THE MIND OF THE B U YER

A PSY CHOLOGY OF SELLING

HA R RY D E! TE R K I T S O N, P H D . .

OF A A
P S Y CH OLOGY . IN D I N U NIVER SITY

mmmm
T H E M A C M I LL A N C O M PA N Y
1 9 22

A ll rig h ts r es er ved
PR I N TE D I N TH E U N ITED S TA TES OF AM ER I C A

C OPY R IGH T , 1 9 21

B Y TH E M ACM IL LAN C OM P A N Y

Se t up a n d e l e c t r o t y p e d . P u b l x s h e d S ep t e mb er , 1 9 2 1
 P R EF A CE

T h i s book is wri tten for th e progr essi ve

salesman , a dvertiser , s ales co rrespondent
for every o ne who is enga ged in inuencing
:

men to buy It doe s no t deal with th e t ec h

.
.

n i q u e o f selling ; each form of selling ha s its

own technique which must be separately a c

quired R ath er it deals wi th principl es I t
.
.
.

recognizes th at certain el ement s a re c ommon

t o all form s of selling These element s are
.

certain occurrenc es within th e mind of th e

buyer Whether directed by word of mouth ,
.

by pen or b y picture , t h e mind must perf orc e

pass throu gh certain sta ge s o n r o u t e to the act
of purchase It i s t o describe these mental
.

processes th at th e book is wri tte n .

Such a work must n ec essarily deal with

profound p sychol ogical questions Such men
.

tal proce ss e s as atte ntion , interest , desire ,

and condence require vol uminous treatment
i n th e liter a ture o f theoretical psych ol o gy .

T he author has endeavore d i n this presen ta

t i on , however, to r o b them of their forbidding
v
vi P R E FA C E
dryness by stripping away techni c al terms
and substituting w ords of c urren t busines s
u sa ge .

Two ou tstanding ideal s have governed the

preparation of the work ( 1 ) To show th e
reader how to take th e p sycholo gical p oint of
v i e w toward the business of selling ; ( 2 ) t o
te ach that in i nvestiga ting th e sale p sych o
lo gically we must employ th e meth o ds o f
scientic measurement B y repetition and ex
.

ampl e the author h as emphasized these tw o

ideals If he shall have made them clear he
.

will have accompli shed his chief aim whether

he teaches a great amount o f psychological
fac t or no t .

T he psy c hologi st reader w i ll discern a

-

st u died a v oidanc e of the spiritistic concep tion

o f mind The mind is here conceived as an
.

organic unity Thou gh expositio n o f this

.

p oint o f vi ew is withheld as unseemly in a ,

book o f this k ind , still th e phraseol ogy will

be found t o t i t without a t the same time
,

affrigh ting th e non psych ological reader u n

-

familiar wi th the c ontroversies about th e

mind body rel a tion T his avoidance of meta
-
.

phy sical di sputation s i s further helped by th e

con sisten t emphasis u pon the buyer s b e

h a vi o r Obj ec t ive d esc ri p ti on s a re largely

.
 P R E FA C E vii
u se d .And s i n c e o ur obj e c tive p sych ologi cal
nomenclat u re i s no t cl u ttered w ith sp i ri t i stic
connota tions, the aim of be i ng sc i entic an d
at the sa me time u ndersta n d able i s mo re e a sily
achieved .

G ra teful ackno wledgments are d u e to J B . .

L ippincot t C omp a ny fo r permissi on to u se

certain passa ges and c u ts from the a uthor s

Manual fo r the Stu dy o f th e P sycholo gy o f

Adverti sing an d Selling, w i th wh i ch th i s
may be used a s a te x t ; t o th e ed i tor of Th e
S c ien tic M o n t h l y fo r permiss i on to rep ri nt
p ortions of C hapter ! I I I ; t o th e ed i tor o f
Wes t er n A dv ert ising for p e rm i s si o n to r e
pri nt portions o f C hap ter V ; t o Professor
W F B ook fo r reading the manusc ript and
. .

mak i ng helpful suggesti ons ; and t o the many

st u dents at T h e U niversi ty o f Chicago and
a t Indiana U n iversity , wh o by their keen
i nterest an d the i r scientic z eal have st imu
lated the author t o p rosecute hi s que s t towards
a sc i enti c approa c h to th e mind o f th e b u yer .

H D K
. . .

J u ne , 1 92 1 .
 CONT E NT S

I N T RO D U C TI O N
CH APTER
I TH E S TR E A M or T H O U GH T IN T H E S AL E

S TA G E ON EA T T E N TI O N

II I M P O R T A N T F A C T OR S IN A T TR A C T I N G A TT E N
T IO N

III T H E IN F L U E N C E or R E P E T I T I ON
IV S E LLI N G To T H E C O LL E C T I VE B U Y ER

S TA G E TW O I N T E R E S T
V H ow To A R O U S E IN T E R E S T I N A C O M M OD I T Y
VI G OO D F EE LI N G A R E QU I S I T E
V II T H E I M A GI N A T ION OF T HE B UY ER

S T A G E T H R E E D E S I R E
V II I D E SIR E

S TAG E F OW CON F I D E N CE

I! CON F I D E N C E AND G OO D W I LL

S T A G E F I V E D E C I S I O N A ND A C TI O N
! T H E P O W ER OF R E A SON
! I I N S T I N C T IV E F A C T OR S
ix
x C ON TE NT S
CH A P TER

! II S U GGE S T I ON IN T H E S A LE
! III TH E P S Y C H O L O GI C A L M OM E N T

S TAG E S I! S A TI SF A C TI ON
! IV S AT I S F A C TI ON T H E G O A L

B I B LI O G RAP H Y
I ND E ! 0 m 0 I ')
L
I N T R OD U C T I ON
 C H A P T E R ONE

TH E S T REA M OF T H OU G H T I N TH E S A LE

S u ccessful lling d emand s p sych o lo gi cal p oint

se

o f V iew. A sal e i s an interaction between two

peopl e who are exchan ging economic g oods .

This interaction con sists of a series of changes

o ccurri ng in bo th b uyer and s eller Th e lat
.
e

ter make s certain moves which call forth re

s p o n siv e m ovement s from th e former .

The moves made by the seller may con si s t

of various thin gs : display o f g ood s ; verbal
descriptions ; pictures ; even th e proffer o f a
f ri endly cigar .Th e re s ponses o f th e buyer
may be equally variable : entering a store for
a box of candy di splaye d i n th e window ;
reaching into th e pocke t for a coin ; sending
for a ca talog ; dispatching a w ritten orde r .

In the li ght of such va riable conditions we

must reco gnize as form s of selling : a d v er
tis ing , window di s play , sales correspondence
and perso nal sale sman ship A lthough each
.

of the se modes of s ellin g h a s its peculiar

problems and meth ods all have one aim in
,

3
4 THE M I N D OF THE B UYE R

common to inuenc e the mind o f the b u yer .

A ny seller, then , wh o wishes to be succ e s sful

must study th e mind of th e buyer in other
words , must take th e p sych olo gi cal point o f
vi e w .

Th e min d a st ream . In di scussing th e

mind o f th e buyer we may p ro tably use

J ame s s gure o f s peec h a nd pic ture i t a s a
stream , con si s ting o f the sum total of menta l
-

p ro cesse s goin g on within th e indi vidual

ideas , s ensa tions feelings volitions and a c
, ,

tions There are t w o characteri stics o f th e

.

stream which deserve s pecial notice

Ch ar act eri st ic s o f t h e ment al st r eam .

1. The mind never sta nds s till I t is in

.

c onstant motion . The th ou ghts of o ne mo ~

ment are quickly replaced by others The .

mind o f the buyer in a sa le con sists of a p r o

ces sion o f sen s a tions, feelings , and willin g s .

From t h e beginnin g t o th e conclusion of th e

s ale these o w along l i ke a stream .

2. The mind is c omplex I t is not a s impl e

.

thing that we are dealing with but an org an ,

ism o f many qualities and powe rs I t will .

be our ta sk in th i s boo k t o de s cribe thi s

stream ; t o slow it up and examine its con
tents We s hall analyze it i n t wo direc tion s
.

lon gi tudinally and cross s ectionally

-
In the
.
 S T R E A M O F T H O UG H T IN S A L E 5

rst case we shall d i vi de i t into s everal ra ther

well d ened stages , each of which we shall
-

study separately In th e second , w e shall cut .

cross sec tions at critical points and examine

-

the c ontents minutely under our p sychological

microscope .

Th e st ag es in a sal e The mental stream of .

the buyer may be divided into six stages

Attention
Interest
Desire
C ondenc e
D eci sion and Ac tion
S atisfac tion

S ta I

F I G. 1 . The tr eam
s tho ught in a sa le
o f .

(Re p d d b y ki d p mi i
ro uc e n er ss o n o f J B Lipp in t t C mp y f m th
co o an ro e
th M nu l f S t dy P y h l gy ti i g
,

f Ad
.

th f th

au or s a a or e u o e s c o o o v er s n
nd S ll i g

a )
e n

The order j ust ment i oned may not be

strictly adhered to i n every s ale For in .

sta nce , condenc e may precede desire and

even interest ; interes t may come simultane
o usl y wi th a ttenti on G enerally speak i ng, .
6 TH E M IN D O F TH E BUY E R
h owever the ord e r giv e n abov e will truly
,

repre s e n t condition s e s pecially in the initial

,

purcha s e of an article .

W e s houl d al s o reco g nize th e fact tha t the

'

s ta g es are not nece ss arily equal in len g th .

The initial pul s e of a tten tion may la st bu t a

mom e nt before mer gi n g int o intere s t In ter .

e s t may then endure for an hour

.
M oreover .

a sin gle s ta g e may vary in len gth under dif

fe r e n t circum s tance s Intere s t may endure
.

for a minute an h our, a day or a year

,
.

Cr o ss s ect i o n al a n a ly si s o f t h e st r eam Thou g h

-
.

we s hall re gard t h e min d a s an ever o w ing -

s tream , s till we s hall occa s ionally be obli g ed

t o act as thou gh we could s top it

.
A t im .

portant s ta g e s w e s hall r e tard it and ta k e

cro s s s ection s of it
-
Were we to repre s ent
.

the s e d ia g ra ma t ic a l l y we shoul d u se a circle

s imilar to that of Fi g ure 2 and repre s ent th e ,

s en s ation s idea s and feelings of th e buyer

, ,

by symbolic d e si gns W e shoul d bear in

.

mind throu ghout that thi s procedure is really

an articial one Strictly s pea k in g we can
.

n o t s top the mind i n it s ow and ma k e detailed

pictures of its content s Neverthele s s we shall .

employ thi s method a s fa r a s po s sible bein g ,

j u s tied by the fact s thu s obtainable and the

clearne s s of analy si s th u s made po s sible .
 S T R E A M OF T H O UG H T I N S A L E 7

Oth er p o int s i w In taking t h e psychoof V e .

lo gical point of view we d o n o t m ean to imply

that the only problems in s elling are tho s e
of a psychological nature Particularly im .

porta nt are those of a n eth i cal and economic

na ture And before proceeding wi th our
.

F IG . 9 . C ross -
se ct i on o f s tre a m of thought .

p d
(Re ro uc e d by kin d p ermiss io n of J B iL pp
inc o tt p y f m th
Co m a n ro e
Ma nua l tudy y l y Ad t i g
,

tho r s
. .

fo r t h e S o f t h e P s c h o og of

au v er i s n
a nd

p sycholo gical de sc rip t ions we sh ould obse rve

the relation s between the s e several p oints of
View .

When we re gard a sa le from th e ethical

p oin t o f view we s tress th e ri ghtness or w ron g
ne ss of th e transaction We a s k Is thi s .
'

practic e ri gh t ? Are th e goods being sold a t

a fai r price ? Are th ey bein g sol d with a
?
c on si deration for th e ri ght s of c ompet i t ors
8 TH E M IN D OF TH E BUY E R
T he ethical side of s elling is exc ee di ngly im
p orta nt from the s tandp oint o f the welfare of
soc iety A nd it i s gratifying t o note that the
.

st a ndards o f ethics in the bu sine s s world are

ri si ng. We sh a ll p resen t s ome evidence for
thi s in a later section of the boo k ( pa g e
When we re g ard a sale from th e economic
point of view we a sk su ch que s tions a s these
What are the sources of th e comm o dity under
con sideration ? Wha t agencie s are required
t o bring i t from sourc e t o buyer ? What are
the separate elements that enter in to de
termine the pri ce I t is needle s s to enumerate
?

more que s tions Every business ma n fo rmu

.

lates s core s of them daily ; fo r whether one

ne glects other p oints of view or not , o ne i s
bound to con sider the economic point of view .

Importan t a s are the s e two a spects of th e

sal e we shall no t stre s s them in thi s book .

We shall a ss ume that no reader will under

take any practic e which is not ethically j usti
ed. A nd we shall a s sume that the pro t es
s io n a l ec onomists will ta ke care o f the
economic i ssue s involved S o we s hall con
.

centrate o ur attention upon the p sychol ogical

aspects .

In undertaking t o psychologize about the

c ondu c t of the buyer, l et i t be u nderstood th at
10 THE M I N D O F THE BUY E R
and wills ; and he s ough t to dete rmine whence
i t came and where i t went after death .

Aristotle s kind o f p sychology endured for

many hundreds o f years , in fact , until th e

se venteenth century About this time L oc ke
.
,

Hume and othe rs began t o a s sert : Th ough we

have been tryin g for centurie s to discover the
nature ori gi n and source of th e soul we have
, ,

n o t succeeded . L et u s then , abandon th ese

,

que s tions and relegate them t o th e realm o f

things beyond o u r ken Instead let u s o b
.

serve the event s that oc cur du ri ng the life time

o f an individual .In other words let u s con ,

s ider th e mind o nl y a s i t relates to man s

bodily conduct .

Thi s advice wa s heeded and p sych olo gy

came to be dened as the s cienc e of m i nd

or con s ciou sne ss .Thi s deniti on endure s

a t the present time colored in th e p opular

,

mind by relic s of A ri s totle s my s ticism

.

Sinc e the middle of th e nineteenth century

anoth er concepti on of p sychol o gy h a s a rise n .

D uri n g the nineteenth cen tury the phy sical

sciences physic s and chemi s try developed
g reatly ; and t h e biol ogical s cience s botany ,

z oology , and phy siolo gy aro se U nder th e

.

i nuenc e o f these devel opment s, p sych ol ogy

began to change in subj ect matter and meth o d -
.
 S T R E A M OF T H O UG H T IN S A L E 11

( 1 ) Th e inuenc e of b o dily c ondi tions up on

the mind came to be more cl early rec ognized ;
and ( 2 ) the method s used in th e other rapidly
devel op i ng sciences were timidly applied .

Many of these methods worked , part i cularly

those u sed in the i nvesti g ation o f animal b e
havi or As a result psychol ogy came t o b e
.
,

dened a s th e science o f c onsc iousness a nd

beha v i or (

. Some extremist s have g one so
far a s to leave o u t the word c on s ciou s ne ss and
call it th e sc i ence o f

Th i s d eni
tion , th ou gh not vitally obj ecti onable to m ost
psychologists o f to day nevertheless carri es
-

some undes i rable implications . A cc or di ngly

we shall adop t a sli ghtly d ifferent w ord i ng :

th e science which aims to descri be and ex

plain the c onduc t of living c reatures .

A fter thi s b rief hi s torical r s um the reader

may understand why i n the popular mind
p sych ology c ontinues t o be identie d wi th
mystical , abstract , and ethereal things H e .

may al so see th at the re a l progress of th e

science ha s been away from my s ticism ; tha t
t o d a y i t i s j ust a s ma tter o f fac t and earthly
-

a s th e sciences o f phy sics, ge o graphy , and

a s tronomy . This kin s hip w i th th e oth er
science s will b e sh ow n more clearly i n o u r
next paragr aph where w e shall dis c uss th e
12 TH E M IN D OF TH E BUY E R
method o f psych ol ogy and show that i t i s
identical w i th tha t employed by other sciences .

S ci ent i c meth o de x p eriment In d esc ri b

.

ing and explaining the actions of the buyer .

psychology employs th e method c ommon t o

all science s experiment . The p r o cedure of
a n exp e ri ment may be desc ribed a s follows
1 . To o b s er v e the phenomenon under con
siderati on . To ob s erve systematically not ,

spasmo di cally o r s p oradically Indeed , to be

.

th oroughly scientic we must make o u r o b

serv a t io ns under carefully con trolled condi

tions usually in the laboratory where we can
c ontrol them more ea sily than in the hurly
burly o f everyday life B y c ontrol we mean
.

t o arran g e condition s so tha t we may repeat

o ur obse r vations ( for in making scientic
mea s urements we c an no t rely up on merely
o ne observation ) watch o ne factor a t a time ;
and change c ondi tion s a t will In brief an
.
,

experiment i s a s eries o f ob servations whic h

can be repeated isola te d and vari ed

,

.

2 . We mu s t r ec o r d o u r measures We.

must u se gre a t care in doing this ; describin g

exactly the c ondi tion s under which we per
form our experiment s o th at another ex p er i
,

menter working under t h e sam e conditi on s

may secure similar results We record our
.
 S T R E A M O F T H O UG H T IN S A L E 13

re s ult s be it understood , in mathematical

,

terms Accordingly a very important part

. .

of our records will be gures .

3 . O ur next step is t o t a b u l a t e thes e g

ures in orderly array then t o summarize them ,

in a concise form s o tha t th ey may be readily

perceived .

4 . On the basi s of th e results secure d we

draw c o nc l us io ns .

In order to illustrate thi s pro cedure we

shall give an experimen t which is sometimes
performed in the psycholo gi cal labora tory :
A P S Y CH OL OGI CA L E ! PE R IM EN T

( A d a p te d from C H J udd L a bor a tory M a nu a l o f

. .
,

P syc holo gy by ki n d p e rmi ss i o n o f G i nn

Co ) .

H old p a ge 1 5 d i re ctly in fro nt o f t he ey es a t a di st a nc e

o f a bout t w e nty i nch es T hough th e se t w o l i ne s a re e qu a l
.

le ngth ( 1 0 c ent imete r s 4 i nche s ) t he hor izo nt a l l i ne a p

: ,

ea r s to b e sho rt e r th an t h v e rt i c a l o ne T h ere is
p e . a

ycholo i c a l f a ct a t t h e botto m o f th i s n a me ly th a t t he
p s g : ,

a r e n t l e n gth o f a li ne de p en d s to s ome d e gr ee u o n it s
a
pp p
p o s it i o.n T h i s m uch i s e v i d e nt fro m c a su a l ob se rv a t i o n .

B ut to h a v e a s cie nt ic st a te ment o f t he fa ct w e mu st s t a te
h o w m uc h e ff ec t is p roduc e d by c ha ng i n g t h e l i ne fro m
t h e hor iz o nt a l to t he v e rt i c a l p o s i t i o n W e mu s t me a sure
.

t h e e ff e ct a nd s t a t e i t in ma th em a t i c a l t e rms .

I n ord e r to do th is cove r t h e v e rt i c a l l i ne wi th a p i e ce
,

o f p la in a er se tt i n g t h g u i n fro n t of t h y s t
p p , e p a e p e e e a

a d i st a nc e of t w e nty i nch es .Th en u s in g t he h oriz o nt a l

,

l ine a s a st a nd a rd dr a w o n a p iece o f p l ai n p ap e r a ve rt i c a l
, ,
14 TH E M I N D OF TH E BUY E R
l i ne whic h a p p e a rs to you t o equ a l the hor iz o nt al l i ne .

try to m ak e a llo w a nc e for t h e d i s cre p a ncy w hi ch

( D o n o t
you no w know e x i sts ) .

I f you mea s ure t he l i ne you h a v e j u s t dra w n yo u wi ll

rob a bly n d th a t i t is l e ss th a n four i nch e s ; thu s sho wi n g
p
th a t yo u j ud ged the l i ne longe r wh en in the ve rt i c al p os i
t i o n th a n in t he ho r iz ont a l A nd you c a n s t a t e how mu ch
, .

lo nger you j udge d i t by s ubtr a c t i ng t he le ngth of your

C op i ed l ine fro m t he l e n gth o f t h e s t a nd a rd B ut thi s singl e
.

ob se rv a t io n is no t su fc i ent to p ermit a sc ient i c concl us i on .

In sc i ent i c i nv es t i g a ti o n a si ngle ob se rv a t i on is se ldom r elie d

u p on Y o u mu s t make more me as u re s Co v er up the l i ne
. .

y o u j u s t dr e w a nd dr a w a noth e r ; cov e r i t u p a n d dr a w
s u c c es s i ve l i ne s
, c ove r i n g e a ch l i ne as so o n as dr a wn , u nt i l
u h a v e dr a w n t e n
y o .

N o w me a sure a l l t he l i ne s a nd r ec ord t he l engths ; a d d

them a nd nd t he a ve r a ge Y our se r ie s o f meas ures wi ll
.

re se mbl e t h e se r i es b e lo w sho wi ng t he l e n gths o f l i nes dr a w n

,

by a nothe r ex p e r imente r u nd e r the se s a me cond i ti ons The .

me as ure s a re s t a t e d in c entimete r s W i th a hor i zo nt al li ne

.

o f t e n c ent i me te r s ( four i nch e s ) as a st a nd a rd the v e rt i c a l

li ne w as dr a w n t en t ime s wi th t he follo wi ng l engt hs

The ve r a ge sho ws a di ffe renc e o f

a

ce ntimete r s b etwe e n t he horiz o nt a l st a nd a rd

a nd t he v e rt i c a l c o i e s T h is g i ves u s s ou nd
p .

b a si s for co nclud ing th a t u nde r t he co nd i

t i ons of t he expe r i me nt th e a p p a re nt l e ngth
,

of a l i ne ch a nges fro m 1 0 ce ntimete rs to

c ent imete rs wh en t he l i ne is ch a nged
from h or iz o nt a l to v e rt i c a l .
S TR E A M O F TH OUGH T I N SA L E 15
16 THE M I N D OF THE BU YE R
This wa s typ i c a l p syc hologi c a l e xp er i ment co n formi ng
a ,

to our formul a t io n a b o v e .

a
. W e ma de a n ob se rv a t io n s ur r ou nd i n g it with a ll t he
,

c a r e p o ssibl e .

b
. W e rep e a te d t h e ob se rv a t i o n be i n g c a re ful to ma i nt a in
,

cond i ti ons unc h a nge d A nd o u r me a sur es we re fairly c o n

.

s i st e nt . B y foll o win g our p roc e dur e a noth e r e xp e r ime nte r

wi ll se cure p r a ct i c a lly t he s me r es ult s
a .

c W e a rr a ng e d co nd it io ns s o th a t w e might ob se rv e
me re ly o ne fa ctor a bout th e l inet he e ff e ct o f p o s it i o n u p o n
.

a p p a r e nt l e n gth .W e is o la ted th a t f a ctor d i s re g a rd in g e f

,

f ec t of p o si t i o n u p o n a p p a r ent th i c k n es s br i ght ne ss e t c
, , .

d
. A ga i n w e a rr a ng e d co n d it io n s s o th a t h a d w e w ishe d
we mi ght h a v e v ar ied o u r o b se rv a t i o ns sl a nt i ng t he l i ne r st
,

a t t hi rty d e gr ee s th e n a t s ix ty
, .

c
. L a s tly w e me a sur e d the e ffe ct s a nd st a t e d our c o n
,

el us i o n in qu a nt i t a t i v e t e rms .

Three fo rms i nt ic meth o d We may

of sc e .

apply th e expe ri mental ( scientic ) metho d

t o problem s of selling in three form s :
1
. Sta ti s tical inve stiga tion o f re turn s .

W e may arrange condi tions in a selling cam

p g
a i n so that the returns may be measured .

B y succe ssive tri al s of d i er en t methods and

compari s on s between re turn s we may deter ,

mine which method is the mo s t e ec tiv e .

G ood example s of thi s in th e el d of adverti s

i ng are furn ished by Shryer .

Thi s scientic i nve sti g ation of return s

h o wever desirable i t may be , i s many time s

no t feasible T he returns from many sale s
.
18 THE M I N D OF T HE BUY E R
legible headline . To i nvestigate this we
migh t enter the p sych ological laboratory , e x
pose s ampl e h eadl ines th rough a n in s trument
called the tachi s t oscope ; measure the s peed
with which a number of persons can perceive
the headlines in th e two kinds of type ; tabu
l a te our result s ; collate them ; and c onclude
which type is the more legible Many a p
.

plications of thi s form o f scientic meth o d are

de sc ri bed i n the several b ooks o n th e P sy
c h o l o gy of A dvertising
. We may condently
a frm that th e method ha s demon stra ted its
adaptability t o th e solution o f a number of
problems of se lling With certain problems ,
.

however, i t can hardly be used e ffec tively ,

owing in part t o an inevi table a r tic ia l ity of
the labora tory atmosphere .

3. B ut we h ave no t exh a usted the p ossi

b il ities of scientic method in th e investiga
tion o f problem s of s elling In case neither
.

o f the above t wo meth o d s i s adaptable , o r i n

ca se we wi s h t o c orroborate o ur ndings b y
other kinds o f inform ation we may secure ,

ligh t from still another di rec tion Our aim , .

be i t remembered , is to di sc over with sc ientic

accuracy the most e ffec tive w ay t o d o a thing
before we p roceed to d o i t If we cannot a c
.

c omplish this in the marke t o r in th e l a bora

 S T R E A M OF T H O U G H T IN S A L E 19

tory , we may app eal t o th e exp eri en c e o f

other sellers wh o have faced o u r p roblem ;
and by observ ing the i r solut i ons, w e may
govern our p roc edure .

H o w discover their experiences ? To ask

them would evoke c ontradictions and opinions
o f di ff erent degrees of reliability
. Further .

more , sinc e we seek scientic formulations

o f o u r facts we must have gures instead of

opinions . How shall we reduce the ex p eri

enc es o f sellers to numerical terms ?

The answer is , U se the hi s torical meth od

.

Investiga te the practices of the sellers of th e

past a nd ob se rve th e w a ys i n which th ey
solved th e problems tha t confron t u s .

F o r exampl e in answering
,
historically
the que stion p ropounded above : Is i t in gen
eral more p rotable t o u s e upper case or -

l ower case type in headlines , one would go

- ?

t o the les o f newspapers and magazines fo r

ma ny years bac k and a scertain the percentage
,

of headl i nes in small letters An inve s tigation

.

of this na ture by the auth or discl ose d the

fact tha t a dvertisers have been using with
increasing frequency lower case headlines -
.

