8. Securing action thru of our actions are the result of a carefully reasoned decision. Most of our acts are the result of imitation, habit, sug gestion or some related form of mental phenomenon which is inferior to the reasoning processes. Our most important moves and our most sacred concep tions are reached by means bf the merest suggestion. The majority of people are largely influenced by sug gestion.
Suggestion has a further value in leading people to a decision in that considerably more time is required to follow a line of reasoning than to follow a series of suggestions. An advertisement may argue the neces sity of buying a new suit without eliciting any re sponse, but when the suit is seen on a living model, a woman can easily imagine herself wearing it with consequent improvement in appearance, and most likely she will deCide to buy one.
The chief point, then, in the use of suggestion as a factor to secure decision and action is that it must be put so strongly that competing or adverse ideas are not awakened, or if they should arise, they immedi ately vanish.
There are three general methods of making a per son susceptible to suggestion: (1) by securing his confidence; (2) by repetition; (3) by a device known as indirect suggestion. The first one has been dis cussed in a previous section.
9. Suggestion by repetition.—By continued repeti tion the advertiser is often able to bring about the state of mind which must precede a purchase. There must be repetition in suggestion; either the suggestion must be repeated in the advertisement or the adver tisement must be repeated in the medium. The amount of direct suggestion that it is necessary to use varies directly with the difficulty of the act to be per formed. In advertising, where it is admittedly dif ficult to get the reader to act, direct suggestion may appear again and again thruout the copy.
10. Indirect suggestion.—The imitative faculty constantly compels imitation of a suggested course. The well-to-do society reader of Vogue or Vanity Fair, would, for example, most certainly resist any direct command in an advertisement that she wear a certain fabric or garment. Yet she may be influenced greatly by an illustration featuring the Duchess of Marlborough or the Princess Troubetzkoy in a be coming gown of the advertised material.
Indirect suggestion is employed in the advertise ment of Castle Hats which features a photograph of Mrs. Vernon Castle, and in the advertisement of Mary Garden Perfume which uses a photograph of noted singer.
11. Securing action turn "limited time."—A method based on one of the most valuable principles of selling is employed extensively by insurance agents. Learning when a prospective insurer's birth-date will call for an increased rate, the agent points out how money will be saved by taking insurance on or before a certain time. The advertiser conforms to a similar principle in limiting the time in which a certain offer is left open.
"Do it now"; "Act today"; "Sign the coupon"; "Don't delay"—these and hundreds of other direct commands look out from the pages. of every news paper and magazine, and strike the observer's eye from every billboard. Sometimes these phrases are used as headlines; at others, they form the backbone of the advertisement. Often imperative phrases or sen tences are placed above the order coupon. Sometimes they are presented in the form of a rhymed jingle that sticks in the memory like a burr in a coat.
Restrictions upon anything usually make that thing desirable. This tendency has been turned to constructive use in advertising, by limiting the time in which a given offer will stay open. Usually the offer has to do with a "special" price which is to be raised after a certain period of time has elapsed. The advertisers of the new Encyclopedia Britannica pub lished the date on which the price would be materially advanced, thus automatically stimulating orders.
12. Securing action thru "free is in all of us an inherent love of "getting something for nothing." Anything offered free, therefore, always attracts, aside from the immediate consideration that it appeals to our natural cupidity. The basic fact that the prize must often be paid for indirectly does not usually detract from its value. The advertiser who makes a bid for action by means of free samples, booklets or service is, therefore, conforming to an im portant psychological principle. The free offer that he makes may not actually sell the goods, but as a means of getting a reply, it is of rare value.