---
title: "The Secret to Live Commerce Success Was Explained 100 Years Ago"
description: "In 1904, Albert Lasker, president of Lord & Thomas, learned from John Kennedy that advertising is 'salesmanship in print.' This principle applies equally to live commerce today, which is essentially video salesmanship. The key to success lies in knowledge, trust, and personality, not just performance."
author: "空手"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2020-08-15"
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# The Secret to Live Commerce Success Was Explained 100 Years Ago

> In 1904, Albert Lasker, president of Lord & Thomas, learned from John Kennedy that advertising is 'salesmanship in print.' This principle applies equally to live commerce today, which is essentially video salesmanship. The key to success lies in knowledge, trust, and personality, not just performance.

**Click the image above for details**
In 1904, Albert Lasker, president of Lord & Thomas, the third-largest advertising agency in the United States, received a small note from a bellhop while attending a salon:
"I am downstairs at this party salon. I can tell you what advertising is. I know you don't know..."
John Kennedy, a former Canadian Mountie, wrote three words for Lasker: **Sales in Print**. Advertising is a salesman in a two-dimensional world. John Kennedy established the rules of copywriting based on the standards of a good salesman, determining how advertising should speak to consumers.
Sales in Print fundamentally changed advertising theory and set clear standards for the industry. Lasker later said, "When writing the history of advertising, the first name to write must be John Kennedy. To this day, the principles he set have been the standard for every copywriter." **Since advertising is salesmanship in print, what is live commerce? It's simply video salesmanship.** "All advertising cases hide personal selling techniques behind them, and all advertising must be based on this. There are many similarities between talking to a housewife at the door and having a heart-to-heart talk with her under the night light. The same salesman applies everywhere, and advertising is just salesmanship on paper... The principles of advertising are no different from the principles of personal selling," said Claude Hopkins, Lasker's successor at Lord & Thomas.
(Lasker and Hopkins)
Whether writing ad copy or doing live commerce, you should learn classic salesmanship principles like a good product salesman.
In today's rush to do live streaming, Li Jiaqi and Viya hold the top positions largely because Li Jiaqi was a counter clerk at Maybelline in Nanchang, and Viya ran a physical clothing store. They both have face-to-face selling experience, so they know how to communicate with customers on screen, how to move them, and how to trigger their desire to buy.
In contrast, celebrity live streams, despite their frequent camera presence and excellent acting talent, often perform mediocrely and sometimes fail. This precisely shows the difference between selling and performing. It's not just about looking good and being articulate; that doesn't guarantee success in live selling.
"They forget their role as salesmen and try to become actors, seeking applause rather than pushing sales... Successful salesmen are rarely eloquent; they have almost no oratory charm. They only have an understanding of consumers and products, a simple character, and a sincere heart."
As one of the most outstanding copywriters in advertising history, Hopkins built his advertising and copywriting methods entirely on the practices of salesmen. Even after nearly 100 years, reviewing Hopkins' remarks and views still offers excellent guidance today, especially for live streaming, which has returned to the era of salesmanship, because human nature is constant.
In the early days of commerce, salesmen were the intermediaries connecting products and users. They carried samples and product catalogs, knocked on doors, made sales happen, and kept businesses alive.
But this one-on-one door-to-door selling had a major limitation: low efficiency and high cost. So, mass media that could quickly cover the country and professional distribution channels emerged. **Media delivered product information, and channels provided transaction venues; they operated separately and distinctly. To achieve sales, companies had to advertise on media and open stores in channels simultaneously.**
**Media + channels replaced the important value of salesmen finding customers, becoming the intermediary connecting products and users. Salesmen were only responsible for the final step after customers arrived at the store. This was the era of traditional marketing.**
With the advent of the internet, new e-commerce channels and new media forms emerged. Empowered by new channels and media, the value of people was re-elevated.
**The user connection of media and channels is 'one-to-many,' while traditional human communication and selling are 'one-to-one.'** The advantage of 'one-to-one' is that it's more precise, easier to win customer trust, and build lasting relationships; its disadvantage is low efficiency.
But now with the internet, people can easily achieve 'one-to-many,' and although it's 'one-to-many' communication, it can give consumers a 'one-to-one' experience and emotional connection. Mass media and channels cannot do this; no one feels that media is talking only to them.
**People are media; people are channels.** The popularity of marketing concepts like wechat business, private traffic, KOL, and KOC all point to the same conclusion—people are re-becoming the next transaction entry point.