W hereas in 1 9 05 sixty th ree per cent o f th e

-

headlines in full page advertisements in th e

-

Lit er a ry D ig est were in l ower case type , i n

-
20 THE M I N D O F TH E BUY E R
1 920the number had increas ed t o seventy si x -

per cen t ( See Fig . .

Another i llustration of th e
histo ric al
method : A number o f rm s de sired t o deter
mine the b e st method of s elec ti ng salesmen .

F IG . 4 . S howin g t he increase in t he us e o f lo we r c ase

-

typ e fo r hea dl i nes be tween 1 9 05 a nd 1 92 0

.

They formed a coo pera tive bureau which

examined the practices of all the rm s ; tabu
lated them and c ombined th e resul ts, emb ody
ing them into a sy s t em by w hich all might
s el ec t their salesmen .

In empl o yi ng t h e histori cal meth o d w e

make u se o f several assumptions

 S T R E A M OF T H O UG H T IN S A L E 21

a T he prac tices which h ave persisted over

.

a period of years have p robably been of value .

We infer either that those rms which d i d

.

n o t follow these practices did n o t make enough

money to enable them to con tinue t o a dv er

tise ; or that those which did c ontinue t o
advertise discovered the di fference betwee n
,

valueless and val u abl e pract i ces and adopted

the la t ter .

We mus t no t assume that sellers made these

changes a s a re s ul t o f conscious di sc overi es .

They worked mainly by t ri al and error As .

indicated i n Figure 4 , they disc overed th e

usefulness o f l ower ca se type in headl i nes only
-

after a long extended period of expe ri menta

-

ti on .

We may regard modern selling practi c es ,

then as product s of unconscious evolution
,
.

In the struggl e for existence in th e w orld o f

publicity certain feature s have survi ved b e
,

cause o f certain p sychological elements of

stren gth and tness They exemplify a sort
.

o f economic

survival of th e tte st .

b A second assumption we make i n

.

utilizing the hi storical method is that i f
seller s had studied th e p ractices of their pre
'

decesso r s they migh t have avoided some errors

-

an d migh t h av e el i m i nate d m uc h w astage .

22 T H E M I N D OF T H E BU YE R
An d we ass ume that by surveying the pra e
t i c es o f the past and by discovering which o ne s
have surviv ed and which have failed , w e may
m o d ify our practices and nd a sh orte r and
more ec onomical road to business success .

We repeat tha t we are no t proposi ng th e

historical meth od as a formula fo r th e sol u
tion o f all selling problems We advo c ate i t
.

merely as o ne form o f scient i c investi gation

w hich wi ll permit us to supplement and co r
roborate info rmation secured by other means .

Indeed we cannot regard either one of these

m ethod s as su f cient for th e approach to sell
ing problem s At best each throws only a bit
.

of light upon the entire si tua tion . One

meth od may be better adap t ed t o one typ e of
problem than i s another meth od . And one
may be more adaptable t o o ne type o f problem
than to another type In m o st c as es p robably
.

t wo o r all th ree of the me th o ds will be found

usef ul ; each one supplementing th e results
secured th rough the o thers .

Afte r this discussion o f t h e his tory and

meth ods of psychol ogy , the reader will see
th at modern psych ol ogy has no hint o f hoc us
p ocus in its procedure ; that it is far from
being the mesmeric game o f popular fancy .

R ather tha t i t i s a seri o u s matt er of labo ra

 S T R E A M OF T H O UG H T IN S A L E 23

tory apparat u s , stati stical tables and graph s .

Instead of donning th e crescent decorated -

robe of the clairvoyant th e p sychol o gi st roll s

,

up his shirt sleeves and enters th e adverti sing

-

copy room , the facto ry , the market any plac e
where human conduc t may be found w i th a
slide rul e under his arm
-
.

A s we enter up on the psychological study of

th e sal e we shall adhere as rigidly as possibl e
t o the method of s cience We shall avoid
.

the vague and easy formulations of arm chair -

psychology , and endeavor t o make no state

ment which cannot be supported by facts se
cured throu gh experimental research Where .

we lack such information we shall a ttemp t

t o ou tline the steps by which i t may be se
cured . Wherever we gi ve opinion we shall
label i t a s such . Thou gh this may p revent
us from ma k ing downri ght , dogmatic state
ments regardin g certain points tha t some
readers would like to have se ttled ; still i t
will testify to our ardor for truth , and will
impress up on the reader the chief mes s age o f
the book : nam e ly, that the psychology of sell
ing mu s t be developed according to the rigid
methods o f experiment .

R ul e o f t humb v ersus scientic p sych o l o gy

.

After w e have follo w e d th e hard and fast

24 TH E M I N D OF TH E BUY E R
proce dure of s c i entic method in solvi ng a
problem , w e can conclude :
I know
The .

aim of s cience is t o gi ve pos itive knowledge

( the w ord scienc e i s de ri ved from the L atin
s c ien t ia
,
knowledge ) and i t i s this quality ,
and oth ers which we s hall enumerate that ,

differentiate sc ientic bu sine s s psychol ogy

from th e unscientic psychol o gy of most
business men For we must admi t that suc
.

c es sful business men use a form of psycholo gy .

They desc ri be and explain human conduct ,

sometimes in a very e ffective manner In .

wha t re spects is their psychology di fferent

from the scientic brand ?

1. It is indivi dual. Thou gh valuable a s

far as i t goe s, it i s limited by the bounds o f
one person s experience I t i s therefore , not

.
,

representative of all possibl e situation s .

Scientic psycholo gy , however is based upon

,

a large ( theoretically innite ) number of ex

p eri enc es drawn from all sources .

2. R ule of thumb p sychology is particular .

Th e devices which i t teaches are applicabl e

only t o situations which one man has met .

T he ndings o f scientic p sycholo gy, h owever ,

are general in their application .

3. R ul e o f th umb psychol ogy c ome s w i th

long, painful and costly experi ence On t h e .
S T A G E ON E A T T E N T I ON
 C H A P T E R TWO

I M P OR T A N T FA C T OR S IN A TT RA C TI NG A TT E N TI O N

Th e n at ur e o f at t ent io n In the p receding

.

chapter we likened th e mind of th e buyer t o

a stream consta ntly i n motion an d h i ghly

complicate d W e formula ted o u r purpose : to

.

de sc ribe and explain th e stream in its ow .

Th e meth o d : to cu t c ross sec tions a t vari ous

-

imp ortant stages and t o analyze them under

our p sych ologi cal micro scope .

The rst sta g e tha t we shall analy z e is a t

tention To sec ure the attention of th e buyer
.

is the seller s rst task It i s often fraugh t

.

with di fcul ty F o r th e buyer s menta l

.

stream is owi ng along placidly , charged with

though ts rel ating t o his personal a ffa i rs T he .

s eller, wh o bri ngs forward a new a rt i cle .

foreign , perhaps , t o these affairs, i s b ound

t o encoun t er some di fculty i n th rusting i t
in to the stream His task i s more di fcul t
.

from th e fac t that he must pl a ce h i s c o m

mo dity n o t merely a t th e edge o f th e s tream
w here it may rema i n p ract i cally u nno ti ced .

29
30 TH E M I N D O F THE BUY E R
H e must thru s t it , as i t were , c ompletely into
the middle o f the s tream O nly thus can h e
.

secure for it a hi gh degree of a tten tion .

The ease with which the seller may d o thi s

d epends partly upon the rate of ow o f the
stream and partly upon the contents of i t .

S ometimes the c urren t ows sl u ggi shly , as

wh en the buyer sits without occupa tion in a
street car and casts his eyes carele ssly from
-

one advertisin g card to anoth er On such o c

.

casions i t i s easy for the seller t o enter the

s tream .

At other time s the mind ows with to rr en

tial vehemence a s when the buyer is c o ns u m
,

m ating a deal o n the oor of the st ock ex

change o r watching an exci ting ball g a m e .

U nder such circumstances it is di fcult t o

i nj ec t a new obj ec t into the center o f a ttention .

F urther di fficul ty i s enc ountered i f the c o n

ten t s of th e mind are quite foreign to the com
mo d ity under c onsideration . U nder such
c i rc u mstances the seller i s obli g ed t o prepare

the mind befo r ehand a n operation abou t
w hich we shall talk in detail in l ater chapters .

W hatever the di fculties may be , the seller

must make a s tart by attracting th e a tten
tion Hence we shall c onsider s ome devices
.

by means of w h i ch t o claim it No sin gle rul e

.
 A TTR A C TI N G A TT EN T I O N 31

can be laid down applicable to all rates of

ow all commod ities and all sal es mediums .

Neverthele ss there are certa in factors which

are u s ually e ffective .

Int en sity. The rst i s intens i ty (

. B y i n

tense we mean s trong
. Normally th e mind
is very sensitive t o stron g stimuli : brigh t
li g hts , loud noises s trong odors severe pres
, ,

s ures extreme temp eratures intense pains

, ,
.

We shall more clearly understand the forc e

inheren t in intensi ty if we inquire its ori gin
a n d r a t io n a l e
. When we con sider man hi s
t o ri c a l l y w e must regard him a s the inheri tor
of vari ous traits from past generations F o r .

many generations his forbears have been sub

j e c t e d to certain environmental conditions .

To those th a t j eopardized their welfare they

g ave quick a ttention : for exampl e ,

to brigh t
li gh ts which mi gh t put out the eyes ; t o loud
s ounds which migh t split the ear drums -
. Th e
indivi dual s wh o failed to take notice of such
thin g s were inj ured or killed Since to a ttend
.

t o intense thing s ha s tended t o p rolong life ,

then the habit has become ingrained w i th i n

,

the member s of the human sp ecies a s an in

eradicabl e trait .

Many o ther traits o f th e buyer may be thus

accounted for on an heredita ry basi s . We
32 TH E M I N D OF THE BUY E R
s hall devote an entire chapter to them a t a
later sta g e For th e present we shall pass
.

them by merely noting th e excellent rea son

,

why certain kinds o f obj ects readily attrac t

th e attention .

This give s us a hint a s to t h e m ethod of

arresting and penetratin g the mental stream
o f the buyer C hoose a s timulu s stron g er
:

th an the other obj ects round about him In .

olden times th e town c rier used a bell ; the sh

monger, a horn To d ay the advertiser u s es
.

shrie k in g bill boards Th e sal esman wh o de

.

p ends upon personal con tac t rarely u se s in

ten sity in a ttractin g th e a ttention o f his
pros pec tive customer ; probably because of it s
frequent rudenes s and vulgarity If h e can
.

devi se some ele gant and inoffen sive way ,

h owever of utilizin g it , he will hi gh ly aug
,

ment his chance s o f secu ri ng favorable atten

tion .

Ex t en sit y Th e second factor is exte nsi ty ,

.

by which we mean size bigne s s magnitude

, ,
.

The mind is ve ry susceptible to the inuence

o f bi g ne s s
. In i ts rapid ow i t may neglect
th e s mall obj ect s s eekin g shelter in i ts midst ,

and shove them unheedin gly to one si de B ut .

i t can hardly d o s o t o th e big ones A n aut o

.

ist bowling al on g a country road can scarcely

34 THE M IN D OF THE BUY E R
by o ne wh o w i shes to i nuence the human
mind P robably we sh oul d regard it a s ex
.

p l a in a b l e by th e same principl e we used in

explaining man s a f nity for intensity : as a

racial habit ( perhap s i nstinc t ) wrou gh t dur

ing the struggle for exi s tence , when man w a s
obliged to ta ke notice of things larger than
himself in order t o escape being overcome by
them .

Whatever be it s explanation it offers a live

cue t o the seller and su ggests tha t he may in
,

crease his chance s o f s ucce ss by operatin g on

a large scal e The prac tice o f s ucces sful
.

s ellers exemplie s th i s Probably n o man

.

in th e world ha s more unqualied belief in

th e power of ! big ! adverti sing than William
Wri gley , J r . In the twelve years since his
r s t great national campai gn he h a s spent
more than t o s pread hi s me s s a g e
in ei gh teen languages acros s th e civilize d

world . A s a re s ult of one of his hu g e c o n
tract s each of the s treet
,
s ubway and

elevated car s in operation in the U ni ted S tate s

carri es one or more of h is card s . Above
Times Square , New Y ork ashe s ni ghtly an
,

el ec tric sign which costs a year .

In 1 9 1 5 h e c ollecte d every telephone dir ec

tory i n th e country and mailed four sa mpl e
 A TT R A C T I N G A TT E N T I O N 35

s ti cks o f his g um t o the listed sub

scri bers H e duplicated thi s campaign in
.

1 9 1 9 thi s time to more than

,
h omes .

His a dverti sing expenditures for th e one year

1
p a ss the mark The tremendous .

growth of a dverti sing i n general during th e

past twenty v e years bears similar evidenc e
-

of th e a ttract i ve p ower of magnitude i n th e

form of i ncreasing use of ex ten sI v e space .

An investiga tion conducted by th e author

showed that the number of full pa g e adverti s e
.
-

ments in one periodical increased v e fol d -

in the dec ade 1 9 1 0 1 9 -

.

Ch ang e Our third proposition i s tha t

.

c h a ng e has great value i n arresting a ttention

change in any s ense : in inten si ty , extensity ,

or nature of sti mulus We may test the truth .

o f this i n everyday life by not i ng that w e are

aware tha t th e clock has been t i cking, only

after it ha s stopped .

M o v emen t One very common form of change

.

is movement To i t we gi ve certain and

.

eager re sponse Though for the most p art

.

unaware of i t we shall nd , when we stop t o

,

think , that it bulks importantly in o ur daily

life W e si t for hour s by th e ocean gazing
.
,

a t nothing but swelling toss i ng, j ostling ,

A meric n M g ine M a rch 1 9 2 0 p 1 9 2

1
a a az , , , . .
36 TH E M IN D OF TH E BUY E R
wave s ; we l i e on the ground ab sorbed in t h e
cl ouds that oa t ac ro ss our vi sion ; we sit b e
fore an open re fascinated by the ever dart -

ing ame s almos t t o the point o f h yp no tiz a

,

tion .

How explain this fa s cination ? P robabl y

larg ely in term s of inhe ri ta nce a s we did our ,

a fnity for inten sity and extensity In th e .

dis tant days when man s progenitor stalked
i n the j un gles, o ne o f th e mos t important
factors in life was m ovement The ligh te s t .

utter of a leaf migh t indicate th e p re s ence

of a hidden enemy ; the icker o f a t wi g mi gh t
signify lurking death As a result our ancestor
.

was obliged t o give close attention to any

thing that moved If he had failed he woul d
.

have fallen vic tim one day t o the de s tructive

forces surroundin g him A s a resul t the o ff
.

s p ri ng of p ri mitive man manife s ted intense

interest in m ovi n g thin gs Th e trait , bein g .

useful i n p rese rvin g life became i n grained ,

wi thin th e members o f th e s pecies and per

si sts t o this day .

There is another way of accounti ng fo r th e

i nuence of movement I t ts into the very
.

nature of mentali ty Th e mind is like a

.

s tream c on s tantly i n motion A moving o h

,
.

j ce t then , h a s a ready chance o f securin g a

,
 A TT R A C TI N G A TT E N T I O N 37

f o o thol d in th e stream T h e rel ation ship may

.

be pic tured by imagin i ng two pl atforms o ne ,

( the mind ) moving ,

and th e other ( the obj ec t
o f attention ) stationary To step from th e
.

latter t o th e former requ i res c onsiderabl e

effort. If, h owever we start th e s econd in
,

motion i n the same direction and a t the sam e

rat e as th e rst we can make th e transition
,

ea sily I t i s thus that a m oving obj ec t ts

.

into th e na ture of th e onward o wi ng menta l -

processes .

In addition to this onward o w of the tota l

s tream there i s a form of movement wi thin

th e stream itself E ddies are p resent which

.
,

keep the c ontents of the stream oscillating

t o and fro . The mind is s o constituted tha t
i t cannot hol d an obj ec t in th e cente r for
longer than an in s tant Th e reader may test
.

this for him s elf by a ttemp tin g t o x a t e

ste adily the l etter 0 Thou gh he may try
.

hi s best t o maintain i t unchan g ed in th e center

o f h is attention ,
h e will nd tha t h e cannot .

His atten tion will wander from one part of

the let ter to another from top t o bottom , from
,

side t o side ; and pre s ently o ff the letter em

,

t ir el y to a nearby aw in th e p aper .

In xin g th e limits t o the time during

w hich one can h ol d an obj ect i n attention
38 TH E M I N D O F THE BU YE R

i n a perfectly unchanged condition , p sych o l o

gists have di scovered some evi dence that th e
period may be two or three m i nutes, but far
more c ommo nl y, only a sec ond or two i n
length Af ter this length of time in th e vortex
.

of the stream an obj ect must gi ve way t o a n

other o ne which has been h ove ring on th e

F IG . 5 .

margi n w a i ting fo r a chanc e to wedge i tself

in B e i t remembered tha t a t any one mo ~
.

ment there are many things variously dis

tributed i n th e mental stream A cro s s sec .
-

tion woul d reveal a c ondition resemblin g tha t

pictured in Figure 5 where objec t A ( le t i t
,

be a street car adverti s ement of B unte C ough

-

Drops ) gives way after a b rief dominance

over th e center of attention to obj ec t B ( an
,

adj oin i ng advertisement o f Arro w collars ) ;

 A TT R A C T I N G A TT E N T I O N 39

which i n i ts turn gi ves way t o obj e c t C ( an

a dvertisement of Sloan s liniment )
.

A gain , such a cross section migh t b e l i kened

-

t o a kaleidoscope in which minute pieces of

varicolored glass c ontinually shift their p osi
tions That which was a t the center dri fts
.

ma r ginw a r d and vice versa .

From this we see th at movement i s a c api tal

devi ce for th e seller t o use not merely in in
,

t r o d uc ing hi s c ommodity i nto th e cen ter o f

t h e mental stream , but also in holding i t
there . N o w we see at least in part , the
,

mechani s m by which we gi ve attention so

spontaneously t o s elling device s w hich em
body movement : the army o f manikins in store
windows feveri shly plying s afety razors ; the -

di splay shoes ari dly stepping in and o u t of

pans of water .

Th e movin g elect ri c S ign o ffers excell ent

opportunity for the exploitation of movement .

It i s demonstrably effective Th e reader may .

test him self to ni gh t a s he walks down Main

-

street . L et him watc h himself o ut of the

corner of hi s eye so to s peak ; and h e will nd
,

himself observing th e movi ng sign s alm o s t

invariably He will be aware of them far t o
.

th e right and left ; even of tho s e in the rear,

i ckeri n g i n his eye glasses H e wi ll n ot i c e ,
-
.
40 T HE M I N D O F THE BUY E R
als o , tha t a faint movin g li gh t a ttracts atten
tion more quickly than a s trong stationary
o ne .

A el d with still g reater po s sibilities o f de

v el o p men t i s th e m oving picture .Here i s
movement incarnate , the c on s ummati on o f
man s a ge lon g dream s and c ravin g s A nd man
-
.

wo rships a t their shrine ni ghtly , be he rich

o r poor, youn g o r old , savant or imbecile He .

tries t o j ustify hi s infatuati on by elaborate

re a son s o f an e sthe tic , s ocial o r economic
nature : the cinema offers a varied entertain
men t ; i s always j u s t around the corner ; cos t s
only ab ou t a quarter B ut these do no t fully
.

account for hi s interest For wh en the plot

.

is vapo ri s h , the h umo r inane , th e vamping

o l d stuff ,

h e still attend s with seemin gly in
s atiable avidity . The cinema as a s elling
medium has n o t yet come into its own Never .

t h el es s it will undoubtedly d evel op i nto a

valuabl e ally fo r the seller, because i t em
bodies a feature t o which man is pas sionately

inclined movement .

S imul a t ed o r sug g est ed mo v ement

. S o s trong
is our af ni ty for movement tha t we re spon d
to th e mere su ggestion o f i t An automobil e
.

which is pictured a s moving plea s es us more

than one which appears to b e s tanding still .
42 T H E M I N D OF T H E B UYE R
vari ety In background , type and illustrat i on ,
.

one ma y achieve , thanks to the inven tions o f

modern printing a number o f striking e ec ts
,
.

These varieties numerous a s th ey are con

, ,

s t i t u t e only a frac tion of the number possible

in the realm of color A nd e ffec tive as are th e

.

former th ey pale beside th e la tter

,
.

Several lines of proof point t o the o v erp o w

ering attrac tivene s s of col or . F o r o n e we
,

need go n o further th an everyday obse r vation .

When th e early settlers o f Ame ri ca wanted

t o make an attractive p ric e t o the Indians did
they o er black or g ray beads ? We are no t
tol d so R a ther d o th e chronicler s emphasize
.

colored be ads . It i s said that the mail
order houses have found colored catalo g s t o
be very superior to those in black and white .

M ore scientic p roof from th e laborat ories i s

reported i n the voluminous li te rature upon
the subj ect .

If our curiosity leads us t o i nquire why

c olor at tracts th e a tten tion s o m uch more
ea sily than grayness we may nd a partial
,

explana tion in the fac t that the li gh t wave s

fo r c olor s travel farther th an d o tho s e for
graynes s Whatever be the rea s on we may
.
,

c ondently employ color whenever pos sible .

 A TTR A C TI N G A TT E N T I O N 43

Ot h er e ffect s o f co lor B efore concludin g

.

this inadequate treatment o f th e s ubj ec t

we should point o u t tha t color may be useful
not o nl y in attracting a ttention It ma y a l so .

hold a ttention A gain it may arouse p l ea s u r

.

able feelings Th e feelings may come from

.

intrinsic pleasure giving quality of th e color ;

-

then may be transferred t o the obj ec t bein g

sold a n end evi dently sough t in th e c oloring
of the containers of c ertain brands o f fac e pow
der O r i t may gi ve pleasure by reason o f cer
.

tain ideas i t arouses within the buyer In see k .

ing to u se color we face a larg e group of que s

tions relating t o the appropri ateness of color
to commodi ty We shall merely recognize the
.

existence of these fo r th e present , reservin g

their deta iled consideration for a later chap ter .

S ummary . In discussin g these four factors

inten sity extensi ty change an d color we have
, , ,

n o t exhausted the list of determinants of a t

tention which are available t o the s eller We .

have merely touched upon four which t into

th e outline of thi s book A nother in p a r tic u
.

lar repetition is so importa n t that we shall
use i t as th e ba si s of o u r next chapter .

N OTE For di sc u ssi o n o f t he th eor et i c a l asp e ct s o f color

the re a d e r is r e fe rr e d to t h e b ibl iogr p hy a . For p r a ct ic a l
a p p l i c t i o ns in t he ld of a dv e rt i si ng t h e r ea d e r is r e fe rr e d
a e

to t he well kno wn b o o ks o n that subj ect

-
.
 C H A P T E R T H R EE

TH E I NFLU E NC E OF RE P E TITIO N

R ep et it io n win s nt io n If we cannot forc e

att e .

o ur c ommodity into the center o f attenti on

by any of the devices mentioned in the pre

ceding chapter, o r by virtue of its intrinsic
meri t and appropriateness to th e contents of

the buyer s mind we may h ave recour s e t o
,

another factor repeti tion Mere bald , brutal
.

repeti tion goe s far in at tracting attention .

This fac t i s c rys tallized in the old p roverb

C onstant dropping wears aw a y s tones .

We have frequent ver i ca tion of thi s fac t

in everyday life Often when we are a sleep
.

a sound oc curs without awaking us the rs t

time the second or th e third
,
A s i t per .

s is t en tl y recurs h owever , i t forces its way

,

through the murk o f uncon s ciou s nes s and

arouse s us And then a s we loo k back we recall
.

that th e sound had been there va guely ( in th e

ma r gI n of the mental s tream ) fo r some ti me,
but had required repeti tion t o be effec tive .

For an explanation of the great power resi

44
THE I N F LU E N C E OF R E P E T IT I O N 45

dent in repeti tion we are driven to a con

,

s ideration of the brain and nervous system .

In order for a thing to affec t the mind it must

enter the pathways to the brain These path .

ways are somewha t resistan t t o ne w impre s

sions, b ut after repe a ted assaul t they open
up and permit access t o the brain .

Another form of explanation is the assert i on

by s ome p sychologi s ts that man i s innately
credulous that h e i s inclined t o accept a s
,
.

true every sta tement he hears In the course .

of experience however th e adult p erson de

, ,

v el o p s inhibi tions which make him so ph isti

,

c a t ed and resistan t To overcome this r e

.

s is t a nce require s considerable battering To .

this factor i s due the e ffectiveness of many

sales names like U needa Though the buyer
-

,
.

ma y resist th e repetitions o f this name fo r a

time , h e eventually comes t o believe tha t he
does need a biscui t and makes the purcha se
,
.

I t is thi s coercive p ower o f repetition which

j usties the so called display advertising con
-

s t it u tin g so grea t a p art of modern publicity .

Many a rm advertise s on bill boards theate r -

,

pro g rams and the like when i t knows it can

, ,

n o t e ec t an immediate s al e B ut by keeping .

i ts name and commodi ty befor e th e mind o f

the public it h opes t o derive a cumul a tive
,
46 TH E M I N D OF TH E BUY E R

e e c tthat will ultimately brin g about action .

During the World W a r many rm s which had

al ready s o ld their entire ou tput t o the gove rn
men t continued none the less t o use a g rea t
amount of adverti sin g space , hoping by repe ti
tion t o ret a in a place in the mind o f the public .

A nd their course of ac tion was j ustied by

this p sych ol ogical p rinciple we are now c o n
sid er ing .

R ep et it i o n in uences memo ry This leads us

.

t o recognize that repetition doe s more than

merely force the merits of a commodity upon
the at ten tion of th e buyer I t imprint s th e
.

message deeply within h is memory For a s .

a rule the seller desires no t merely t o put his

me ss age into the buyer s mind bu t t o keep i t,

there tha t it may i n s ti gat e p urcha s e time after

time R epeti tion , then i s a powerful a gent
.
,

with which t o overcome th e well known for -

g e t fu l n es s o f the h um a n race which would

naturally tend to rele gate a commodity t o th e

m a rgin of the menta l stream .

