaking th e greater the pl easan t
ness the greater the desire W e might lay
.

it down as a rul e that o n e who wishes to

’
strengthen the buyer s d e sire fo r an object
shoul d arouse within him strong fe elings of
pl easantness . T h e mechanism fo r arousing
th e se is th e use of the imagery disc ussed in
C hapter V ( paragraph Call up vi vid
’
images from the buy e r s past being careful
,

that they b e marke dly pl easant Th en mix .

them into a picture showing future possibili

ties Paint a d efinite picture of the buyer
.

d ri ving his family into the country on Sunday

 DE S I RE 1
11
and enjoying a picnic dinne r in a shady grove .

E mb ellish every selling point with definite

cl ean cut image s as directed in C hapter VII
-
.

An extraordina ri ly efl ective example of this

“ ”
is th e slogan Like moth e r use d to make .

H e re are all th e elements that go to produce

strong d esire : visual image s of th e fat,
browne d minc e p ie of childhood days ; gusta
’
tory images of sinking on e s te e th into the
mass and allowing th e flavor to p e rmeate the
mouth ; olfactory image s of th e spicy sw ee tish
odor as th e p ie comes smoking from th e oven ;
’
and ab ove all th e image of moth e r s gentle
smil e as sh e cuts th e gold en obj ect and di s
p enses it around the tabl e E ve rything con
.

n e c te d with this picture is pl easant in re tro

sp ect It is th erefore a capital se gm ent of

.
, ,

expe ri ence to proj e ct into th e future in rela

tion to a n ew kind of minc e m e at .

.5 So vivid are th e se images, and so allur

ing that th ey l e ad the buy e r to ma k e move
,

m ents toward the obj ect about which they

c e nter Th e se movem e nts are a v e ry impor
.

tant part of the d esire They are always

.

th ere An infant e vinc e s a d esire for a watc h

.

by re aching toward it An adul t also has an

.

impulse to re ach o ut and touch th e obj ect

of his desire True unde r th e repressive in
.
,
1
12 T HE MIND O F THE BUYER
fl uence of
civilization he often inhib its the
outward signs of movement ; still he moves
if only by twitching his muscles Many tim e s .

he acts in ways unknown to himself, through

some of th e hidd e n muscles and glands m en
tion e d in C hapter VI Imperc eptibl e though
.

th ey are, these faint incipi e nt movements con

,

sti tute a vital part o f de sire .

Wh e n the move ments of the buyer are gross

enough to be observabl e the seller may use
,

them as indic e s to d e termi n e how highly de

velop e d th e d e sire is For in ge neral as th e
.

b uyer b e comes more desirous of th e obj ec t he

makes more viol e nt movem ents toward it He .

grasps it with fi rm e r grip ; or mak e s more

minute examination of it ; or sits down in it
with an air of propri e torship .

6
. If th e first movem e nt toward an ob j ect
resul ts in its purchase d e sire doe s not last
,

very long Usually howeve r th e first move

.
, ,

ment does not b ring about th e at tain m en t of '

the ob ject It is blocked in som e way The

. .

ob struction may be mate ri al : an inte rvening

window glass ; distanc e from th e obj ec t pic
tured O r it may b e mental : an id e a of some
.

other ob ject which is still more strongly de

sired .

7 T his ob stru c tion is accompanied by un

.
1
14 THE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
’
the blocks to the b uye r s movements, the seller
usually em ploys reason , suggestion , and other
mental aids di scussed th roughout this book .

.c T he pleasure following the fulfillm e nt

of d e sire is th at same m e ntal condition which
“
in C hapter XIV we shall call satis faction .

Though th ese cross refe renc e s and duplica

-

tions may seem a trifle confusing to the re ader,

th ey are unavoi dable ; for we are making
longitu di nal and cross sections of a compl ex
-

stream which does not l e nd itself re adily to

sharp cle an cut di visions
-
.

Summary . We shall conclude this chapte r,

at th e risk of undue rep e tition, by charac ter
izing d e sire as a stage in th e m e ntal stre am
akin to inte re st but a step beyond A stage
.

in which the buy e r fastens c e rtai n past ex

p e ri e n ce s upon a framework o f future pros
pee ts relating th e m all to the obj ec t for sal e
,
.

He like s the ens embl e so well that h e re ach e s

out after the ob j ect with e ither actual o r i n

c ipi en t mov ements . At fi rst th e se movem e nts

are bloc ked by physical or ideati on al impe di
men ts These the s ell e r m ust remov e He .

may do so by calling up action impelling -

images in the mind of th e buye r, an d images

that are clothed with exc eedingly pleasant
S TAGE F OU R — C ON F I D EN C E
1
18 T HE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
c reate publi c con fi dence in “57 v ari eti es ”
to .

T he large money v alues which are sometimes

esti mated to inhere in confid ence ( som etimes
called the good will of a conc ern ) are furth e r
evidenc e s of its large pl ace in b usi n ess In .

arrivi ng at such an ev aluation , one accountan t

writes : “Good will is a l e gitimate asset in
an ind ustri al e nterp ri se , and the most a c
c ep te d method of computing th e amount of

good will is to take the total profits for th e

l ast five years and deduct from them five
’
years int e rest on the capitalization at 7 p e r
”
cent per annum ; the b al ance is goo d will .

Confid en ce and g oo d will are h abit s .In b usi .

ness inventori e s confi d ence , or good will , is

“
usually spoken of as one of the intangibl e ”

a ssets of a fir m, an d is thereby cl as sed as

something that is onl y th eore tically ex

istent It is our purpose in this chapter to
.

show that though it is intangi ble it is nev er

th eless real . That in the proc e ss of the sale

it occupies a plac e second to non e of the oth er
process e s we are de sc ribing If any one w e re
.

to ask us where l urks this invisible asse t,

wh e re it makes it hab itat we shoul d answ er,
,

In th e mind of th e buyer .It e xists there as

a sy ste m of habits which the sell e r has bui lt

up by di nt of much labor an d cost .

These
.
 C O N FI DEN C E AND G OO D WILL 1
19

habits consist of acts or tend e ncies that are

favorabl e to th e sell e r and his commodity .

T h e goo d will b elonging to a c e rtain ha be r

dash e ry d e al e r consists psychologic al ly in my
habit of turning in at his door rath e r th an
that of his comp e titor wh e n I wish to buy
collars The good will of a c e rtain firm of
.

collar man ufacturers consists of my habit of

asking for th eir brand rath e r than an other,
and of recomm e nding it to my fri ends These .

habits whil e in a se nse b elonging to m e , b e

,

long j ust as truly to th e sell e r ; th ey a re p ai d

for by th e mon ey which h e h as us ed in ad
verti si n g and by th e pains h e h as tak e n to

serve m e .

It shall be our purpose in this chapte r to

desc ri be th e proc esse s through which th e se
habits of confid ence and good wil l are built
up .

Genes is and d evel opment of c onfidence It is.

possibl e for th e sell e r to build up confid enc e

be cause of a c e rtain fundam ental trait in th e
’
buy e r s mind To find i ts roots we shall be
.

oblige d to prob e far bac k into th e days of

infancy Th e re at th e tim e wh e n th e m e ntal
.
,

lif e of th e individu al is first unfolding we ,

shall find th e roots of that which bloo ms forth

as adul t confi d e nc e W h e n we thus exa mine
.
1
20 T HE M I ND O F THE B UYE R
th e mental life of th e infant, we fin d as the
first fore runn e r of confid e nc e a simple in ,

choat e m e ntal attitude which can hardly b e

e xpre ssed by any mor e d e finit e t e rm than a
“feelin o f simpl r ality ”
this is attach d
g e e e
-

to eve ry obj e ct of exp e ri e nc e In eve ry act

.

o f p e rc eiving th e infant implicitly says,

“Ah !
I sense som ething h e re ; I gu ess I can rely
”
upon my s e nses . H e feels that if h e can
s ense the obj ec t it must really be there Ex .

i ste n c e is, for him , simply pre sence . What

eve r is, is re al There is no hint of disb eli e f
.

in anything he can sense ; there is no reason

for anything b ut con fi d e nce in i ts e xistence .

This fe eling, crude and positive, which a t

tach e s to the obj ec ts of infantile experi e nc e,
may b e inel e ga ntly cal led a feeling of
“th e r e n e ss ”
.

Thi s primev al predec e ssor of the c onfiden c e

to be has b ee n call e d by one psychologi st
-

“ ”
( Bain ) p ri mitiv e cre d ul ity . B ain says that
the mind is so constitute d that it te nds to
accept as true every statement mad e ( see
page E v e ry impre ssion made upon t h e
mind of a chil d t en ds to rec eive cre d enc e and ,

is acc epted unl e ss it is offs e t by a contrary 1m

pre ssion Now in th e mind of th
.

impre ssions com e without an y c

1
22 T HE MIND O F THE BUYE R
an d failing makes him doub t the statement
,

that Santa Claus e nte rs through that pass age .

After a numb e r of such e xp eri e nc es, coming

more fre qu e ntly as adul thood approach es, the
individual forms the habit of suppre ssing his
innate tend encies to cre dulity H e tests e ve ry
.

on e of his fe elings of re ality with his other

e xp e ri e nc e s
. H e te ntatively acts upon th e m
to see if th ey bring the re sponse to be ex
p ec t e d,
an d he plac e s alongsid e th e m the id e as
gain e d from form e r e xp e ri e nc e s If his move
.

m e nts do not re sul t in satisfactory re sponse,

h e doubts . If the n ew impression is beli e d
by his past exp e ri enc e s h e doubts O nly if
.

the n ew obj e ct gives ful l and e xp e cte d re

sp o n se to his t e sting mov e m e nts, and agre e s

with his previous e xp e ri e nc e s is his doubt re

solve d and change d into confide nc e .

Wh e n such a te st re sults favorably it brings

satisfaction and app easem e nt of d e sire . In
ord e r to und e rstan d how great may b e this
satisfaction aft e r th e r e solution o f a doubt,

o n e has only to re ad th e
“ ”
M e ditations of som e
of th e church F ath e rs who, afte r having b e e n
,

rack e d and torn by reli gi ous doubts, cam e

to a stat e of p e rf e ct b eli ef and t rust . There
too o n e may se cure illuminating und e rstand
ing of th e psychological condi tions att e nding
 C O N F IDEN C E AND G OO D WILL 1
23

full confi denc e After re a di ng these desc ri p

.

tions a sell er may understand more cl early

what a pow erful ally h e has in th e mind of
a buy e r who m ai ntains implicit confi dence in
’
his ( th e seller s ) goods .

Such in outline is the gen e sis and d evelop

m ent of confid e nce in th e lifetime of the in
dividual . F rom a c rude p ri mitive, almost
,

animalistic “se nsation coe ffic ie n t,

-
”
as on e
psychologi st ( B al dwin ) puts it, it develops
.

by a proc e ss of te sting of thought with ex

tern ality , into th e re fi n e d and substantial
forc e that we call by such m eaningful and
sol emn words as b eli e f, trust, credit fai th, .

To cre ate this is a life tim e task Now we

-
.

see why it ofte n re q ui re s a long tim e to build

up public confid enc e in c ertain commoditi es .

F or e xampl e it too k a long tim e for th e public

,

to d e v elop confid e nc e in th e busin e ss of a d

ve rt i si n g as such ; b e cause in th e e arly days

of adve rtising th e buy e r, t rusting his first

,
“
impre ssions tinge d with p ri mitive credulity ”
,

attempte d to act upon th em and was d ec eive d .

