How to write Breakthrough Advertising according to the great Eugene Schwartz, Full course - Part 2

Summary of YouTube Video Transcript

Key Concepts: Mass desire, product performance, market awareness, market sophistication, headline function, stages of awareness, identification headline.

Headline's Core Function

The core concept of an ad is the bridge between the mass desire of the market (e.g., weight loss) and the product's performance that satisfies that desire (e.g., a liquid meal). The ad always starts with the market and leads them to the product. The headline's primary job is not to sell the product directly, but to stop the prospect and compel them to read the second sentence. Each subsequent sentence has the same goal: to keep the prospect reading. Only when prospects are actively seeking a specific brand and a special price reduction is offered can the headline do the full selling job.

Factors Determining Headline Content

The headline content is determined by answering three questions:

1. What is the mass desire that creates this market? (Already defined)
2. How much do these people know today about the way your product satisfies this desire? (State of Awareness)
3. How many other products have been presented to them before yours? (State of Sophistication)

The first question identifies the market's driving force. The second and third questions pinpoint the market's location relative to the product.

Stages of Market Awareness and Headline Strategies

The transcript details five stages of market awareness, each requiring a different headline strategy:

1. The Most Aware

• Description: Customer knows the product, its benefits, and wants it.
• Headline Strategy: State the product name and a bargain price.
• Example: "R Zar lens electric eye camera, formerly $149.50, now only $119.95."
• Role of Copywriter: Merchandise manager's phrase maker; price is the most important element.

2. Customer Knows of the Product But Doesn't Yet Want It

• Description: Prospect is aware of the product but not fully convinced of its benefits or superiority.
• Headline Strategy: Focus on reinforcing desire, sharpening the product's image, extending its application, introducing new proof, announcing new mechanisms, or changing the product's image.
• Seven Tasks for the Headline:
  1. Reinforce desire (e.g., "Steinway: The instrument of the Immortals.")
  2. Sharpen the image (e.g., "Which twin has the Toni? Hair coloring so natural only her hairdresser knows for sure. (Miss Clairol)")
  3. Extend the image (e.g., "Anywhere you go, Hertz is always nearby.")
  4. Introduce new proof (e.g., "Nine out of 10 screen stars use Lux toilet soap for their priceless smooth skins.")
  5. Announce a new mechanism for better satisfaction (e.g., "Hoover's new invention washes floors and vacuums up the scrub water.")
  6. Announce a new mechanism eliminating limitations (e.g., "You breathe no dusty odor when you do it with Luit.")
  7. Completely change the image (addressed in Chapter 3).

3. How to Introduce New Products

• Description: Prospect wants what the product does but doesn't know the product exists.
• Headline Strategy: Name the desire/solution, prove it can be accomplished, and show the product's mechanism.
• Three Steps:
  1. Name the desire and/or its solution in your headline.
  2. Prove that that solution can be accomplished.
  3. Show that the mechanism of that accomplishment is contained in your product.
• Copywriter Attributes: Analysis, intuition, verbal creativity.
• Examples: "How to win friends and influence people," "When doctors feel rotten, this is what they do."

4. How to Introduce Products That Solve Needs

• Description: Prospect recognizes a need but doesn't connect it to the product.
• Headline Strategy: Name the need/solution, dramatize the need, and present the product as the inevitable solution.
• Examples: "Corns," "Stops maddening itch," "Shrinks hemorrhoids without surgery," "Look Mom, no cavities."
• Verbal Twists: Used when the problem isn't clearly defined or the solution has lost its freshness (e.g., "How a bald-headed barber helped save my hair.")

5. How to Open Up a Completely Unaware Market

• Description: Prospect is unaware of the desire/need or won't admit it.
• Headline Strategy: Focus on identification, echoing an emotion or attitude to draw the market together. Avoid price, product name, or direct statements of function/desire in the headline.
• Key Principle: Calling your Market together in the headline of your ad.
• Headline Type: Identification headline.
• Examples:
  • Hidden Dream: "The University of the night" (for home correspondence courses).
  • Hidden Fear: "Why men crack" (for a coffee substitute).
  • Universally Accepted Image: "Within the curve of a woman's arm. A Frank discussion of a subject too often avoided." (for a woman's deodorant).
  • Hidden Desire: The mar tattoo ad with its viral men Cowboys racing car drivers skydivers Etc.
  • Common Resentment: "Why haven't TV owners been told these facts?" (for a TV repair book).
  • Ultimate Triumph: "They laughed when I sat down at the piano but when I started to play." (for music lessons).
  • Result of a Problem: "Often a bridesmaid but never a bride." (for a mouthwash).
  • Result of Accomplishment: "Here's an extra $50 Grace I'm making real money now." (for home correspondence courses).

The Sophistication of Your Market

• Description: How many similar products have they been told about before?
• Headline Strategy: If you are the first in the market, be simple and direct. State the need or the claim in your headline. Dramatize that claim in your copy and then bring in the product.

Synthesis/Conclusion

The key takeaway is that effective advertising hinges on understanding the target market's awareness level and tailoring the headline accordingly. The headline's primary function is to engage the prospect and draw them into the ad's body copy, where the selling process truly begins. Different stages of awareness require different approaches, ranging from direct product announcements to subtle identification strategies. The sophistication of the market also plays a crucial role, dictating whether a simple, direct approach or a more nuanced strategy is required.