D i stribut io n o f r ep et it i o n s We may vary the

.

e ffec tiveness o f our repetitions by th e way

in which we distribute them over a period of
time B y repeating our message a t certain
.

i n te rval s we may increase the retentiveness

,

o f the buyer s mind

.
THE I N F L U E N C E OF R E P E TI TI O N 47

The ma tter may be explained by imagining

a case where we are announcing a new article

in a monthly magazine L et us assume that

.

w e have decided upon eigh t in sertions fo r th e

year . How shall we most e ffectively dis
tribute them ? A number o f altern atives are
p oss ible ; eigh t consecu tive in s ertions in th e
rst e i ght , last eigh t , or any ei ght successive
issues ; four in the rst four i ssues of th e
year, four in th e last four, and so on Thou gh
.

w e cannot say fo r certain wha t i s the best

distribution for every S pecic article , still we
may make some p rotable gue ss by con sidera
tion of certain facts proven by l aboratory
demonstration
After much investigation of memory , p sy
c h o l o gis t s have discovered that fac ts onc e im

p ressed u pon th e mind tend t o slip away a t

an uneven rate rapidly at rst , then m or e
and more slowly until th e amount reta i ned
reaches a c onstan t level and stays there Th e
.

matter is graphically represented by a curve

of forget ting, similar to tha t of Figure 6 ,
w here the greater p art of th e material i s for
gotten almost immediate ly and a smaller part
remains relatively constant ( a s sh own by the
line A B ).
48 TH E M I N D O F THE BUY E R
It i s n o t inconceivabl e tha t this conditi on
h ol ds good fo r the memory o f things seen in
adverti sement s If so le t us specula te upon
.

the protabl e ways o f di st ri buting repeated

advertisement s The auth or h a s ventured t o
.

lay o u t a reasonable di s tribution up on th e

c urve in Figure 6 Since forgetting take s .

M

Ja I A Ju JI An Se 0 N D
I p
. . L r. ay . . . . . . .

l f l

F i g 6 S howi ng a theor eti c a lly p o ssib le d i stri b u t i on of

. .

e ight a dve rt ise me nt s a mo n g t w e lve issu es of a mo nthly

ma ga z ine .

place rapidly a t rst, le t the e arly announce

ments come a t frequent in te r val s Since the .

rate o f forgetting i s sl ower toward th e en d

o f th e pe ri od l et th e la ter announcements

c ome a t less frequent but regul ar interval s .

Th e g eneral principl e i s t o adap t the num ber

and regu larity of repetition s t o the amount
and constancy of th e mate ri al retained The .

obj ec t, in g raphic term s i s t o rai s e the line ,

50 TH E M I ND O F TH E BUY E R
modication s sometimes o f very considerable
,

importance , without being itself conscious of

the p roce s s until its r es u l t s present them
,

selve s to con s ciousness in the new idea s, o r

,

new combination s of ideas which th e proc e ss? ,

has evolved .

An in s tanc e related by C oleri dge illustrates

this s trikingly :
A c a se of th i s ki n d occ u rre d in a R oma n C a tho l i c to w n
in G ermany a y ea r or t w o b e for e my a rr i v a l a t GOtt in ge n ,

a nd h a d n o t th e n c e a s e d to b e a fre qu e nt s u b e ct of c o n
j
v e rsa t io n A yo un g w o ma n o f four or v e a nd t we nty
.
,

w ho could nei the r rea d no r wr it e w as se ize d with a ne rvou s

,

fe ve r ; during w h i ch a cc ord in g to t he as seve r a t i ons of a l l

,

t he p r i e st s a nd mo nk s o f t h e ne i ghborhood s h e b e c am e
,

p o sse sse d a nd as i t a pp e a re d by a v e ry l e a rne d d e v il

, , , S he .

co nt i nu e d i nce ssa ntly t a lki ng L a t in G reek a nd H ebrew

, , ,

in v e ry p o mp ou s to ne s an d wi th mos t d ist i nct e nu n c i a t i o n .

Th i s p o s sessi on w a s ren d e re d more p rob a bl e by t he kno w n

f a ct th a t sh e was or h a d b ee n a he reti c V olt a i re hu mor .

o u sl y a dv i se s th e d e v i l to d e cl ine a ll a cqu a in t a n ce w ith

med i c a l me n; a nd i t w ould h a v e be e n more to his r ep ut a t i o n ,

if he h a d t aken th i s a dv i c e i n t he p r esent i ns t a nc e Th e .

c a se h a d a ttr a ct ed t he p a rt icul a r a ttent i o n o f a you ng

p hy si c i a n a nd by his st a t eme nt ma ny emi ne n t p hy s i o log i s t s
,

a nd p sychologis ts vi s i t e d t he to w n a n d cr o s s e x a mi ne d t he
,
-

c a se o n the sp ot S h eet s full o f he r r a v i ngs w ere t a ke n

.

do wn fro m h e r o wn mouth a nd w e re fou nd to co ns is t of

,

se nt e nc es coh e r e nt a n d i nt e ll ig ibl e e a ch for i t se l f but wi th

, ,

l ittl e o r no conne cti o n wi th e a ch oth e r O f t he H ebr ew a

.
,

smal l p ort i o n o nly could b e tr a c e d to t he Bi bl e ; t he r e

maind e r seeme d to b e in t he R a bb i nic a l d i a le ct A l l tr i ckor .

consp i r acy was o u t of the qu est i on N ot o nly had t he .

T HE I N F L U E N C E OF R E P E T I T I O N 51
you ng w oma n eve r b ee n a simp l e h a r ml ess cr ea t u r e ; bu t she
,

was e v i d ently l a bor i ng u nd e r a ne rvou s fev e r I n th e tow n .

,

in w h i ch s he h a d bee n r es i de nt for ma ny y e a rs a s a ser v an t

in d i ff e r ent f amili es no s ol u t i o n p r es ent e d i tself The yo un g
, .

p hy s i c i a n h o w ev e r
,
d e t er mi ne d to re tr ace h er p as t l i fe s t e
, p
by step ; for the p a ti ent h er self was i nc ap a b l e o f re tur ni ng
a r a t i ona l a n sw e r H e a t le ngth su cce ed ed in d i scove r in g
.

t he p l a c e whe r e h er p a r ent s h a d l i v e d ; tr a v ell e d th i the r ,

fou nd th em d ea d bu t a n u ncle su rv i v i ng ; a nd from him

,

l ea rne d th a t t he p a t i ent ha d b een ch a r i t a b ly taken by a n

,

old P ro t es t an t p astor a t nine y e a rs old a nd h a d r ema i ned ,

wi t h him so me ye a r s e v en t i ll t he o l d man s d ea th O f th is
,

.

p as tor t he u ncl e k ne w n oth i ng bu t t h a t h e w,as a v e ry go o d

ma n W i t h g re a t d i fc u lty a nd a ft e r mu ch se a rch ou r
.
, ,

yo ung med i c a l p h i lo sop h e r discove red a ni ec e o f the p as tor s

,

w ho had li ved wi t h him a s his ho usekeep e r a nd h a d ih ,

herited his e ffe ct s S he r ememb e re d the gi rl ; rel a t e d t ha t

.
,

he r vener ab le u ncle ha d b een t oo ind ul gent a nd cou l d no t ,

be a r to h ave the gi rl scol de d ; th at she w as wi lli ng to h ave

kep t her b ut th a t a ft e r h er p a tro n s d ea th t he gi rl he rself
, ,

r e fu se d to st a y A nxi ou s i nqui rie s w ere t he n of c o u rse

.
, ,

ma d e co nc e r ni ng the p astor s h a bi t s ; a nd the sol ut i o n o f t he

p h eno meno n w as s oon o b t a i ne d F or i t a p ea re d t h a t i t h a d

p .
,

been th e o l d ma n s c u stom for y ea r s to wa lk up a nd dow n

, ,

a p ass a ge of hi s h o u se i nto whi ch t he k i tche n d oor opened ,

a nd to re a d to hi ms e lf wi t h a lo u d vo i c e o ut o f his f a v ori te ,

boo ks A co nsi d era b l e numb e r of th ese we re sti ll in t he

.

ni ec e s p os sess i o n S he a dd e d th a t he w a s a v ery l ea r ne d

.
,

ma n a nd a gr ea t H e b r ai st A mo ng t he b ooks we re fo u nd
.

a co l l ect i o n o f R a b b i ni c al wr i t i ng s toge t h e r wi t h sev e r a l o f

,

th e G r eek a nd L a t i n F a t h er s ; an d t he p hy si c i a n s u ccee d e d
in i d ent i fy i ng so ma ny p a ss a ge s wi t h th o se t a k en d o w n a t

t he yo un g w oma n s b e d si d e t h a t no d o ub t co ul d r emain in

,

a ny r a t i o na l mi nd co nc e rn i ng t he tr u e or igi n o f th e im

p r essi o ns mad e o n her nerv ou s sy st em

.
52 THE M I N D OF TH E BUY E R
T h i s case sh ows in extreme form what may
happen in l ess er degree t o any buyer An .

advertising appeal t o which h e pays li ttle a t

tenti on a t th e time ma y, if repeat ed often
,

enou gh , leave an impre s si on which will at s ome

late r ti me inuence him to buy The reader .

may test his o w n memory in this resp ec t in th e

foll owing paragraph :
Wha t trade names rst com e into your mind
in connec tion wi th these commodities : L ini
ment , gum , c ough drops, camera , watch
garte r, roong paint talcum powder
,
?

In connec tion with e a ch o f these c o mmo di

ties it i s p roba b l e that a certain name aros e

insta ntly that o ne which ap pe ars mos t fre
.

quently on c a r c a rd s bill boards , new spapers

-

,
-

and magazines It is likely tha t i f the reader

.

were buying the articl e fo r the rst time , he

woul d buy this c ertain kind Th ough in his .

daily life h e p robably h a d no t paid much

attention t o the s e arin g sign s , still he was
impre s sed s ubcon sciously

as i t were , and
,

when he came to buy , he would ac t accord

in gl y
. Thi s fac t is j ustication for th e liberal
use of display advertising

.

R e p etition affects the sale in oth er ways

than throu gh attention and memory I t may .

i nuence later sta g es o f condence and de

T HE I N F LU EN C E OF R E P E T I T I O N 53

c is io n We shall no t p a use h ere to discuss

.

the s e , however, p refe rring to plumb the stage

of inte rest before p a s si ng o n t o th e l ate r
s tages of the s ale.
 C H A P T E R F O UR

S E LLING T O TH E C O LLE C TIVE B U Y ER

D e

nit io n o f p ubli c A go od deal o f th e
.

selling of t o day is done t o peopl e en ma ss e .

A c a r card strikes no t merely o ne person a t

-

a time bu t a carful A newspaper adverti s e

,
.

ment fall s under the eye s n o t o f o ne i ndi vi d ual

but o f a group The persons wh o are served
.

by any s elling medium c on s titute a collec t ivi ty

R o ss calls i t a public which we may de

ne a s a group o f dispersed indivi dual s h a v

in g similar ideas , feelings and ac tions , intensi
e d by the c onsc iousne s s o f th eir collect i ve

ne s s.

I t sh ould be noted that a public is no t a

simple arithmetical summati on of indivi dual
mind s N o r i s it a new super mind transcend
.
-

ing its comp onents It can be regarded as o n e

.

mind o nl y in th e sense tha t th e individual

minds composing i t are almost identical in

certa in respect s Then , because each member
.

of the g roup k nows tha t a l l th e other mem

bers hol d opinions iden tic al w ith his, h e feels
54
S E LL I N G T O C O LL E C T I V E BUY E R 55

more stron gly than h e would without such

s ocial support I t i s i n s uch a sense , then
-

.
,

tha t we s peak of a c ollective mind as di fferent

from the indi vidual minds composing it .

Newspapers and ma g azines offer goo d in

ternal evidenc e of th e existence of the col
l ec tiv e mind . Th e edito r write s in the plural
number, implying that h e i s spokesman or
chairman o f th e group He emphasizes thi s .

relation sh i p by usin g s uch p rase s a s , E ditor s

E asy C hair ,

Th e E ditor s Drawer ; by

headin g h is feature sections

Friend of :

th e People ,

C olum n for Workers
Ou r ,

B oys and G irl s ; implyin g th at h e is sea ted

in the mid s t of hi s readers all o f wh om c o n ,

s t it u t e a p sychical family .

We may assert then tha t psych ol ogi cally

, ,

speaking the readers of a sales medium con

,

s t it ute an ent i ty a public , wh ich is not a l oo se

,

aggregation of i s olated and individual mind s

bu t a n organic union coalesced into one c ol
,

l ec tiv e mind in the sense j u s t mentioned .

Ea ch p ubli c uniq ue There is further c ompli

.

cation in th e fact tha t each public i s unique .

The C hic a g o A mer ic a n public , for example ,

di ffe rs from tha t o f th e E v ening P o s t The .

readers of th e C o u n tr y G ent l ema n differ from

th e readers of th e F ir eside C o mp a nio n .
56 THE M I N D OF THE BU YE R
We d o no t di s regard th e fac t tha t an in
dividual may belong t o more than o ne public .

H e may at the s a me time be a reader o f th e

New Y ork Times the N ew R ep u b lic, the
,

C o ngr eg a tio n a l is t, and th e C o mmer cia l a n d

F ina nc ia l C hr o n ic l e; in which fact i s in
volved n o anomaly o r my steriou s splitting of
personality I t means simply tha t when one
.

reads the Times h e is entertaining i deas that

are being shared with a certain number o f
other people ; and when h e reads t h e C o n
g r e g a t i o n a l is t he i s entertaining mental te n

ants identical with those in the minds o f

another group of people .

Sal es and advertising managers frequently

-

c omplain about the multiplicity of medi um s

which they m us t use in carrying their mes
sage to the buying public .They regard i t as
a mi sfortune . As a matter of fac t such mul ti
,

p l ic i ty i s an advantage ; i t simplies the task

o f the advertiser . There i s n o t simply o ne
i nni tely large buying public , o u t o f which

a selle r may win a few c ustomers There are .

many buying public s

.

No t all o f them
care fo r eve ry commodity , or every typ e of
a certai n c ommodi ty F ortunately they a r e
.

sifted o u t an d a re grouped , w i th reference

t o ta stes, about c erta i n p eri o di c al s . Th e
58 THE M IN D O F T HE BUY E R
E conomic Fact s shoul d be g athered
.

s howing the property holdi n g s , earn ings , etc .

Some periodical s have gathered such facts for

distribution t o in terested space buyers -
.

3
. S oc iol o gi cal What is th e so c ial level
.

o f the public ? Wha t are the leading occupa

tions r epresented ; the s ports and relaxations ?

These data are di ffi cult to g ather and ofte n

can be ascerta ined only indirectly The chie f .

di fcul ty comes in expres sing them in numeri

cal te rm s One peri od i cal overcame this in
.

g e n i o u sl y by collecting telephone directori e s
of th e country and ascertaining what per .

centa g e of its subsc r i bers names appeared
therein Thi s di d no t furnish a c omplete de
.

s cription of th e s ocial sta tus of its public , but

i t gave an indication .

The s e example s i ndicate tha t sellers are

aware of the di ff erences existing between pub
li e s and are seeking to measure them s eien
t ic a l l y . Successful as they a re h owever , ,

they have omitted one importan t form of in

v es tig a t io n which we shall call
,

4
.
P sychol o gical Some of th e grea tes t
.

differences between publics are menta l

ideas feelings , motive s and the like Peopl e
, ,
.

vagu ely reco g nize these di fferences ; they sa y

th a t the ! Monthly i s rea d by hi gh brows -
S E LL I N G TO C O LL E C T I V E BUY E R 59

the Y Monthly by low brows -

that o ne

newspaper controls the labor vote ; another
.

the we t element If these di fferences exist

.

s urely we ou g ht t o be abl e to mea sure them .

True the ta s k will be di fcult ; fo r psychical

,

thin g s are ob s cure and el usive Furthermore

.
,

the s ta tus of psycholo gy as an acc urate science

is so recently established tha t we d o not ye t
have psycholo gi cal yard s tick s with which
-

t o measure all kinds of mental thin g s .

In th e e ffor t to secure such measurements

th e auth or undertook an inve s tigation of
several periodicals and di s covered a technique
,

which revealed di s tinct psychol ogical di ffer

en ces and permitted their mathematical p re

s e n t a t io n
. Thou gh these di fferences are no t
of a nature to be markedly signicant for a d
v e r tising and sellin g ,
they are nevertheless
striking enou gh t o encourage u s to h op e tha t
we may ultimately develop method s th at will
be practically applicable to th e two fol d prob -

lem which th e advertiser faces : wh a t medium

to use and how adap t copy to each one
,
?

B y way of preliminary app roach th e follo w

ing simpl e procedure was planned and exe
c u t ed : Two periodical s were chosen which
are commonly alleged t o serv e diff eren t p ub o

l i es the C hicago E v ening P o s t and th e
60 TH E M I N D O F T HE BU YE R
C hicago A mer ic a n From th e editorial , news .

and feature columns of si x p arallel i ssue s o f

the se t w o papers , approx i mately ve th ou
sand words were taken in c ons ec ut ive order
a n equal number from each newspaper an d
tabulated according t o the number o f syllabl es
they contained .

T he results are sh own in Tabl e I , in t erms

of the percenta ge o f words con taining more
than two , th ree , etc , syllables The s e gures . .

S how tha t the num ber of w ords over t w o sylla

bles l ong in the P o s t is greater than that in

th e A mer ic a n by seventy per cen t ; this ra ti o
h olds fo r all th e p olysyllabic words .

TAB LE I .

S howi ng p e rc ent a ge of word s co nt a i ni n g mor e th a n 2, 3,

4 a nd 5 syll a b l e s in C hic g o E v en ing P o s t a , C hic a g o A meri
ca n C en tu ry a nd A me r ic an ma g a zi nes
,
.

O ver 2 Ove r 3 O ve r 4 Over 5

. 7

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
 SE LL I N G T O C O LL E C TIV E B U YE R 61

In or der t o see if such a test wou l d reveal

si milar d ie r en c es b e tween t w o ma ga zines ,

the C ent ur y and A mer ic a n m a gazines were

likewise examined R esults , as s hown in
.

T able I , answer o u r inquiry p ositively Th ey .

sh ow that th e number of words over t w o

syll a bles in length in the Cen t ur y i s greater
than the c orresponding number in th e A mer i
c a n magazine by thirty six per cent ; the num
-

ber over th ree syllables by fty nine per cent -

the number over four syllables by sixty seven -

per cen t ; and the number over ve syllables

by 1 00 per cent .

In continuation o f the search for intel

lec tual di fferences, the l ength of sentences
w a s next measured From parallel i s sues an d
.

columns of th e same four periodical s ( o ne

is s ue each of the new s papers and tw o each of
the magazines ) a total o f 8000 sentences were
taken in consec utive order The number of .

words in each sentenc e was computed and

recorded by ten s That is sentences contain
.
,

ing from o ne t o ten words were grouped t o

g ether ,
those from ten t o twenty ,
twenty t o

thirty , and so forth The percent a ges are

.

sh own in Tabl e I I These results s h ow a

.

grea ter number of long sentences in the

P o s t than in the A mer ic a n C onsidering any

.
62 TH E M I N D O F THE BUY E R
T A B LE I I .

S ho wi ng pe rc e nt ge o f sent nc e s of v ri ou s l e ngth s in
a e a

C h i g o E v e ni ng P o s t
ca Chic g o A me ic n C en tu ry a nd
,
a r a ,

A me ri c n ma g a z ines
a .

O v e r O ve r O v r O v e r e

1 -
10 10 20 30 40

i
D ff e renc e

Ove r O ve r Ov e r Ov r e Ov re O ve r
50 60 70 80 90 1 00

D i ffe rence

thing over twenty a s a l ong

sentence th e
median length i s between ten and twenty
w e nd a di fference of That is whereas ,

the A mer ic a n h a s per cent th e P o s t h a s ,

per cent , an amount greater by thirteen

per cent .

The di ff erence in favor o f the ma g azines

again favorin g the C en t u y amounts t o
r

thirty three per cent

-
.
SE LL I N G TO C O LL E C T IV E BUY E R 63

The autho r doe s no t rea s on from the s e nd

in g s tha t a superiority in numbe r of lon g
word s and sentences prove s conclusively a cor
re spon di n g intellec tual s uperiori ty C learly
.

long words and lon g s entence s are not an

ab solute criterion of erudi tion or short one s
of ignorance Nevertheles s we must admi t
,

tha t in th e long run the chances favor a

,

greate r number of lon g wo rd s bein g a s so

c ia t e d with more enli ghtened people Mea s .

u re men t s made by vario u s vocabula ry te s t s

have sh own tha t there are mo r e word s in the

vocabularie s of the more enli ghtened ; henc e
we mi gh t expec t a g reater number of l o ng
words there .

If we sh ould g ran t the validity of s uch as

s ump t io n s
,
h owever we s till shoul d reco g
,

nize tha t th e kind o f meas u res we have j u s t

made are still very fragmentary Th e p sy
.

c h o l o g ic a l di fference s be tween periodical s , and

especially tho s e di fferences that interest th e

adverti s er, are much broader P articularly
.

imp ortan t are thos e of an emotional o rder ,

such a s tastes intere s t s and th e like

, ,
.

Such differences mi gh t conceivably be

shown a s follows : In each periodical being
inve s ti g ated mea sure the amount of space
,
.

devoted to each kind o f reading mat ter ( ex

64 T HE M I N D OF THE BUY E R
cluding adverti s ement s ) C la s sify the contents
.

under such headin g s a s P olitic s , Finance , R e

l igio n, L itera ry C ritici s m Science S ports
, , ,

etc Then chart the results s o as t o s how the

.

proporti onate amounts of s pac e devoted t o

material o f each class .

Such a study of t w o magazine s ( poole d

mea s ure s of four is s ues each same month s )
,

g ave re s ults a s s hown in Table I I I B y th

. us
s ta tistically studyin g variou s period icals the

s eller may p repare a table ( se e Tabl e IV )

s h owing the amoun t o f s pace in each periodical

devoted t o th e s ubj ect nearest t o his parti en

lar c ommodity ; and from it may infer the
degree of in terest held by a public toward each
eld For surely , in t h e l o ng r un there is a
.
,

close relation be tween the taste s of th e reader s

of a peri odical and th e amount o f space de
voted t o vari ou s topic s.

Th e amoun t of s pace devoted t o advertise

ments of va ri ou s ki nds of commodi ty mi gh t
next be sta ti s tically examined A nd the s eller,
.

using our hi s torical c ri terion se t forth o n

p age 2 1 , might settl e on those medium s tha t
devote a certain per cent of space t o mate
ri al s rela ting directly to his c omm o di ty F or .

example a mar k eter of te n ni s paraphernali a

,
66 TH E M I N D OF TH E BUY E R
they s erve , may be di s covered and measured .

i V ith addi tional labor and collabora tion b e

tween p sycholo gi cal laboratory and adverti s
ing copy room we may hope to develop a k ind
-
,

of measurement which may ultimately be of

g reat s ervic e to the adverti s er .

A d a p t c o p y t o med ium . A fter having de

cided wha t medium s t o u se th e adverti s er
,

w h o is alive to th e p sycholo gical factor s

involved i n s ellin g t o g roup buyers will ,

devi s e for each medium a piece of copy which

will be appropriate t o the p sychological
characteri s tic s of the p ublic tha t read s it A .

g ood example of s uch adapta tion which w a s

s ucces s fully made even if i t could no t be ba s ed

upon scientic di er en tia tio n between pub

li es is reported by M r F rank Fehlman w h o ,
,
.

a s s ales mana g er o f H TV G o s sard C ompany

. .
,

planned an adverti s in g campai g n involvi ng

the u se of eleven national woman s ma g azines .

He w as c onvinced that each of the s e peri o di

cal s served a typical g roup of women and ,

tha t his copy should be adapted t o the per

so n a l i ty of each of the s e types L ackin g
.

ma thema tical charac terization of these types ,

he s ou gh t th e editor of each magazine and

a sked for a de scription o f the typical reader,
as he , the editor, visualized her The a d v er .
S E LL I N G TO C O LL E C T IV E B UY E R 67

ti sing copy w riter then composed a di ff erent

piece of copy fo r th e top half of each a dv er
t is emen t , tied up with th e editorial p olic y
o f the magazine .

F o r example , the policy of Go o d H o u s e

keeping ha d been closely kni t around D r .

Wiley and food tests The magazine guaran

.

teed its advertisements ; henc e th e i de a of

guarante e wa s well grounded in the mind o f
th e reader of the magazine A ccordingly the
.

headline over a pic ture of a galaxy of m oving

picture beauties garbed in the G ossa rd
produc t was ,

Te s te d and Proved by th e
G reatest S tars in the Film Worl d .

Wo ma n s H o me C o mp a nio n h ad been con

ductin g a campaign fo r better lm s In order .

t o t in with thi s policy the following h eadline

w a s employed with the pic ture
B etter

Film s B eautiful Stars G o ssard C orsets
.

Then we w rapped our full page in V o g ue
i n th e smart ari s tocratic h a u t e a ir e atmos
, ,

p h e r e of the l ady o f the limousine who pays

twenty v e dollars for a c o rse t with th e non
-

chalan e e with which yo u o r I spend a cent

for a newspaper We knew tha t th e headl ine
.

of thi s adverti s emen t in V o g u e

The R egal
-

B eauty of Dora R ogers

would have th e
-

righ t e ffec t o n the haughty double chinned

,
-
68 T HE M I N D O F TH E BUY E R
society d owager who se c orsets contribu te so
vita lly t oward th e regality o f h er gure as sh e
sweep s from her R oll s R o yce int o th e entrance
-

of Sherry s .

A fter citing oth er ad a p ta tion s o f copy to

medium thi s write r c onclude s :
We are no w
s o th oroughly c onvinced of th e nec essity o f

linking up c opy with the editorial t one o f th e

maga z ine th a t it is o ne o f o ur strongest a dv er
t isin g p olicies
.

If such pro table adap t ation s can be ef

fec t ed without the use o f s cientic measu r e
.

men ts surely a fter we h a ve rened a t ech

,

nique similar t o tha t suggested in this chap ter ,

we shall be abl e t o make much mo re e ec tiv e

a daptations o f sales appeal s to th e p ublics
w e are trying t o reach .

