Mass Desire Channeling
Channel existing market desire onto your product instead of trying to create demand
Schwartz's foundational framework establishes that all advertising power comes from the market, not from the copy. Mass desire is the public spread of a private want, and the copy writer's job is not to create desire but to detect it, measure it, and channel it onto a specific product. Every product contains multiple performances (transportation, status, economy, etc.), but only one can dominate a headline and tap the maximum economic force at any given moment.
The framework operates through three stages: First, choose the most powerful desire applicable to your product by evaluating three dimensions -- urgency/intensity, staying power/repetition, and scope/number of people sharing the desire. Second, acknowledge that desire in your headline by meeting the prospect at their current point of awareness. Third, show how your product's performances inevitably satisfy that desire through functional benefits, not physical product features.
Schwartz distinguishes between permanent forces (mass instincts like health and attractiveness, and unsolved technological problems) and forces of change (trends, style shifts, mass education). The copy writer must inventory these forces daily and harness products onto their backs. The physical product never sells; what sells is the functional product -- what it does for people. Every physical fact only serves to justify price, document quality, assure longevity, sharpen mental pictures, or provide fresh believability.
- Copy cannot create desire; it can only channel existing desire onto a product
- Mass desire is the public spread of a private want, requiring statistical significance to form a profitable market
- The Amplification Effect means $1 spent on advertising that exploits existing desire can create $50-$100 in sales
- When advertising tries to create desire rather than exploit it, it becomes education and produces at best $1 in sales per $1 spent
- Every product is two products: the physical product (steel, glass, paper) and the functional product (what it does for people)
- The physical product never sells directly; it only documents, justifies, or proves the functional product
- Only one dominant performance can be featured in a headline at any given moment
- Every mass desire has three dimensions: urgency/intensity, staying power, and scope
- Inventory the Mass Desires in Your MarketIdentify and catalog all the existing desires, needs, and cravings that your market already feels. Classify them as either Permanent Forces (mass instincts like health/attractiveness, or unsolved tech problems) or Forces of Change (trends, style shifts, mass education effects). This is an ongoing study that should occupy part of every working day.Pro tipRead what your market reads, listen to their conversations, study their complaints. The desire must already exist at statistically significant scale before you can profitably exploit it.WarningNever try to create a desire that does not already exist. The most common and expensive mistake in advertising is fighting against mass desire rather than riding it.
- Analyze Your Product's PerformancesList every distinct performance your product delivers -- not physical features, but what it does for the customer. Group these performances against the mass desires each one satisfies. A car offers transportation, dependability, economy, power, recognition, value, and novelty -- each tapping a different desire.Pro tipDig deeper than surface-level benefits. Hidden performances discovered through customer research or motivation research often unlock far more powerful appeals than obvious ones.
- Evaluate Each Desire Across Three DimensionsScore each potential desire on urgency (how intense is the need), staying power (how often does it recur, can it be satiated), and scope (how many people share it). The ideal desire scores high on all three dimensions.Pro tipA desire with extreme urgency but narrow scope may be more profitable than a broad but mild desire, depending on your price point and distribution capability.
- Select the Single Most Powerful Desire-Performance MatchChoose the one performance in your product that, when matched to the strongest desire, gives you the maximum economic power at this particular moment. This becomes the core concept of your ad. Your headline will be built around this single match.Pro tipThis choice is the most important decision you will make. If it is wrong, nothing else in the ad will save it. Test multiple desire-performance matches if possible.WarningResist the temptation to feature multiple performances in one ad. Your headline can only effectively communicate one dominant idea.
- Bridge Desire to Product Through Your HeadlineWrite a headline that meets the prospect at their current point of awareness: if they know the product, start with the product; if they only know the desire, start with the desire; if they only sense a vague problem, start by crystallizing that problem into a specific need. Then use body copy to show how product performances inevitably satisfy the desire.Pro tipThe headline's only job is to stop the prospect and compel him to read the second sentence. Do not try to make it do the entire selling job.
In the late 1950s, the Ford Motor Company invested heavily in the Edsel, a well-designed mid-range car backed by extensive advertising. However, American consumers had shifted their desire overwhelmingly toward cheap, simple, compact cars. Despite good engineering and a major ad budget, the Edsel tried to swim against the tide of mass desire for economy and simplicity.
The desire of millions of women to lose weight is a permanent mass instinct. Smart advertisers did not create this desire; they channeled it. The first advertiser to market a reducing aid simply said 'Lose Ugly Fat.' Subsequent advertisers rode the same mass desire by enlarging the promise or introducing new mechanisms, each channeling the identical pre-existing desire onto their specific product.
Schwartz developed this framework through decades of mail-order copywriting where results were measured in precise dollars of profit. He observed that major automotive companies like Chrysler and Ford lost millions fighting mass desire (Chrysler offering functional cars when buyers wanted longer/lower ones; Ford selling safety when buyers wanted horsepower; the Edsel fighting the compact car trend), while companies that rode existing desire waves made fortunes.