’
H e found unre ality wh e r e h e had attri but e d
re al ity F or a long tim e th e n wh en eve r he
.
, ,

was te mpt e d to act on an adve rtisem ent h e ,

re call e d h is first unpl easant exp eri e nc e s and

th ey contradic ted th e statem ents he was re ad
1
24 THE M I ND OF T HE BUY E R
ing So he excl ai med paraphrasi ng th e dis
.
,

grun tl e d scriptural w ri ter “ All adve rtisers

,
”
are liars ; I will not b elieve any of them If .

within rec ent years th e b uyi ng public has

develop e d more confid e nc e in adve rtising it is
becaus e adv e rtise rs have l ea rn e d to mak e
state m ents which agree with re ality an d which
wh e n acte d upon by the buye r, bring satisfac
tory response s .

Confid en ce is stable b ut frag il e O ne p e culiar

.

ity ab out confid e nce is that after it has passed

through th e stage of doubt and has se cure d
th e right to e xist by m eans of a long agree
“
m ent betw ee n impression ( simple reality
”
feelings ) and fact, th e n it stands square and
solid We say of an individual in whom we
.

“
ha ve gre at confid enc e I would trust him with
,
”
my last dollar A nd this solidity e ndures
.

as long as the feeling of re ality can attach

its elf unimped e dl y to th e obj ect B ut let one
.

slip occur and the structure is ruin e d Para .

doxic al as it may se em confid e nc e is at the

,

same tim e v e ry stabl e and v ery fragil e No .

where is this d emonstrat ed more forcibly than

in the b usines s o f banking Th e confid enc e
.

which people may hol d in a bank for gen e ra

tions may be shatt e red ov e r night .

Confi den ce th e g oal of bankadverti sing

, The .
1
26 T HE M IN D O F T H E BUYE R
is j ustifi e d . F o r what ban k s seek through
a dve rtising is fi rst confid e nc e th e n d e posits
, .

Th ey are obliged to k eep confid e nc e as th eir

chi ef ai m Th ey k now that at be st it is a p re
.

ca ri ous and fragil e e ntity which eve r so slight

,

a thing may disturb ; h e nc e th ey re frai n from

e mploying any m e thods that may by th e ir

e cc e ntricity shoc k it .

Two d evice s for in stil ling c onfid ence From.

th e fore going analysis of confid e nc e the re ad e r

is pre pare d to see what usually passe s in th e
mind of the buy e r wh e n h e is d e veloping con
“
fiden c e in a commodity D ue to his p ri mitive
.

”
credulity the buy e r tends to b eli eve th e first
statem ent mad e about th e commodity Soon , .

how eve r he thinks of som e p ast expe ri enc e s

,

which controve rt th e st atem e nt which arouse

,

within his mind disb eli e fs and which act as in

,

hibition s to th e purchase o f th e commodity .

T h e se th e sell e r must batt e r down H e may .

use two psychologic al aids

T h e fi rst is re p e tition An assertion re
.

p ea t e d ofte n e nough will go far toward

creating b eli e f in it This is the psychological
.

j ustification for th e constant use of such

“
slogans as, Ask th e man who owns on e ; ”

“Th e re ’ s a re ason ; 99 44/ 1

” “ ”
00 % pure ; An “
”
apple a day k ee ps th e doctor away ; The ut “
 C O NFI D EN C E A N D G OO D WI LL 1
27

most in cigare ttes ” “Th e

most be autiful car
;
”
in Am e rica .

Th e second is to arouse an d mainta in a

feeling of sa tisfaction within the buye r .

Throughout our di scussion we have call ed

confid enc e both in i ts p ri mitive state and its
,

re fin e d sta t e a feeling W e have don e this

,
.

d e sign e dly. F o r confid e nc e is mark e d by

—
som e thing warm and pl easant it is a tru e
fee ling as we defin e d th e te rm in C hapte r VI .

As we stated in that chapte r fe eling is ever ,

an ani mus to action A sell e r may give ever

.

so convincing argum e nts ; h e may bristl e with

re as ons why th e buye r should purchase his

articl e ; but if h e fail to cre ate confid e nc e h e
will not m ake th e sale W e may paraphrase .

th e old adage to re ad : “A man convinc e d

without th e feeling of confid enc e is of th e sam e
”
opinion still .

Summary W e have h e re l ai d down th e dic

.

tum that confid e nc e is in evitabl e in th e sal e .

Though it n ee d not always app ear as stage

four wh ere we hav e plac e d it in th e logic al o ut
,

lin e of this book still it usu al ly com e s h e re in

,

th e sale of a n ew commodity Wh e reve r it .

com es it must exist in som e d e gree of stre ngth ,

,

th e gre a ter th e b ett e r And we cite d som e com

.

modi fi es to which it adh e re s with th e soli di ty

1
28 TH E MIND O F THE BUYER
of Gibral tar Though it may b e strong and
.

w ell ground ed , how eve r it may, und e r ve ry

-
,

slight provocation and lack of fai thful n e ss ,

crumbl e in a mom ent Th e re fore the sell e r
.

must ex e rcise constant watchfulness to see

that h e k e e ps his pledge s and fulfil ls the ex

p e c ta ti o n s o f thos e who trust him and his

goo ds .

Though confid e nc e is usually re gard e d as

“ t ”
an in angibl e asset we show e d th at it has
,

real existe nc e ; and that its val u e may b e

rec k on ed in dollars and c ents P sy c h ologi
.

cally sp eaking we d esc ri b e d it as a set of hab its

—
inc ul cate d wi thin th e buye r motor h abits
’
of re spondi ng to th e s ell e r s app e als with ac ts
of purch as e W e show e d th e simpl e innat e
.

trait upon which it is base d , a n d related how

from this el e m e ntal ge rm it grows to a high
plan e of refin e m ent and constancy .

As sp ecific psychological aids in th e mold

ing of this into p e rfect form we re comm e nd
rep e tition and th e m aintenanc e of pl e asan t
fee ling . Th e form which this l atter should
ta k e is th e compl e te satisfaction of th e n eeds
of th e buy e r .
 C HAPT E R TE N

TH E POW ER OF REA O S N

Rea son and the will Aft e r p assing through

.

th e stages j ust d e sc ri b e d th e buy e r is re ady

,

to p e rform th e act of purchase H is condition .

of mind at this mom e nt is uniqu e I t is call e d .

by such nam e s as d e cision resolution will , , ,

volition psy chological mom e nt

, W e shall
discuss it s mos t c ri tical asp e ct in C hapt e r
X II I und e r t h e caption Th e P sychological
,

Mom ent M eanwhil e we shall discuss several

.

subordinate m e nt al p roc e sse s that may im

mediately prec e d e it and influ e nc e it : re ason
ing instinct suggestion
, ,
Th e se we hast en
.
,

to admit may b e us e d effectiv ely at e arli e r

,

stage s of th e sal e ; but th ey are th e batte ry Of

forc e s which th e sell e r usually re serve s for the
crucial mom ent of d ecision ; h enc e we have
wait e d until this point to disc uss th em .

A nalysi s of r ea soning W h e n a p e rson re a

.

sons h e goe s through four rath e r cl early

,

mark e d sta ges I n his m e ntal stre am we may

.

distingui sh four divisions : ( 1 ) the awar e n e ss

131
1
32 T H E M I ND OF T HE BUYE R
of a di ffi culty ; ( 2) the location of th e di m
culty ; ( 3 ) the se arch for a solution ; ( 4 ) th e
solution .

By way of illustration let us imagine a sal e

in which th e buy e r d ecide s to buy an auto
mobil e tire through a proc e ss of practically
pure re asoning Let us suppos e that our tire
.

fe ature s a d evic e for preve nting rim cuts -

.

H ow shall we direct th e re asoning proc e sse s

of th e buy e r so that he will ma k e a purchase ?
Rec og nition of a difficulty
. F irst we should
l e ad him to se e that on e of his great autom o
biling probl ems is th e short life Of his tires .

H e will doubtl e ss re a dily admit this to b e

true Though th e re might b e circumsta nc e s
.

und e r which th e buy e r would not have such

a cl ear consciousn e ss of th e probl e m ; in which
case th e task o f th e s ell e r is to picture th e
probl em in extraordinarily vivid terms W e .

shall reve rt to this point in a later paragraph .

Location of difficulty O ur se cond task is to

.

locate th e di ffic ul ty by showing th e caus e o f

such rapid d et e ri oration of tires W e shall
.

locat e this di ffi culty in the wea ri ng by the

ri m. W e might d emonstrate this graphically
by picking up an old tire and showing the
buy e r how the walls of the tire have been
brok e n down by th e sharp impact with the
1
34 TH E M I ND O F THE BUY ER
graphic terms so that th e “b uy e r ”
will re
sp o n d re adily wh e n shown th a t th e way of

salvation is th e sol ution to his probl em In .

d e ed a succ e ssful e vangelist is p e rforc e an

,

e xc e ll e nt sal e sman ; and h e can t e ach th e sell e r

o f s e c ul ar ware s many things about th e min d

of the buy e r .

Present ation Of solution O ur third task is

.

to offe r solutions of th e di ffi cul ty I f oth e r .

sol utions than ours have b ee n tri e d unsucc e ss

fully we might refe r to th e m and show how
th ey fai l ed H e re we might pre sent figure s
.

showing th e ave rage life tim e of a numb er of

tire s of standard mak e ; th e n figure s showing
the ave rage l e ngth o f life of our no rim c ut - -

ti re. Thus we show that th e latter is the

solution of th e probl em .

Du ri ng this stage come th e arguments “

with which a trai n of re asoning is usual ly

conduct e d I t is at this stage that th e buy e r
.

may bec ome an active oppon ent inst e ad of a

passive l isten e r to our e ncomium s H e may .

bri ng up obj ec ti ons consisting of c ase s from

,

past e xpe ri e nc e in which our commodity might

conc e ivably fail H e may put forth ideas
.

of hi s own and test th em out agai ns t our

propose d solution Th e situation at this point
.

may b e likened to a court room scene in whi ch

-
 T HE P O WER O F REAS O N 1
35

evidence is submitted and arguments are p re

sente d for and against A s each bit of evi
.

dence is submitted th e j udge ( buy er ) must

,

test it ; must w eight it and ch eck it up against

exp e rienc e.

As we ( the sell e r ) d e fend our product we

must produc e e xactly th e evid enc e n ec e ssary
to re fut e every obj e ction W e must show by
.

ac tual d emonstration how strong are the

fib e rs in our fab ri c ; how num e rous a re th e
lay e rs ; an d how we have padd e d with inde
stru c ti ble mate ri al th e strategic spot at which

the cuts occur .

All this im pli es that th e sal esman has e xact

an d compl e te knowl e dge of th e proc e sse s by

which th e tire s are manufactured and it e m ,

p h asi z e s again th e stat e m e nt mad e in C hapt e r

V that th e sell e r sh oul d be thoroughly ac
,

quainted with his product .

Correct solution Of th e difiiculty But we

.

have reached th e last step of th e trai n of rea

soni ng without noting it e xplicitly It is
.

h e re that th e buy e r recogniz es that our tires

will solve his probl e m . T h e mom e nt a n
n o un c es itself by being pre fac e d with
“ th ere
”
fore . I f th e train of re asoning has b ee n
skillfully conducte d it will bring a conclusion
tinged with final ity . It will com e cloth ed
1
36 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
with c on fi dence and belief Here we sh oul d .

like to repeat all that we asseverated in

C hapter IX .

Point s for sp ecial att ention I n appealing to .

the buy e r through re ason , the sell e r shoul d

guard himself with particular care in se veral
re sp ec ts
The first is to d elin eate th e problem of the
buy e r with exc ee di ng sharpness To do this .

’
he must study th e buyer s n e eds b eforehand .

Som e on e has remarked that a succ e ssful sal es

man must know more about the b uyer s b usi ’
ness than the buyer does himself .

T h e second is to avoid wande ri ng from the

point at issu e Th e temp tations to talk ai m
.

l e ssly are great, e specially at stage three of a

train Of re asoning In ord e r to av oid this th e
.

“
sal esman might w ell outline a sermonette ”
.

b e forehand according to this p attern :

P roblem tires wear out rapidly

: Yo ur .