F a shi o n a ph en o men o n o f t h e co ll ect iv e

min d One characteri s tic o f group minds i s
.

th e phenomenon which we call fashion . It

ma y be dened a s a se ries of recurrin g

changes in th e ch oices of a g roup of p e opl e

which , th ou gh they may be acc ompanied by
u tili ty, are n o t determined by it
.Fa s hion
is o ne o f th e m ost importan t p sychical fa c tors
a ec ting modern se lling Every o ne rec og
.

niz es i ts forc e but few lay down any pri n

,
SE LL I N G T O C O LL E C T IV E BUY E R 69

c ip l es by which a seller may turn i t t o h i s

account .

We shall be able to secure some light upon

this question if we analyze fa shion sh owing ,

wha t i t is and h o w i t op erates We shal l d o

.

this by i temizing several of th e most promi

nent chara c teris tic s conc erned i n i ts b i r th
and devel op ment .

1 . Th e rs t i s unive rsality I t may attach

.

itself to any kind of human con d uc t dress ,

speech , dancing ,
gai t, h ai r dressing
-
A
.

further form of i ts universal ity i s tha t it i s

prevalent throughout th e human race On.

Fifth avenue and o n th e palm frin g ed be a ch

-

of a S outh Sea i sland it ourishe s with eq u al

l ux uri ance and exuberance .

2. It I s n o t dete rmin ed by u s efulness ; in

deed , many fashions th ri ve because they are
c onspicuously no t useful . F or exampl e , o n e
thing that makes French heel s fashionable
is tha t th ey hinder a woman from work ing
v ery actively , and thus testify to th e world
that she i s a woman of leisure .

3. A fashion a t its incep tion m u st have

some element of newness .

4. I t ori gi nally rep resen t s th e desi re of

some indivi dual to mark himself o ff from
o thers .If a belle on R i vers i d e Dr iv e o r i n
70 TH E M I N D OF THE BUY E R
! ululand secure s a set of gr een beads when
her companion s have none she thereby m ar k s,

h erself a s di ff erent from the re s t .

5 D ue to th e next componen t of fa s hion

.

imitation th e oth er youn g women in her se t
secure some g reen bead s .

6 I n thi s imita tion we should ob s e rve

.
,

th e hi gher individual is imitated by th e l ower .

F IG . 7 .

7 A s a re s ul t o f thi s imi ta ti ve ac tion the

.
,

individual w h o was rs t made conspicuous by

th e new apparel i s n o lon g er distin guished .

The s ituation may be graphically repre s ented

by Fi gure 7 .

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

vidual D adopted the novel p rac tic e of
wearin g g reen bead s thu s rai sin g her s elf above
the level of her companion s When they h o w .
,

ever , followed her example and put on green

beads, they raised themselves t o her level .
S E LL I N G TO C O LL E C T IV E BUY E R 71

Finding herself again an undist i ngui shed

member of the group , D adopte d some new
ornament ( perhaps bow s on her shoes ) which
rai s ed h er again above th e common lev el .

U nfortunately her inferiors are bound t o co py

,

this fashion ; and s o sh e will be obliged t o

s earch fo r anoth er di s tingui s hin g mark .

8. After many such chan g es i t becomes

di fficul t t o dev i s e a new distin g uishing mark ;
one i s forced to revert to a fashion which had
its vogu e a long time before and died o u t .

Havi ng been quiescen t for a l ong time , some

times a g enerati on i t possesses the elemen t o f
,

n ovel ty in the eye s of the n ew genera tion an d

an swers th e p urpose of a new obj ec t of
fa shion In o ther words fashion s move i n
.
,

cycles Shoe s ran g e from wide t o narrow

.

toes , hi gh to l o w heel s Women s skirt s o s cil

.

late between extremes o f length and sho rtness ,

narrowne s s and width .

Is there some favored len g th of time fo r

fashion cycle s ? Various answers have been
i
g ven . B ut specula tion is futil e The true .

facts can be secured only by statistical investi

g a t i o n .

Such in epitome , ,
is th e intere s ting story
of fashion in general . T h e reader may apply
72 TH E M I N D OF THE B U YE R
this sc hema to any fashion and may easily
see i ts commercial implications .

R el at i o n b et w een fa sh i o n and selling

. Oh
v io u sl y f ashion may stimul ate selling by
c reating and furth ering ne w demands It
.

may ret a rd selling by reducing the demand

for an article which ha s cease d t o be fashion
able F o r these and other reason s the seller
.

should s tudy fashion sta tistically, if p ossible

,
.

B y means of the knowl edge thus obtained h e

may e s tima te wha t t o buy , h o w much o f a
st o ck to l ay in , when t o plan fo r anothe r
fa shion , and how lon g it may run .

In introducing a new article to the public ,

the seller may succeed vastly better if h e
studies the p sych ol ogy o f fashion and ac ts
acc ordingly Thus h e may utilize law 4 by
.

sh owing th e buyer how the purchase of this

commodi ty wil l give hini in di viduality and
ascendancy over th e mass In obse rvance o f
.

laws 5 and 6 th e seller w ould s eek a s his

,

rst buyer the acknowledged leader o f the

social group Then he may inform the l esse r
.

buyer tha t h e may di s tingui s h him self by

doing as did th e most distinguished member
o f the group .

S ummary . In this chap ter we have show n

that the buyer is no t always appealed t o in
.
S T A G E TW O IN TER E S T
 C H A P T E R F IV E

H o w TO A RO U S E I N T ERE S T IN A COM M OD IT Y

A t t ent i o nmay merg e int o int erest Af te r th e .

buyer ha s gi ven his i n i tial momenta ry a t ten

tion t o a c ommodity , he does o ne of tw o
things : either h e turns a w ay in which case ,

he fo r th e time being cea ses t o be a prospec tive

buyer ; o r h e con tinues t o pay attention an d
r emains a prospective b uyer In the latte r
.

case his attention becomes something more

than the mere i ntellectual awareness c o nsid
ered a s th e rst sta ge of the s ale It be c omes .

a deeper warmer more rap t kind of a ttention

, , ,

so di fferent a s to constitute a new stage in the

stream of th ought and t o deserve a new name .

We shall denominate i t Interest In this .

chapter w e shall discuss the na ture o f inte rest

in general ; and in the t wo foll ow ing c hapters ,

t wo of the devi ces that mainta i n i t at h i gh

peak go od feeling and imaginat i on .

D enit i o n s In describing interest w e may

.

properly star t wi th a denition Several have .

been form ul ate d :

In te rest i s th e recogn i tion
77
78 TH E M I N D O F THE BUY E R
of a th i ng which has been vi ta lly c onnected

wi th experienc e before a thing recogni z ed

a s old . Impul se t o atte nd. Interest
naturally arouses tendencies t o ac t
. The
roo t idea o f the term seems to be that o f being
en gaged , engrossed , or entirely taken up with
some activity because o f its recognized worth .

Interest marks the ann i hila tion of the dis

tance between th e person and th e material s
and resul ts of h is action ; i t i s a S ign of their
organic union .

W atch a b o y o f fourteen as h e bends over

a mystery ta le B l i nd and deaf t o sights and
.

sounds around him he th rows his entire bein g

i nto th e page W e say he i s interested To
. .

achieve s uch e ffects upon the reading publi c

woul d fulll the deare s t wi s h of the advertis
ing copy writer For, according to our last
-
.

denition of intere s t, when the reader of an

advertisemen t i s interested i n the description
o f a thing h e identies h i mself with it ; he

makes an imaginary p u rchase ; if i t turn s out

t o be agreeable he tries to materialize i t by
actually purchasing th e commodity .

F ir st l aw o f int erest
. How to create this de
gre e of i nte res t w i thi n the mind o f the h u ver
i s th e question before us The answer may
.

be fo u nd in t wo p sychol ogical laws T he rst

.
 H OW T O AR OU S E INTERE ST 79

is ; In o r d er to c r ea t e in t er es t in a t hing,

g ie e i nfo r ma t i o n a bo u t it
We may see t h e .

fo rc e of this law i f we examine so me interest

i n th e co u rs e o f development Take th e in .

t er est of a typical young girl in a certain

m o vie actor She knows the name of every
.

p ic ture in which h e has appeared ; his age ;

t h e color of h i s hair, eyes and automobile .

S h e cherishes these facts and fondles them a s

a p reciou s rosary with which sh e pays her de
votions . They constitute the psycholo gi cal
ba sis of her i nterest The a stute p ress agen t
.
-

k n ows this and a t well timed i nterval s, h e

,
-

le t s slip through the press a few items and .

a necdotes about th e star which fan th e intere s t

of the fair devotee t o a still wh i ter heat .

Sellers in general may pro tably foll ow

this example , di ss eminating information about
their wares Progressive adverti s ers h ave been
.

making much use of this device within the past

few years Probably they h a v e no t con
.

sc io u sl y applied o ar r ule ; but in studyi ng the

e ffect s of th e various elements in their a d

v er tis eme n t s they have di s covered that in
,

formation givi ng a dvertisements br i ng r e

-

s ul ts ; and s o they h ave i ncreased th e u s e of

them . O f 1 000 ad vertisement s i n C o l l ier s

Weekly fo r 1 9 02 only 2 2 0, o r twen ty t wo per -

80 T HE M I N D OF T H E B U YE R
c ent were informational .

In the same
pe ri o d i c al for 1 9 1 9 the per cent had increa sed
t o s ev enty fo ur
-
. If we c onsider th e doc trine

of survi val of the ttest appl i cable in the
realm of advert i sing we may reasonably infer
,

that this fea ture ha s proved o f considerable

s ell i ng value .

In gi vi ng informat i o n about a commo dity

i t i s desirable t o observe a n important c orol
l ary t o our rst law : S t a t e t h e n ew in ter ms
o f t he o l d
. For example , in gi ving informa
t i on abou t a new kind of ling cabine t which
w ill t i n t o the dra w er o f an executi ve s desk ,

descri be som e di ffi cul ty which every executive

faces ; such a s the necessity of interrup ting
a n i mportan t conference t o call a clerk and

w a i t fo r her to fetch a record card . Thi s

s itua t i on i s al ready familiar to the b uyer ,

be i ng a part of his daily experience . It is

for th i s reason a val uable starti ng point fro m
w h i ch the seller may proceed t o i mpa r t in
f ormation abo u t his ne w p roduc t .

Cl a ssicat io n. In th u s utili zi ng ol d interests

t h e seller has a w i de variety t o selec t from .

T hey may be classied as inna te and acq ui red .

T hose i n the rs t group are b orn wi thin the

ra c e; As sh o w n i n C hap ter II , man nat u rally
82 TH E M I N D O F THE BU YE R
which we are using as o ur ch i ef selling point
wate rproofness This is a di fcul t task
. .

In bringi ng it about J ames adv i ses :

Next ,
step by step connec t with these rst obj e c ts
,

and experiences th e later obj ects and idea s

,

w hich you wish t o instill Associate the new

.

with the old in some natural and telling w ay ,

s o that th e interest being shed from p oint t o
.

point nally suffuse s the entire sys tem o f o b

,

j

e c t s of thou g ht Here
. the advertiser may
begin to appeal t o the acquired inte re st s by
showing how these waterproo f sh oes w i ll save
money and trouble by eliminating th e n eces
s ity o f wearing rubbers Many advertise rs at
.

this step fail to make a smooth transi t i on b e

tween the old idea and th e new one They .

fail t o show how L incoln s birthday , which

they may be referrin g t o as a ma tte r o f c o n

temporary interest i s related to the i r com
,

mod i fy . This is an i mportant matter and

deserve s more than passing atten tion B ut .

we must proceed with the task in hand .

We mi gh t group the acquired intere s ts upon ,

which a seller may play , into two classes :

permanent and temporary Th ose in the rst.

class have eno u gh vi tality t o persi s t through

o u t the greater par t o f a lifetime Such are.

preferences for sugar ( or sal t ) on tomatoes ,

 H o w TO AR O U S E I NTE RE S T 83

a part i cular political party o r fraternal or d er .

T hose belon gi ng t o the second group are of

less importance to th e individual : i n terest in
a passing murder trial in th e rst a eroplane
,

trip across the A tlantic , in a pendi ng presi

dent i al elec tion .

In ch oo sing informati onal facts w i th w h i ch

t o evoke i nterest in a given commodity , we
migh t grou p them into four classes : ( 1 )
sources of the raw materials ( 2 ) pr o c es ses ,

of man u fac ture ( 3 ) facts about the men wh o

,

c ompose the rm , ( 4 ) uses for the commodi ty .

B y th u s classifying the thousand a dvertise

ments mentioned ab ove we may d i scover some
th i ng abou t th e relative meri t o f th ese classes
of facts in adverti sing p ractice The resul ts .

o f such arrangemen t a re p resente d i n per

centage for m in Table V .

TA B LE V .

S howi ng rc t a ges o f i n forma t i o na l a d ve rt i sement s

t he p e e n
in C o l l ier s

Wee kly for 1 9 02 a nd 1 9 1 9 gro u p e d a ccord ing
,

to t he ki nd s o f i nforma ti o n g i ven re ga rd i ng the co mmo d i ty .

P roc e sse s P e r s o nnel S o u rc es

o f o f t he o f R a w
U ses M a nu fa ct u r e F i rm M a t e ria l s T ot a l
57 22 11 10 1 00
66 14 18 O2 1 00

These g ures S h ow tha t the items featured

most frequently are the uses t o which th e
84 T HE M I N D O F T HE B UYE R

c ommodity may b e p u t T hi s i s t r ue o f both

.

the 1 9 02 and th e 1 9 1 9 adverti sements . In

deed in th e later peri od t h e frequency i s
, ,

greater Perhap s the explanat i on is th a t by

.

desc ribing uses the advertiser can get nearer

t o the heart of hi s reader .H e can talk about
th e daily needs o f the reader in term s already
familiar, and can sho w th e related uses fo r
the c ommodity , thus exemplifying the t rue
c ourse of interest as w e outlined it in earlier
paragraphs Perhaps , too , the effec tiveness of
.

u s e may b e attributed t o the human liking

for acti vi ty One s reaction toward an obj ect

.

seem s to be innate ly in terms of what i s to
?
be done w ith i t
Facts about pr o cesses o f manufac ture ,
though formerly sec ond in frequency, seem to
have l ost some o f their p opularity likewi s e
,

fact s regarding the so u rces of raw ma terials .

The val ue of facts abou t t h e personnel of the

rm , however, seems t o be increasi ng ; th e
percenta ge havi ng grown from 1 1 t o 1 8 dur
i ng the eighte en years c o vere d by th e investi
g a t io n
. Thi s may be in di ca t i ve o f th e gr o wing
interest which society is ta king i n big business ,

and particularly i n th e p ersonal a spec t It .

requires to kn o w i nc om e return s , amounts

of excess pro t s ; and naturally desires to
 H OW T O A R OU S E I NTERE S T 85

know ab out th e cha ra c ter an d abil i ty of th e

men at the hea d of the a ffa i rs B esides, peopl e .

like t o read about successful men in order t o

discover th e secret of their success .

Howsoever w e explain these quali ties , we

know for certain tha t duri ng th e grea t ex
p a n sio n of advert i s i ng o f th e past twenty
years , th e use o f i nforma ti on gi ving a dv er -

tis ement s has i ncrease d i n th e ra tio from

twenty two to seventy four i n a hundred An d
- -
.

tha t among i nformational facts, cert a i n

group s have been numerically favored over
o th ers T he enterpri s i ng copy wri ter who de
.
-

sires t o prot by the experi enc e of th e pa st

may well adopt the p ra c tice o f arousing i nter

est by means o f i nformati onal c opy and may ,

well consi der seriously the results o f o u r

investigat i on sh owing th e relative v alu e o f
di ff eren t classes of interest evok i ng facts -
.

S econ d l aw of int er est L eavi ng no w th e un

.

lim i ted p oss ib il i t i es o f v ari a tion in the sprea d

i ng of i nformat i on ab o u t a c omm o d i ty , l e t u s
pass on to anoth er phase F o r there i s another
.

psycholo gi cal la w of i nterest : I n o r d er t o

cr ea t e int er est in a t hing, a r ou s e a c tiv it
y to
wa r d i t W e may see th i s la w e x emplied
.

i n the m etho d s p u rsu ed by va ri o u s organ iz a

86 T HE M I N D OF T H E BUY E R
t i on s in enlist i ng th e in terest o f certa i n
persons When a ho spital desires t o se c ure
.

a w ealthy patroness i t places her on th e B oard

of Dire c tors ; then on some important com
mitt ee A s she busies he rself with the a d airs
.

of th e institution sh e b ecomes interested in i t ,

and soo n makes th e h o ped for nancial con -

t ri b u tio ns .

Opport u niti es fo r th e ut il iz ation of this

prescription are numerous enough in direct
personal selling The sa lesman may induc e
.

the b uyer t o feel th e text u re of the silk take ,

a ri de i n t h e a u to mo b il e, try th e piano
'

A .

p ertinent exampl e i s gi ven in this descri p tion

o f the method empl oyed by salesmen sent ou t

t o intro d u c e a new cooking produc t t o th e

house w ives o f th e c ountry

The c anvasse r knocke d at th e d oor of the h ouse W hen .

th e door w as o pe ne d t he c an v a sse r immedi a t ely remo ve d

,

his h at p l a c i ng i t o n t h e oor o f t he p i a zz a or o n t he r a i l
,

i f o ne w ere h a nd y U s i ng a set p hras e such a s : M a d am I
.
,

a m h e r e t o s ho w yo u C r i s co t he ne w s ho rt e ni n g he o ff e re d

, ,

her wi t h h is t w o h a nd s a p ai l o f C r i sc o The i ns t a nt t h a t
.

t he w oma n too k t he p a i l fro m t he c a nv a sse r s h a nd s he

drew a p enc i l from h is p oc ke t a nd he ld it in h is r i ght h a nd ,

a t t he sa me t i me h e dre w fro m a noth e r p o c k e t a co u p o n

wh i ch he held in his l e ft h and Th is w a s so tha t t he w oma n

.

c o u ld no t h a nd b a c k t h e p a il to t he c a nv a sse r . Th e mo st
sh e co ul d do w a s to dro p o r p l a c e i t o n t he oo r Th en
.

th e c o nver sat i o n s ta rt ed

.
 HOW T O AR OU S E INTE RE S T 87

Opportun i t i es to a rouse ac tivi ty on the part

of th e buyer are not quit e so numero u s in a d
v er tis ing There are some h ow ever w h i ch
.
, ,

when exploited , serve the purpose a d m i rably .

Here belong coupons t o be t orn o , r eq u ests

for names of friend s and dealers offers of ,

p ri z es for the sol ution of pu zzles repro d u c ti on

,

of cartoons composi tion of limeri c k s

,
All .

these devi ces which have established th e i r

,

ut i lity by the i r pers i ste nc e i n advertis i ng de ,

r i ve their psychologi cal j ustication from

the i r abil i ty t o arouse interes t through ac
t iv ity .

S ummary W e have now an swered the q u es

.

tion posited a t the beginning of th i s chapte r .

W e have made a psychol ogical analysi s of

interest ; h a ve desc ri bed the kinds of interest
c ommon t o th e human spec i es ; and have
formulated t wo laws fo r the development of
interest .

We h ave seen that these la w s are not merely

theoretical formula tions B y an i nvestigation
.

of advertising practic e we found their p ra c

tical verication in th e consciou s or unco n
scious use of them by successful sellers B y .

a m ore minute analysis o f the spe c i c s timu

lants to i nterest w h i c h ha v e been empl oye d,
88 T HE M I N D OF T HE BUY E R
we ha v e d i sc overed which ones are likely t o
have th e strongest appeal .

It sh oul d be remarked that though w e may

seem to have treated intere s t a s a distinc t
stage o f the sale , we d o no t thereby imply tha t
it i s entirely separate from th e other stage s .

As a matter of fac t, onc e i t is arous ed , it per

s is t s throughout the s ale in desire , condence ,
,

deci sion and satisfaction .

We shall no w p roc eed t o discuss t wo co m

p o n e n t s o f th e men t al stream g oo d feeling

and imagina tion which are important s timu
lants to th e grow th o f i nterest .
90 TH E M IN D OF TH E BUY E R
in connecti on with the s ta ge o f inte rest and ,

we shall repea t i t in discussing the later

s tages , e s pecially that o f sa tisfaction , where

we shall sh ow 91 a}; he, sale

t ; js p o t really c o n -

summa t ed until the buyer is in a complete ly

satised s tai e iof smind e mM eanWhil e in order ,

to understand the reason for goo d feeling at

H e witt thus a sg-
c a s ter
a t e ra e s s up r a
s

g
a

Mui r s a S ii i cr ir p syci cicgi car racccr

l i

ci decvcriig ccH iaw a h a i r i s acc l acw n

t l f
,

cir cus liiiin aii tidtiCtW f r! H Je w l

e
ccdhy ch aag ir Ts
i

erfaei v o rrg re saw h i s gucd

f "
f
anga nese m
! sac i c es o f Business S c maa wcecgi i i
r i

th fatt tifat S tat es bf fbel ing afe c rea m

f i i !
'
f
e r
'

Rid ereect s b bdil yf -

csc t css e bf M acy Vanessa

10
attiviti s
'

Trr .
a l '

Me n cucu s k
i i
il l a
-
s s ess
r t
s hare his rea
s r ! :

m
.

n Cf d wit h tlfe gr ss mlcsh ci cra ne cri e

p c f
l
sin s} l egs and nc r r f
Oth f S vvith inc s aci

'

Mu s ics iii t h e fccc and cycsw S a n Oth fs

! h


fi

taut m i ri ar si gcs i idcen sms} th iicrcc

'
i ' c

ey lm i m ! i o i b u
mrl ms Ni u ; ( I a s n il fl

Some psych ologi s t s

Such (if t lieS
I '

itii enc ts as i ic cncai y i reasaar feel in

l f
f'
gs
if

i r esci r ct r cigi cing cr ui c zciu
' l uysewers;
'

audai cc th o cc sc i ieh c cdmpay chcie ascct

'

l " i i

rcciigi Fan
'
'

tasi e s ucpi csa c effcci rr cr

'

i '
 G OOD F E E D BN GKA (R E QU IL
S ITIE 9dl

e x ample , a sc i entist wh o i nv estiga ted ibth e

eff ect o f vari ous sti muli upon th e ex t enti t bi
the knee j erk discovered th at pleasant music
-
,

increased th e extent o f the movement . We

canno t accep t u nq ua l iedl y this thoroughgo ~

ing rela tionship between pleasantness and .

heightenin g of bodily powers because of cer

,

tain c ontradictory evi dence wh i ch w e sh all

n o t enter into here . Neverth eless the theory
o ffers interesting possibili ties fo r specula tion
concerning the power o f pleasan t fee lin gs over
the ac tions o f the buye r .

Ano th er view i s somewhat more credible ,

namely , tha t pleasant feelings with respect to
an obj ec t are accompanied by m ovements t o
w a r d, w hile unpleasant feelings are aecom
p a nied by movements a w a y fr o m, th e obj ec t .

Some thing o f this sor t seems to happen when

we make experiments upon a simple organism
like th e am oeba . When we pl ac e o ne k i nd
of obj ec t i n his neighborhood h e moves toward
it ; when we plac e there another kind of obj ect ,

he q u ickly moves away . An infan t reacts

similarly To a shiny b a ll dangling before h i s
.

eyes h e reaches forth his hands ; from a sharp

pin he draws away .

I t is p robabl e th at a n adul t reacts w ith

s i m i lar p osi ti ve and negative mov ements ac
92 T HE M IN D OF T HE BUYE R
cording as he i s confronted with an obj ect
which is pl easing o r displeasing Some times .

hi s movements of expansion and retra c tion

a re ea sily discernible A t other t i mes th ey
.

a re minute and perceptibl e only by m eans of

,

delicate measuring instruments For th ough .

i n the c ou rse o f our c i v ilized existenc e we

learn t o conceal our outward manifes tat i ons
of feeling, we rarely succeed in repressing th e
inner ones They occur wi thout the inte rp o s1
.

tion of the will And they form a large ma

.

j o r i ty of th e signs of unpleasantn e ss They .

are , as we say , instinct i ve to be more thor
oughly di scussed in C hap ter X I T ho u gh we .

shall not enumera te them here we sh all in ,

dic a te the i r a stonishin g multiplicity by men

t io ning a few I t is well known that the
.

s weat glands and sa l i va glands are a ffecte d

by strong feeling Other gland s no t so well

.

known are also aroused s uch as the thyroid ,

,

pitu i ta ry , pineal , adrenal C hanges also

.

oc cur i n th e ci r culatory syste m ; the heart

beats change in rate ; and th e art eri es expand
a s in bl ushing or c ontra c t as in pal i ng Elec
,
.

~
tric di s turb ances oc c ur ma n bei ng a so rt
o f elec tric battery C hemical react i ons oc cur
. .

Is this no t proved by the fact that th e h air

'

may turn white in a si ngle night ?

94 T HE M IND OF THE BUY E R
Interpretin g g o o d feeling a s hilarious h u mor
they conceive thei r role t o be that of a court
j ester ; to manufac ture a c on s tan t o w of wit
with wh i ch to keep the spiri ts of the buyer
a t a hi gh pitc h .

Some advertiser s a c t on the same pri nciple ,

strainin g eve ry ne rve to evolve a h umorous
s tory , pic ture o r limerick Wh ether this de
.

vice i s s ucce s sful o r no t is seriously open to

question . If we seek th e testimony to be
found in the p ractices of the maj ority o f a d
v e r tise r s we n d scant use of humor a s a

s timulant t o good feeling In an i nvestigation

.

of the advertisement s appearing i n C o l l ier s

W eekly and H a r p er s W eekl y be tween 1 9 02

and 1 9 1 9 the author found tha t the number

,

of humorous advertisements never exceeded

s even in 1 00 If we place any relianc e upon
.

the historical meth od a s an index of s ucce s sful

s elling prac tice s , we may conclude tha t few

advertisers have found humor a valuable

s ellin g aid .

