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Costly mistakes are made by blindly following some ill-conceived
idea. An article, for instance, may have many uses, one of which is to prevent disease. Prevention is not a popular subject, however much it should be. People will do much to cure trouble, but people in general will do little to prevent it. This has been proved my many
disappointments.
One may spend much money in arguing prevention when the
same money spent on another claim would bring many times the
sales. A heading which asserts one claim may bring ten times the
results of a heading which asserted another. An advertiser may go far astray unless he finds out. A tooth paste may tend to prevent decay.
It may also beautify teeth. Tests will probably find that the latter
appeal is many times as strong as the former. The most successful
tooth paste advertiser never features tooth troubles in his headlines.
Tests have proved them unappealing. Other advertisers in this line
center on those troubles. That is often because results are not known and compared.
A soap may tend to cure eczema. It may at the same time improve
complexion. The eczema claim may appeal to one in a hundred while the beauty claims would appeal to nearly all. To even mention the eczema claims might destroy the beauty claims.
A man has a relief for asthma. It has done so much for him he
considers it a great advertising possibility. We have no statistics on this subject. We do not know the percentage of people who suffer from asthma. A canvass might show it to be one in a hundred. If so, he would need to cover a hundred useless readers to reach one he wants.
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