If we consider people as the next transaction entry, then the key to closing deals lies in three points:
**1. Knowledge distribution**
**2. Trust agency**
**3. Personality connection**
**-01-**
**The more you say, the more you sell.** This is an indisputable truth for live commerce.
After Luo Yonghao started live streaming on Douyin, some said he created a new business model: companies hire him not to sell goods but for spoken ads and brand exposure. Lao Luo could transform into a brand spokesperson, using crosstalk-like methods to help brands tell stories. But the question is, if not to buy things or get bargains, who would want to listen to you read product manuals every day? Hopkins said, "Only those interested in our products will read our ads. No one reads ads for entertainment, regardless of length. So we should treat ad readers as potential customers seeking information, giving them enough product information to prompt them to buy."
If live streamers only say 'good, good, good' when introducing products, lack deep understanding, and can't provide professional product knowledge to help consumers make purchase decisions, the selling effect will be greatly diminished. Lao Luo's live streams, especially the first two, have proven this.
There are many beauty bloggers, but Li Jiaqi became hugely popular and broke out of the niche because of his early focus on lipstick. It's his extensive professional knowledge of lipsticks that allowed a single lipstick swatch video to gain a million followers on Douyin. On his Douyin account, lipstick videos accounted for over 70% in the early days. Only after being the 'Lipstick King' did he become today's live commerce king.
Drucker said, "Knowledge is the only meaningful resource today." For marketing, knowledge is productivity; knowledge is the power to move people. Remember, curiosity is the strongest human motivation. Fresh knowledge happens to arouse curiosity, making people want to try something new.
When Hopkins advertised Quaker's Puffed Grains, he didn't write that the grains were attractive in color, smelled wonderful, and tasted delicious. Such common information couldn't arouse curiosity to try Quaker. 'Puffed Grains' had been advertised this way for years, with increasingly disappointing results.
Hopkins went to the factory to observe the production process, then wrote the slogan: "Food shot from guns"—grains expand to eight times their normal size, each grain undergoes 125 million steam explosions, food shoots out of the barrel...
Everyone who read the Puffed Grains ad wanted to see and taste these grains for themselves, and they became loyal Quaker consumers.
These ads introducing grain production knowledge became the most successful food ads in America and made Puffed Grains the most profitable product in the breakfast food industry.
So if you're selling a breakfast cereal, what would you say? You'd talk about the production process, how to eat it and its benefits, and the healthy, light, fashionable breakfast culture.
Not self-praise like 'my cereal is the best' or selfishness like 'don't buy other brands, buy mine.' These two are the biggest drawbacks in today's advertising industry.
The value of knowledge is to present the information customers want, share the benefits the product brings to users, and provide service and convenience.
Remember, the purpose of marketing is to arouse consumer demand. Where does demand come from? A small part comes from our instincts and physiological desires; the vast majority comes from knowledge.
For example, if you read a book on photography history, you develop a need for a DSLR camera. If you learn about LV's history and craftsmanship, you want an LV bag. If you study Apple's brand story and Steve Jobs' life, you become an Apple fan.
So if I were to do live commerce, what would I choose? I think my most insightful and skilled areas are craft beer and suits. Because I got into craft beer after reading a book about it, learning its history and culture.
I've tasted hundreds of different craft beers; visited most craft beer bars in Beijing; read many books on beer tasting and brewing; bought various beer glass sets to study which glass suits which beer; and written high-upvote answers about craft beer on Zhihu.
(Photo taken by Kong Shou)
I have full confidence that after I share my knowledge of craft beer, you'll develop curiosity and desire to buy. Because that's what I do with people around me.
**Knowledge creates demand.**
At least, only rich knowledge can sustain hours of talking in a live room, keeping viewers interested and willing to listen, rather than dozing off or losing interest. With a solid knowledge base, live streaming won't become boring noise.
In the end, knowledge is about presenting products in a dramatic, compelling way, not just empty talk saying 'good, good, good.'
**-02-**
When it comes to live commerce, many say it's just a remake of TV shopping. Holding such a clichéd view won't help you understand live commerce better, and if you follow TV shopping's playbook, failure is likely. TV shopping collapsed because of three major flaws.
First, exaggerated efficacy claims and product principles, especially in weight loss, beauty, breast enhancement, height increase, and medical products. The product principles and functions are so miraculous they're astonishing.
Second, fake expert testimonials and consumer testimonials, proving how good the product is—in plain terms, shills.
Third, chaotic pricing systems: original price 999, now only 99, an incredible difference. Additionally, TV shopping invented a host of price terms like 'shocking price,' 'special price,' 'member price,' 'VIP price,' 'this program's price,' 'limited purchase price,' etc.
This caused TV shopping to lose audience trust, becoming synonymous with fraud and counterfeit goods. These flaws aren't unique to TV shopping; they happen on various 'grass-planting' platforms today. If live commerce also plays with fake prices and exaggerated functions, in today's more transparent information environment, it's close to death.