P erhap s thi s apparent lac k of succes s is not

due to any intrinsic u n p r o ta b l eness in
h umor o r t o any violent distaste for it on th e
part of the buyer The apparent s uccess of a
.

few s u ch mildly humorous devi ces as the d o g

who hears H is Ma s ter s Voice

the G ol d
'
 G OOD F EE L I N G A R E QU I S IT E 95

Dust twins ; a nd t h e cheery chef of C ream of

Whea t suggests this P rob a bly th e failure
.

of certain similar a tte mpt s i s due t o the p oor

quality of hum or empl oyed To b e funny
.

artistically requires the services of a real

humorist An advertiser may have rst rate
.
-

ability as a composer of straigh t c opy wi th
o ut being a clever humorist In recognition .

o f this fac t s ome advertiser s desirous of using

humor have lately c alled in p rofess ional

humori sts partic ularly cartoonists , a nd have
,

asked th em t o prepare c opy containing the

same funny situation s tha t have already
caugh t th e p ublic fancy S uch commercial
.

iz a t io ns of expert humor a r e t o o rec en t to

permit us t o draw conclusion s After s uf .

cien t trial , h owever they ma y tell whether

,

or not our previ ous failures in humorous c o py _

were due t o th e ineptness of copy writers -

.

Ot h er st imul ant s o f g o o d f eel ing B u t hum or .

i s no t th e only metho d by which to generate

g ood feeling . Pleasantness need not take th e
form of hilarity I t may b e esthe tic ; called
.

up by pleasing c ombinati o ns of colors or pleas

ing lines of a package I t may consist o f the
.

mil d feeling of recognition called up by fre

queney of rep eti tion of th e sales message
( C hapter III ) I
. t may b e th e feeling which
96 T H E M I N D OF T HE BU YE R
i n th e p receding chap te r we c alle d i n terest ,
gene rate d by the linkage o f o l d wi th new .

I t may be one o f th e feel i ngs a cc ompanyi ng

desire , where p lea san t ol d experiences a re
a tta ched t o new obj ec ts vi vidly proj e c ted into
th e fut ure ( C hapte r VIII ) . I n an i nte nse
form i t may consist of some pleasant feeling
( in this case called emotion ) a cc ompany i ng
instinctive forms o f rea c tion discu s sed in
C hapter X I .

Supremely imp orta nt i s that fo rm of pleas

a n t nes s which , in o u r nal chapter w e shall

discuss under th e name , sa tisfa c t i on T here

.

w e shall supplement this dis c u ssion by sho w

ing tha t good feeling, which is the true goal
of the sale , sh oul d c onstitute , indee d , the
great su b stra tum in the mind of the b uyer .

U ntil then we s hall rest content wi th th e con

tention o f th i s c hapter, namely, tha t by means
o f arousing pleasa nt feelings , the seller call s

forth wi thin the b uyer a number o f instinc

tiv e movements , great and small ; which release
a great amount o f nervous energy , which th e
s eller may dire c t i nto the act o f p u rchase .
98 T H E M I N D O F T HE BUY E R
may h ave actual images of things touched ;
a u d i to ry images of things heard ; gu s tatory
images of things tas t ed ; olfactory images o f
things smelled ; and so on th rough the entire
range of s en sa ti ons .

Th e l aw o f a sso ci at io n. If we try t o account

for this power o f imaging we mu s t refer
,

to the nature of brain tissue which i s so con

,

s ti tuted th at any obj ec t impressed upon th e

s enses makes a permanent modication in the

brain ; t o recall th e obj ec t later one needs ,

only t o revive this pa thway One usually

.

accomplishes this revival by stimulating a n

other pathway which wa s stimulate d when th e
rst o ne was made As a rule , several path
.

ways are stimula ted a t once They are a sso

.

c ia te d we say
,
. This becau s e our experi ences
,

a re nece s sarily related t o each other ; eith er

they follow closely upon each other s heel s ;
or else they p ossess common element s As .

a result , whenever a new obj ec t ( a commodity

for sale ) stimulates o ne pathway i t revives
another a t th e sa me time .

Thus the s eller h a s th e power t o call up

wi thin the mind of th e buyer any obj ects ex
p e ri e n c e d in the past ; reviving them in th e
form of ima g es For example with the word
.
,

W rigl ey , h e may call up gu m , w hich has

T HE IM A G IN A M ON EOF

TR EKB U YE R
09 9

b eeniff r q u entl yl za ss dcia ted o withe itt r cIIi Et e us

'

o bserye ss bn
l effo l i ke i h a rae ii st io si of diima ges
'

Wieh my in m mw ingx t h e
'

h
t e s l l t l uti ld

l e e a z e x

gaig l s n o l
f
In ; a l io mz a s ias i fa t h o m IH

9 d o f ai x i
D ul l is
ess a ys ?Im ages mayvb esras v arie g a t ed ba s the

'

g nses fl lg ia

dwny n m m: m l q u 5

JI Q O H C r tf airr lk i nd s a rea mo r e vnumeoss uth ain

'

h b m
'

O t er f if in t f n b e u tzis wa) im ages

'

s it i f n t
p o i u r s g
b y m i i i e m n
'

r os a l s
e e z s f s s t wi ith e
p
'

o r s a c r e s

Eicsspc
ina af
sl e a s ag ei isa risicg s cis i i ccl

m
y C as s i e s itter ki nd s
f
f f
1 ! fi '
x u di ic cy
' '

.
m y
c

m
i ages cci c nci c T he ca ci cs c csi
i
wac

s .
f
es

s id ei a b1 c 1i ss f i ctiticcyf

f 7 f
s diae bccsl c ci
i '

1
aha enti ces ;
" t
i
cpceiany
mass
a w aits sect th icyl ct
fn
i he
rc t ait ef cfre
i

f
.
( B e

13
W8 ll o iifot f
other
l f f
tha v isual aiid a ditory aff ab sent from the
l

tctiiicl u sio n w hich we

'
'

f
W
is at the seller will have gr eater

' '

l ikel ihbdd df c l ling fo rth visual images

f
He .

s houl d therefore set h is p sychological traps

'

he wishes t o make
1 00 T HE M I N D OF T HE BUY E R
the buyer appreciat e th e glo ries of apples
from th e H ood R iver valley he w ill be able to
a rouse men tal v is io ns of apples m ore ea sily

than mental t a stes , smell s and touches .

Th i s is t o be expec ted because images a re de

rived from p revious sensory experiences ; and
the ordinary buyer ha s come into con tact with
apple s more frequently th rough sight than
th rough his o ther sen s es A ssuredly however,
.
,

any o f the other form s of imagery may arise,

and the seller may le gi t i ma tely a ppeal to any
v arie ty that he wi sh es In d ee d , in adverti s
.

ing apples h e migh t evoke menta l tastes an d

smell s with grea t effectivene s s becau s e o f
the stren gth and novel ty and pl easantness
that would probably accompany them .

3
. Image s may be either clea r or ob scure .

Some are so clear a s to be hardly di s tinguish

abl e from ori ginal s en s ation s The extreme
.

form o f such s elf decep tion i s called hallucina

-

tion N o t all images come with thi s degr ee of

.

clearness however Some are ob s cure eeting

,
.
,

and sketchy almo s t to the vanishing point

,
.

Many times one tries to image the voice of an

absent friend w i th no more revi val than per
haps a ph rase or two and th e vagu e sugges
t i on o f an intona tion .

In vi ew of thi s fac t, th e seller who i ntends

1 02 T HE M IN D O F T HE BUY E R
To achieve this kind o f d enite ness is a
di c ul t task Our la zy h u man nat u re tempt s
.

u s to foll ow the line of least resistan c e and to

use g eneral terms We are prone to describ e
.

all things with the same words : wonderful ,

grea t bargain
immense savi ng
,

T h ese .

are not de scrip tive words a t all ; they give no

hin t of t h e nature o r q u ali ty o f the article .

Th ey may with equal per tinency b e applied

to a house and lo t a n automobile , a pai r of
,

gloves a block of oil stock

,
.

O ne explanation of o ur proneness toward

the use of general , indenite te rms is th e
poverty o f o ur voc abulari es We hav e not .

fo rmed th e habit of using words of vari ety

su fcien t for th e de s ignation of ne shades
of meaning The remedy i s obvious ; develop
.

a full and exact vocabulary In desc ribing .

a c ommodi ty , search o ut words which t it

exactly and which represent its varie d quali
ties v ivi dly in the mind of the buyer .

4 .Ima g es may bring stron g feelings in

their train This i s e specially true of infre
.

quent but unusually vivid images

.
In en .

circling th e sale with pl easant feelings a s

recommended in C hapter VI th e seller may ,

u s e the s e w i th grea t prot There are cert ain

.

i mages that generally bri ng pl easan t feel i ngs

THE I M A G I N A T ION OF T H E BU YE R 1 03

i mages of eat i ng ice cream an d s i m i lar

-

dainties These are m u ch use d by a certa i n

.

candy company i n a dvertising i ts ch ocolates .

There a re other images tha t generally bring

unpleasant feelings noisome animal s and
reptiles . B esides such general tendencies
there are likes and dislikes peculiar to certain

individ u al s idiosyn c racie s developed i n th e
cours e of e x perience The seller sh oul d study
.

them and use only th ose i mages which h ave

pleasant a ssociations .

Empat hy in t h e sal e One interesting u se to

.

which w e o c c asionally put mental images i s

in tha t p rocess called empathy . E mp athy

may be dened a s the process of humanizing
obj ect s, o f reading o r feeling ourselves into

them . W e a re so constit uted tha t w e are
inclined t o plac e ou rselves ima gina l l y i nto
situations that may be presented before u s .

We d o th i s sometimes over s o simple a thing

a s a straigh t line If it slants a t a certain
.

angle wi thou t any visible means of support

it gives u s an uncomfortabl e feeling We feel.

a s though we w ere the line ; a nd t o hol d an

attit u de of s u ch obliquity gives u s uncomfort
abl e feelings o f strain Th e reader may note
.

s uch feelings a s he looks at Fi ure 8 The

g .

l i ne , a , wi t h its o verw e i ghte d t o p, a nd th e

1 04 T H E M IN D OF T H E B U YE R
triangle, b , w i th its lack of po i se , gi ve
th e obse rver distinctly unpleasant feelings .

Architec ts make allowance for such conditions

in planning the lines of a buildin g They
.

know tha t abrup t corners gi ve a feeling of

sharpne s s ; strai ght lines , a feeling of hard
ness ; c u rv es , a feel i ng of softne ss
. W hen

F IG 8
. .

b ui lding an uns u pp orted marq u i se ov er th e

entranc e of a b u ilding , they usually til t i t
slightly upward a s in Figure 8, c , rather
than buil d i t on a horizontal plane For .

they kno w tha t if it were horizon tal , the o b

server w i th his empathetic tendency would
, ,

feel tha t he ought t o support i t t o keep i t

from falling If it is already til ted up w ard ,
.

however he does no t feel obli g ed to push it

,

up any higher .Sellers s houl d observe this

empathetic tendency in human nature and
should make allowances for it in pre s ent
i ng the i r w ares Part i c u larly important is
.
S TAGE T H R E E D E S IR E
110 T H E M IN D OF T HE BU YE R
made through such an investmen t He v ir .

t ua l l y takes a piece o ut of hi s pas t and pro

j e c t s it int o th e future , in relation to the new

object We de sc ribed thi s rela tion between
.

the new and th e o l d in C hapter V .

3
. This forwa rd p roj ection o f the buyer s

p ast is quite likely to be in t e rm s of the images

discus se d i n C hap te r VII Th e buyer creates
.

picture s o f himself bowling along t h e boul e

v a r d s in the m oto r car no longer a s pa s senger
,

bu t a s driver He imagines th e things tha t

.

he will d o wi th t h e di vidends from his o il

st o ck .

4
. These trains of image s are pleasa n tly
t oned ( see C hapters VI and VII ) A nd
generally speaking t h e g reate r the pleas a nt
ne s s th e g reater the desire We migh t lay
.

i t down a s a rul e that one wh o wishe s t o

strengthen th e b uyer s de s ire fo r an obj ec t

sh oul d arouse within him s trong feelings of

plea santness . The mechan i sm for arousing
the s e i s th e use of the imagery di sc ussed in
C hapter V ( paragraph C all up vivi d
images from the buyer s past, being careful

tha t they be markedly pleasant . Then mi x

them into a pic tur e sh owing future p ossibil i
ties Pa i nt a den i t e p i c ture of th e buyer
.

dri vi ng h is family into the c ountry on Sun d ay

 D E S IR E 111

and enj oy i ng a pi c n i c dinner in a sha dy grove .

Embell i sh every se lling p oint w ith denite

clean c ut images a s direc ted in C hapter VII
-
.

An e x traordinarily e ff ective exampl e of this

i s the slogan L ike mother used t o make .

Here are all th e element s tha t go t o p ro d uce

strong desire : v i sual images of the fat ,
browned minc e p i e of childhood days ; gu sta

to ry i mages o f sinking one s teeth int o th e
mass and all owing th e a vo r to permeate the
mo u th ; olfactory images of the spi c y sweetish
odor a s th e p ie comes smoking from th e oven ;

and above all th e image of m other s gentle
smile as she c uts th e golden obj ect and dis
penses i t around the tabl e Everything con
.

n ec t e d wi th this pictur e i s pleasan t in retro

spec t I t is , therefore, a cap i tal segment of

.

e x peri en c e t o p roj ect int o the fut u re in rela

tion t o a new kind of mince mea t .

5
. S o vivid are these images , and so allur
i ng, that they l ead th e buyer t o make m ove
ments to w ard the obj ec t abou t wh i ch th ey
center T hese movements are a very i mpor
.

tant part o f the desire . They a re always

there An i nfan t evi nce s a desire for a w atch
.

by reaching tow ard it An adul t also ha s an

.

impulse to reach o u t and touch th e obj ect

o f his desi re . True, under th e rep ress iv e in
112 T HE M IN D OF THE BUY E R
uenc e of c i vi lization h e often inhib i ts th e
ou tward sign s of m ovement ; still h e moves
if only by twitching hi s m usc les Many times.

h e act s in ways unknown t o himself , through

som e of the hidden mu s cles and gland s men
t io ne d in C hapter VI Imperceptible th ough
.

they are , the se faint , incipien t movements con

s ti t u te a vi tal part of desire .

W hen the m ovements of th e buyer are gro s s

enough t o be observable , the seller may u se
them a s indices to determine h o w highly de
v el o p e d th e desi re i s . For i n g eneral a s th e
buyer becomes more desirous of th e obj ect he
makes more violent movement s toward i t He .

gra sps it with rmer grip ; or ma k es more

minute examination o f it ; or sits down in i t
with an ai r o f proprietorship .

6
. If the rst movement toward an obj ec t
results i n i ts purchase , desire does n o t last
ve ry long U sually h owever , th e rs t move
.
,

ment does no t bring abou t the attainmen t of

the obj ect I t is bl ocked in some way Th e
. .

obstructi on may be ma terial : an inte rvening

window glass ; distance from th e obj ec t pic
t u red .O r i t may b e mental : an idea of some
other obj e c t which i s still mor e strongly de
sired .

7
. T his ob struction is accompanied by nu
114 THE M IN D OF T HE BU YE R

th e blocks t o the buyer s m ovements , the seller
usually employs rea s on , suggestion , and other
mental aids discussed th rough out this book .

c The pleasure following th e fulllmen t

.

of desire i s tha t same mental c ondition which

in C hapter X IV w e shall call sa tisfaction .

Though th e s e c ross references and duplica

-

tions may seem a trie confusing t o th e reader,

they are unavoidable ; for we are making
lon gi tudinal and c ross sections of a c o mplex
-

s tream which doe s not lend i ts elf readily t o

s harp clean cu t divisions
-
.

S ummary . We shall conclude th i s chapter,

a t th e r isk o f undue repe tition , by charac t er

izing desire a s a stage in the mental stream

akin t o interest but a step beyond A sta g e
.

in which th e buyer fastens certain past ex

p e r ie n ce s upon a framework of future pros
p ec t s ,
relating them all t o the obj ec t fo r sale .

He likes th e en s emble so well that he reaches

o u t after the obj ec t with either ac tual or in

c ip ien t m ovements . A t rst these movements

a re bloc ked by phys i cal or idea tional impedi
ments . Th ese the seller m ust remove . He
may d o s o by calling up ac ti on i mpelling -

images in th e mind o f th e buyer, and images

th a t a re c l othe d w ith exceed i ngly plea sant
feel i ngs .
S T AG E F OU R CON F I D EN CE
1 18 T H E M IN D OF T H E B U YE R

to c reate p u bl i c c ondence i n 5 7 va ri eti es

.

T he large money values which are sometimes

estimat ed to inhere i n condenc e ( sometimes
called the good will of a concern ) are further
evidences o f its large place in business In .

arri vi ng a t such an evalua tion , o ne accoun t ant

wri tes :
G o od will i s a le gi tim a te as set in
an industrial enterpri se and t h e m ost a c
,

cep t ed method of computing the amount o f

good w i ll i s t o ta ke the total pro t s fo r the

last ve yea rs and deduc t from th em ve

years interest on the capitalizati on a t 7 per
c en t p er annum ; th e balanc e i s go od will
.

Co nd en ce and g o o d w ill ar e h ab it s.In bu si

ne s s inventori es c ondence , o r good will , is

us u ally sp oken o f a s o ne of th e in tangible

ass ets o f a r m, and is thereby classed as

something tha t i s only theo retically ex
istent . I t i s our purpose i n thi s chap t er t o
s ho w th a t though i t i s i ntangi bl e i t i s ne v er

t h el ess real. That i n the proc ess of the sal e

i t occupies a place second t o none o f the other
p roc e sses w e are de s c ribing If any o ne were
.

t o a sk us w here l urks thi s invi sibl e asset ,

where i t makes i t h abi t a t we sh ould an s w er,

,

I n the mind of the buyer . I t exists there as

a syste m o f habi ts which th e seller h a s b uilt

up by d i nt of m u ch labor and c ost These

.
 C O N FIDEN C E AND G O OD WI L L 119

habits consist of acts o r tendencies that are

favorabl e t o th e seller and h is commodity .

The good will belon ging t o a certain h ab er

d a sh e ry dealer consist s psychol o gically in my
habit of turning in a t his door rather th a n
th a t of his competito r when I wish t o buy
collars Th e good will of a certain rm of
.

colla r manufacturers con sist s of my habit of

asking for th eir b rand rather than anoth er ,

and o f rec ommending it t o my friends Th e s e .

habits whil e in a sen s e belonging to me , b e

,

long j u s t as truly t o th e seller ; they a re paid

for by th e money which h e has used in a d
v er tising and by th e pains h e ha s taken t o

serve me .

It shall be our purpose in this chap ter to

describe the proce ss es through which these
habits of condence and g oo d will are buil t
up .

Gen esi s a nd d ev el o pment o f c o n d en c e.I t is

p ossible fo r the se ller t o build up c ondenc e
becau se of a certain fundamental t rait in th e
buyer s mind To nd i ts roo ts we shall b e

.

obliged to probe far back into the days of

infancy There , a t the time when the men ta l
.

life of the individual i s rst unfolding w e ,

shall nd the roo ts of that which bloo m s forth

as a d u lt condence When w e thus examine
.
1 20 TH E M IN D OF T HE B U YE R
th e mental life o f th e infant w e nd as the
,

rst forerunner of condence a simpl e, in

ch oate mental at titude which can hardly be
expressed by any more denite term than a

feeling o f simple reality ; this is a ttached
-

t o every obj ect of experience

.
.In every ac t
of perceiving the infant implici tly says A h !
,

I sense something here ; I gue s s I can rely

upon my sen s es He feel s tha t if he can
sense th e obj ect it must really be there Ex
.
.

ist enc e i s, for him , simply p resenc e .What

ever i s, i s real There is no hint o f disbelief
.

i n anything h e can sense ; there i s no re a son

fo r anything b ut c ondence in it s existence .

This feeling, crude and posi ti ve, w hich a t

taches t o th e obj ec ts o f i nfantil e exp erience ,
may b e i nele gantly calle d a f eeling o f .

thereness .

Thi s p rimeval p redecessor o f th e co ndenc e

t o b e has been called by o ne p sych ol o gi st
-

( B ain )

primitive credulity .

B ain s ays that
the min d is s o con s ti tuted that i t tends t o
a ccep t as t rue every statement made ( see
pa g e E very impre s sion made upon th e
mind o f a chil d te n ds t o receive c redenc e , and
i s accep ted unle s s i t is o s et by a contrary im
p re s sion N o w in th e mind o f th e child most
.

i mpressions c om e w ithout any c o ntradictory

1 22 T HE M IND OF T HE BUY E R
and failing , makes him doub t the sta temen t
that Santa C laus ente rs throu gh that pa s sage .

After a number of such experiences , c oming

more frequently a s adultho o d approaches , the
indivi dual form s th e habit of s upp ressing h is
innate tendencie s t o credulity He te sts every
.

one of his feelin g s of reality with h i s o ther

experiences He tentatively acts upon them
.

to see if they bring th e response t o be ex

p ec t e d , and h e places alongside them the ideas
gained from former experiences If his move
.

ments do n o t re s ul t in sa tisfactory response ,

h e doubts . If the new impression i s belied
by his pa s t experi ences h e doubt s Only if
.

th e n ew obj ec t gives full and expec ted r e

s pouse t o his te s tin g m ovements , and agree s

with his p revi ous experiences is hi s doub t r e

s olved and chan g ed into condence .

When such a te s t resul ts favorably it brings

satisfaction and appea s emen t o f desire .In
order t o under s tand how g rea t may be thi s
sati sfaction after the re s olution of a doubt ,

one ha s only t o read the Medi ta tions of some

of th e church Fathers who , after havi ng been

,

racked and torn by reli gious doubts , came

t o a sta te o f perfec t belief and trust .There
t o o one may secure illuminating understand
ing of the p sycholo gical c onditions attending
 C ONFIDEN C E A N D G O O D WI LL 1 2 3
full condence A fter reading these d escr ip
.

tions a sel l er may understand more clearly

wha t a powerful ally he has in th e mind o f
a buyer w h o maintain s implici t condence in
his ( th e selle r s ) goo d s

.

Such in outline is th e g ene sis and develop

men t o f condence in the lifetime o f the in
divi dual . From a crude , p rimitive , almost
animalistic
sen s ation c o eic ien t
-

,

a s one
psychologist ( B al dwin ) puts i t , it devel op s
by a proce s s of testing of though t with ex
t ern a l ity, into th e rened and subs tantial
forc e tha t w e call by such meaningful and
s olemn words a s belief , trust ,
c redit , faith .

To create thi s i s a life time task

-
. Now we
s ee why it often requires a long time to buil d

up p ublic c ondence in certain c ommodities .

F o r example it took a l on g time for the p ublic

,

t o develop condenc e in th e busines s of a d

v e r t is in g a s such ; becau s e in th e early days

of adverti sing, the buyer, tru s ting hi s rst

impressions tin g ed with pri mitive c redulity

,

a ttemp ted to act upon them and wa s deceived .

He found unreality where he had at tributed

reali ty For a long time , then , whenever h e
.

was tempted t o ac t on an a dvertisement , h e

recalled h is rs t unpleasant experiences and
they contradicted the statement s h e w a s rea d
1 24 TH E M IN D O F THE BUY E R
i ng So h e exclaimed , paraphrasing the d is
.

gruntled scriptural wri ter, All advertise rs

are liars ; I will no t believe any of them If .

within recen t years th e buying public h a s

developed mo re c ondence in adverti sing i t is
becau s e adverti s ers have l earn ed t o make
s ta tement s which agre e with reality and which

when ac ted upon by th e buyer, bring s a t isfa c

tory respon s es .

Co n d en ce is st abl e b ut fr ag il e
. One peculiar
i ty about condence is th at after i t has passed
throu gh th e sta ge o f doubt and has secured
the ri gh t to exi st by means o f a long a gree
men t between impres sion ( simple reality

feelings ) and fac t , then i t stands s quare and
solid W e say o f an individual i n whom we
.

ha v e great condenc e , I w ould trust him with

my la s t dollar
. A nd thi s solidi ty endures
a s l ong a s th e feeling of reality can att a ch
i tself unimp ede dl y t o the obj ec t B ut le t o n e
.

slip occur and the struc ture is ruined Para .

d o x ic a l as it may seem , condenc e is at th e

s ame time very s t able and very fra gile No .

where is thi s demonstrated more forcibly than

in th e business of banking Th e c ondence
.

which peopl e may h ol d i n a bank for g enera

tions may be sha ttered over nigh t .

Condence, the g o al o f b ankadvert i sing Th e

.
1 26 T HE M IN D O F THE BUY E R
i s j ustied For what banks s eek thro ugh
.

advertising is rst condence , then deposi ts .

They are obli g ed t o keep condenc e as the i r

chief aim Th ey k now tha t a t be s t i t is a pre
.

cariou s and fra gile entity which ever so s ligh t

,

a thing may di s turb ; hence they refrain from

empl oyin g any meth od s tha t may by their
eccentrici ty s hock it .

Tw o d ev i c es f o r in st illing co nd enc e From .

the foregoing analy si s o f condence the reader

is prepared t o see what u s ually pass es in the
mind of the buyer when h e i s developing con
d enc e in a commod ity Due to his primitive
.

credulity th e buyer tend s to believe the rs t

statemen t made abou t the commodity So on .

,

however h e thinks of s ome past experiences

,

which con trovert th e sta t ement which arou se ,

wi thin h is mind di s beliefs and which act a s in

,

h ib it io n s to the p urchase o f the comm o di ty .

These the s eller mu s t ba tter down He may .

use two p s ych ological aid s

Th e rst is rep etition A n ass ertion r e
.

p a t e d often enou gh will go far t oward

e

c rea tin g belief i n it Thi s is the p sychol o gical

.

j us ticati on for the con s ta n t u se of s uch

slogans a s A sk the man wh o own s one ;
,

There s a rea s on ; 9 9 4 4 / 1 00% pure ; An

apple a day keeps the doctor away ; Th e u t

 C ON FIDEN C E AND G O OD WI LL 1 27

mos t in cigarettes ; The most beautiful car
in America
.

Th e second i s t o a rou s e a nd mainta in a

feel i ng o f satisfacti on wi thin the buyer .

Throu gh out o u r di scus s ion we have called

condence both in its primitive state and it s
,

rened sta t e a feeling We have done thi s

,
.

desi gnedly . For condence is marked by

s omethin g warm and plea s ant it is a true
feelin g a s w e dened th e term in C hapter VI .