Location a n d difficulty : R im c uts -

.

Dem o nstrat ion s a b c d , , , .

3. V arious solutio ns have bee n trie d

a b c
, , d ( The b uye r will sug gest some o f
, .

these The se lle r sho uld kn ow in advance what

.

the y are and be p rep are d to meet th em with

,

c ou nte r arg ume nts b ut he nee d not b rin g

-
,

them up hims elf ) .

4 . This ti re me e ts the nee d and solves the p roblem .

1
38 THE M I ND O F THE BUY E R
his decisi on by reason He uses it as a sop
.

to his ration al i zi ng consci e nce Experi e nced

.

sal esm e n have di scove red this fact ab out

“
human nature , and th ey oft e n use reason
”
abl e argum ents pri n cipally as a m e ans of
ju stifying the choic e which th ey know the

buye r h as al re ady implic itly mad e through

fee ling
.

A sid e from this vicarious rOle, how ever,

re ason plays a se ri ous and ofte n decisive part
in th e sal e Particularly is this the case wh e n
.

se lling to such routin e buyers as profe ssional

purchasing agents To know how to conduct
.

a re ason e d sal e properly should therefore, be

,

mad e a matte r of serious study by every in

tellig en t sell e r
.
 CH A PT E R E L E VE N

I N ST IN CTIVE FACTORS

Introduction . Broadly sp eaking, the actions

of the buy e r have two sourc e s : habits formed
in his own life tim e and inh eri tanc e s from p re
vi ous ge n e rations . W e have conside re d th e
fi rst with conside rabl e d etail in our di sc ussions
of rep e tition , imagination int e re st, d e sire
, ,

reason ; pointing out d evic es by which to evok e

th e so call e d habitual actions
-
.We have
touch ed only lightly , how eve r upon th e ,

sourc e s of the second class though we have

b ee n obliged to tak e som e notic e of th em ,

partic ul arly when discussing atte ntion and

fee lin g W e shall now aton e for this n e gl ect
by devoting an e ntire chapte r to th em .

Definition of in st inct ive action W e call th e se

.

inh erited factors instinctive, d efining th e

t e rm as follows : An instinctive act is a s eri e s
of acts of an h e re ditary nature having a de fi
,

ni te though non conscious e n d

-
and ac c om
,

p a ni ed by a ch a racte ri stic fee ling Le t us

.

1
39
1
40 T HE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
analyz e this defi nition and point out the ch ar
a c te r i stics of instinctive action .

Characteri stics of in stin ctive a ction .

1 It is very complicated It is not a simple,

. .

single act like th e wink of an eye Rath e r .

is it mad e up of a numb e r of simple acts Oh .

se rve th e b ird as sh e goes through th e in stinc

tive act of n e st buil di ng-
. She p erforms a
se ries Of simple action s: picking up a string
h e re, a twig there, a hair yonder ; and laying
them in the nest In th e same way the in
.

sti n c tive actions of humans consist of separate

acts ch ai n e d toge th e r, though this linkage

should be interp reted according to the follow

ing paragraph :
2. T h e word “ s eri e s impli e s not m erely
multiplicity O f acts but sequ e nce as well The .

separat e si mpl e acts comprising an instinctive

act almost inva ri ably occur in th e sam e ord e r,
and as we shall Show pres e ntly, without b eing
plan ned by the individual A stri king ex
.

ampl e of this will be furnished by the follow

ing d e sc ription :
A ce rtain b ee tle o f the g en u s Sit ria lay s its e g g s at the
“
a

en tran ce O f the su b t rran e a n g all rie s e xc av ate d b y a kin d

e e

o f mason bee . F rom the s e g g s the larv a e re hatc he d in

e a

autum n as active little insect s ve ry diff e re nt from the

o rdi n a ry type o f be e tl e g ru b havin g six le g s ea ch a rme d
,

with a sha rp curved hook . In the w inte r the y bec ome

1
42 T H E MIND OF TH E BUYER
b ee be cau se e xp erie nce has tau ght it that such a p ro cedure
b rin g s with it satisfacto ry co nseque nce s A t no stage o f
.

th e c om p le x p r oc e ss c a n in telli g e n c e b as e d o n indi vidual

,

e xp e rie n ce he ad m itt e d as a fact o r

, . I f th e re b e e xp e rien c e
,

it m u st be t he in he rit e d e xp e r ie n ce o f anc e stors who have ,

e ac h in turn d o ne m uc h the sam e

”
.
,

This ill ustration shows the invariable se

q u e n c e with which th e Simpl e compon e nts of
a compl ex instinctiv e act follow e ach oth e r .

Upon sup e rficial e xamination on e might

conclud e that instinctive acts cannot be di f
fe re n tiated one from the other, because
seve ral may contai n id entical el em e n tary acts .

This is tru e but we sh al l find on close r ex

,

amination that though the elem e ntary com

,

p o n e n t s of sev e ral instinctiv e acts may b e

id e ntical , still in e ach instinctive pattern they
are link e d toge ther in a uniqu e order F or .

exampl e though th e Simpl e act of flushing

,

in th e fac e may occur in connection with

seve ral complicated insti nctive actions, such
as acts of Shyn e ss , e mbarrassm e nt, modesty ,

e ve n of pugnacity ; still it comes surrounded

b y other el e m e ntary acts which give it in

’
each case a difl e ren t setting W e thus say .
,

that each instinctive act has a distinct pattern

re gardl e ss of the cloth of which it is made .

3 . O ur d efin iti on n ext emph asiz es th e fac t

 INSTIN CTIVE FA C T O R S 1
43

that instinctive actions are i nh e rited There .

is a volum e of significanc e in this for th e

sell er which we shall point out pre se ntly
,
.

F or th e mom ent lét us elaborate upon the

,

m eani ng of th e term inh e ritanc e in ge n eral .

a Le t us note first that anything inh e rit ed

.

may com e n ot merely from imm ediate parents

but also from all pre c e ding gen e rations in th e
lin e of de sc e nt Som e of th e things we inh e rit
.

may have originated millions of years ago .

b An act which has passe d down through

.

so many ge n erations is thus to b e found in

all th e m emb e rs of th e sp eci es F or exampl e

.
,

all human b eings tend to act in a b out th e sam e

way wh e n afraid .

c An inh e rited act is fi rmly fi x ed It has

. .

b een ingrain e d within so many gen e rations

and transmitted so fai thfully from gen eration
to gen e ration that it is quite firmly emb edd ed
within the organism of the last inheritor .

d I t may b e quickly aroused This fol

. .

lows from the fact that th e pathways for it

are well m arked out in th e n e rvous system .

Now to w e ar down a pathway for non in -

h erited action requires consid e rable tim e To.

do so through reasoning processes, for ex

ampl e require s th e tim e n ec e ssary for the
,

n e rvous impulse to trav el to th e brain p e rhaps

,
1
44 TH E MIN D O F THE BUY ER
calling up s v ral idea systems in turn , while
e e -

th e individual cogitat e s about th e matte r and

d ebat e s for and against th e sugge sted action .

Instinctive action howeve r b eing already

, ,

inh e rent in th e organism re quire s no a pp re,

c iable tim e for organization W e shall pres .

e ntly point o ut th e practical signi fi cance of

this in selling .

4. O ur d efin ition next d e sc rib es an in stin c

.

tive act as o n e which the indivi dual may

p e rform without knowl edge of th e en d F or .

e xampl e wh e n o n e turns pal e in f e ar, h e may

,

b e aware o f th e fact but may not se e any

,

good purpose in it In fact he may regard

.
,

it as d etrim ental Now though th e e n d of

.
,

paling in fe ar may n ot be apparent th ere is

probably an end th e re or th e re has b ee n at
,
’
som e time in man s h sto ryi It probabl y .

s erve s in som e way to pres e rve life H ow .

can paling b e conn e cted with the pre se rvation

of life ? Le t us re ason it o ut following ,

Darwin , on the basis of th e dist ribution of

th e blood .At tim e of fear, what is th e politic
thing to do ? Run away B ut to run re .

quire s a sudd en acc ess of stre ngth in the

muscl es of th e l e gs To bring this stre ngth ,
.

bloo d is need e d th e re Nature provid es for

.

this by withdrawing blood from portions of

1
46 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R

p ossesses a feeling pec ul iarly its own— usua ll y

c all ed an emotion . Consid e r for example ,
,

the instin c tiv e act of r unning away from a

fearsome objec t —and this include s al l th e
motion s, large and small that aid in the
,

flight : the locomotive actions of the l e gs ; the

acc eleration of th e h eart b eat which pumps
-

more blood into the legs ; th e quic k ened b reath

ing which furnish e s more oxyge n to th e
rapi dl y flowing blood ; the actions of the i n
te rnal glands which pour strength gi ving sub- ‘

sta nc e s into th e blood This ma ss of corre

.

late d move m ent that we call th e instinct

pattern , flight, is accompani e d by th e emo
tio n al cast o f feeling which we call f e ar The .

instinct patt e rn that we call pugnacity is

-

accompani e d by the e motional cast of feeling

which we call ange r T h e instinctive action of
.

’
protecting on e s young is accompanied by the
e motional fe eling call e d parental love Thus .

e ach gre at instinct patte rn has its character

-

istic feeling
‘

Classifi cation of in stinctive action s impract i

cable .At this point we should like to make a
list of the fundam ental human instincts but ,

we can hardly do so with confid enc e Th e re

.

a re s eve ral re aso ns

. T h e situations wh en in
stin c tive actions a re e vok e d a re som etim e s
 INSTIN CTIVE F A C T O R S 47

com pl ex , so that more than on e of th e in

stin c ts are c al led out The resulting action
.

is a product of all ; hence we can hardly

secure separate cl ean cut patterns Furth e r
,
-
.

more o ur instinctive actions b ecom e inter

,

p en e trated during th e course of indi vidual

,

e xp e ri e nc e with acquire d acts e sp e cially

, ,

with habits Sinc e we rarely see th e pure

.

manifestations of insti nctive action th en , we ,

cannot tell e xactly how many instincts th e re

are .

Though we
shall not presume to gi ve a co m .

p l e t e list,
we shall probably b e safe in re cog

n iz in g th e exist e nc e of som e o f th e gr e at

classes d enote d by current te rms li k e self .

prese rvation ( va ri ously called locomotion ,

obta ining food sh elte r play, sleep ) ; re pro

, ,

duction ; mating ( incl uding acts of coyn ess

and coque try ) ; prote ction of the young ;
fli ght ; pugnacity ; repul sion .

“
Again , we may do best to make a gen eral
classification with refere nce to th e end that
th e act subserve s, rath e r than to the specific
character of th e particular instinct O ne of .

th e most conveni e nt divid es instincts into

three classes : 1 ) th o se which pr e serve the
life an d provide for t he w elfare of the ih
”
dividual ; such as flight, pugnacity, hoarding ,
1
48 THE MIND O F THE BUYE R
curiosity .
( 2) Those which provide for the
”
continuance of the rac e and family ; such as,
mating, prote c tion of hom e and of young .

Those which mak e for th e w elfare of th e

”
trib e or social unit ; such as gre gariousness ,
“
imitation . Som e of th e acts b elong to more
—
than o n e class i n fact no on e of th e s econd
,

or third would b e possibl e without th e first

—but th e di vision is conveni ent in ge neral
”
and may se rve as a gui d e through th e maze .

