ogilvy on advertising. ogilvy, david. new york: crown, 1983, 224 pp. $24.95
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This article was downloaded by: [University of Toronto Libraries]On: 20 December 2014, At: 07:43Publisher: RoutledgeInforma Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Journal of AdvertisingPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/ujoa20
Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy, David. New York: Crown,1983, 224 pp. $24.95Leonard W. Lanfranco aa University of South Carolina , USAPublished online: 30 May 2013.
To cite this article: Leonard W. Lanfranco (1983) Ogilvy on Advertising. Ogilvy, David. New York: Crown, 1983, 224 pp. $24.95,Journal of Advertising, 12:4, 50-51, DOI: 10.1080/00913367.1983.10672865
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1983.10672865
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BOOK REVIEWS
Book Review Editor:Robert L. KingThe Citadel
TESTED SENTENCES THAT SELL. Wheeler, Elmer.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1937, 214 pp.$5.95.
Tested Sentences That Sell may have been atrailblazer in teaching selling techniques when it firstappeared in 1937. But for today's students of salesmanship it is valuable mostly for its historical viewpoint, provided by a salesman trying to teach othersto sell successfully.
Its "proven techniques," called "Wheelerisms,"have been adapted to many copywriting and salesmanship texts today. Certainly, his "Wheelerisms"work. The personal selling techniques of many oftoday's door-to-door/home party salesmen comefrom Tested Sentences That Sell. And it is interestingto see how many cliches such as "Sell the sizzle - notthe steak" and "Say it with flowers" were created byWheeler.
If read for its personal history of many of today'saccepted salesmanship approaches, or as a peptalk,Tested Sentences That Sell could be an interestingaddition to a library on sales techniques. But theold-fashioned writing and contents prevent Wheeler'sbook from becoming more than just an interestingsupplement to books more attuned to our modernworld.
LEE S. WENTHEUniversity of Georgia
OGILVY ON ADVERTISING. Ogilvy, David. NewYork: Crown, 1983,224 pp. $24.95.
"Roots" may be the key word in describing DavidOgilvy's life and his advertising theories. Ogilvy onAdvertising demonstrates that most of his advertisingprinciples were developed in his pre-advertisingoccupations and in the early years of Ogilvy andMather.
Even though he cites hundreds of advertisingexamples, Ogilvy seems to return to his earliest advertising successes - Hathaway Shirts, Rolls Royce,
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Schweppes' Commander Whitehead, and Shell Platformate - for most of his basic concepts. Indeed,some of the ideas in this book appeared in a DanielStarch presentation in the early 1970s. Ogilvy, astrong believer in the Starch methodology, contributed to that presentation.
Those who have read Ogilvy's Confessions of AnAdvertising Man (1963) will quickly realize that thisnew book is a reiteration and extension of his previously stated principles: the need for a strongresearch foundation, long copy (when appropriate),brand image, positioning, and that it takes a "bigidea" to create lasting advertising. It's hard to arguewith his tenets. Since he founded the agency in 1949,Ogilvy and Mather has grown to the fourth largest inthe world, with 1,600 clients in 40 countries.
Ogilvy covers the total spectrum of advertising inhis 20 chapters - everything from running an agency,to direct mail, to agency presentations. The underlying theme of Ogilvy on Advertising, however, is thecreation of advertising that sells. Ogilvy disdainsadvertising that is created to satisfy the advertisingman, rather than the needs of the client.
He believes that by utilizing certain basic principlesadvertisements will do what they are intended to do- promise consumers value. Ogilvy lists his 16 tips fortelevision commercials, 10 typographical devices forincreasing readership, five steps for applying for a job,and 13 changes that will affect advertising in thefuture. The book, however, is much more than abook of lists; it is an applied philosophy of the profession by one of its most successful practitioners.
