(^18) TH E M I N D O F T H E BUY E R
l egibl e h ea dline. To i nve stiga te this w e
migh t e nte r th e p sych ol ogic al lab o ra to ry, ex
p ose sampl e h eadl ine s th rough a n instrumen t
c all e d th e tachist oscop e ; m ea sure th e sp ee d
with which a numb e r of pe rson s c an p erceive
th e h ea dline s in th e two kinds of typ e ; tab u
la te ou r resul ts ; c olla te th em ; an d c oncl ud e
w hich typ e i s th e mo re l egible. M any a p
plications of this f orm o f scie ntifi c m eth o d are
desc ri be d i n th e several b ooks o n th e P sy
chol o gy of Advertising. We may c onfidently
affi rm th a t th e m eth od h a s demon st ra te d its
adap tabili ty to th e sol ution o f a numb er of
p roblem s of selli ng. Wi th certai n p robl ems,
h oweve r, i t c a n h ardly b e use d effec tively,
owin g i n p art to an inevit abl e artificiality of
t h e l ab ora to ry a tm osph e re.
3. B u t w e h ave no t exha uste d th e p ossi
bil ities of scientifi c m e th od i n th e i nve stiga
tion o f p robl em s of selling. I n c a se n eith er
o f th e ab ove two me th o ds i s a dap tabl e, o r i n
c ase w e wish to c orroborat e o ur findings by
oth e r kinds o f inform a tion, we m ay se c ure
ligh t from still a n oth e r di rec ti on. O ur aim,
b e i t rem embe re d, i s to disc over wi th scien tific
ac c uracy th e m ost effec tive way to do a thin g
b efore w e p roc eed to do i t. If w e c anno t ac
c ompli sh thi s i n th e ma rke t o r i n th e labo ra
nextflipdebug5
(nextflipdebug5)
#1