It s value in th e sal e
. O ut of this discussion
of the characteristics of instinctive action ,
modifi e d by th e acknowl edgm e nt that adult
instinctive ac tion is usu al ly associate d with
acquired form s of action the read e r may
,

e m e rge with at l e ast o n e cl e ar idea nam ely ,

,

that th e actions of a buy e r have two sources

individual experi e nc e s and racial exp e rienc eL
Though the two are not s eparate in th eir
effe cts upon human conduct still those of
,

the second class are probably th e ones upon

which th e se ll er may d ep end more firmly in
moving the will of the buye r Th eir superior
.

strength lies in th e following facts :

Rel ativ ely m ore c ertain . I nstinctive action ,

b eing th e imprint of thousands of exp e ri e nces

upon thousands o f anc estors is firmly fixe d
,

within an individual ; h e nce, the a ppro p ri at e

1
50 TH E M I ND OF T HE BUY ER
out into v arious tracts represe nting “idea
,
”
systems whil e th e id e as are being weighed
,

and b alanc e d according to the involved , in

tri c ate proc e dure outlin e d in C hapte r X .

After a long delay lasting an hour, a day,

,

w eek month or ye ar th e action follows In

, , ,
.

instinctive action how ever the pathways are

, ,

shorte r and already mark ed out When the .

stimulus com e s th e act follows re adily .

In stinctiv e a ction mark ed by feeling Th e last .

advantage lies in the fact that instinctive

action is intimately connecte d , fairly suffused ,

with fe eling Now to feeling b elong c e rtai n

.

possi biliti e s for stre ngth e ning action which

are not attributive to reaso n For exampl e, .

obse rve th e way in which an evangelist app eal s

to his audi enc e to b e converted Wh e n he .

us es reason h e finds his h eare rs respec tful ( if

not somnol e nt ) but cold When he tak e s up
,
.

the wand of feeling however, h e quickly

,

cure s re sul ts The s ell e r who d e sires to use

.

influ enti al m e thods of app eal will learn a

l esson from succ e ssful evangelists For after .

al l both pre ach e r and sell e r have the same

,

—
probl em psychologically to induce action .

A n d b oth need to use th e same psychol ogical

m eans in inducin g it .
 IN ST IN C T I V E FA C T O R S 1
51

In these last few pages we have sp oken as

though there might be two kinds of action ,
instinctive and re ason ed .As a matt e r of
fact this is an artificial partition , j ustifi ed
,

onl y by th e nec e ssiti e s of litera ry exposition .

Actually a bit of human conduct may contain

at the sam e tim e both instincti ve and rea
so n ed factors The obj ec t of our comparison
.

has b ee n to show that prob ably a s ell er may

work more easily through the former than
through the latter .

Summary W e have n ow compl et e d our

.

treatm e nt of the hereditary e quipm e nt in —

sti n c t— for action residing within the b uy e r .

W e found it re sista nt to satisfactory analysis

b ecause it usually occurs in conn e ction with
som e obscuring and complicating acquired
action Also because i t originated far bac k
.

in days b e fore our ken , and is not always con

g ru o u s and und e rsta ndabl e in i ts pre sent day-

settin g This very trai t of inh e ritanc e, h ow

.

e v e r endows it with val ue in th e sal e

, I t is
.

th e reby firmly fi x ed ; u ni ve rsal ( prese nt

within al l m emb e rs of the sp ecies ) prompt ;
an d ri c h with the vi vify ing power of feeling .
 S U GG ESTI ON I N TH E SALE

Sug g esti on is reg ard ed as my st erious Much .

has b ee n said during r ec ent y ears about th e

psychology of suggestion and th e possibility
o f using it in s elling . So much myst e ri ous
potency has b een claim e d for it that many
sell e rs beli ev e that th ey hav e only to l earn
th e laws of sugge stion and th e n th ey can
impos e th eir wills unimp e d e dly upon th e h elp
l e ss submissiv e buying public
,
.

This aura o f my st e ry surrounding su g g es

tion results from th e dramatic in stanc e s which
hav e b ee n re counted showing its pow e r in
influ e ncing human b eings ; particularly in th e
h e aling of dis ease P e opl e su ffering or all ege d
.

to be snfi e rin g from various disea ses have

b ee n treated by nothing but sugge s tion with
astonishing re sults Conse qu ently th e public
.

has conclud e d that th ere is som e vital forc e

inh e re nt in suggesti on which can be employ ed
in all conditions of life .Stil l further awe
is attached to it because of its cl ose a ssocia
1 52
1
54 T HE MIND OF T HE B UYER
this W e simply use th e m e thods alre ady de
.

scribed in th e chapte r on att ention ( Chapte r

II ) . T h e obj e ct thus forc e d into th e mental
st re am n ee d not b e physical . I t may b e a
corre sponde nc e cours e in Busin ess English
that we a re trying to s ell o r a se at on the
,

Stock E xchange . Whateve r it is we must

push it into the m ental stream with as little
ado as possibl e Th e re it fi nds el em ents of
.

past exp eri enc e which are akin to it and ,

“ ”
which absorb it as relate d in C hapte r V .
,

—
The n ext e vent the prod uction of muscular
efl ort s — is more di ffi c ult to d e sc ri b e and to
,

achi e ve It is h e re that the great e st amount

.

o f myst e ry c e nt e rs ; and h e re that th e gre at

est amount o f skill is d emand e d of the seller .

How can a psychical thing li k e an id e a change

ove r into physical en e rgy and assume the form
o f a moto r act ? And how c an the seller
facilitate such transformation ?
The answer is contain e d partly in the law
of id e o motor action :
-
“An idea in th e mi nd
”
t e nds to express itself in movement . An
exp e ri m ent p erformed in th e psychological
laborato ry d emonstrates this dramatically .

The exp e rim enter fastens a rec ordi ng d evice

’
to the to p of a p e rso n s head so as to record
the slightest movement . Then he asks the
 SU GGE STI O N I N T HE SALE 1
55

subject to thin k about a nearby object Afte r.

several mom ents the record shows that the

sub j ect has b egun to lean to ward the object
ab out which he has be e n thinking .

We cannot e nter into a discussion of the

brain m echanism by which this transforma
tion from id ea to movem ent ta k es plac e It .

is inherent in the association of brain path

ways already m ention e d on page 45, wh ere
we sa id that wh e n an act has been perform ed
once involving two or more pathways in th e
,

brain , th e re aft e r wh en the first pathway ( the

ide a pathway ) is aroused, the second ( the
movem ent pathway ) follows .

If we examin e closely our daily life we

may see num e rous e xampl e s of id eo motor -

action .A hous ewif e may be figuring h er

,

household accounts directing h er mental

,

stream urgently in one dire ction ; wh e n sud

denl y a vagu e id e a ente rs h er mind that h e r
hair ne eds adj ustm e nt Automatically her
.

hand mov e s up to h er h ead and tucks in a

hair pin
-
She continues h er work un in ter
.

rup te dly and probably doe s n ot know that

,

sh e has mad e th e move m e nt .

I n thi s sam e unconscious way we all

p e rform scores of actions in the course of a
day We may possibly thus make som e unim
.
1
56 THE MIND OF T HE BUYER
portant purchases . F or exampl e , th e idea
“b ase ball sc ore” may e nt e r o ur mind as
-
we
leave the o ffice at five in th e aft ernoon and ,

may be strong enough in its own ri ght to

lead us without furth e r locution of thought
to reach into o ur pock e t fo r a coin and buy
a pap e r .

Th ese illustrations show that th e re is a

real motive pow e r r esid ent within an id e a .

I f this is th e cas e why is it that a s ell e r

,

may inj ect an id ea into th e mind of th e buy e r

and still n o t produc e th e d e sired response ?

Th e answ e r is that th e id e a may b e p re

vente d from achi eving its motor cons e que nc e s
by the pre sence of anoth e r id e a As we
.

show e d on page 38 th ere a re always many

—
things in th e mind sensations , id eas, feel
ings, in great profusion Now each of th e se
.

has its own motor conse qu e nc es, and if l eft

alon e will probably produc e th e m Mixe d
.

as it is, how eve r, with oth e rs , all struggling

for expression , it can only e xpre ss its elf as
modifi e d by the oth e rs Som e of th em help
.

it and some hind e r it Th e tas k of th e sell e r

.

is to e ncourage those id e as which are favor

able to his p et id e a and to suppress thos e
-

which are contrary to it In accomplishing .

this th e re a re s ev eral laws to b e obse rved :

1
58 T HE M IN D O F T HE B U YE R
withstand eve ry contradictory impul se Mak e .

th e sugge sted course of action appear in

e vitable .

3 . Th e in e vitablen e ss may be e nhanc e d by

anoth e r important law : Ma k e th e sugges tion
simpl e I f you wish to arouse an action sug
.
,

gest only that on e In writing an adve rtis e

.

m ent, for example, it is a violation of this

F ro 9
. .

principle to sugge st : Ask your d ealer

fo r it ; ( 2 ) or if h e doe s not have it se nd us
his nam e ; ( 3) or send us fifty c e nts for a
”
sampl e pac k age . Such alte rnativ e directions
a re psychologic al ly faul ty F or e ach of the
.

three id e as arous es som e ideo motor acti vity

-

which is imm ediat ely obstruct e d by that which

follows .Th e situation may b e repre se nte d
by F igure 9 ; wh e re th e first id e a arouse s a
motor imp ul se over pathway abc ; th e n com es
 SUGG E ST I O N I N T H E SAL E 1
59

th e second ide a sending forth the motor im

p ul se abd ; th e n com e s the third id ea starting
up motor impulse abe By this tim e th e pre
.

c io us n e rvous e n e rg y that was availabl e for

the action is e xhauste d and dissipat e d and it ,

st arts up no action at all Th e correction for

.

such a situation is to mak e only on e suggestion

at a time .

4 .Make p osi tive suggestions A negative

.

“
sugge stion is on e containi ng no or n o t “ ”

and should b e avoide d V iolations of this law

.

a re e xc ee dingly num e rous in s e lling parti e n

,

la rly in th e manuf acture o f busin ess slogans .

“Don ’ t say say is a favori t e form .

”
Acc ept no substitut e, is anoth er .

Th e psychological offense in n egative sug ~

gestion is that th e re al motive forc e of a

phrase li es in th e id e a of the acti on , not in
th e way th e action is m odi fie d v e rbally In .

th e slogan “A cc ept no substitute ”

the real
,
“
id e a is Acc e pt sub stitute ”
To n eg ate it
.

doe s n o t mat e ri ally w ea ken its forc e The .

phrase really sugge sts to th e buye r that he

should acc ept a substitute .

A v e ry little analysis of selling phrases

from this point of vi ew will show that many
of th e m do not put into th e mind of th e buy e r

the id ea inte nde d by th e sell e r Le t us, by

.
1
60 THE MIND O F TH E BUYER
way of illustration analy ze a well known,
-

s elling phras e which may lead the mind far

-

afield from th e dir ection d esired by the seller :

‘

“Ev e ntually why not now ?”

,
“ ”
The adverb e ve ntually impli e s a verb an d
“
subj ect ; in all li k elihood : You will use Gol d
”
M ed al F lour This part of th e phrase is not
.

wholly repreh ensibl e ; y e t it has one faulty

implication nam ely that the buy e r is prob
, ,

ably going to delay th e act of purchase It is .

as if o n e said to th e hous ewife :

“I know you
a re using som e oth e r flour now K eep on .

using it ; aft e r trial y o u will change to another

brand ; aft e r it to another E ventually how .
,

e ver ( after perhaps tw e nty years ) y ou will ,

”
com e to ours Upon such an al ysis, which is
.

surely n ot far f e tched the fi rst part of the

-
,

slogan is seen to contain implications that

w ere surely n ever intended by the seller con ,

firming th e house wife in her present use of

anoth e r flour .

T h e se cond part of th e slogan is open to

still more serious objection If we follow .

th e subte rran e an conve rsation b e tw ee n seller

and buye r we shall find that the seller says
,

by implication “I know y ou are not going

:

” “
to b uy n ow . The buy e r replies, N o ! I am
not .
”
Th e sell e r asks “W hy n ot ?”
What
,
1
62 T HE M I ND O F TH E BUY E R
fountain cl e rk, “Give m e a glass of coke .

