U. S. Radio (Oct 1957-Dec 1958)

BBDO's best brains produce a commercial in the new advertising tradition lf ... words and music designed to sell hard in the soft manner 4. KINKS ARE TAKEN OUT as tape is checked and edited by ( le-ft to right) Ben Allen, John Dean, BBDO radio producer, Joe Hornsby, Tom Nola, engineer, and Bill Hurst. 5. COMPLETED COMMERCIAL SOUNDS fine to (left to right) Wells Newell, Art Bellaire, Joe Hornsby and Ben Allen. Client will hear disk for the first time on following day. MR.8! GROUP (SINGING) ZZZZZEREX protects with MR-8! ZZZZZEREX protects with MR-8! SOLO (KEVIN GAVIN) What makes ZEREX ANTI-FREEZE so great? SOLO (MARION BYE) GROUP MR-8! ZZZZZEREX by Du Pont with MR-8! Is anti-rust, anti-acid — won't evaporate! SOLO (KEVIN GAVIN) And what makes ZEREX ANTI-FREEZE so great? SOLO (MARION BYE) MR-8! GROUP MR-8! ANNOUNCER It's the MR-8 in Du Pont Zerex that makes the big difference in anti-freeze today. ZEREX anti-freeze will give your cars' cooling system unequaled protection against acid, rust and corrosion all winter long — and it won't rot radiator hose. Zerex, the premium permanenttype anti-freeze, is made and backed by Du Pont . . . your guarantee of quality. GROUP (SINGING) ZEREX by Du Pont with MR-8 Is anti-rust, anti-acid — won't evaporate! SOLO (KEVIN GAVIN) See your dealer — and make a date! GROUP To get ZEREX— with MR-8! the (re;iti\e Ijoaid and vice president in charge of radio-tv, Cunningham and Walsh, said that both hard sell and soft sell do have their legitimate place in modern advertising, but that the agency must be flexible in using them. • Dr. Tibor Koeves, vice president, Institute for Motivational Research, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, concurred in Mr. Mahoney's views, and added the Institute's findings on the psychological reasons behind the effectiveness of hard sell and soft sell. (See below.) • Joseph Stone, vice president, J. W^alter Thompson, deplored the bad taste of many hard sell commercials, and blamed their continued use on uninformed clients. • Arthur Bellaire, vice president in charge of radio-tv copy. Batten, Barton, Durstine &: Osborn, pointed up the importance of adapting commercials to the changing needs of the client. Crowing Role of Research Mr. Kirschbaum attriljuted the bliuring of the line between hard and soft sell to the erowins; role played by research in advertising today. He pointed out that "before research we flew by the seat of oin^ pants. If a product sold at the moment that was all we wanted to kno^v. Now there is no more guess \\ork to knowing the type of audience you are tning to reach Avith a certain product. The guess work lies in what to do to sell the product to that particiUar audience, and pretesting is taking the guess work out of that." Mr. Kirschbaum said that research has shown that you cannot reach and sell most audiences today by using either hard or soft sell exclusively. Vou nuist tailor-make vour commercial to yom audience, which very often will necessitate a combination of the two techniques. Mr. Mahoney agreed that hard sell and soft sell are "relative tenus depending on the product and the |)roblem." Mr. Mahoney mentioned that impulse, often loA\-priced products like chewing gum frequently lend themselves to the high power pitch. On the other hand, heavv industrv or expensive goods to which the consumer must give considerable thought, often employ low pressure techniques successfully. Dr. Koeves, agreed with Mr. Mahoney that hard and soft sell ^till have validity as both terms and approaches to selling. He defined hard sell as "an overstatement . . . the direct and often repetitious hammering home of each point." Soft sell, he said, "is understatement. It is modest, sparse and reticent." He revealed that research done by the Institute has shown that the effectiveness of hard sell rests on four major psychological points: The Reasons Why 1. It promises emotional excitement. 2. Hard sell provokes the desire to own or use a unique or outstanding product by playing upon the listener's desire not to be left out of a good thing. 3. It relieves the consumer's misery of choice by offering him the best in the field. 4. By fulfilling the first three functions, hard sell tends to oHiterate the image of competing products. (Cont'd on p. 49) U.S. RADIO • November 195^ 21