As we stated in tha t chapte r feelin g i s ever ,

an animus t o ac tion A s eller may give ever

.

s o convi ncing argument s ; he may bristl e with

reasons why the buyer s h o ul d purchase his

article ; b ut if h e fail t o create condence he
will n o t make th e s ale We may paraphrase .

the o l d ada g e to read : A man convi nced

without the feelin g of condence is of th e sa me

opinion s till .

S ummary

We h a v e here l a id d o w n the d ie
.

tum tha t c ondence i s inevi tabl e in the sale .

Tho u gh i t n ee d not alway s appear a s s ta ge

-

four where w e have placed i t i n th e lo gical o ut

,

line o f thi s book s till i t usually comes here in

,

th e s al e of a new commodi ty Wherever i t .

comes i t mu s t exis t in s ome de g ree o f s trength

, ,

the grea ter th e better And w e cited some c o m

.

mo dities to which it adhere s with th e s ol i di ty

1 28 TH E M IN D O F T HE BUY E R
of G ibraltar Thou gh it may b e strong and
.

well grounded h owever i t may , under very

-

, ,

sli g h t provocation and lack of faithfulne s s ,

crumbl e in a m oment Therefore th e s eller

.

must exercise con s tan t watchfulne s s t o see

th at he keep s his pled g es and full l s th e ex
p ec ta ti o n s of tho s e w h o tru s t him and his
g oo ds .

Tho ugh condence is usually regarded as

an in tan gibl e asset we showed th a t it has
,

real existence ; and tha t i ts value may b e

reckoned i n dollars and cents P sych o l o gi .

cally speaking w e de s cribed it as a set of h abits

inc ul cate d within the buye r m otor h abi ts
o f re s ponding t o the seller s appeal s wi th ac t s

of purchase W e showed the simpl e innate

.
\

trait upon which i t i s ba sed a nd related how ,

from this elemental g erm it grows t o a high

plane of r enement and con s tancy .

As specic p sychol o gical aids in th e m old

ing of this i nto perfec t form we recommend
repetition and the maintenanc e of pleasa nt
feeling .The form which thi s la tter sh oul d
take is the complete sa tisfaction o f th e needs
o f the buyer .
 C HAP T E R TE N

TH E P OW ER or R EA S ON

R easo n and th e will

After passing thro u gh
.

th e sta ge s j ust described th e buyer is r eady ,

t o perform th e act of purchase His condition .

of mind at this moment is unique I t i s called .

by such names as decision resol ution , will , ,

volition psych ological moment

,
We shall .

disc uss its most critical aspect in C hapter

X II I under th e caption The Psycholo gical ,

Momen t Meanwhile we shall di s c uss several

.

subordinate mental pr o ce sses that may im .

m edia tely precede it and inuence i t : reason

ing instinct suggestion
, ,
These , we hasten.

t o admit ma y be used e ec tiv el y at earlier

,

s tages of the s ale ; but they are the battery of

forces which the seller usually rese r ves for th e

crucial moment o f decision ; hence we h ave
waited un til thi s point t o disc us s them .

A nalysi s o f r ea so ning When a person rea

.

s ons ,
h e goe s through four ra ther cl early
marked sta ges In his mental stream we m ay
.

distingu i sh four divisions : ( 1 ) the awarene s s

1 31
1 32 TH E M IND o r TH E B U Y E R

of a di f culty ; ( 2 ) the location of th e dif

c ulty ; ( 3 ) the search fo r a soluti on ; ( 4 ) th e
s ol ution .

B y way of illu s tration let us imagine a sa l e

i n which th e b uyer decides to buy an aut o
mobil e ti re through a proc ess o f p rac tically
p ure reasoning L et us supp ose that o u r tire
.

features a devic e for preventing rim cu ts -

.

How shall w e direc t the reasoning proc esses

o f the buyer so tha t h e will make a purcha s e ?

R eco gni t i o n o f a d ifcul ty

. Fir s t we sh ould
lea d him t o see that o ne of his grea t a ut o mo
biling problems i s the sho r t life o f his tires .

He w i ll doub tle ss readily admi t this t o be

true Though there might be circum s tances
.

under which the buyer would no t have such

a clea r c onsciousness o f the problem ; in which
case the ta sk of th e sell er i s t o picture th e
problem in extraordinarily vivid terms We .

shall revert t o this p oint in a la ter paragraph .

Lo cat io n o f d ifcul t y
. O ur second task i s t o
l oc at e th e di fcul ty by showi ng th e cause o f
such rapid deteriorati on of tires We s hall
.

l o cate this di f culty in the wearing by the

rim We mi gh t demonstrate this graphically
.

by picking up an o l d tire and sh owing th e

buyer h o w th e w all s o f the tire have been
broken down by the sharp impact wi th t h e
1 34 THE M IN D O F TH E BUY E R

graphic te rm s s o tha t th e buyer will re

s p o n d readily when sh own tha t th e way o f

sa lvation is th e sol ution t o h is p roblem I n .

deed a successful evan g elist i s perforc e an

,

excellen t sale s man ; and he can teach th e se ller

of secular wares many thin g s about th e mind
of th e buyer .

Pr esent a t i o n o f so l ut io n O ur third ta s k is
.

t o o ffer s olutions o f the di fculty If other

.

solutions than ours h ave been tried unsucce s s

fully w e mi gh t refer t o them and show h o w
they failed Here we migh t p resen t gures
.

s h owing the average lifetime o f a number o f

tires o f standard make ; then gures sh owing

th e avera g e l ength of life of o u r n o rim c u t - -

tire . Thus we sh ow that th e latte r is th e

s olu tion o f th e problem .

D urin g thi s s ta g e come th e arguments
wi th which a train o f rea s oning is usually
conducted I t i s a t this stage tha t the buyer
.

may become an active opp onent instead of a

pa ss ive listener to our encomium s H e may .

bring up obj ec tions con sisting of case s from

,

past experi ence in which our commodi ty migh t

conc eivably fail He may p ut forth ideas
.

o f his own and te s t them o u t against our

proposed sol ution The situation at this point

.

may be l i kened t o a c o u rt r o om scene in w h i c h

-
 TH E P O WE R O F R EA SON 1 35

evidenc e i s submitt ed and arguments are p re

s en ted fo r and against .A s each b it of evi
dence i s submi tted th e j udge ( buyer ) must
,

te st it ; must weigh t i t and check i t up against

experience .

As we ( th e seller ) defend o u r p r o duc t we

must produc e exac tly the evidence necessa ry
to refute every obj ection We must show by .

ac tual demonstra tion how strong are th e

ber s in our fabri c ; h o w numerou s are th e
layers ; and h o w we have padded with inde
s t r uc t ib l e material th e s trate gi c s pot a t which

the cuts occur .

A ll this implies that th e salesman has exac t

.

and c omple te knowledge o f th e proc e ss es by

which th e tires are manufac tured , and i t em
p h a s iz e s again the statement made i n C hapter
V , that t h e seller shoul d b e th oroughly a c
quainted wi th his p rod uc t .

Co rr ect so l ut i o n o f t h e d if cult y .B ut we
have reached th e las t step of th e train of rea
s onin g with out noting it explicitly .It is
here tha t th e buyer recognizes that o u r tires
will solve h is p robl em The moment a n
.

n o unc es itself by b eing p refaced with

there

fore . If th e train o f reasonin g ha s been
skillfully conduc ted i t will b ring a conclusion
tin ged w ith nal i ty .It w ill come c lothe d
1 36 T H E M IND O F T HE B UY E R
w i th c ondence and bel i ef Here we should .

like t o r epeat all th a t we asseverated in

C hap ter I X .

P o int s fo r sp eci al at t ent io n In appealing to .

the buyer through reas on , the seller sh oul d

gu ard himself with partic ular care in several

Th e rs t is t o delineat e the p robl em o f the

buyer with exc ee ding sharpne s s To d o this .

h e must study th e buyer s needs beforehand .

Some one has remarked that a succ e ssful sales

man must know more about the buyer s bus i

ness than th e buyer d o e s himself .

The second i s to avoid wandering from th e

point at i ssue Th e temptations t o talk aim
.

les sly a re grea t , especially a t sta g e th ree of a

train o f reasoning In order t o avoid thi s th e .

salesman migh t well outline a sermone tt e
beforehand ac c ording t o thi s patte rn

P ro b l em : Y o u r t i r es wea r o u t r ap i dly .

L oc at i on a nd d ifculty R im c u t s : -
.

D emo nstr a t i o ns a b c d , , , .

3 . V a r i ou s solut i o ns h a v e b e e n tr i ed
a,
b c d ( The buye r wi l l s ugge st s ome of
, , .

th ese The se ll e r should kno w in a dv ance wha t

.

the y a re and b e p r ep a re d to meet them wit h

,

cou nter a rgument s b u t he nee d no t bri n g

-
,

the m up h i ms el f ) .

4 . Thi s t i re me et s the need a nd sol ves the p ro b l em .

1 38 TH E M IN D O F TH E BUY E R
h is decisi on by rea s on H e uses i t a s a sop
.

t o hi s r a tionalizin g c onscience . Experience d

s alesmen h ave disc overed this fac t about

h uman nature and they often use reason
,

able a rguments p rincipally as a mean s o f

j ustifying th e choice which th ey know the

buyer has al ready implicitly made through
feeling .

A side from thi s vicariou s rol e, h owever,

rea son play s a serious and of ten decisive part
in th e sa le Part ic ul arly i s thi s the ca s e when
.

selling t o such routine buyers a s profe ssional

purchasing agents To know h o w to c onduc t
.

a rea s oned s ale p roperly should , therefore be,

made a matter of seri o us study by every in

te l l igen t seller
.
 C HAP TE R E L EVE N

I N ST I N C T IVE F A C TORS

Int r o du ct i o n B roadly speaking, th e ac tions

.

o f th e buyer have t w o s ources : habits formed

in hi s o wn lifetime and inh eri ta nce s from pre

v io u s g enera tions We h a ve con sidered the
.

rst with c on siderable deta il in our discussion s

of repeti tion , ima gination, interest , desire ,
rea s on ; pointing o ut devices by which t o evoke
th e s o called h abi tual ac ti ons
-
We have
.

to uched only lightly , h owever, upon th e

source s o f the s econd class though we have
m
been obli g ed to take so e notic e o f them ,
particularly when discussing attention and
f eeling We s hall now atone fo r this neglec t
.

by devoting an entire ch a p t er t o them .

D enit i o n o f in st in ct iv e a ct i o n We call these

.

inheri ted factors insti nc tive , dening th e

term as follows : An instinc ti ve ac t is a seri es
of acts o f an heredita ry n a ture , havi ng a d e
nite thou gh n o n conscious end , and a cc o m
-

p a nie d by a ch a racte ri s tic feeling L et us

.

1 39
1 40 T HE M IN D OF T HE B U Y E R
analy z e this den i tion and poi nt o u t th e c har
a c t eri s tic s o f instinc t i ve ac tion .

Ch ar act er i st i c s o f inst inct iv e a ct i o n .

1 . I t i s v ery c omplicated It i s no t a simple ,

.

s ingl e act like th e wink of an eye . R ather

is i t made up of a number of simple acts . Ob
s e r ve the bird a s sh e g o es through th e i n s tin c

tive ac t o f nest bui l di ng -

. Sh e performs a
series o f si mple ac tions : picking up a string
here, a twig there , a hair yonder ; and laying
them in the nest . In th e sam e way the in
s tin c tiv e act i ons o f humans co n si st o f s epara te

ac ts cha i ned together, though this linkage

s h oul d be inte rpreted acc ording to th e foll ow

ing paragraph :
2 . Th e word series implies n o t merely

multiplicity of ac ts but sequence a s well Th e .

separate simple act s c omp rising an instinc tive

ac t alm ost invari ably oc cur in th e same order,
and as we shall sh ow presently, wi thout b eing
planned by the individual A striking ex
.

ampl e o f thi s will be furnished by the foll ow

ing descrip tion
A c e rta i n b e ttle of t he g enu s S it ris l ay s its e gg s a t t he

a

e ntr a nc e o f t he s ubt e rr a ne a n g a ll e r i e s e xc a v a t e d by a ki nd
o f mas o n be e . From these ggs t he l a rva e a re h a tche d in
e

a ut umn as a ct i v e l i ttl e i nse ct s v e ry d i ff e re nt from t he

ordi na ry type o f b eetl e gru b h a v i ng s ix le gs e a c h a rmed
,

wit h a sha rp c u rve d h ook I n th e wint e r t he y b eco me

.
1 42 TH E M IN D O F THE BUY E R
b ee b e c a u se e xp e r ienc e h as t a ught i t th a t such a p roc e dur e
br i ngs wi th it sa t i s fa ctory cons equ e nce s A t no s t a ge of
.

t h e c o mp le x p roc e ss c a n i n te lli ge nc e b as e d o n i nd i vi d u a l
,

e x p e rie nc e b e a d mitt e d as a f a ctor

, I f th e r e b e e xp e r i enc e
.
,

i t mu st be t he i nhe r it e d e xp e r i ence o f a nc estors who ha ve ,

e a ch in tur n do ne much t he s a me

.
,

This ill ustration sh ows the invariable se

q u e n ce with which the simple components of
a complex in s tinc tive act follow each other .

U pon sup ercial examination o n e migh t

c onclude tha t instinctive ac ts cannot be di f
fe r e nt ia t ed one from the other becau s e ,

several may contain iden tical elementary acts .

This is true but we s hall nd on cl o ser ex

,

amination that though the elemen tary com

,
.

p o n en ts of several in stinctive ac t s may be ,

identical s till in each instinctive patte rn they

,

are lin k ed toge th er in a unique order For .

e xample though the simple ac t of ushing

,

in the face ma y occ ur in connec tion wi th

s everal complicated instinctive actions such ,

as ac ts o f shyness , embarrassment , modesty ,

even o f pugnacity ; s till i t comes surrounded
by o ther elementary ac ts which gi ve it in
each ca se a di ff erent s et ting We thus sa y
,
.

that e a ch instinctive ac t has a distinc t pattern

regardless o f the cloth of which i t is made .

3 . Our deni tion next emphasizes the fac t

 IN S T IN C T IVE FA C T OR S 1 43

that instinctive ac tion s are inherited There .

is a volume of signicance in this for the

seller which we shall poin t out presently
,
.

For the moment let u s elaborate upon th e

,

meanin g o f the term inheritance in g eneral .

a L e t us no te rst tha t anything inherited

.

may come not merely from immediate parents

but also from all p receding generations in th e
line of descen t Some of th e thing s we inherit
.

may have originated millions of years a go .

b A n act which h a s passed down throu gh

.

s o many generations i s thus t o b e found in

all the members o f the species For example

.
,

all human beings tend t o ac t in about the same

w a y when afraid .

c A n inheri ted ac t is rmly xed It has

. .

been in g rained within so many g eneration s

and tran s mitted s o faithfully from g eneration
t o generation tha t it is qui te rmly embedded
within th e organism of the las t inheritor .

d
. It may be quic k ly aroused This fol
.

l ows from th e fac t that the pathways for it

are well marked out i n the nerv ous system .

N o w t o wear down a pa thway for non in -

h erit ed action requires considerabl e time To .

d o so throu g h rea s oning p rocesses , for ex

ample require s the time necessary for the
,

nervous impulse to travel to the brain , perhaps

1 44 THE M IN D O F T HE BUY E R
calling up several idea system s in turn , whil e -

th e individual c o gita tes abou t th e matter and

debates fo r and again s t the suggested ac tion .

Instinctive action however being already

, ,

inhe ren t in th e organi sm , requires n o a pp r e

c ia b l e tim e for organization We s hall pre s .

en tly point ou t the prac tical signicance o f

this in sellin g .

4 . Our denition next describes an in stinc

tive ac t a s o ne which the indivi dual may
perform with out knowled g e of the end Fo r .

example when one turns pal e in fear, h e may

,

be aware of the fact bu t may no t see any ,

goo d p urpose in i t In fac t, he may regard

.

i t as detrimental .Now though the end of ,

paling in fea r may not be apparent there is

probably an e nd there or there has bee n at ,

s ome time in man s h i story I t probably

.

serv es in some way to p reserve life H ow .

can paling be connected with th e p reserv ation

o f life ? L et us reason it o ut , following
Darwin , on the basi s of the distri bution o f
the blood At time of fear wha t is the p olitic
.
,

thing t o d o " R un away B ut t o run r e .

qui res a sudden acces s o f stren g th in th e

muscles of th e le g s To bring thi s stren gth ,
.

bl oo d i s nee ded there Na ture provides for

.

thi s by w ith d rawin g blood from p ortions of

1 46 TH E M IN D OF THE B U Y ER

p o s sesses a feeling peculiarly it s ownusually

call ed an emotion . C on sider for example ,
,

th e instinctive act of runnin g away from a

fearsome obj ec t and thi s include s a l l the
motions lar g e and small that aid in the
, ,

igh t : the locomotive action s o f th e l egs ; th e

acceleration of th e heart beat which pumps -

more blood into the legs ; the quic k ened breath

ing which furni sh e s more oxygen t o th e
rapidly owing blood ; the action s of the in
ternal gland s which pour stren g th giving sub -

sta nces into the blood Thi s mass of corre.

lated movement that w e call the instinct

.

pattern , igh t is accompanied by th e em !

,

t io na l cast of feeling which we call fear The .

instinc t pattern that we call pugnacity is

-
.

acc ompanied by the emotional cast o f feelin g

which we call anger The in s tinctive ac tion of
.

protecting one s youn g is accompanied by the

emotional feelin g called parenta l love Thu s .

each g rea t instinc t pa ttern has its character

-

is t ic feeling .

Cl assi cat i o n o f in st in ct iv e act i o n s impr a ct i

ca bl e. A t thi s poin t we sh ould like t o make a
li s t of th e fundamental h uman instincts but ,

we can hardly d o so wi th c ondence There .

are several rea s ons The s itu ations when in

.

s t inc tiv e actions are evo k ed a re s ometime s

 IN S TI N C TI V E FA C T OR S 1 47

compl ex so tha t more than o ne of th e in

,

s tin c t s are called o ut .The resulting action

is a prod uc t o f all ; henc e w e can hardly
secure separate clean c ut pa tterns Further
,
-
.

more our instinc tive actions become inter

,

penetrated during th e c ours e of individual

,

experi ence with acquired acts especially

, ,

with habits . Since we rarely see th e p ure

manifesta tions of instinctive ac tion then we , ,

cannot tell exactly h o w many instincts there

are.

Though we shall n o t presume to give a com

p l e t e list ,
we shall probably be safe in recog
n iz ing the existence of some of the great

class es denoted by curren t term s like self

prese rvation ( variously called locomotion ,

obtainin g food shelter play sleep ) ; repro

, , ,

duction ; mating ( including acts of c oyness

and c oq ue try ) protectio n of th e young ;
i ght ; pugnacity ; repulsion .

A gain we may do best to make a general

,

classication with reference t o the end tha t

th e ac t subserves rather than t o th e specic
,

character of the particular instinct O ne of .

the mo st convenient divides instinct s into

th ree classes : ( 1 ) those w hich preserv e the
life and provide for th e welfare of the in

dividual ; such a s igh t , pugnacity , hoardin g ,
1 48 THE M IN D OF T HE B U Y ER

c urios i ty. Those which provide fo r th e

c ontinuance o f the race and family ; s uch as ,

mating , pro tec tion o f home and of young .

Those which make fo r the welfare of the

t ribe or social uni t ; such a s gregariousne ss ,

imitation . Some of the act s belong to more

than o n e cla ss in fact no one of the second
,

or third would be possible wi thout the rs t

but the division is convenient in general

and may se r ve a s a guide throu gh the maze .

It s v a lu e in t h e sa l e O ut of thi s discussi on
.

of th e characte ristic s o f instinctiv e action ,

modied by the acknowledgment tha t adult
in s tinc tive action is usually a ssocia ted with
acquired forms o f action , the reader may
emerge with at l ea s t one clear idea namely ,

that the actions of a buyer have two sources

. .

individual experiences and racial experiences .

Thou gh th e t wo are no t separate in their

e ffects upon human conduc t, still th ose o f
th e s econd class are probably the ones upon
which th e seller may depend more rmly i n
moving the will of the buyer Their s uperi or .

strength lies in the foll owing facts :

R el at iv ely m o r e c ert a in In s tinctive ac tion ,
.

being the imprint of thousands of experiences

upon thousands of ancestors , i s rmly xed
w ithin an individual ; h ence the appropriate ,
1 50 THE M IN D O F TH E B UY E R
ou t i nto various tracts representing i dea
,

sy s te ms whil e the ideas are bein g wei ghed
,

and balanced acc ording t o the involved in ,

t r ica te proc edure outlined in C hapter X .

After a long delay lasting an h our a day

, , ,

week month or year , the action follows In

, ,
.

instinctive action however th e pathways are

, ,

shorter and already marked o ut When the .

stimulus come s the act follows readily .

In st in ct iv e a ct io n mar ked b y f eeling The last .

advantage lies in th e fact tha t instinc tive .

action is intimately connected , fairly suffused ,

with feeling Now t o feeling belong certain
.

p ossibilities for streng thening action which

a re no t a tt ribu tive t o reason For exampl e .
,

observe the way in which an evangelist appeal s .

t o his audienc e t o be convert ed When he .

uses reason h e nds his heare r s respectful ( if

n o t somnolen t ) , bu t cold When he takes up
.

the wand o f feeling h owever, h e qu i ckly se

,

cures resul ts The seller wh o desire s t o u se

.

inuential meth ods of appeal wi ll l earn a

lesson from succe s sful evan g eli s ts For after .

all bo th preacher and seller have the same

,

p roblem p sychologically to induce action .

And both need to use th e same p sychological

means i n i n d ucing it .
 IN ST I N C TIV E FA C TO R S 1 51

In the s e las t few pa g es we have sp oken a s

though there mi gh t b e tw o kinds of action ,
instinctive and reasoned A s a matter of
.

fac t this i s an articial partition , j ustied

,

only by th e neces sities of literary expo sition .

A ctually a bit o f h uman c onduct may contain

.

a t the same time both instinctive and rea

s o n e d factors Th e obj ect of o u r comparison
. .

ha s been to s how tha t probably a seller may

work more ea s ily th rough the former than
th rou gh th e latter .

S ummary We have no w c ompleted our
.

treatment of th e hereditary equipment in

r action residing wi thin th e buyer .

it re sistant t o satisfactory analy sis

u s ually oc curs in connec tion with
some obscurin g and complicating acquired
action A l s o becau s e it originated far back
.

i n days before our ken and i s no t always con

,

g r u o u s and under s tandable in its pre s ent day -

se ttin g This very trai t of inheri tance how

.
,

ever endows it with value i n th e sale It is

,
.

thereby rmly xed ; universal ( pre s ent

within all members of th e species ) prompt ;
and r i ch w i th the vivifying p ow er of feeling .
 C H AP T E R TW E L VE

S U GGEST IO N IN TH E S A LE

S ug g est i o n is r eg ar d ed a s myst erio us M u ch .

has been said durin g recent years about the

psychology of s u gge s tion and th e pos sibility
of using it in sellin g . So much mysteriou s
potency has been claimed for i t tha t many .

selle rs believe t hat th ey h ave only to learn

the laws of sugge s tion and th en th ey can
impose their will s unimped e dly upon the hel p
l ess submi s sive buyin g publ ic
,
.

This aura of mystery s urrounding s u gges

ti on results from the dramatic in s tance s which
have been recounted s howin g it s power in
inuencing human bein gs ; par ticularly in the
healin g of disease People s u ff erin g or alle ged
.

t o be s uffering from various di s ea s es have

bee n treated by nothing bu t sug ge s tion with
a s toni s hin g re s ult s C on sequently the public
.

ha s concluded that there is some vital force

inherent in suggestion wh i ch can be employed
in all conditions of life St i ll further awe
.

i s a tta c he d to i t becaus e of i ts c lose asso c i a

1 52
1 54 T H E M IN D O F T HE BU Y E R
this W e simply use the methods al ready de
.

scribed in th e chapte r on attention ( C hapter

II) . Th e obj ect thu s forced into the menta l
stream need not be physical It may b e a
.

corr espondence c ourse i n B usiness Engli sh

that we are trying t o sell , o r a sea t on the
S to ck Exchang e Whatever it is we must
.

p ush i t in to th e mental stream with a s littl e

a d o as possible .There i t nd s elements o f
past experience which are akin to i t and

w hich abso rb it as rela t ed in C hapte r V

,
.

The next event th e p roduction of muscular

e ffort s is more di fc ult t o describ e and t o
,

achieve I t is here that the greatest amount

.
.

o f mystery cente rs ; and here tha t the great

es t am ount o f s kill is demanded o f the seller .

How can a psychical thing like an i dea change

over int o physical energy and assume the form
of a m oto r ac t ? And h ow c an t h e seller
facilitate such transforma tion ?

The an swer is contained partly in the law

of ideo motor action :
-

A n idea in th e mind

tends t o express itself in m ovement An .

experiment p e rformed i n the p sych olo gi cal

lab oratory demonstrates this dramatically .

The experimenter fa s tens a recording device

t o th e top o f a person s head so as t o record

the slightest movement Then he asks the

.
 S U GG E STI O N IN THE SA L E 1 55

subj e c t t o think about a nearby obj ec t Af ter

.

sev eral moments the record shows tha t the

s ubj ec t has begu n t o lean toward th e obj ec t
about w hich he ha s been thinking .

We ca nno t enter into a discussion of th e

brain mechanism by which this transforma
tion from idea to movement takes place It .

is inheren t in the a s sociation of brain path

ways already mentioned o n page 4 5 , where
we said tha t when an act ha s been performed
once involving two or more pathways in th e
,

brain , t hereafter when the rst pathway ( th e

idea pathway ) i s aroused , the second ( th e
movement pathway ) follows .

If we examine close ly our daily life we

may see numerous examples of ideo m o tor -

ac ti on . A housewife , may be guring her

househ ol d accounts direc ting her mental
,

stream urgently in one di rection ; when s u d

d enl y a vague idea enters her mind that her
hair needs adj u s tment . Automatically her
hand moves up t o her head and tucks in a
hair pin
-
. Sh e contin ues her work unint er
r u p t e dl y, and probably doe s not know that

she has made th e movement .