Th e manufacture rs did n o t lik e this ; for it

permitte d the clerk to substitute some imit a
tion of Co ca C ola which might c al l its elf
“cok e ” . F urth e rmore the abbre viation is
re mini sc e nt of an und esirabl e drug habit .

H ow bre ak th e public of th e habit of using the

obnoxious app elation ? “
To advertis e, Don t ’
”
say cok e, would be to give a n egative sug
gestion , entailing all the und e si rable c on se
q ue n c e s mentione d a b ov e ,
nam ely ,
b y repeti
“ ”
tion of the name coke the p eopl e who used
it would b e t e mpted to use it al l the more ;
som e wh o might nev e r hav e us ed it might g e t
th e habit ; and wors e th e re al idea conveyed
,

“ ”
would be Say C ok e , despite th e n e gation .

A s a solution to this quandary, the manu

fac ture rs adopt e d th e phras e “Ask for Coca
,
”
C ola by its ful l name . This sugge stion is
fre e from obj e ctions I t conveys th e d e sire d
.

m eaning ; it i s positive ; and if p e ople follow

it th ey will b e doing what th e company de
sires This illustration shows that no matte r
.

how strong th e te mptation to use n egative

suggestion , if th e sell e r studi e s his situation
care fully and ta k e s su ffi ci ent thought he wil l
,

be abl e to avoid th e e n e rvating an d misl e ad

 SUGG E STI O N I N T HE SA L E 1
63

ing n e gative and e xpre ss his suggestions in

th e posi tiv e form .

T h e abov e discussion sugge sts anoth e r fact

about sugge stion : Th e id eas involve d in a
suggestion esp e cially in an indire ct sug g e s
,

tion are of two kinds Som e are on th e sur

,
.

fac e e xplicit ; oth e rs are hidd en , implicit In

,
.

“ ”
th e suggestion , A sk th e man who owns on e ,
“
the impli e d portions are, I f you want t o
”
know h ow our car satisfie s !ask th e man who
“
owns on e ! ; H e will tell you that it gi ves
”
p e rf e ct satisfaction Th e read e r will find
.

int ere sting ex ercise in thus analyzing the

many suggestion slogans b efore th e public ,
-

and will d e rive mu ch b e n efit th e refrom in the

tas k of stre ngth ening th e force of his own
s elling suggestions .

5
. Th e recognition of th e explicit implicit
-

nature of sugge stion l eads to th e consid e ra

ti on of anoth e r law : Normally an indire ct
sugge stion is more efl ective than a direct on e .

W e might paraphrase a d efinition of direc t

sugge stion by stating that it is a suggestion
in which y ou say what y ou m e an ; an indirect
'

on e is o n e in which you say o n e thing and

m e an som ething else N ot n ec e ssa ri ly the

opposit e . Th e distinction is rath e r that in
indi rect suggestion o n e says part of what o n e
1
64 THE M I ND O F THE BUY E R
m eans, th en l eave s the oth e r p e rson to c om
p l e t e th e m e aning W
. e might illustrate as
follows :
Direct sugge stion : “ U se Prince
Alb e rt Tobacco .
”
I ndirect “ Ty C obb Uses
:

Prince Alb e rt Tobacco ”

. W e may picture
th e effe ct of th es e upon th e mind of the b uy e r
by employing the fillin g i n met hod of our -

last illustration . T h e re is little to supply

in th e dire ct form Everything is sa id In
. .

the indirect form howeve r, th e re is much to

,

supply All that is said explicitly is that Ty

.
“
”
C obb smok e s Princ e Albert Tob acco Im .

p l ic i tly,
howev e r, a good deal is sai d The .

argum ent runs as follows “

:
Ty Cobb smokes
P ri nc e Albert ; he must like it H e is a man .

of good j udgment ( in b a seball ) The chanc e s.

are that h e is al so a good j udge o f tob acco .

Th e refore Princ e Alb e rt must be a good

’
tobacco I ll smok e i t
.
”

I t is e vid ent that th e re is room for con

side rable illogicality in indire ct sugge stion .

As indicat ed in th e pare nthesis above in order ,

for th e thought to flow along smoothly in the

channel d esired by th e sell er cert ain assump ,

tions must ordinaril y b e made The assump.

tion in the pre sent instanc e is that the famous

b all player is as good a j udge of tob a c co as he
1
66 T HE MIND O F THE BUYER
psyc hological analysis like th e above woul d
soon g iv e a b asis for v oting them fraudulent
and d ec e ptive .

Direct vs indirect sug g estion

. In asse rting
.

o n page 1 6 3 that indir ec t suggestion is n o r

mally more pow e rful than direct suggestion ,

we did n ot m ean to condemn the latte r en

ti rely
. Dire ct suggestion has c e rta in w eight .

Probably it is most use ful with peopl e wh o

“don ’ t know th eir own minds ”
There are.

undoubtedly individu al s who like to have their

d e cisions mad e for them , and who welcome
unconsciously a direct suggestion indee d a , ,

command Psyc hologist s who h ave exp eri

.

m en te d in this fi eld however, as sert that eve n

,

wi th such in di viduals, the desire d act may be

instigated by means of indirect suggesti on .

F o r e xample wh en the time comes for closing

,

the sa le the sal e sman may suggest indirectly

,

that th e customer has al ready made his de

c ision by starting to wrap up th e article or
,
“
by asking Do y ou wish it delivere d to day ? ” -

Th e gre at advanta ge cl aim e d for the in

di re ct mod e of appeal is that it does not have
such a tend e ncy to o ffend th ose p e rsons wh o
do know th eir own minds and desire to feel
,

that they are mast e rs of th eir fate .

Counter sugg estion

-
Thus far in our disc us
.
 SUGG E STI O N IN TH E SA L E 1
67

s ion we have mention e d se veral kinds of sug

ge stion : abnormal normal , positive n e gative ,
, ,

direc t in di rect Th ere are two oth e r k inds

,
.

which b elong in any thoroughgoing treat

m ent of th e subj ect Th e first is counter sug .
-

gestion I n this th e individual ma king th e

.

suggestion has o n e d e sire d act in mind but

sugge sts th e p e rformance of its direct op
p o si te .A typ e o f mind has b ee n discov e red
which reacts opposit ely to eve ry sugge stion .

“C ranky ” husbands som tim s

e e e xhibit this
t end ency ; and th eir wives move th e m by sug
g es ti n g t h e opposit e O bviou sly a s e.ll e r does
not m ee t with this typ e ve ry frequ e ntly, but
wh e n h e doe s h e may use counter suggesti on
,
-

with succ e ss .

A uto sug g estion

-
Th e last kind o f sug g es
.

tion we sh al l consid er is auto suggestion This -

.

is as th e nam e implies, s elf suggestion Th e

,
-
.

se ll er do es n ot use it upon th e buy e r but

upon himself A sal esman has great n e ed of
.

having c ertai n ideas inj ect e d into his m e ntal

stre am H e is re ady prey to thoughts of
.

failure di scourage m ent and weakn e ss

,
Let .

him study the effec t of suggestion in general

and rem ember what a strength there is in
ideas H e may b e ch eered by the fact that
.

h e is j ust as certai nly susc e ptible to th e in

1
68 THE MIND O F T H E BU Y ER
fluen ce of suggestions as is the b uyer C on
.

s equ e ntly if h e wishes to perform a certain

act le t him put into his own mind th e id e a
,

of th e act, following th e laws of sugge stion

laid down in the foregoing . Almost e ve ry
succ essful sal esman could give startling proof
of th e pow e r of auto suggestion in his o wn
-

lif e I n ma king use of it h e avoids n e gativ e

.
.

sugge stion by banishing from his mind and

conversation all thoughts of failure .He

n e rves himself for an important int e rvi ew by
positiv e suggestions such as “ I will win .
,

H e e mploys di re ct suggestion by asse rting,

“
My goods com e up to ev e ry claim I ma k e for
”
th em H e give s himself indirect auto sug -

gestions by straightening his spin e, squa ri ng

—
his shoulders and whistling all signs of
,

strength and courage . I n bri e f on e of the

most important l essons th e s ell e r may ta k e
away from this chapte r is th e thought that
suggestion will op e rate upon him self as well
as upon the buyer .
 t

1
70 T H E M IN D O F TH E BUY E R
a World W ar It oc curs when th e astute
.

evangelist feels it prop e r to urge his h e are rs

to hit th e sawdust trail and wh e n th e sed uc e r

fe els that he may, without fear Of rebud , pre ss
his victim to ta k e th e first drink N O kind of .

affairs app e ars too sa cre d and no kind too pro

“
fan e to b e exe m p te c from t h e p sychological
mom e nt ” g
As evid e nc e of the aptn ess Of th e
.

t e rm to cover a mul titud e of situati ons we find

it applied to afi ai rs in which th e re is no psychi
cal factor whate ve r such as a rain so tim e d
,

as to sav e a corn crop or to the e ruption of a

geyse r .

F rom th ese instanc e s we see that th e te rm

is a ve ry use ful on e, pl aying a large part in
th e sp eech and thought of th e day True , it .

smacks som e what of e sote ri cism , but such c on

notation is beli e d by th e fact that it is em

ploy e d with e qual glibn ess by th e sa vant and
the man of the stree t Shak esp eare re fe rred .

to it in th e well known lin e s -

“
The re isa tide in the afi airs o f me n ,

Whic h taken at the flo od leads on to fo rtune

,
.

Napol eon pointed out its importance in

deciding th e fate of b attlw :
In all battl es, a u whe n the b ravest trOOps
m omen t occ rs r

fe el incline d to run That te rror p roc eeds from a want

.

of confiden ce in their own courag e and it o nly require s a .

 T H E P S Y C H O L O GI CAL M O M EN T 1
71

sli g ht rtu nity a p re tense to re store confide n ce to them

op
po , , .

A t A rc ol a I won t he b att le wit h twe n ty five h o r sem e n -

I .

seize d tha t mome nt o f la ssitud e g ave e ve ry ma n a trum p e t

, ,

and g ai ned t he day with th is h a n dfu l You see th at two

.

armies are two b odi es w hich me et an d e n de avo r to fri g hten

e ac h o t he r ; a m om e n t o f
p a ni c o cc urs an d th at mom e nt m u st
,

be turne d t o ad va n tag e . Whe n a m an has b e en p re se nt in

many actions he di stin g uishes th at m om en t wit ho ut d ith .

c u lty ; it is as e as y as c as tin u a n addit io n

g p .

4 st

T he matte r is n ot so simpl e as th ese lin es

imply , as any sal e sman will te stify I t is .

rath er a matte r for s erious psychological

analysis I n ma k ing such analysis of th e
.

’
sal esman s mom e nt we must re gard th e sal e ,

following th e patt e rn use d throughout this

boo k as a se ri es of m ental change s o n th e
,

part of th e b uye r l e ading to an act Of will

,
o

which c ul minat es in satisfaction .

A n id ea prece des A n id e a must prec ed e de

.

c ision and action in th e sal e W e have said .

this in many ways throughout th e prec e ding

chapte rs O f this boo k A nd we have shown
.

that th e sell e r is not so much a dist ri butor

o f goods as h e is a manipulator of id e as In .

ord e r to b ri ng o ut a n e w phas e of this thought

we shall for th e rh e torical purpose s of this
chapte r p e rsonify th e I d ea and sp e a k of it in
,

capitals ; though th e reade r is warn ed that such

practic e is st rictly frown e d upon in orthodox
1
72 THE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
psychological circles We shall take this
.

lib erty how eve r, for in these days when the

,

psychological asp e ct of busine ss op erations

is only di mly recogniz e d we should be
pardon ed if we state things with slightly
bizarre effe ct in our efi orts to show th eir im
porta nce B ut apart from such claims to
.

anthropomorphism th e I d ea is important
,

e nough on oth e r grounds to d e serv e capitali z a

tion for so m etimes I t is abl e to set ofi our

,

actions almost automatically Through a

.

