Principles and Practice of Advertising - The Law Of Feeling Tone
By Donald Hammond
It is generally true that associations accompanied by pleasantness tend to be reinforced and more permanent, certain, and strong. Associations accompanied by disagreeableness tend on the other hand to be weakened and inhibited, and to disappear more quickly. Thus I teach a dog to beg by saying "Beg, Rover" repeatedly. Sometimes, by mere accident, he will rise upon his hind legs at the moment in which I say these words. At once I reward him by giving him a piece of meat, an apple, or a caress. The agreeableness caused by the reward reinforces this association between hearing the words " Beg, Rover," and the act of begging or standing on the hind legs.
Connections not acting at that moment are not thus reinforced. So it comes about that in time this association is made stronger than all others, and the dog has then learned the trick - the stimulus always calls out the response.
In much the same way the advertiser proceeds. He puts his advertisement on a useful novelty, such as a calendar, a pencil, a soap dish, a memorandum book, and then presents the novelty to the prospective buyer, in the form of a gift. He trusts that the gift will be agreeable and that this pleasure or feeling-tone will reinforce the association of his name with some moment of need. The success of this device will obviously depend on the amount of agreeableness really produced and on the relevance of the novelty to the need in question.
But, in a still more conspicuous way, should the advertiser utilize the law of feeling-tone when he prepares his advertising copy. In this connection another law is also important : the Law of Fusion.
Donald "DonOmite" Hammond has been a freelance webdesigner and programmer for over 10 years. He has marketed himself and his products as well as those of customers thru their websites..