In th i s same unco nsciou s way we all

perform scores of acti ons in the cour s e of a

day W e may possibly thus make som e unim
.
1 56 T HE M IN D OF TH E B UY E R
p ortan t purchases .For example , the ide a

base ball sc ore may enter our min d a s we
-

leave the o fce at ve in the afternoon , and

may be strong enough in its own ri gh t t o
lead us wi thout further l oc ution of though t
t o reach into our pocke t for a c oin and buy
a paper .

These illustration s show that th ere i s a

real motive power resident within an idea .

If this is the ca s e why is i t tha t a seller

,

may i nj e c t an idea into the mind of the buyer

and still no t produce the desired response ?
T he answer is tha t th e idea may be pre
v ented from ach i evin g its motor consequences
by the presence of another idea As we .

s howed on pa g e 38 there are always many

things in the mind sen s at i ons , i deas , feel

-

i ngs, in grea t profu sion Now each of these .

has i ts own motor con s equences , and if left

alone will probably p roduc e them Mixed .

a s i t i s, ho w ever with others , all struggling

,

fo r exp res s ion , it can only express i tself a s

modied by the others Some of them help
.

i t and some hinder it Th e task of the seller

.

i s to encourage those ideas which are favor

able to his pet ide a and t o supp ress tho s e
-

w hich are contrary t o it In accomplishin g .

this there are several law s t o be observed :

1 58 TH E M I N D OF TH E B UY E R
wi th sta nd ev e ry c ontradictory impul se Make .

the suggested cours e o f action appear in

evitable .

3 . The inevi tablene s s may be enhanced by

another imp orta n t law : Ma k e the s u gge s tion
s imple .If yo u wish t o arou s e an action , sug
g e s t only tha t one In w ri
. ting an advertise
ment, for example , i t is a violation of this

F IG . 9 .

prin c i pl e to suggest : ( ) Ask your dealer

1
for i t ; ( 2 ) o r if he doe s n o t hav e it send u s
his name ; ( 3 ) or send us fty cent s for a
sample pac k age Such al terna tive direction s
.

are p sychol ogically faulty For each of the .

three ideas arou s e s s ome ideo motor activity -

which is immediately obstructe d by that which

foll ow s Th e s itua tion may be repre s en ted
.

by Fi g ure 9 ; where th e rst idea arou s es a

motor impulse over p athway abc then come s
 S UGG E STI O N IN T HE SA L E 1 59

the second idea sending forth the motor im

pulse abd then comes th e third idea starting
up motor impulse abe B y thi s tim e the pre
.

c io u s nervou s ener gy tha t was available for

the action is exhausted and dis sipated , and i t

starts up n o action a t all The correction for
.

s uch a situa tion is t o make only o ne suggestion

a t a time .

.4 Make p o sitiv e suggestions A negative

.

suggestion is one c ontaining no or no t
and should be avoided Violations of this law
.

are exceedin gly numerous in selling, p a r tic u

l a r l y in th e manufacture of business slo g ans .

D on t say

sa y is a favori te form .

A ccep t n o substi tute , is another .

The p sycholo gical o ffense in negative sug

g e s tion i s that the real motive forc e of a
phra s e lie s i n the idea of the action , no t in
th e way th e action is modied verbally In .

the slogan A ccep t n o substitute , the r eal

ide a i s A ccep t sub st i tute
. To ne gate it
does no t materially weaken i ts force . The
ph rase really su g gests t o the buyer tha t he
shoul d accep t a substitute

.

A very little analysis of selling phrases

from thi s poin t of view will show tha t many
o f them d o n o t put into the mind of the buyer

th e idea intende d by the seller L et us, by

.
1 60 T HE M IND O F THE BU Y E R
w ay of i llus trat i on , analy z e a well kno w n
-

selling phra s e which may lead the m i nd far

-

ael d from the direc tion desired by the seller :

Eventually , why n o t no w ?

The adverb even tually implies a verb an d
subj ec t ; in all likelihood :
Y ou will u se G ol d

M edal Flour . This part of th e phrase is not
wholly reprehensible ; ye t it has o ne fa ulty
implication , namely , that the buyer is pr o b
ably going t o delay th e ac t of p urchase It i s
.

a s if one said to the housewife :

I know yo u
a re using s om e o ther our n o w . K eep on
u sing it ; after trial you will change to another
brand ; after i t t o another Eventually , h o w
.

ever ( after perhaps twen ty years ) , you w i ll

c om e t o ours
. U p on such analysis , wh i c h is
surely not far fetc hed , the rst part of the
-

slogan i s seen t o contain implications that

w ere surely never intended by the seller, con
rming the housewife in her presen t use of
another our .

Th e second part of the slogan is open to

s till more serious obj ection . If we follow
the sub terranean conversation between seller
and buyer, we shall nd that the seller says
by implica tion :
I know you are no t go i ng
t o buy now .

Th e buyer replies , No ! I am

?
no t.

The seller ask s ,
Why not What
1 62 THE M IN D OF THE B UY E R

fountain clerk , Give m e a glass of coke .

T h e manufacturers did no t like thi s ; for i t

permi tted the clerk to s ubstitute some imita
tion o f C oca C ola which migh t call it s elf
coke .

Furthermore th e abbreviation i s
remini s cent of an unde sirabl e dru g habi t .

How break the public of the h abit of u sing the

?
obnoxious appela tion To a dvertise Don t
,

say coke woul d b e to gi ve a negative sug

,

gest i on entailing all th e u ndesirabl e couse

,

q u e nc e s mentioned above ,
namely ,
by repeti

tion o f the name coke th e peopl e wh o u sed

i t woul d be tempted t o use i t all the more ;

some who might never have used i t migh t get
th e habit ; and worse the real idea conveyed
,

would be Say C oke despite the nega tion

,
.

As a sol uti on t o this q ua nd ry, the manu

fa c t u r er s adopted th e ph ra s e
A sk for C oca
,

C ola by its full name

Thi s suggestion is
.

free from obj ec tion s I t convey s th e de sired

.

meaning ; i t is p ositive ; and if peopl e follow

i t they will be doin g what the company de
sires This ill ustration s hows tha t n o matter
.

how strong th e temptation t o u s e ne g ative

suggestion , if th e s eller studie s h is situation
carefull y and takes su fcient thou ght , he wil l
be abl e t o avoid th e enervating and mislead
 S U GG E STI O N IN THE S A L E 1 63

ing negative and express h is su gge s tion s i n

the po sitive form .

Th e above discussion su gge s ts another fac t

about suggestion : Th e ideas involved in a
suggestion e s pecially in an in di rec t s u gges
,

tion are of two kinds Some are on the s u r

,
.

face , explicit ; others are hidden , implici t In

.

the s ugge s tion Ask th e man who owns one
, ,

the implied portions are , If yo u want to

know how our car sa tise s ! a skthe man w h o

own s one ! ; He will tell y o u tha t i t gives

perf ec t sa tisfaction The reader w ill n d
.

interesting exercise in thus analyzing the

many s ugge s tion slo g ans before the public ,
-

and will derive much benet therefrom in th e

task of strengthening th e force of his own
selling suggestions .

5. The rec ogni tion of the explicit implici t

-

nature of su gg e s tion leads to the con s idera

tion of another law : Normally an indirec t
suggestion is more e ffective than a direc t o ne .

IV e migh t paraph ra s e a denition of direc t

s ug ge s tion by sta tin g that it is a su g ge s tion

in which you say wha t you mean ; an indirec t

one is one in which you say one thing and
mean s omething el se N o t necessarily th e
oppo site . The distinction is rather tha t in
indirect s u gge s tion one say s part of wha t one
1 64 T HE M IND OF THE B UY E R
m eans , then leaves the other person t o com
p l e t e the meaning . We migh t ill ustrate as

follows :

Direct suggestion : U se Prince

A lbert Tobacc o .

Indirect
Ty C obb U ses
'

P rince A lbert Tobacc o We m ay pictu r e
.

the e ffect o f these upon the mind of the buyer

by employing the l l ing in m e tho d o f our -

last i llust ration . T here i s littl e t o supply

i n th e direct form . Everything i s sa i d In .

th e i ndirec t form , h owever, there i s much t o

supply All that i s sa i d expl i citly i s tha t Ty
.

C obb smokes P ri nc e Albert T obacc o

Im .

p l ic i tl y, h owever ,
a good deal i s sa i d The ,
.

argument runs a s follows

Ty C obb s mokes
:

P rince Albert ; he mu s t like i t H e i s a man .

of good j udgment ( in baseball ) T he chances .

are tha t he i s also a good j udge of tobacc o .

Therefore Prince A lbert must be a good

tobacc o I ll smoke i t
.

.

It is evident that there is room fo r con

.

s id e r a b l e illogi cali ty in indirec t suggestion .

A s indicated in the parenthesis above , in order

fo r the thought t o ow along smoothly in the
channel desired by the seller, certai n a s sump
t i ons must ordinari ly be made The a ss ump .

tion in the present insta nc e is that the famou s

ball player is as good a j udge of tobacc o a s h e
1 66 THE M IN D O F THE BU Y E R
p sychological analysis like th e ab o ve would
s o on give a basi s fo r voting them fraudulent
and deceptive .

D ir ect v s in d ir ect sug g est i o n

. In assertin g
.

o n page 1 63 tha t indirec t suggestion is no r

mally more powe rful than direc t suggestion

we di d no t mean to c ondemn the la tter en
tir el y .Direct suggestion ha s certain weight .

P robably i t i s mo s t useful wi th peopl e who

don t know their o wn minds

There are .

undo ubtedly individual s wh o like to h a ve the i r

deci s ions made for them and w h o welcome ,

uncon s ciously a direc t suggestion indee d a , ,

command P sych olo gi st s w h o have ex p eri

.

mented in this eld however assert that even

, ,

wi th such individuals the desired a c t may be

,

instigated by means of indirec t suggestion .

F o r exampl e , when th e time c ome s for closing

th e sal e , th e sa lesman may suggest indirectly
that th e customer has already made his de
c isio n by sta rting to wrap up the article or
,

by asking Do you wish i t delivered to d ay

,
-

The great advantage claimed for the in

direct mode of appeal i s tha t i t does not have
such a tendency t o o ffend tho s e persons who
d o know their o wn mind s and desire t o feel ,

th a t they are masters o f thei r fate .

Co unt er sugg est i o n

-
T h u s far in o ur di sc u s
.
 S U G G E S T ION IN T HE SA L E 1 67

s i on w e have ment i oned several kinds of sug

gestion : abnormal , normal , positive , negative ,
direc t, i ndirec t There are two other kinds
.

w hich belong in any thoroughgoing treat

ment of th e subj ect The rst is counter sug
.
-

gesti on In this the individual making the

.

s uggestion has one de s ired ac t in mind but

suggest s th e performanc e of its direc t o p

p o s it e
. A type of mind ha s been di s covered
w hich reac ts oppositely t o every suggestion .

C ranky
husbands sometimes exhibit th i s
tendency ; and their wives move them by s u g
g e s t in g the opp osite Obviou sly a. seller does
n o t mee t with this type very frequently , but

w hen h e doe s h e may use counter sugge s tion

,
-

w ith success .

A ut o sugg est i o n
-
The last kind of s ugg es
.

tion w e shall consider is auto sugge s tion Thi s -

.

is , a s th e name implies , self suggestion The -

.

seller does no t use i t upon the buyer but

upon himself A salesman ha s grea t need of
.

having certain ideas inj ected i nto his mental

stream . He i s ready prey t o though ts of
failure , discouragement and weakness L et .

him study the e ffec t of suggestion in general

and remember what a strength there i s in
ideas He may be cheered by the fac t that
.

he i s j u s t as c ert a i nly su sc ept i bl e to the in

1 68 THE M IN D OF TH E B UY E R
u en c e
of suggestions as is the buyer C o n .

sequently if he wi shes to perform a certain

ac t let him put into his own mind the idea
,

of the act , following th e l aws of suggestion

laid down in the foregoing . Almost every
successful salesman could gi ve startling p roof
of the power of auto suggestion in his own
-

life In ma k in g use of it he avoid s negative

.

sugges tion by banishing from his mi nd and

conver sation all thou ghts of failure He .

nerves himself for an important interview by

positive sugge s tion s such as
I will win
,
.

He employs direct s u ggestion by asserting,

My goods come up t o every claim I make for

them
He gi ves himself indirect auto sug -

gestions by straightenin g his spine , s quaring

his shoulders and whi s tling all si g ns of
,

strength and coura g e . In brief one o f the

most importan t l e s sons the seller may take
a w ay from this chapter is the though t that
suggestion will operate upon himself a s w ell
a s upon the buyer .
1 70 TH E M IN D O F THE B U Y E R
a Worl d War I t oc curs when the astute
.

evangelist feel s it proper t o urge his heare rs

t o hit the sawdust trail and when th e s educer
feel s tha t he may , wi thout fear of rebuff , p ress
his V ictim to ta k e th e rst drink N o kind of .

a ff airs appear s too s acred and no kind t o o p r o

fan e t o be exempted from the p sychological

moment .A s evidence of the aptne s s of the
term t o cover a m ul ti tude o f si tua ti o ns we nd
i t applied to a ffai rs i n which there is n o psychi
cal factor whatever, s uch as a rain so timed
as t o sa v e a corn crop or t o the erup tion of a
geyse r .

From these instance s we see tha t th e term

is a very useful one playin g a large part i n ,

the speech and though t of the day True , it .

smacks somewhat o f esot ericism , but such c o n

nota tion is belied by the fact that i t i s em

pl oyed with equal glibness by th e savant and
th e man o f the street Shakespeare referred .

t o i t in th e well k nown lines -

T he r e is a ti de in t he f i rs o f men
af a ,

W h i ch t a ken at t he ood l ea d s o n to fort u ne

, .

Napoleon pointed out its import anc e in

deciding the fate of battles
In all b a ttl es a moment occur s w hen t h e br a vest troo p s
,

fe el i ncl i ne d to run Th a t t error p roc ee d s fro m a w a nt

.

of co nd enc e in th ei r o wn co u r a ge a nd i t o nl y requi re s a
 TH E P S Y C H O L O G I C A L M O M E NT 1 71

s l i ght o p p ortu ni ty a p ret ense to r estore cond enc e to th em

, , .

A t A rcol a I w o n t he b a ttl e wi th t we nty ve hor semen-

.I
se ize d th a t mo me nt o f l a ss i tud e g a v e e v e ry ma n a t ru m et
, p ,

a n d g a i ne d t h e d a w i th th i s h a ndful Y o u see th a t t w o
y .

a rmi e s a r e t w o bod i e s w h i c h me e t a nd e nd ea vor to fr i ght en

e a ch othe r ; a mo ment o f
p a n i c occur s
, a n d th a t mo me nt m u s t
b e t u r ne d t o a dva nt a g e
. W he n a ma n h a s b een p re sent in
ma ny a ct i o ns he d i st i ngui sh e s th a t mo me nt wi thout d i th
culty ; i t is a s e asy as c a st i ng up a n a dd it i o n .

The ma tter is no t so simple a s thes e l i nes

imply , a s any sa lesman will testify I t is .

ra ther a ma tter for serious psychological

analysis In making such analysis o f th e
.

s alesman s moment we must regar d t h e sal e

,

following t h e pattern used throughout this

boo k , as a se ri e s o f mental change s on th e
part of th e buyer, leading t o a n a c t of will
which culminat es in satisfac tion .

A n i d ea pr eced es A n idea must precede de

.

c is io n and ac tion in th e sale We have said .

this in many ways throughout th e preceding

chapters of this book And w e have shown
.

that the seller i s no t so much a distributor

of goods a s h e i s a manipulator of idea s In .

order t o bri ng out a new phase of th i s though t

we shall fo r th e rhetorical purp oses o f thi s
chap ter personify the Idea and speak of it in
,

capitals ; though the reader i s warned that such

prac ti c e i s stri ctly fro w ned upon i n orthodo x
1 72 T H E M IN D OF THE BU Y E R
p sycholo gical circles We shall ta ke this
.

liberty , however for in these days when the

,

p sycholo g ical aspect of bu siness operations

i s only dimly rec ognized we should be
pardoned if w e sta te thin g s with slightly
bizarre e ff ec t in our e fforts t o show their im
portance B ut apart from such claims t o
.

anthropomorphi s m , th e Idea is important

enough on other g rounds to deserve capitali z a
tion fo r sometimes I t is abl e to se t o ff o u r
,

actions almost automatically . Th rough a

kind o f ac tion technically known a s dynamo
g enesi s ( see page

I t oc casionally may
pa s s over into ac tion immediate ly and resul t

in a sal e For example , the Idea baseball
.
,

score may be strong enough in its own right

t o lead one without further delibera tion to

reach into th e pocket for a coin and buy a
paper Such a purchase is s o sho rn of v o l un
.

ta ry characteristic s a s no t to furnish us with

an illustra tion of th e psychological moment .

B ut no t all sales are o f thi s hair trigg er -

type and most Ideas even thou gh carefully

,

implanted in the mind d o no t lead directly to

purchase bu t require m anipulation Indeed ,
,
.

such is the ca s e with all o ur deliberative

sales An analy si s o f the fortunes of the Idea ,
.
1 74 T HE M IN D OF T H E BU Y E R
woul d resembl e a full moon containing a
-

central circle frec k led with numerou s circlets

,

of different sizes representing the idea s with

thei r di fferent strengths It will be seen that
.

these ideas bear di ff erent relationship s t o th e

central idea s ome being hostil e others sym
, ,

pathe tic Whether they hinder o r help they

.

must be reckoned wi th and must be ma nip u

lated t o the glory o f the Idea , which must be
nourished and expanded to such a degree that
it s bul k will crowd out all th e other ideas .

This task of nourishmen t confronts every

salesman ; indeed from the psychological
,

standpoint the s ale s man is no t a vender of

automobile s bu t a manipulator of ideas His .

tas k is t o fan the ame of th e Idea until it

becomes t o the buyer the consuming interest
in life B eside It everything must s hrink t o
.
,

nothingness th e about to b e ravaged bank
- - -

account, th e h eart rendin g burden of upkeep ,

-

the mortga ge on th e hou s e la s t year s unpaid
,

c oal bill all mu s t be for g otten in the over
-

powering compulsion of the Idea And the .

Idea must remain the greatest thing in the

w orld long enough for the purchaser to sign
his check or si gn th e pay as you use contract
- - -
.

To a supercial view th e task of the sale s

man migh t seem t o be that of taking hold of
 T HE P S Y C HO L O G I CA L M O M E N T 1 75
these unwelcome idea s a nd thrusti ng th em
into outer darkness but s uch a concept i on i s
,

erroneous and wi ll lead to egregi ous error .

If the mind of the buyer contains the idea of

another car the p roper p roced u re i s not to
d i late negatively upon tha t car in th e e o r t
t o dri ve i t o u t o f h i s mind
. Every word u t
t er ed about tha t car act s a s foo d for the u n
welcome ide a and cau se s i t t o w ax stronger
and stronger The practic e of criticizing or
.

condemning a r i val c ommo d ity is being recog

niz ed as poor business ethic s, but we may

g o s till farther and say tha t t o speak e i ther

in praise o r blame o f ri val goods i s p oo r p sy
c h o l o gy, for every word makes th e undesired

idea still more troublesome .

W ha t are th e methods , then , by w hich the

u ndesirabl e i deas may be forced o u t of the
mind and th e desired One ench a nc ed ? The
answ er i s t o forc e a ttention upon I t ; when
th i s happens , the strength o f the undesired
i deas automat i cally decreases . T he psycho
l o gi cal situation may becom e clearer when
desc ribed i n term s of brain energy . The
bra i n , acc ord i ng to some p sychologi sts , i s
organ iz ed into a number of i deational systems ,

o ne for each ide a th at ex i sts i n the m i nd. Any

i deational system may be ro u sed into ac tion
1 76 THE M IN D OF T HE B UY E R
by th e drainage into it of brain energy Now
.

th e energy of th e brain may be distribut ed

i n various amounts over different system s,
th e amoun t in each system depending upon
th e st rength o f the c orresponding idea In.

th e case of our sa le if the main Idea i s t o

,

grow in stren gth Its brain sy s tem must draw

-

o ff from the other sy s tem s the brain energy

resident within them until the energy of the

brain i s all drained o ff into the one system ,
which mean s the triumph of the Idea .

R everting to our p sychologi cal description

of the sale , we migh t pau s e a t this stage and
.

elaborate upon methods of strengthening the

Idea , but that would require a digression

from o u r main interest the psychological
moment Su ffice it to say the process c onsists
.
,

in u sing conc rete material with which to em

bellish the Idea The salesman must dilate
.

upon th e s pecic vi rtues of the car upon the

,

power and smoothne s s of the engine th e ,

luxurious ease o f the springs , the elegance of

th e upholstery . Then he mus t attach a s
allies to th e Idea , the subsidiary ideas that
l urk sympathetically i n th e back g round of
the mind of the buyer, showing h o w the car
may be u sed to transport oneself and family
to sylvan spots , how i t may assist o ne t o radi
1 78 THE M IN D OF T HE BU Y E R
a baby s cry , an acciden t i n the street A ny

.

thing h owever unrelate d to th e commodi ty

,

may sp oil th e sale . A ny sa lesman can de

scribe a s c ore of such catastrophes which
make him a ss ert tha t the p sych ologi cal mo
men t is th e most c ri t i cal stage in the sale .

And he does no t ove rsta te the fac t Th e ex .

p e ri en c e of sales managers goes t o sh ow that

the salesmen w h o fail are dec i ent m o st fre
quently in ability to get past the p sychol ogi cal
moment T hey make a good approa ch , arouse
.

interest in th e goods and crea te strong desire ,

b ut are unable to make a good cl osing They .

err in t w o w ays in tryin g to force a decision
t o o s oo n before the Idea has ha d time t o
,

reach Its maximum dimensions or in delay ,

i ng to press fo r a dec ision until afte r th e Idea

ha s ripened and decayed In ei ther case ,
.

the i r error lie s i n a fail ure to recogni z e the

psychological m oment .

H o w r eco g niz e it ? H o w may one recogni z e

th e p sychologi cal moment and h o w may one
cultivate a sen sitiveness for i ts approach ?
U ndoubtedly there are s i gns that ac c ompany
i t, for successful sal esmen sense i t rea di ly .

T heir awarene ss of it however, i s n o t a

,

vi vi dly self conscious ma tter for they cannot

-
,

tell ho w they r e c ogniz e i t If p re ssed for a

.
 THE P S Y C HO L O G I CA L M OMEN T 1 79

description o f their method , they would prob

ably say, by intui tion , and this may serv e a s
well a s any other w ord B u t th e process o f
.

i ntu i tion may be further analyzed i n to a

process of c onscious apprehension through
sense avenues which we all po s sess Many of
.

th e things that w arn of th e approach o f t h e

momen t i n th e sal e are s m al l i nvolunta ry
movements on the part o f t h e b uyer, such a s
sligh t i nclinations of th e head and tr u nk,
minu t e contra c tions and rela x ati ons o f bodily
muscles Even so slight a change a s tha t i n
.

the size o f the p upil of the eye may s erve t o

i n d i cate to the p ract i ced salesman tha t th e
portentous momen t has arri ved O ther m ore
.

obviou s sign s may consist of verbal respons es

of the buyer, for th e skillfu l salesman does
not d o all th e talking in engi neering a sal e ;
i nstea d h e thro w s out frequen t feelers i n th e
form of questions , and by the warm th of th e
response , can j udge how nearly a dec i sio n
ha s been reached A hundred cues such as
.

these a re present and are automatically used

by th e expert sale s man i n i dent i fyi ng th e p sy
c h o l o gic a l moment .

H o w meet it ? U p on recognizing th e momen t

w hat ste p s may th e salesman take t o s ee th at
i t i s passed most auspiciously ? O u r psych o
1 80 THE M I N D OF TH E BU Y E R
logical analys i s j ust completed will suggest
measure s Sta ge the sale s o tha t there will
.

be no disturbance s whil e i t is in p rogress ;

for any disturbanc e, no matter how tri v ial ,
may mean the in troduction of a new idea into
the mind of th e buyer and a di slodgment of
the balance of bra i n energy In view of such
.

danger, the salesman shoul d carefully isolate

the buyer and separate him from things and
people This is the great psychologi cal a d
.

v antage o f u sing a show room .

Another prophylactic measure i s t o have

condition s favorabl e for th e immediate con
summa ti on o f the sal e As we pointed o u t
.

on page 1 7 7 there shoul d be n o awkward de

lay when the moment arrives The contrac t .

shoul d be ready and the writing uten sil s at

hand . All sh oul d move a s s moothly as a
theatrical performance Indeed , a sale in
many ways resembles a drama and may b e
rehearsed with equal p rop ri ety .

A s a third way of meetin g the moment , the

following plan may b e recommended : As
s um e tha t th e sal e i s made tha t th e pur

chaser ha s decided t o buy and this will be
true if th e salesman ha s j ud g ed th e moment
ri ghtly Then ask Wha t color o f upholstery
.

,

d o you prefer ?
or , D o yo u wish immediate

S TAG E S I ! S A T I S F AC T I O N
1 86 T HE M I N D OF T H E BU Y E R

margi n o f h i s th o u gh t stream ; a nd w hen he

-

enc ounters a sim i la r art i c le h e re c alls h i s

previous experience .If i t w a s sati sfa c tory
he willingly makes a repeat purchase .

Again the buyer carries about with h i m th e

,

visible evi denc e of the quality of th e article

every time h e uses it I t gives him either
.

pleasure or displeasure If it wear s well and

.

fullls all th e claims made fo r it h e feels

satised and gi ves a repea t order .

We migh t state parenthe tically tha t the ,

sa tisfac tion we a re talk i ng about m u st be a

real satisfac ti on . I t shoul d represent the

fulllmen t O f some real need which the in
dividual ha s i n his b a ttle fo r existence ; not
a fancied whim or a detrimental desire which
ha s been c reated and fanned into strength by
so m e un sc rup u lo u s seller .

Ev i den ces o f new id eal s in t r a d e Tha t the

.

be s t of modern sellers a re r ecogni zing the

truth of our doc tri ne that satisfaction i s the
tru e goal o f the sal e, i s being evi nced in
s everal ways . Duri ng th e pas t two decades
numerous symptoms have appeared : changes
i n meth ods of publicity ; o f approach to the
c ustomer ; Of post sale tac tic s ; o f p o licies ; of
-

i deal schanges in the very philosophy of

t ra d e
.
 SATI S F A C TION TH E G OA L 1 87

In proceedin g to limn these chan ges we d o

no t mean t o i mply that they have taken place

s uddenly . They have gradually evolved .