“
kind of action t echnic al ly known as dynamo
”
ge n e sis ( se e page It oc casionally may
pass ove r into action immediately and result
“
in a sale F or exampl e th e Idea baseb all
.
, ,

”
score may be strong enough in its own ri ght
to l e ad on e without further deliberation to
reach into th e poc k et for a coin and buy a
paper Such a p urch ase is so shorn of volun
.
‘

tary charact e ristics as not to furnish us with

an illustration Of the psychological moment .

“
B ut not all sal e s a re of this hair t ri gger ” -

type and most Id e as eve n though careful ly

,

implante d in the mind do n ot l e ad dire ctly to

purchase but req uire mani pulation Ind eed ,
,
.

such is the case with all our delib erativ e

sal e s An analysis of the fortun es of th e Idea,
.
1
74 THE MIND O F THE BUYER
would rese mbl e a full moon containing a-

c e ntral circl e freckled with num e rous circlets

,

O f differe nt siz e s r e pre senting th e id e as with

th eir diff ere nt stre ngths I t will b e see n that

.

th ese id eas b e ar diff e rent relationships to the

c e ntral id ea som e b eing hostil e oth e rs sym
, ,

path eti c Wheth e r th ey hind e r or h elp th ey

.

must b e reckon e d with and must be m an ip u

late d to the glory of th e Id ea , which must be
nourish e d and expand ed to such a d e gree th at
its bulk will crowd o ut all th e oth e r id eas .

This task of nourishment confronts eve ry

salesman ; ind e ed , from th e psychological
sta ndpoint th e sal esman is n o t a ve nd e r of
automobiles but a manipulator of id eas His .

task is to fan th e flam e of th e Id ea until it

b ecom e s to th e buy e r the consuming int e re st
in life B e si de It ev e rything must shrin k to
.
,

— —
nothingn e ss th e about to b e ravage d bank
- -

account the h eart rending burd en Of up k e ep ,

,
-

’
t h e mortgage on th e hous e last y e ar s unpai d
,

—
coal bill al l must b e forgotten in th e ove r
-

pow e ring c o mpulsion O f th e I d e a And the .

Id e a must re main the g reate st thing in the

world long e nough for the purchase r to sign
his ch eck or sign th e pay as y ou use contract
- - -
.

T O a sup e rficial vi ew th e task of th e sal e s

man migh t seem to be that Of taking hold of
 THE P SY C H O L O GI CAL M O MENT 1
75

th ese unw elcom e id e as and thrusting th em

into oute r dark n ess but such a conc e ption is
,

e rron e ous and will l e ad to e g regious error .

If th e mind Of th e buy e r contains the idea Of

anoth er car th e prop e r procedure is n ot to
dilate n e gatively upon that car in the effort
to drive it out Of his mind E ve ry word ut
.

te re d about that car acts as food for the un

w elcom e id e a and cause s it to wax stronge r
and stronge r Th e practic e of criti cizing o r
.

cond emning a rival commodity i s b eing recog

n iz ed as poor busin e ss e thics b ut we may
,

g o still farth e r and say that to speak e ither

in prai se or blam e of rival goods is poor p sy
c h olog y fo r e ve ry word make s the und e sire d
,

idea still more troubl esom e .

What a re th e m ethods th en by which the

, ,

und esirabl e id eas may b e forc e d out of the

mind and th e d esire d O n e en c h an c ed ? The
answ e r is to forc e atte ntion upon I t ; wh e n
this happ e ns th e strength of th e und e sire d
,

id eas automatically d ecre ase s Th e psycho

.

logical situation may b ecom e cl eare r wh e n

d e sc ri b e d in t e rms o f brain en e rgy . Th e
brain according to som e psychologis ts is
, ,

organi z e d into a numb er of id eational syste ms ,

on e for e ach id e a tha t e xists in the mind .Any

id eational system may b e rouse d into action
1
76 T HE MIND O F T HE BUYE R
by the drainage into it of brain energy N ow.

th e energy Of th e brain may b e distri buted

in v arious amounts over diff erent sys tems,
the amount in each syste m depending upon
th e strength of th e corresponding id e a . In
th e cas e of o ur sal e, if th e main Id e a is to
grow in strength I ts brain system must draw
-

ofl from th e other sy stems th e brain en e rgy

re sid e nt within th e m until the e nergy O f the

brain is all drain ed Ofi into the on e system ,
which mean s the triumph Of the Idea .

R eve rting to o ur psychologi cal d escription

Of th e sal e, we might pause at this stage and
e laborat e upon m e th ods Of strength e ning the

I dea , but that would require a digression

—
from our main inte rest the psychological
mom e nt Su ffice it to say th e proc ess consists
.
,

in using concre te material with which to em

b ellish th e I d e a Th e sal esman must dilate
.

upon th e sp ecifi c virtu e s O f th e car, upon the

pow e r and smoothn ess Of the e ngin e, the
luxurious e ase of th e springs, th e el e gance of
th e upholst e ry. Th en h e must attach as
alli e s to th e I d ea , th e subsidi ary id eas that
l urk sympath e tically in the background of
th e mind o f th e buyer, showing how the car
may b e use d to transport on e self and family
to syl van spots, how it may a ssi st on e to ra di
1
78 T HE M I ND O F T HE BUYER
’
a b a by s cry , an accid e nt in th e street Any
.

thing, how eve r unrelate d to the commodi ty ,

may spoil th e sal e Any sal esman can de
.

sc rib e a sc ore of such catastrophes which

mak e hi m assert that the psychological m o
ment is the most critical stage in the sal e .

And he do e s not overstate th e fact The ex .

p e rie n c e o f sal e s manag e rs go e s to show that

th e sal esmen who fail a re d efici e nt most fre
qu e ntly in ability to get past th e psychological
moment They ma k e a good approach arou se
.
,

intere st in the goods and cre ate strong desire ,

b ut are unabl e to mak e a good closing Th ey .

e rr in two ways — in trying to forc e a d e cision

to o soon b efore th e I d e a has had ti me to
,

re ach I ts maximum dim ensions o r in delay

,

ing to p ress for a decision until afte r th e Idea

has ripened and decay ed . I n e ith e r case ,
th eir e rror li e s in a failure to recogni z e the
psychological mom ent .

How recog nize it ? How may on e recogni ze

th e psychological moment and how may one
cultivate a s ensitiven ess for its approach ?
Undoubte dly th e re a re signs that accompany
it, for succ e ssful sal esm en se n se it re adily .

Th eir aware n ess Of it how eve r, is not a

,

vividly self conscious matter, for th ey cannot

-

tell how th ey recogni z e it If pressed for a

.
 THE P SY C H O L O GI CAL M O MEN T 1
79

description of their method , they would prob

ably say, by intuition, and this may serve as
well as any oth e r word But the proc ess of
.

intuition may b e further an al yzed into a

proc ess of conscious appreh ension through
sense avenu e s w hi ch we all poss ess Many Of
.

th th in g s that warn Of th e approach of the

‘
mom e nt in the sal e are small involuntary
movem e nts on th e part Of the buye r, such as
slight inclinations of the h e ad and trunk,
minute contractions and relaxations of bodi ly
muscl e s E ve n so slight a change as that in
.

th e siz e of th e pupil o f th e ey e may serve to

indi cate to th e practic e d salesm an that the
porte ntous mom ent has arrive d O th e r more
.

obvious si g ns may consist Of verbal responses

of th e buy e r, for th e skillful sal esman does

n ot do all th e talking in engin ee ring a sal e ;

inste ad h e throws out fre qu ent feelers in the

form o f que stions, and by th e warmth of th e
re sponse can judge h ow nearly a d e cision
,

has b ee n re ach ed A hundred cues such as

.

th ese are present and are automatically used

by th e exp ert sal esman in identifying the p sy
c h olo g ical moment .

How meet it ? Upon re cogni zing the moment

what ste ps may the sal esman take to see that
it is p as s e d most auspiciously ? O ur psych o
1
80 THE MIND O F THE BUYER
logical analysis j ust complete d will suggest
m e asure s Stage th e sale so that th e re will
.

be no disturbanc e s while it is in progress ;

for any disturbance no matt e r h ow t ri vial ,
,

may m ean th e introduction Of a n ew id e a into

the mind Of th e b uy e r and a dislodgm e nt Of
the bal ance of b rai n energy In vi e w of such
.

dange r, th e sal esman shoul d carefully isolate

th e buy e r and separate him from things and
peopl e . This is th e great psycholog ical ad
vantage Of using a show room .

Anoth e r prophylactic m easure is to have

conditions favorabl e for th e imm ediate c on
summation of the sale As we pointed out
.

o n page 1 77 th e re should b e no awkward de

lay wh e n the mom e nt arri v e s The contract
.

shoul d be ready and th e writing ut ensils at

hand . All shoul d move as smoothly as a
th eatrical performance .Ind eed , a sale in
many ways re sembl es a drama and may be
reh e arse d with equal prop ri ety .

As a third way of m ee ting the mom e nt, the

following plan may b e recomm e nde d : A s
sum e that the sale is made—that the pur
—
chaser has decid e d to buy and this will be
true if the salesman has judged th e moment
“
rightly Th e n ask W hat color of upholstery
.
,

do you prefer ?” “
or, Do you wish immedi ate
S TA GE SI! S AT I S F A C T I ON
1
86 THE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
margin of his thought stream ; and when he
-

encounters a similar article he rec alls his

previous expe ri ence If it was satisfactory
.

he willingly makes a repeat purchase .

Again th e buyer carries ab out with him the

,

visible evid e nce of the quality of th e articl e

every time h e use s it It give s him either
.

plea sure or di spl easure If it w e ars well and

.

fulfills all the cl ai ms mad e for it he feel s

satisfied and gives a repeat order .

W e might state parenthetic al ly that the ,

satisfaction we are talking ab out must b e a

real satisfaction . It shoul d represent the
ful fillm e nt of some real need which the in
dividual M I in his battle for exi stence ; not
a fanci e d whim or a detri mental desire whi c h
has be e n cre ated and fanned into strengt h by
some unscrupulous seller .

Evidences of new ideal s in trade That the

.

b est of modern sell e rs are rec o gni zi ng the

truth Of our doctri ne that satisfaction is the
true goal Of the sale, is b eing evi n c ed in
several ways Du ri ng the past two decades
.

num e rous symptoms hav e appeared : changes

in m ethods of publicity ; Of approach to the
custom e r ; of post sal e tac tics ; of policies ; of
-

ideals—c h anges in the v ery philosophy of

trade .
 SAT I S F A C T I O N T HE G OAL 1
87

In proc ee di ng to limn th ese change s we do

n o t m e an to imply that th ey have take n place

sudd e nly .Th ey have gradually evolv ed .

More ove r th ey are n o t yet complet ely realiz ed ;

th ey are still evolving T he things we sh al l
.

und ertak e to d e scrib e are m e rely tre nds in ,

dic a tin g the direction Of th e evolution .

Sp eaking statistically we m ean that th e pra e

,

tices and id e als to b e m ention ed are b ecoming

more common than form erly .

Som e of th ese changes have significant

e thical conse qu e nc e s port ending progre ss to !

ward c ertain moral goals that soci ety hop e s

to re ach . Th ere are important economic c on
se qu e nc e s involved , also which are Of great
,

inte rest We shall n o t attempt to trace th ese

.

o ut
,
howeve r, b ein g cont e nt for the pre sent
merely to point out the change s in styl e s and
fashions of selling . W e shall Show that
wh e re as c e rtain practic e s and id eals w e re
preval e nt a score of y ears ago, oth e rs are now
coming into vogu e .