Advertising educators will disagree with his conclusions regarding advertising education. He dismissesit in two brief paragraphs, concluding " . . . theteachers lack the practical experience to be rele-vant Most of their graduates get jobs with smallagencies " Most educators will wish Ogilvy hadapplied his own belief in research to learn more aboutadvertising education.
Even if readers disagree with some of Ogilvy'sconclusions, they will still find Ogilvy on Advertisingwonderfully written, beautifully illustrated with 185advertisements (most in four color) and a point ofview that forces contemplation. Those principles that
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Ogilvy discovered in his early career served him andthe advertising profession well.
LEONARD W. LAN FRANCOUniversity of South Carolina
SPECIALTY ADVERTISING: NEW DIMENSIONSIN CREATIVE MARKETING. Herpel, George L. andSteve Slack. Irving, TX: Specialty Advertising Assoc.International, 1983, 188 pp.
"Specialty advertising suffers in comparison withother forms of advertising because few colleges ortextbooks cover the medium in theory or in practice,"according to Herpel and Slack. While this book seemsintended for a scholarly audience and also seems tobe aimed at redressing the lack of coverage specialtyreceives, its contribution is in providing some interesting illustrations of practice. Though the authors'efforts are earnest, their book seems more to pointout the reasons for the situation they describe than tochange that situation.
In fairness to the authors, the task of bringingcoverage of the theory and practice of specialty incolleges is bigger than one book could hope to accomplish. Some of the reasons for this certainly lie withinthe industry itself. While many specialty reps aresalespeople who deal in various lines of imprintedmerchandise, some have evolved toward the status ofsales promotion counselors providing imaginativeand effective campaigns for a variety of clients usinga variety of promotional tools. However, the factremains that for many advertisers the decision todevelop a promotional campaign is made at a higherlevel. Specialty or ptomotion experts enter thepicture to assist with tactical concerns. Such tacticalmatters will always receive less attention than strategic ones in colleges.
The book itself reflects this situation. Numerouschapters such as those on the promotion mix, consumer behavior and planning (3, 4 and 10 respectively)are simply shorter reviews of these subjects thanwould be found in any marketing or advertising text.They do not provide any information unique to, orof particular interest in, specialty advertising.Another characteristic of the text is the reliance onextensive (both long and frequent) quotations fromthe 1972 version of the book, almost giving thereader the impression that he/she should be readingthe other edition instead.
Despite the continued assertion of the importanceof specialty as a medium, the authors do not provide
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much industry data. Though the structure and composition of the industry is explained, information onpricing practices, annual sales volumes (either recentor historical) or indications of unit volume inimportant specialty items are unaccountably overlooked. This seems odd in that such figures reinforcethe point the authors make about the significance ofthe medium. Marketing Communications (August1983) estimates $16.4 billion in expenditures for"Premiums and Incentives" in 1982, 16 percent oftotal expenditures for sales promotion. Surely theauthors had access to equally significant, moredetailed, perhaps more accurate information onwhich to rest their case.
The chapter on industry research seems both toillustrate the state of the field and to suggest anagenda for it. Some findings of research on specialtysummarized by the authors include: specialties areused to "promote the company name;" most business people use and have received specialty items; thequality of the specialty users image appears closelylinked with the quality of the specialty item. Whilethese findings were no doubt important in the context of particular studies, they suggest that importanthigher level strategic research remains to be done.For example:
1. What conditions suggest that a specialtycampaign might be particularly effective?
2. Is specialty advertising more effective withsome groups than with others?
3. What are the competitive implications ofspecialty advertising?
There are certainly many other equally fundamentalquestions to be formulated and answered throughresearch.
This brings us back to the problem posed by theauthors at the outset. A book like this can (and does)provide some interesting examples of practice. Thebook also explains the organization of the industry.Unfortunately, there is no theory at all. Until there issome theory, or credible hypotheses, or at leastanswers to some fundamental strategic questions,there is very little hope specialty advertising will getmuch coverage in college textbooks or classrooms.
CHARLES F. FRAZERUniversity of Colorado - Boulder
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