Reality in Advertising [Hardcover]

Rosser Reeves (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 153 pages
• Publisher: Knopf (March 12, 1961)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394442288
• ISBN-13: 978-0394442280
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,068,378 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding nuts and bolts look at effective advertising., November 15, 1999

By 

Michael G. Magney (Elko, Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality in Advertising (Hardcover)

As a student of advertising I read Reality In Advertising and learned more about the nuts and bolts of effective advertising than I learned from four years of college or any other source. The writing was succinct and the examples well chosen and revealing. I can't recommend it highly enough for anyone interested in the subject.

26 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There's a reason it's out of print, May 3, 2005

By 

David B "David B" (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality in Advertising (Hardcover)

Despite being touted by some as a brilliant advertising book, Reality in Advertising was a letdown - offering just a few interesting insights. It may have been revolutionary decades ago, but there is a reason that it's now out of print.

It's a pleasant, quick read, but its insights are few and far between.

Here are the interesting tidbits, some obvious, others less so.

1. You need a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - the concept that the reader comes away with. It must tout a specific benefit, that is unique in the category (or at least not claimed by or widely recognized in others), and be persuasive enough to lure new customers over to you.

2. Advertising is the art of getting a USP into the heads of the most people at the lowest cost.

3. Ad effectiveness varies enormously. Measure the following factors to make sure you're not wasting your money - and to see how your competitors stack up.

(3A) Penetration: The percentage of people who remember your current advertising.

(3B) Usage Pull: The percentage of customers among people who remember versus don't remember your advertising. This can be negative for a bad ad.

An ad campaign's overall effectiveness is the Penetration times the Usage Pull. Doubling the effectiveness effectively doubles the ad dollars.

4. Techniques to optimize effectiveness:

(4A) Stick to a single, strong claim, to avoid diluting the power of your core message. Secondary messages are fine only if they reinforce the core message.

(4B) Copy sometimes fails to convey the intended USP. Test the copy by asking readers to articulate the message, and calculating the percent that get it right.

(4C) Don't change your ad campaign - even over decades. Doing so will destroy Penetration. Readers won't get bored by your campaign or even remember it well.

(4D) It's better to spend your budget reaching more people less frequently, than fewer people more frequently.

(4E) Avoid visuals and gimmicks that attract attention to themselves at the expense of your USP's recall. Even jewelry can be distracting. Test to check the recall of your USP.

(4F) All senses should express the same message at the same time, to more successfuly convey it. Remove elements of an ad that don't help you convey the message. For instance, depicting a narrator is just a distraction.

Interesting? Sure - but that's the extent of the book's insight!

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality in Advertising, January 6, 2000

By 

bill schley (Westport,CT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Reality in Advertising (Hardcover)

The single greatest book on modern advertising ever written. The word "bible" is overused to decribe great books, but this is worthy of the tag. Rosser Reeves virtually invented the USP--unique selling proposition--the basis of all great marketing and selling. It is more relevant today than when it was written 40 years ago. Read this book and you'll know more than 90% of the ad execs in NY who make $600,000 a year.