New c onc eption of value Th e first chan ge we

.

shall not e is a n ew attitud e on the part of

the se ll e r toward valu e I n th e previous
.

period it was customary to give th e buyer as

little as possibl e for his mon ey In the
.

modern pe ri od th e id eal is to give as muc h

1
88 T HE MIND OF TH E BU YE R
as possible . P e rhaps th e clamorous c ri es of
“ rofite er ” now
p ( 1
9 2 0 ) fil ling th e air tem
p o ra rily pr e v e nt us from s e nsing this mor e

m e rciful te nd e ncy of th e sell e r Neverth el e ss

.

if we can di sregard our mom e ntary irri tation

over th e high cost of livi ng we must recognize
the ge n eral improv e m ent in conditions .

An objector might qu estion this statem ent

on th e ground that it impli e s a b rogation o r

susp e nsion of the economic law of comp e ti

tion in which sell e r and b uye r stru ggl e for
advanta ge . In re j oind er, we might reply
that th e re is a growing t endency for th e seller
to ide ntify his int e rests with those of the
b uye r H e is coming to se e that whate ver
.

b e n e fits th e b uy e r may in turn b e n e fit hims elf .

We shall d evelop this further in anoth e r c on

n ec tio n . For th e prese nt it is su ffici ent to
point out that this l e ssens ( though it doe s not
e ntirely eliminat e ) the antagonism b e twee n
s ell e r and buyer S econd , it may b e that com
.

p e tition is growing strong e r among the

va ri ous venders o f a gi ven commodity ; as
comp e titors b ecom e more num e rous e ach on e
is oblige d to shad e p ri c e s as low as possibl e
in sh eer sel f d efense . Third the se ll e r is
,

enabled to carry out the ideal stated ab ov e

1
90 T HE M I ND O F THE BUY E R
of th enew order consist in th e practic e Of
stamping the price of shoes on th e sol e ; th e
publishing of standard p ri c e s for hats, tire s,
and th e lik e ; the agitation for legislation re
’
q ui ring the manufacturer s price to b e
sta mped upon the goods before th ey reach th e
ret ail market .

2. Anoth e r form of subjectivism in the old

reg i me was th e amount of e nte rtaining and

sub sidizing that th e seller carri e d on . He

was expected to tre at the b uyer with cigars,
wines, dinn e r and th eate r To one acquaint e d
.

with modern selling practic e s no proof iI

n ee ded of th e Obsol esc enc e Of this custom .

O ne chara c te ri stic fe ature Of the n ew era is

the rise of the professional p urc h aI in g agent
-

who ow e s his j ob to the skill with which he

can k eep himself clear Of e ntangling alliances
and can b uy in the op e n mark e t with oh
j ectively d emonstrabl e advantage .

3. Other evid ences of th e growing tend

ency t oward ob jectivism may b e di scovered
b y compa ri ng the tac ti cs of salesmanship em
ployed during th e two eras The diff erences
.

in adve rtisi ng are strikingly b rought out in

these two advertisements The fir st appeared
.

’ ’
( with name changed ) in Collier s for 1 90 0 :
 SATISFA C TI O N T HE G O AL 1
91

A loysius
“ B Stron gman te ac he s by m ail with pe rfec t
. ,

succ ess his, o rig in al and scie n tifi c m etho d o f p hy siolo gic al

e xe rcise .

“
I t is the o nly n atural ea sy an d Sp e e dy me tho d fo r
,

o b t ain i ng p e rf ect he alth p hysical de v elo p men t an d elas tic ity

,

o f min d a n d b o dy .

“
I t ab solute ly c u res ind ig e st ion sleep le ssn ess ne rvo u s ex
, ,

haustion an d re vit alize s the who le b ody

”
.
,

Th e corresp ond ing adve rtise m e nt for 1 91 6

( sam e magazin e ) ru n s as follows
The Stro ng man System o f Purp ose ful Ev olution gives
“

unu sual he alth unus u al en rg y an d un us ual vitality

, e .

“
F or in fo rm at ion add ress A LOY u s B STE N M A N sr . O C
“
N ew Yo rk Ci ty .

Th e measurement of truthfuln e ss in adv ert is

ing Advert ise rs asse rt that th ey are
. growing
more truthful Proc ee ding upon the g en eral
.

hypoth esis that what eve r exists may b e

m easure d and that if truthfuln e ss in adve r
,

tisin g is on th e incre ase we ought to b e ab le

to d e monstrat e th e fact mathematically, th e
author set out to devise a m ethod .

It was fi rst n ec e ssary to adopt a crite rion

of truthful ness which might be stated in units

of amount F or this was chose n th e use of

.

words in the sup e rlative degre e T e rms like .

“best ” “l atest ” “fin e st ” “p e rfect ” “ab so

, , , ,
”
lut e ly unsurpasse d hav e b een use d much in
,

a dverti sing and are frowned upon as viola

,
1
92 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
tions of ve racity . For certainly not e very
brand Of b reakfast food , dyspepsi a tablets,
automobil e tire s and fl our c an be the b est .

If th e superlative b e adopte d as a fairly

satisfacto ry c ri te ri on of truthful ness, or
rath e r untruthfulness, our task of measure
m e nt is quite simpl e, requiring us merely to
count th e advertisements c ontainin g superla
tive s and compare the num b er with the to tal
numb e r of advertisement s appea ri n g . T hi s
the author did , using the files Of three
m e dium s covering the peri od 1 91
9 00 1
-
9 : The
In di a n ap o lis N ews, a typ ic al n ewspap e r ; The
Co sm op o l/ita n a typical gene ral magazi ne ;
,

and H ous e B eau tifu l a typical home maga

,

zin e No classifi e d adve rtisem e nts were used

. .

R esul ts a re pre se nted in F igure 1 0 .

From these resul ts we may conclude that

untruthfuln ess in adve rtising as represented
by the use Of sup e rlative s is decre asing .

Wh e re as in 1 90 0 the p e rcentage of advertise:

m ents containing sup e rlati ves was twenty ;
by 1 91 9 it had d e cre ase d to two In terms
.

of prob ability we might assert that wherea s

tw e nty y e ars ago the chances that an ad

ve rtise r was t elling an untruth were twenty

in a hundre d t o day they are b ut two in a

,
1
94 THE MIND O F T HE BUY ER
hundred W e may acc ept th e se amoun ts with
.

consid e rabl e confid ence b ecause th ey app e a r

in al l thre e of th e dive rse m edi ums e xamined .

The graph shows that th e gre atest re gular

ity in th e d eclin e of untruthfuln e ss com es
aft e r 1 91 2 This is approximat ely th e date
.

o f th e adoption o f th e motto Truth by th e

, ,

A ssociated A dve rtising Clubs of th e W orld .

Previous to this had com e th e C ongre ssional

pure food and drug laws of 1 9 06 For som e
.

y e ars th e re aft e r adve rtisers w e re not c e rtain

ho w far th ey might go in th eir d e scriptions .

As th e curves show th ey oscill ated back and

,

forth b e tw een sup e rlatives and w eak e r state

m e nts. By 1 91 2 how ev e r th ey eith e r had
, ,

com e to ta k e the spi ri t of th e l aw more se

ri o usly o r had b e com e more scrupul ous, or

had discovered that truthful advertising pays .

Probably und e r th e influ enc e of all th e se

cause s th ey settl ed down to a growing regard
fo r th e truth re ducing the ratio of e xa g g era
,

tion rapidly to two p er c ent .

Th e author does not advocate the use of the

sup erlative as an ab solut e te st of truthfuln ess
in adve rtising At b e st it can serve as only
.

o n e m e asure O th e r m e asures may nuques

.

tion ably b e un e arth e d with industri ous re

se arch N everth el ess this m ethod h as given

.
 SA TI SFA CT I O N T H E G OAL 1
95

s ch
u cl ean cut results that it dese rves serious
-

consideration in relation to the important

question of truth in adve rtising It may be .

used to m easure the difl erenc es in truthfulne ss

b e tw ee n mediums ; to ai d the Vigilanc e C om
mi ttee of th e A A C W in se cu ri ng Obj ective
. . . .

b a I is for the annual award of th e Truth T ro

phy ; and to a ssist th e B e tte r Busin e ss E u
re ans in m e asuring th e results Of th eir efforts
to police and to educate th eir commu n iti e s .

Surely thes e t entative resul ts give us

ground for hop efully continuing such investi
g a ti on s and
,
anticipating the tim e wh e n w e

may set up d e finit e ethical standards for the

advertise r and h elp him to m e asure his prog
ress to ward his goal 1 .

Th e sal e a c ontinuous proc e ss Th e m ercan .

tile transaction of form e r days was tacitly

re ga rd e d as an affair of th e mom e nt only .

Buy er and seller w ere as two ships that

pass in th e ni ght T h e attitud e was that
.

of the typical h orse tra der who n eve r e x

p ec t ed to see his v i s d v i s again
-
To
-
d ay th e .

sal e is coming to be regard ed as a continuous

proc e ss Id e ally consid e red no soon e r is on e
.
,

1
a t ath er in g th e data for th is in v est iga
F or ssis a n c e in g
t ion t he a ut h r
o d bt ed to M iss Je an ette Stoc k to n an d
is in e
Mr . V ct r
i o t h tuden ts in t he P sych o log y o f A dver
Dei c , s
tieing , In iana
d U v ty
n i ersi .
1
96 THE MIND O F T HE BUYER
transaction c oncluded than another is b egun .

The seller of a piano does not re gard a sale as

complet e d with the installation of the instru
m ent He realiz es that he may have an op
.
:

p o rt un i ty to sell anoth e r one to the sa me man ,

or his so n , or his daugh ter, or his b ro ther in -

law .A c cordi ngly he endeavors to keep the

IV
F ro . 1
1
.

p oduced“by
( Re r kind p ermiu i on of J B Lipp incott Company ,
M l
. .

th th for the Study of th e Psychology of Adver

'
e au or 3 anua
ti ing d S ll i g
'
s an e n .

b uyer conti nually in a b uying attitude How .

he does this we shall recount in anoth e r con

n e c ti on F or the pre se nt we may note the
.

continuous cycl e of change s in the sale ; th e

satisfaction ( Stage Six ) enge ndered b y on e

purchase m e rging into t h e att e ntion and in

te rest o f anoth e r See Fi g ure 11 . .

Commodity d efined as servi ce In acting upon .

this conc e ption the sell er tries to kee p th e

commodi ty in fi rst rate condition He gives -
.

ela b orate initial instruc tions regardi ng the

1
98 T HE MIND O F THE B UYE R
h av e tre a te d them as distinct tre n ds, we must
recogni z e t h at they are not entirely indepen d
ent of each other F or instance, in admitting
.

that a true sal e must give satisfaction to the

b uyer we rec ogni ze the continuity of the sale .

T O say that on e sells servic e is to admit the

truth of the other p ropomtion s
'

We should not make the mi stake of assum

in g that these ideals are completely realized or
u ni v ersally adopte d Still they indi c ate the
.

direction of the main current of thought and

practice, and to a shre w d ob server, they pre
sage the nature of th e de velopmen ts that are
likely to c ome in the future .

Summary . In this chapte r we hav e advo

c ated th e adoption of the vi e w that the real

e n d of the sal e is th e satisfaction of the b uyer

.

As one line of e vid e nce we have pointed to the

growing use of satisfying prac tices on the p art
of progre ssive sell e rs .

W e might talk about these imp roved ideals

and practic es in ethical terms an d say that
cl e arly sellers are b ecoming converte d to a
high e r standard of e thics and are for this
reason making the changes noted . Though
the ethi cal ide als of trad e hav e been growin g
mo re elevated , we shoul d probably be in error
‘

to asc ribe them as the ca use of the reforms we

 SA T I SFA C T I O N THE G OAL 1
99

h ave noted E thi cal formul ations constitute

.

euphonious terms in which to d escribe our

actions To be reall y truthful we should say
.

th at these practices have b een accepted be

cause th ey have p ai d economically . S ellers
have disc ove red that it p ays to gi ve fi rst con
si d e ration to the w elfare of th e buyer That
.

they have made this disc overy only lately is

due to the fact that they have j ust begun to
learn how to use the methods of science in
measuring the success of th eir various tacti cs .