Moreover they are no t ye t completely realized ;

they are still evolving The things we shall
.

undertake to describe are merely trends in ,

d ic a t ing the direction of th e evolution .

Speaking statistically we mean tha t the pra e

,

tices and ideals t o be mentioned are becoming

more common than formerly .

Som e of these changes have signicant

ethical consequenc e s portending progress to
ward certain moral goal s that soc iety hopes
t o reach . There are important economic con
sequences involved al s o which are of gr eat
, ,

intere s t We shall no t attemp t to trace these

.

out h owever, bein g content for th e pre s en t

,

merely t o point out the changes in style s and

fashions of sellin g . W e shall S how tha t
whereas certain p ractices and ideal s were
prevalent a score of years a go , others are no w
comin g into vogue .

N ew co n c ep t i o n o f v a lue Th e rst change we

.

shall note is a new a ttitude on the part of

the seller toward value In the previ ous
.

period i t was cu s tomary t o give th e buyer as

l i ttle as p os sibl e for his money In th e
.

m o dern period th e ideal is to give as much

1 88 T HE M IND OF T HE BU Y E R
a s pos sible . Perhaps th e clamorous c ri es of

p r o t e e r

n o w ( 1 9 2 0) l ling th e air tem
p o r a r il y preven t u s from sensing th i s more
merciful te ndency of th e seller Neverthele s s
.

i f we ca n di sre g ard o u r momentary i rritation

ov er the hi gh cost Of livin g we must rec ognize
the general improvement in c onditions .

An obj ector migh t question thi s s ta temen t

o n the ground tha t i t i mpl i es abrogat i on or

s uspen s ion o f th e economic l aw of competi

tion in which s eller and buyer struggle for

advantage . In rej oinder we mi gh t r eply
,

tha t there is a g rowin g tendency for the seller

t o identify his intere s t s wi th those o f th e
buyer . H e is comin g to s ee tha t whate ver
benets the buyer may in turn benet him s el f .

W e shall develop thi s further in another con

n ec t io n. F o r th e presen t i t is su f cient t o
p oint o u t that this lessens ( though it does no t
entirely eliminate ) th e antagonism between
seller and buyer Second , it may be tha t c o m
.

petition is growing stron g er among the

vari ous vende rs of a given commodi ty ; a s
c ompetitors become more numerous each o ne
i s obliged to shade p rices as low as po ss ible
i n she er self defen se
-
. Third the s eller is
,

enabled to carry o u t th e ideal stated above

1 90 THE M IND O F THE B UY E R
of th e new order con sis t in th e prac tice of
stamping the price of shoes on the sol e ; the
p ubli s hing of standard pri ces for hats, t i res ,
a nd the like ; the a gi ta tion fo r le gi slati on r e
qui ri ng th e manufacturer s price to b e

stamped upon th e goods before they reach th e

retail market .

2
. Another form of s ubj ectivi sm in th e Ol d
r eg ime was the amount of entertaining and

sub sidizing tha t th e seller carried on . He

was expected t o trea t the buyer with ciga rs ,
wines, d i nner and thea ter TO one acquainted
.

with m od ern selling practice s no pro of is

needed o f th e obsolescenc e of this cu stom .

One characteristic fea ture of th e new era i s

the rise o f the professional purchasing agen t -

wh o owes his j o b t o the skill with which h e

can keep himself clear o f enta n gling alliances
and can buy i n th e open market w i th Oh
j e c t iv el y demonstrabl e advant a ge
.

3
. Other evi dences o f the growing tend
ency toward Obj ectivi sm may be discovered
by c ompa ring the tac tic s o f salesmanship em
ployed during th e two eras The differences
.

in advertising are s tr ikin gly brough t out in

these two advertise ments The rst appeared
.

( w ith nam e chan g ed ) in C o l l i er

s for 1 9 00:
 SATI SFA C TION THE G OA L 1 91

A loys i u s B S tr o n gm n te che s by ma i l with p e rfe ct

. a a ,

s u c cess , his or i g inal a nd s c i ent i c metho d of p hy si olog i c al

e x e rc i se .

I t is t he o nl y na tura l e a sy a nd sp ee dy me th o d for
,

obt a ini ng p e rfec t h ea lth p hys ic a l de velopme nt a nd el as ti c i ty

,

o f mi n d a n d b od y .

I t a b solute ly c u r es i nd i ge st i on sl eep l e ss ness ne rvo u s ex
, ,

h a us ti o n a nd r e v i t al iz es t h e whol e b o d y

.
,

The corresponding advertisement fo r 1 9 1 6

( same magazine ) ru n s a s follows
S tro ngma n Sy st em o f P urp o se ful E voluti o n gi vers
The
u nu su l h al th u nu su a l n rgy nd u nu su l vi t l ity
a e , e e a a a .

F or i n forma t i o n a ddre ss A L OY S U S B S O G M A N

I . TR N

N ew Y ork C i ty .

Th e mea surement o f t r ut hfuln ess in a d v ert i s

ing . Advertiser s as s ert that they are growing
more truthful Proceedin g upon the general .

hyp othe sis tha t what ever exist s may be

measured and that if truthfulne s s in a dv er
,

t isin g is on th e increa s e we ough t t o b e abl e

t o demon s trate t h e fac t mathema tically th e ,

auth or set out t o devi s e a method .

It w a s rst necessary t o adop t a c riterion

of truthfulness which migh t be s tated i n unit s
of amount F o r th i s was chosen th e use of
.

word s in th e superlative degree Terms like .

a b so

be s t , latest , nest, perfect,

l ut el y un s urpas s ed , h a ve been used much i n

a dvertising and are frowned upon a s vi ol a

,
1 92 T H E M IND OF T H E BU Y E R
tions o f veracity . For certainly no t every
brand o f breakfast food dyspep si a ta blets ,
,

automobil e tires and our can be the best .

If th e superla tive be adopted as a fairly

s atisfac t o ry crite ri on o f truthfulness o r ,

rather untruthfulness, o ur task of measure

men t is quite simpl e, requiring us merely to
coun t the adve rtisement s c onta ining s up erl a
t iv e s and c ompare th e number wi th the to t al
number of advertisement s appearing T his
.

the auth or did using th e les o f th ree

,

medi um s c overing the pe ri od 1 9 00 1 9 1 9 : Th e

-

I n dia n a p o l is N ew s a typical newspaper ; Th e

,

C o s mo p o l i t a n, a typi cal general maga zi ne ;

and H o us e B ea u tifu l a typical h ome maga
,

z ine N o cla ssied advertisemen ts were used

. .

R esult s are presente d in Figure 1 0 .

F rom the s e re s ults we may conclude tha t

untruthfulness in advertising as represen ted
by th e u se of superlatives is dec reasing .

Whereas in 1 9 00 the p ercentage o f advertise :

ments conta ining superlatives was twenty ;

by 1 9 1 9 i t had decreased t o t wo I n terms
.

of p robabili ty we migh t assert tha t w hereas

twenty years a go the chances that an a d
v ert is er w as telling an untruth wer e t w enty

i n a hundred t o day they a re b u t two in a

,
1 94 THE M IND OF THE B UY E R
hundred We may accep t these amoun ts w ith
.

consi derabl e c o ndence because they appear

in all three of the diverse mediums ex amined .

Th e g raph sh ow s tha t the greatest regular

ity in th e decline o f untruthfulness comes
after 1 9 1 2 This is approximately the date
.

of the adoption of th e motto Truth , by th e

,

A s sociated A dverti sing C lubs o f th e World .

Previous to this had come the C on g res sional

pure food and drug law s of 1 9 06 F o r some .

years thereafter adverti s ers were n o t certain

how far they migh t go in their de s cription s .

As the c urves show , they oscillated back and

forth be tween superla tives and weaker state
men ts . B y 1 9 1 2 , h owever they either had
,

come to ta ke the spiri t of th e l aw more se

r io u sl y or had become more s crupul o us , or

had discovered tha t truthful adverti sing pays .

Probably under the inuence of all these

cause s they se ttled down to a g rowing regard
for the truth , reducing th e ratio of ex a ggera
tion rapidly t o two per cent .

The author does not advocate the u se of the

superlative a s an absolute test of truthfulness
in adverti sing At be s t i t can se rve as only
.

one mea s ure O ther mea s ure s may u nq ues

.

t io n a b l y be unearthed wi th indu s trious r e

search .
N everthele s s this meth o d has given
 SA T I S FA C TION THE G OA L 1 95

su c h clean cut results tha t it dese rves serious

-

cons i deration in relation to th e importan t

q u estion of truth in advertising It may b e .

u sed to measure the di fferences i n t ruthfulness

between mediums ; t o aid the Vigilance C o m
mit tee o f the A A C W in securi ng obj ective
. . . .

basis for the annual award of the Truth Tr o

phy ; and t o assist the B etter B usiness B u
r ea us in measu ri ng the re s ul ts of their e o r t s

to polic e and to educa te their c ommunities .

Surely these tentative re s ul ts give us

ground for h opefully c ontinuing such investi
g a ti o n s and
,
anticipating the tim e when we
may set up denite ethical sta ndards for th e
advertiser and help him to measure his prog
1
re s s toward his goal .
.

Th e sa l e a c o nt inu o u s pr o cess The mercan .

tile tran s acti on Of former day s was tacitly

regarded a s an affair of th e moment only .

B uyer and seller were a s two S hips tha t

pass in the nigh t Th e attitude was tha t
.

of the typical horse trader wh o never ex -

p ec t ed t o s e e his v is d o is again To d ay th e
-
-
.

sale is comin g to be regarded a s a c ontinuous

proc ess I deally considered , no s o oner i s one
.

1
i sta nc in g a th er i ng t h e d a t a fo r th i s i n v est i ga
F o r a ss e

t io u thor is i nd ebt ed to M i s s J ea nett e S to ckto n a nd

n t he a
M r V i ctor D e i t c h s tud en t s in t h e P sy c hology of A dv er
.
,

t i ei ng I nd i a na U n i v er s i ty
, .
1 96 THE M IND OF THE BU Y E R
trans a ction concluded than another i s begun .

The seller o f a p i ano doe s no t regard a sale a s

compl eted wi th th e i nstallat i on o f th e ins tr u
m
ment He real ize tha t he ay have an op
. s :

p o r t u ni ty to sell another o ne t o the same man ,

or his so n or his daughte r, o r h i s brother in

,
-

la w A cc ord i ngly he endea v ors to k eep th e

.

F IG . 11 .

(Re p o du ed
r c by ki nd p rmi
e ss io n of J B Li pp i
nc o tt Co m p y an fro m
th Ma nua l t dy y h olog y
. .
,

t he a u o r
fo r th e S u of the Ps of A d v er

s c
t is mg a nd

buyer con ti nually in a b uying at titude How .

he does thi s we shall r ec ount in ano ther con

nec tio n F o r th e present we may note th e
.

continuous cycle o f changes in th e sale ; th e

satisfacti on ( Sta ge Six ) engendered by one
purchase merging into the a tten tion and in
t er es t of another See Figure 1 1 .

Co mmo d it y d en ed a s servi ce In acting up on .

this conception th e seller tries t o keep th e

commodity in rs t ra te conditi on He give s -
.

elaborate i ni tial i nstr u c ti ons re garding t h e
1 98 T HE M IND OF THE BU Y E R
have treated them a s distinc t trend s we must ,

rec ogn i ze tha t th ey are not entirely indep end

ent o f each other For instanc e, in admitt i ng
.

tha t a true sale must gi ve satisfaction to th e

buyer we rec o gn i ze the con tinuity of the sal e .

TO s a y that one s ell s s ervice is t o admit th e

truth of th e other propositions .

We shoul d no t make the mistake of assum

ing th a t these ideal s are completely realized o r
universally adopted . Still they indicate the
direction of the main current Of though t and
prac tice, and to a shrewd observ er, they pre
s age the nature o f the devel opments that are

likely t o come in the future .

S ummary . In this chap ter we have a dv o

c a t e d th e adop tion o f the view tha t th e real
-

end o f the sale is the sa tisfaction o f the buyer .

A s one line of evidenc e we have p ointe d t o th e

g rowing u s e o f s atisfying prac tices o n the part
of progres si ve s ellers .

We might talk about these imp r oved ideal s

and p ractices in ethical terms and say that
clearly sellers are becoming converted t o a
higher standard of ethics and are fo r t his
r ea s o n making the chan g e s noted . Th ough
the e thical ideal s o f trade have been growing
more elevated we shoul d probably b e in error
,

t o ascri be them as th e cause of the reforms we

 SATI SFA C TION THE G OA L 1 99

have noted Eth i cal formulat i ons c onsti tut e

.

euphoniou s term s in which t o describe o u r

actions To be really truthful we s h ould say
.

tha t these practices h a ve been accepted b e

cause they have paid economically . Sellers
h ave di s covered that i t p a ys to give rst con
sideration t o the welfare of the buyer That .

they have made this discovery only lately is

due to th e fac t that th ey have j ust begun t o
.

learn h o w t o use the meth ods of science in

m easuring the success of their various ta ctics .

The ethical uplifter might take a hint from

this and conclude that if he wi shes to see high
ethical ideal s advance in bu siness he shoul d
teach the seller how to u se scien tic method s
in measurin g the results Of good and bad

sellin g methods .

If these p ractices can be j ustied e th i cally

and economically they can probably be j usti
ed p sycholo gi cally A nd it i s this j ustic a
.

tion tha t we h a ve tried t o furnish throughout

thi s book If o ur message i s ri g htly under
.

stood the reader will lay down the boo k with

the conviction that th e s a tisfac tion of the "

buyer is the keystone th a t supp orts the arch

o f the sale Though a seller may study p sy
.

c h o l o gy a s siduously ; learn all the laws of

memo ry reasoning, suggestion ; apply all th e

,
2 00 THE M IN D OF T H E B UY E R
formulas for arousing intere : t, desi r e and con
d enc e ; and fail t o kee p a s his goal the wel
fare o f the buyer, his words will be as sound
ing brass and tinkling cymbal And though
.

he may go far toward s ucces s by applying the

subtleties o f p sychol ogical lore , h e will go still
farther if he place s one ru le before all others
the old fashioned unselsh doc tri ne emb od
-

ied i n th e G ol d e n R u l e
.
 B OO K S F OR F U R T H E R R EAD I N G

C H A P TER I

AD A M S ,
H E N RY F Adv e rt i s in g a n d I t s M en t a l
. :

La w s N e w Y o rk Th e M a c mil l a n C o
. 1916 ,
.
,
.

C ha p s I I I I ; VI VI I ; X V I
.
- -
.

K I T S O N H A RRY D :
,
M a n u a l fo r th e S t u d y o f A d
.

v e r t is in a n d S el l i n g P h i l a de l p h i a J B L ip
g .
,
. .

in c o tt Co 1 920
p .
, .

P I LL S B U R Y, W . B . : E s sen t i a l s Of P sy c h ol o gy . N ew
Y o rk, T he M a c mi l l a n Co .
,
1 9 2 0, R ev . Ed .

C hap I . .

S H RYER W I LL I A M A : An a l yt i c a l Ad v e rt i s ing
,
. . D e

t r o it B u sin ess S er v i c e C o r p o r a t io n 1 9 1 2
, , .

C H A P TER II

LU C K IE S H ,
M . : La n gu a g e o f C ol o r . N ew Y o rk,
D od d M ea d Co 1918 .
,
.

P I LL S B U RY W B : E ssen t i a l s
, . . o f P sy c h o lo g y , pp .

9 4 1 01 ; C h a p V
-
. .

C H A P TE R III

P I LL SB U RY, W B : . . Es s en t ia l s of P syc ho l o g y , C ha p
t e r s V I VI I I , .
2 04 B I B L IO GR AP HY

C H A P TER IV

F EH LMAN F RA N K : Adv e rt is i ng an d S el l i n g , D e c em
ber, 1 9 1 6 .

M C D O U G A LL W I LL I A M : Th e G ro u p M i n d
, N ew .

Y o rk, G P P u t n a m s C o 1 9 2 0

. . .
, .

R o ss E D W A R D A :
,
S oc i a l P s y c h o l o g y N e w Y o rk
. .
,

Th e M ac mi ll a n C o 1 9 08 C ha p s I V VI .
,
. .
,
.

V E B L E N T H O R S TE I N : T h e T h e o ry o f t he Leis u r e
,

C l a s s N ew Y o rk B W H u eb s ch C ha p s IV
.
,
. . . .
,

VI I .

C H A P TE R V
B ALD W I N JAMES M .H a ndb ook o f P s y c h o lo g y
: .

T w o v o l u me s . N e w Y o rk H e n ry H o l t Co ,
.
,

1 8 9 0, 1 8 9 4 . Vo l . II
pp , . 1 39 1 4 7
-
.

K ITS O N , H A RRY D . : H o w to M a ke Ad v e rt i s e
an

me n t I n t e r e s t ing . W es t e rn Adv e r t ising J a nu ,

ar
y ,
1921 .

C H A P TER VI

P I LL SB U RY, W B . . : E ssen t i a l s of P s y c ho l o g y .

C ha p s . XI XII , .

WA T S O N J O H N
,
B . : P s y c ho l o gy fro m t h e S t a n dp o i nt
of a B eh a v i o r i s t . P h i l a del p h ia , J . B . L ip p in
c o tt Co .
,
19 19 . Pp . 1 74 1 9 3-
.

C H A P TE R V II

K L I N E,L I N US W : Th e . P s yc h o lo g y of H u mo r .

Amer J o f P sych o l
. . .
, Vo l . X VI I I ,
1 9 07, pp .

4 2 1 44 1 -
.
2 06 B I B L IO G R APH Y
M C D O U GA LL W I LL I A M : A n I n tro du ct io n to
, S oc ia l
P s y c ho l o g y L o n d o n M e th u e n .Co ,
.
, 1 9 08 ,

pp . 1 9, 2 0, 3 1 , 3 2 , 4 4 6 7, -
8 7 1 02
-
.

P I LL SB U RY, W . B . : E s sen t i a l s o f P s y cho l o gy . C ha p .

X .

WA T S O N ,
J O H N B : P s y ch o l o gy . fr o m a B eh a v io r
S t a n dp o i n t C h a p I V

ist s , . .

C H A P TER ! II

S C O TT , WA L TER D : I n u en c ing M en in B usine ss . .

C h a p s I I I V VI VI I I
.
, , , .

S I D I S B O R Is : T h e P s yc h o l o g y o f S u gge s t i o n
,
N ew .

Y o rk D Ap p le to n ,
Co . 1 89 8 pp 5 5 5 .
, ,
.
-
.

C H A P TER ! III

J A M E S W I LL I A M : P s y ch o l o g y B rie fe r C o u rs e N e w
, ,
.

Y o rk H en ry H o l t ,
Cc 1 89 3 C ha p XX VI .
,
. . .

K ITSON H A RRY D : Th e P s y c h o l o g i c a l M o men t

,
.
,

S c i e n t i c M o n thl y V o l I X S ep t e mb e r 1 9 1 9 p p ,
.
, , ,
.

2 4 6 2 52 -
.

M C D O U G A LL ,
W I LL I A M : P s yc h o l o gi c a l P sy c h o l o g y .

L o n d o n, J M D en t
. . S o n s, Ltd .
,
1 9 05 . C ha p .

IX .

P I LL SB U RY , W . B . : E ssen t ia l s of P syc h o l o gy , p p .

3 3 8 3 57 -
.
IN D E!
21 0 IN DE X
F a sh i o n , a nd se ll i ng , 72 ; I nvolu nt a ry mov eme nt s , at
c h a r a cter i st i c s o f ,

69 ; ps y c hologi c a l mome nt , 1 79 ;
d e ne d 6 8 , . in fee l i ng 9 0 , .

Fe el in g e x p r e ss i o n s
, of
,

9 0 good in s a l e 8 9 if ;
J a me s, 82 .

in i ns t inct ive a c t io n 1 4 5
, ,

, ,
Judd , 11 .

1 5 0; u np l e a s a nt in d e s ir e , ,
K a l e i do sco p e cro ss se ct i o n
1 1 2 f ; wi th ima g es 1 02 f
-
,

F e hl ma n Fr a nk 6 6 f
, .

of mi nd l ike 3 9 , .

, , .

Ford H e n ry 1 9 7
, , .
L a bor a tory me thod 1 7 , .

Forge tt i ng curve o f 4 7 f , , .
L a ws o f comp e t it io n 1 8 8
, ,

o f s u gg es t i o n 1 5 7 if
Ge ogr a p h i c a l study of buy
, .

in g p ubl i c 5 7 , .
M a gaz i nes 5 5 6 2 6 4 6 7
G old e n R ul e 2 00
.
, , , ,

, .
M a gnitude see E x t e ns ity ,
G ood w ill 1 1 8 f
-
, .
M e d iu ms 1 7 C h a p ,IV , .

G rou p mind s ee P ubl ic -

, .
choi ce o f 57 f ; d ist inc ,

H i stor i c a l me thod 1 1 t i o ns be t wee n 5 5 ff , .

Memory i n u e nc e d by r epe
.
,

H o sp it l 8 6 a ,

t itio n 4 6 ; u nc ons c ious

.
,

H u mor 9 3 , . '
, ,

49 .

I d ea 1 56 ; in s ug ge s t i o n Mo i nto i c tur a ctor 79

, , p e, ,

1 63 ; in vol i t i o n 1 71 ll i n g 40
'

, . in se , .

I de ls 1 8 6
a , . M ove me nt 3 5 in d si re ,
"

e ,

I d e o motor a ct io n 1 5 4 f
-
. . 1 1 1 f ; in s ugge s ti o n 1 54 ; ,

I ma ge a nd fe l ing 1 1 0;
, e , s i mul a t e d 40 , .

c l e a rn es s of 1 00 ; in D e
s ir e 1 1 0; n a tu r e of 97
,
N p ol e o n 1 70
a , .

99,
,

1 00
, ,
N g t i v e s ugg st i o n 1 5 9 f
e a e , .

N ws p a p e r s 5 5 5 9 f
.

I mi t a t i o n , 70 .
e , , .

I mp re ss io n , in bel ie f , 1 2 0; P le as a nt fee l i n g 9 1 f , .

1 85 . P o sit i v e s ugge st io n 1 5 9 , .

I nh e r i t a nc e 31 ; in in , f P r ic e 1 89
, .

s t inc t iv e a ct o
i n, 1 43 . P r imi tiv creduli ty
e s e , e

t
I ns inc i e a tv
n, ct i o
91, 96 C re dul i ty .

a nd ee n , f li g
1 5 0; c a a c h r Ps yc holo gi c a l d i ffe re nc es ,

t e r ist ic s o f , 1 40 ; a ss f cl i b e t ween p ubl ic s 58 f ; ,

c a t io n o f, 1 4 7 ; e ne , f d d mome nt 1 69 1 7 7 ; ho w to , ,

m e t 1 79 ; p o int o f
'

1 39 . e ,

t ity
I n ens , 3 1 . V ei w 9 , .

I n e es , c a ssi a n O ,
t r t c t i o f l P sychology e x pe r i me n t in , ,

d d
80, 8 3 , 9 6 ; f
e ne , 77 ; 1 2 ; O ld
nd new c o n a

ho w to rou f ho w c e p t io ns O f rul O f
a se , 7 7 ; 9 ; , e

to ur l w
me a s e, 6 3 ; a s o f, thumb s sc i ent ic 2 3 f
v .
, .

79 f . P ubl ic d e ne d 5 4
, , .
 INDE X 21 1

R eal i ty feel i ng o f 1 2 0
, , . S oc i ologi c a l i nvesti g a t io n o f
R ea so n 1 3 1 f ; d a nge rs
, in, buy ing p ubl ic 58 , .

1 36 ; se co nd a ry r Ol e o f, S p c i c w ord s 1 01 f
e , .

1 37 . S t t i s t i c l i nv e st i g a t i o n of
a a

R e cog ni t i o n O f , d iic u l t y in retur ns 1 6 , .

re a so ni ng 1 3 2 ; O f p sycho ,
S t t ist i c s 2 3
a , .

logic a l mo me nt 1 78 f , . S tr a m me nt a l 4 ; a t s t a ge
e , ,

R e p e t i t i o n 4 4 ; d i s tr ibut io n
, of a tt e nt i o n 2 9 ; in d e ,

o f, 4 6, 49, 95 ; in ins p ir s ir e 1 1 3 f ; in s ugg e s t i o n

, ,

ing co nde nce , 1 26 . 1 5 4 1 8 6 ; st ge s in 5

, a , .

R e t e nt i o n 4 9 , . S ugge sti on b nor m l 1 52 ; ,

a a ,

R ul e O f thu mb p syc hology , d ne d 1 5 2 ; l a w s o f

e , ,

ch a r a ct eri st ic s o f, 2 3
"

. 1 5 7 if .

S u p e rl t i ve 1 9 1
a , .

S yll bl e s s e W ord s
a , e .

S a l e d e ne d 3
S l e sm n nd a uto
, , .

a a su g ges
, a T r a d e ma rks -
, 1 65 f .

t io n 1 6 7 f ; sel c t io n f
, e o , T ruthful ne ss ,
in a dv e rti s i ng ,

20 . 191 .

S t f ct i o
a is a n, 96 ; a ee in , f l g y
T p e, i n v e st i g t i o n a o f lo we r
1 1 4 ; in co d c
n en e , 1 27 ; c a s e, 1 7 ff .

t he a O se in , 1 8 5
go l f ll g .

Sc i t
en i c me thod, 1 2 if . U co ns c iou s
n , a ct i o n , 1 55 ;
S t c l gth of
e n e n es , en ,
in me memoriz ing , 49 "
.

d iums, 6 1 f .

S e ns a tio n c o e fc ie nt 1 2 3
-
, . V a l u e 1 87 , .

S ell in g forms o f 3
, , . V i s u a l i ma ge s 9 9 , f .

S h a kes p e a r e 1 70 , . V o c a bul a ry 1 02 , .

S hry e r 1 6 , .

S ita ris , 1 40 . W ord s l ength of , , in a d ver

S lo ga n , 4 5 , 52 , 1 60, 1 9 7 . t ising mediu ms , 60 .