Obvious Adams and the Store Nobody Could Find

There are a ton of great old books about how to advertise.

But the best one I’ve found is Obvious Adams by Robert R. Updegraff.

It’s not about creative genius.

Or any gee-whiz copywriting tactic.

It’s about doing the obvious things.

A hat company in the book had two stores in the same city. One made money. The other didn’t.

They’d spent lots on ads, but the ads only seemed to help the successful store.

So they sent in Adams to figure out why.

He walked past the struggling store three times while trying to find it.

It was on a busy shopping street, but the store was hard to see.

“People didn’t see the store; people couldn’t find the store easily.”

They were paying for advertising to bring people to a store people could barely notice.

That’s what I love about this book.

There was no clever campaign.

Adams just saw what the people inside the business couldn’t.

It’s hard to read the label from inside the jar.