The ethical uplifte r might tak e a hint from

this an d conclude that if he wishes to see high
et hi c al id eals advance in business he shoul d
teach th e sell e r h ow to use scien tifi c m e thods
“ ”
in meas uring the resul ts of good and b ad “ ”

selling m e thods .

If these practic e s can be justi fi ed ethically

and economically th ey can probably b e j usti
fied psychologically .And it is this j ustifica
ti on that we have t ri ed to furnish throughout
this book I f our message is rightly und e r
.

stoo d the reader will l ay down th e book with

th e conviction th at the s atisfaction of th e ’

buyer is the k eyston e that supports the arch
of the sal e T hough a s e ll e r may study p sy
.

c h ology assiduously ; l e arn all th e l aws of

memo ry, reasoni ng, suggestion ; apply al l th e

200 T HE MIND O F T HE B UYE R
form ul as for arousrn g in te re rt, desire an d con

fidenc e ; and f ai l to keep as his goal the wel

fare of the b uyer, his words will b e as sound
ing b rass and tinkling cym b al And though
.

h e may go far toward success by applying the

sub tleties of psychologi c al lore, he will go still

farth e r if he pl ac e s o n e rule b efore all others

- the old fashioned unsel fis h doc tr
-
i n e embod
ied in the Gol den R ule .
 BO O KS F O R F U R T H ER R EADING

C H AP TER I

ADAM S ,
HE N RY F : Adv e rtisin g an d Its M en t al .

La w s N e w Yo r k The M a c mi llan Co
. 1
916 , .
,
.

C ha p s I III ; VI VII ; XVI

.
- -
.

KrT sO N HA RRY D : M an u al for th e Stu dy o f A d

,
.

ve rti sin g an d Se llin g Phi la de lp hia J B Lip .

, . .

p in c o t t C o 19 20 .
, .

PI LL S B U RY W B : Esse n t ials o f Psyc h olog y

, . .New .

Yo rk T he M a c millan C o 1
, 9 20 Rev Ed .
, , . .

Cha p I . .

Srra YEn WI LL I A M A : An alyt ic al Adv e rtisin g

, De . .

t ro it Busin ess Se r v ic e Co r p o r a t ion 1

, 912 , .

C H AP TER II

Luc rrrEsr-r, M . : Lan g u ag e of C olor . N ew Yo rk

,

D odd M e ad C o 19 1 8
,
.
,
.

PI L L S B U RY W B : Essen tials
, . . of Psycholog y, p p .

94 1 -
0 1 Chap V . .

C H AP TER III

PrLLss urrY, W B: . . Essen tia ls of Psyc hology, Chap

te r s VI VIII , .
204 B IBLI O GR APHY

C H AP TER IV

F EH L M A N , F R A N K : Adv e rtisin g an d Sellin g , D e c em

be r, 91
1 6 .

M c D O U GA LL WI LL I A M : The G r o u p M in d
, . N ew
’
Yo r k G P P utn am s Co , 1
, 9 20 . . . .

R o ss, EDW A RD A . : So c ial Psyc ho lo g y . N ew Yo rk ,

T he M ac m illan Co .
,
1
908 . C ha p s . IV VI , .

V EB L E N T H O R S TEI N : T he T he o ry o f
, th e L ei su re
C la ss N e w Yo rk B W Huebsch
.
,
. . . Chap s . IV ,

VII .

C H A P TER V
BA L DW IN , J A ME S M : Han dbook o f Psyc holog y . .

T wo v o lu me s N e w Yo rk He n ry Holt Co .
,
.
,

18 9 0 18 9 4 V ol II p p 139 1
,
47 . .
, .
-
.

KIT S O N HA RRY D : H o w to M a k
, e an Adv e rt ise .

m e n t In t e r e stin g We st e rn Adv e rtisin g J an u .

,

a ry 19 21
, .

C H AP TER V I
PI LL S BU RY, W B . . : Essen tials of Psyc hology .

C hap s . XI XII , .

WA T S O N J O H N
,
B . : Psyc holog y fr om the St an dp oin t
of a Beha vio r ist . Phila delphia, J . B . L ipp in
co tt C o .
, 91
1 9 . Pp . 74 1
1 93 -
.

C H AP TER V II

KL I N E , LIN U s W . : The Psyc holog y Humo r of .

Amer J . . of Psychol , V ol . . XVIII 1

9 0 7 pp , ,
.

42 144 1 -
.
206 B IBLI O GRAPHY
M C D O U GALL , WI LL I A M : In troduc tion to Soc ial An
Psycholo g y L o n don M e thuen Co 1908
.
, .
, ,

pp 19.2 0 3 1 3 2 44 6
, 7 8 7 10 2 , , ,
-
,
-
.

PI LL S B U RY W B : Essen tials o f Psycholog y

, . Chap . . .

X .

WA T sO N J O H N B : Psychology from 3 Behavior

,
.

’
ist s St an dpo in t Chap IV , . .

CH AP TER ! II

WA L T ER D : In flu en c ing Men in Busin ess

SC O TT, . .

Cha p s III V VI VIII .

, , , .

SIDrs BO RIs : T he Psyc holog y o f Sugg e stion

,
N ew .

York D Ap p leton Co 1
, 8 9 8 pp 5 55
. .
, , .
-
.

C H AP TER ! II I
JA MEs, WI LL I AM : Psyc holo g y Brie fer Course New , .

Yo rk Hen ry Holt ,
Co 1 89 3 Chap XXVI .
, . . .

KIT S O N HA RRY D : T he P sycholog ic al M omen t

, .
,

Sc ien t ific M on t hl y V ol IX Se p t embe r 1

919 pp , .
, , , .

246 252 -
.

M C D O U GA LL , WI LL I A M : Psyc holog ic al Psyc hology .

L o n don, J M D en t Son s, Ltd , 1 905

. Chap . . . .

IX .

P I L L S B U RY, W . B . : Essen tials of Psychology, pp .

3 8 357.
3 -
21
0 INDEX
F ashion, and selli ng , 79 ; I n voluntary moveme n ts, at
ch ar acte ristics o f yc h o lo g ical m ome n t, 1
79
'

, 69 fl p s
d e fi ne d 6 8 , . in fee lin g , 90 .

“
exp re ssions
”
F ee lin g of

g o o d in
,

sal e 89 E ;
,
a
J m es, 8 2 .

in in stin ctive act ion 1 45

, ,

, ,
Judd , ll .

1 50 ; un p le asa n t in d e sire , ,
K ale id o sc ope cross se ction -

1 12 f ; with im a g es 1 09 f
,

o f m in d like 39
.
,

F e hlma n F ra n k 6 6
, .

, ,

F o rd H e n ry 19 7
, , .
Labo rato ry me thod 1 7
F o rge tt in g curve o f 47 f
, .

, , .
L aws o f com p e tition 1
,
88 ,

o f su g g e stion 157 3
Ge o g rap hical study o f b uy
.
,

in g p ub lic 57 , .
M a g azin es 55 62 64 6 7 , , , , .

G olde n R ule 200 , .

M a g n itude se e Ext e n sity
G o o d will 11
,
-
8 f , .
M e di ums l7 Ch ap IV
Gro up min d see P ublic
.
, ,
-
, .
ch oice o f 57 f ; distin c ,

H istor ic al me thod 1 1 tion s be twee n 55 if , .

Me m o ry influ e n ce d by re pe
,

H o sp ital 8 6 “
,

H um or 9 3 ,
,

.
.

ti tion 46 ; unco nscio us

,
”
,

49
I de a 1 , 56 ; in su g ge stion , Mo tion p ic e, o , 79 tur act r
1 63 ; in volitio n 1 71fi , . in sellin g , 40 .

I de als 1 86 v
M o em en , 35 if ; in t e si e, d r
I d eo—
.
,

m o to r act io n 1 54 f , . 111 ; in s g ges ion, 1

f u 54 ; t
I m a g e an d fee lin g 1
, 1 0; , sim lu at d
e , 40 .

c le arn e ss o f 100 ; in D e
sire 11 0 ; n ature o f 97
,
N ap oleon 1 70 , .

99 ,
,

1
00
, ,
N e g ati ve su g gestio n 1 59 f , .

Im i tatio n
.

, 70 .
Ne wsp ap e rs 55 59 f , . , .

I m p re ssion , in be lie f, 1
20 ; Ple asant fee lin g 9 1f , .

1
85 . P ositive su g ge stion 1 59 , .

In h ritan ce
e 31 ; in in , f P ric e 1
, 89 .

st in c t ive a io n, 1 43 ct . P rimi tive cred uli ty n o ,

I ns in c i e
t tv
io n, 9 1, 96 act Cre dulity .

an d eelin g , 1f 50 ; ch arac Psycholo gical di fl e ren ces ,

t e risti cs o f, 1 40 ; lassi f c b etween p ublic s 58 f ; ,

fic ation o f, 47 ; e ne , 1 f d fi d m o m e nt 1 69 1 77 ; how to
, ,

1 39 . m ee t 1
, 79 if ; p oint o f
I n ensi , 31
t ty . view 9 , .

I nte rest classification o f, , Psyc holo g y expe rime n t in , ,

80 83 9 6 ; d e fi n e d 77 f ;
, , , 1
2 if ; old and new c on
“
how to ar o u se 77 how , ce p tion s o f, rule o f
to me asure 63 ; laws o f , , th umb vs scien tifi c 23 f
”
.
, .

79 f . Pu b li c d e fined 54
, , .
 INDEX 21
1
R eality, fe elin g o f 1 20 , . S ociolog ic al investig ation o f
R ea son, 131f ; dan g e rs in , b uyi ng p ub lic 58 , .

1
36 ; se c on d ary rOIe o f, S pe c ific wo rds 10 1f , .

1
37 . Sta tistical in ve stig ation o f
R ec o g nition, o f diflic ulty in re turns 16 , .

re asoning , 1 32 ; o f p syc o h Statistics 23 , .

log ica l mom e n t , 1 78 f . Stre am men tal 4 ; at sta ge

, ,

Rep e tit ion, 44 ; d istri ution b of att e n tio n 29 ; in de ,

o f, 46, 49 , 9 5 ; in in s ir
P sire , 11 3 f ; in su gg estion ,

fi
in g c o n de nce , 1 26 . 1 54 1
, 8 6 ; sta ge s in 5 , .

R ete n tion , 49 . Su g g e stion ab no rmal 152 , ,

“
R ule o f thum
”
p syc olog y, b h de fine d 152 ; laws o f , ,

ch aract e ristics o f, 23 1
57 fi
'
.

Sup erlative 1 91 , .

Syllables : 00 Wo rd s , .

Sale de fined 3
, , .

S alesman an d auto sug ges

,
- T r ad e m ar s, 1
-
65 k f
.

tion 167 ,sele ctio n of , h

T rut fulne ss, in ad ve rtisin g ,
20 . 1
91 .

Sat f ct
i s a i on , 9 6 a ee li n g , f lyp e , in
'
ve stig ation of lo we r
11 4 ; in on c fid c
en e , 1 27 c ase 17 if
, .

the go al o f se llin g , 1 85 .

Sc fic
ie nti me o , 1 th d
2 fl . Unco nsc io us ,
”
ac ti on 1
55 ,

S t c
e n en es, len g t h
o f, in me mem o rizin g , 49 3 .

dium s, 6 1 f .

S at
e ns io n-c o efi cie nt, 1 23 Value 187 , .

S f r
e lli n g , o ms o f, Visual ima ge s 9 9 f , .

Shak ar
e spe e, 1 70 . Vocabul ary 1 02 , .

S hry re , 1 6 .

Si ta ris, 1 40 . Wo rds le n g t o f, in
, h adve r
Slog an. 45. 52, 1 6 0, 1 97. tising me iums, 60 d .