In the days of the oral “spelling match” boys and girls were better spellers than products of a later school system, because they used not only the eye to see the printed word, the arm and hand to feel in writing it, but also the ear to hear it and the vocal muscles to utter it. And because of this fact oral spelling is being brought back to the schoolroom.
How to Sell Goods by Mental Imagery
If you have pianos to advertise, do not limit your advertisement to a beautiful picture of the mahogany case and general words telling the reader that it is “the best.” Pianos are musical instruments, and the descriptive words should first of all call up delightful auditory images in your reader’s mind.
If you have for sale an article of food, do not simply tell your customer how good it is. Let him see it, feel it, and particularly taste it, if you want him to call for it the next time he enters your store.
A Study of Advertisements
Turn, for example, to the [advertisement] of a certain brand of chocolate, facing [page 6]. The daintily spread table, the pretty girl, the steaming cup, the evident satisfaction of the man, who looks accustomed to good living,—these elements combine in a skilful appeal to the senses. Turn now to [another advertisement] of this same brand of chocolate, shown facing [page 22]. The purpose here is to inform you as to the large quantity of cocoa beans roasted in the company’s furnaces. Whether this fact is of any consequence or not, the impression you get from the picture is of a wheelbarrow full of something that looks like coal being trundled by a dirty workman, while the shovel by the furnace door and the cocoa beans scattered about the floor remind one of a begrimed iron foundry.
The Words that Create Desire
The only words that will ever sell anything are graphic words, picturesque words, words that call up distinct and definite mental pictures of an attractive kind.
The more sensory images we have of any object the better we know it.
If you want to make a first impression lasting, make it vivid. It will then photograph itself upon the memory and arouse the curiosity.