Let's talk about price first. The commercial essence of live commerce is still low-price promotion. For consumers, cheapness is a basic driver for watching live streams.
Li Jiaqi and Viya are powerful because, as top traffic, they can secure competitive prices and maintain strong supply chain leverage. **Bargaining power + product selection ability + influencer IP constitute the core competitiveness of top streamers, which other streamers lack.**
For companies, if they always cooperate with top streamers and use low prices to attack the market, they'll quickly lose consumers' perception of normal prices. If companies treat live streaming solely as a tool to clear inventory, they'll easily lose consumer trust.
Price is always a double-edged sword. That's why for nearly a century, marketing and brand experts have opposed repeated low-price promotions.
If a company doesn't rely on low prices to ignite sales, it must rely on product quality, uniqueness, and differentiation. But to win consumer trust, don't boast or exaggerate. Listen to Hopkins:
"Don't brag; don't boast about your company or product, nor about features you're interested in but customers don't care about. Boasting is disgusting."
"Don't boast about yourself; you're selling goods, not yourself. Be clear, direct, and concise. Let every sentence show your sincerity to customers."
"Don't try to entertain the masses; that's not the purpose of your ad (or live stream). If people want entertainment, they'll watch entertainment news. The only pleasure you can offer is promoting the products they want."
In today's Taobao live streaming, agricultural product selling is booming, with farmer influencers creating enormous energy and business. Why do those down-to-earth new farmers win viewers' trust and orders more easily? That's a question worth pondering.
**-03-**
**Today's marketing is entering an era of 'what you see is what you get.'**
The functions of media and channels have merged. For example, Taobao today is both an e-commerce channel and a content media platform. Douyin is the same, Xiaohongshu is the same, and Official Account + Mini Program is the same. There's no longer a time-space limit between 'marketing' and 'sales.' Consumers can buy after watching, or buy while watching. Unlike the past, when I saw an ad today, I had to wait days to go to the supermarket to buy.
This means the core of traditional marketing was to make consumers remember and understand, so they'd recall the brand when shopping, and sales would happen.
In a 'what you see is what you get' era, the core of marketing becomes making consumers act immediately, buy instantly, and purchase impulsively.
So for live selling, the most important thing is to create an immersive, on-site feeling for consumers. When watching a live stream, consumers naturally enter a shopping scenario, just like strolling in a physical mall. The live stream should make consumers feel comfortable, at ease, and without doubt, so they'll make a purchase decision in a very short time, without searching for more information, comparing prices or similar products, and directly placing an order.
This requires the streamer to use their personal charm to help consumers create a good buying experience. As Viya said in an interview, live streaming is a form of companionship. Yes, live streaming is companionship; it's not just about getting consumers to buy, buy, buy.
Where does personal charm come from?
**Personal charm = appearance/image + personality/ability + expression style**
Appearance and image are the foundation of charm. Sei Shōnagon said in 'The Pillow Book': 'A preacher should be handsome. People naturally look at his face, listen attentively, and remember the scriptures. If they look elsewhere, they might forget what they heard, so an ugly monk makes his audience guilty of inattentive listening.'
Even monks preaching require good looks, so live commerce goes without saying. Of course, this doesn't mean ordinary-looking people can't do live streaming; it means you should design a persona style based on your looks and image. Unique style creates charm. After all, a burly man can't pull off a 'handsome youth' persona.
Take Lao Luo, for example. He was always a cynical 'angry youth' when doing training and running websites. Since he started making phones, he changed his hairstyle, glasses, tidied his clothes, and managed his expressions. His former angry youth aura transformed into a refined craftsman image. Isn't that a great persona?
I think Teacher Luo's image suits selling tech products and products with craftsmanship and design.
Finding your unique style also includes language use and catchphrases. For instance, 'Oh My God,' 'All girls,' 'Buy it'—everyone knows who these refer to. It also includes giving yourself certain traits, like Brother Beef always wearing a hat.
But ultimately, style should stem from your personality and universal human nature. Don't exaggerate for the sake of exaggeration, and don't do things that make most people uncomfortable or embarrassed just to attract attention. Such a style might draw traffic and attention, but it's hard to bring purchases.
For ordinary consumers, shopping is a serious matter. Consumers are not fools; they're smart, thrifty, cautious, and not easily trusting. They might watch Qiaogewala's videos, but they won't buy the electric bikes he promotes.
"Put on the clown's hat, and you might gain attention, but your sales prospects will be ruined."
Remember Hopkins' advice.
Source: Kong Shou (ID: firesteal13), Author: Kong Shou


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