Direct Response Marketing & Everything DR!

A client I hadn’t heard from in a while contacted me at the end of last year.

He had a print ad pulling a very respectable three times ad cost and wondered if he could get it even higher.

His objective went beyond merely trying to bump response since he was close to getting his product in a national retail chain, and he was looking for the tipping point to get there.

But as bright an aura as his ad seemed to have, it also cast a dark shadow.

The market clearly wanted the benefits his product offered. But for a large segment of them, it meant accepting a disadvantage they assumed went along with the benefits.

I’m an eternal optimist but when he told me his ad was doing 3-to-1, I didn’t hold out high hopes for significant improvement given his media costs. So it was a relief to spot some low hanging fruit when I finally got my hands on the ad.

It was time for the old…

“With-Without” Formula

As in, with all the benefits showered on you… but without any of the drawbacks.

In these cases, with the dark shadow of some assumed disadvantage looming in the background, there’s no time to mess around and address it in the fine print.

You’ve got to let the market know they get everything they want without the thing they clearly don’t want, and do so right away.

I made only two changes to the control ad.

$25,000 Dollars For a Few Hours Work Doesn’t Seem Fair!

This ad had widespread insertions in the early 1980s and was written by one of the most successful operators in the biz-op category, a man named John Chriswell of Sterling Virginia.

Even at the time this ad was on the scene, this was a saturated market and giant claims were a dime a dozen.

How did Chiswell overcome the natural resistance to oversized claims heard again and again?

He cushioned the claim.

Instead of focusing on the advertiser’s income claim, the prospect’s attention was drawn to the “fairness” of earning $25,000 for a few hours work.

To my knowledge, this was a totally new headline treatment and accounted for this ad’s longevity in this market with notoriously short life spans.

Winning at the Races May Not Be Your Idea of Fun, But…

This print control had a four year run in the early 1970s — a long time in a then crowded market, characterized by the total addiction of its constituents to “the races,” as anyone who ever walked past an Off Track Betting location would attest.

Lots of ads made the same promise, but this one got them to respond.

How?

The headline cushioned a ubiquitous claim, “Win at the races,” with the short string of copy: it, “may not be your idea of fun.”

This had the dual advantage of calling out the core prospects, the misfits spending a day congregating around an off-track parlor, as well as attracting opportunity seekers who might be repelled by the horse racing scene.

This ad, though a throwback, is a great example of copy written in the voice of the core respondent, someone who’s spent a lot of time at the track.

“This Is The Best Darn Tomato I’ve Ever Tasted!” was a reliable order getter for years, but then like all ads, eventually started flagging.

How did the advertisers breathe new life into it and keep response flowing?

They cushioned the claim with a simple headline alteration, using the conditional tense.

“This Could Be The Best Darn Tomato I’ve Ever Tasted!” became the new control and the ad kept going.

Most novice advertisers avoid “coulds” and “maybes” because they seem wishy-washy but experienced advertisers know using them in the right place can make claims seem more plausible and increase response.

To download the ads in a single PDF, click here.

Click to download PDF: “The Power of the Printed Word”

In late-2012, I had a client, who was a cold name on my house file, buy six months of my time.

Worth it? Yes, but I’ve gotten a severe case of withdrawal.

So, for those who asked why I haven’t been posting, I’ll be more than making up for it with over a year’s worth of content.

I’ll also be tearing down and rebuilding most of my websites, including this one.

Here’s one of the better ones I’ve been sitting on for a while. It’s a 15 ad campaign in one PDF, which you can download through the link below.

In the 1980s, International Paper was locked in a no-holds-barred struggle with five major competitors whose products varied little.

International Paper set out to create a reason why customers should prefer I.P. above the rest, even if only for a feeling of the “warm and fuzzies.”

But can that translate to sales and customer loyalty, especially for a commodity product like paper?

The campaign — “We believe in the power of the printed word” — was a smashing success.

It was conceived by Ogilvy creative director, Billings S. Fuess, who relied on celebrities with credibility in education, like:

• Kurt Vonnegut: “How To Write With Style”
• Bill Cosby (before he became a TV sitcom superstar): “How To Read Faster”
• Malcolm Forbes: “How To Write a Business Letter
• Walter Cronkite: “How To Read A Newspaper”
• And George Plimpton: “How To Make a Speech,” among others.

While the ads were published under the bylines of these well knowns, it was Fuess who spent three to four weeks researching each ad and one week writing the first draft.

27 Million Requests for Copies of These Ads

The initial campaign targeted the 15-to-30 age group, mainly those in high school or college, under the banner of the “College Survival Kit.”

But as these two-page spreads gained attention from widespread insertions, I.P. was inundated with requests for copies of theses ads from all age groups. They later spun off the “Business Survival Kit.”

Doubleday was one of four publishers to put in a bid to publish a compilation of these ads after the fourth ad hit the press.

Can you imagine anything so crazy… print ads being turned into a book?

But the copies were swept up and out of print copies now sell on Amazon for $273 and up.

Most wouldn’t peg a paper manufacturer as the source of such ingenious product and brand differentiation.

It just goes to show there are countless ideas for creating a competitive advantage out of thin air.

“The Power of the Printed Word”

(20-page,  4-megabyte PDF)

If you picked up a magazine or newspaper in the 1970s or 1980s, you would’ve encountered an ad like this from Eric Weber’s Symphony Press.

Weber was a timid young advertising copywriter when he decided there had to be a better way to meet women.

So, he took tape recorder in hand and spent his weekends approaching women and asking them what a man could do to pique their interest.

At night, he’d transcribe the tapes.

He realized he was onto something when he met the woman he’d later marry.

Eventually, he had enough material for a book, but no publisher would option “How to Pick Up Girls.”

One day Weber was sitting on his psychoanalyst’s sofa complaining that he’d worked thousands of hours on his book, but couldn’t get it published.

His analyst replied, “You’re in advertising. Promote your own book and sell it yourself by mail order.”

That’s exactly what Weber did and he went on to sell millions of copies of his books by mail order and became the first “king” of the dating market.

Message to copywriters: it’s good to eat your own cooking.

Here’s one of the first ads that opened the floodgates to the then untapped dating market.

“If I got my man, you can get yours.”

One late summer evening, two copywriters sat down at their keyboards to craft sales letters for almost identical products.

They were very much alike, these two copywriters.

Both had years of experience writing every type of ad and were dynamos at selling to their core markets.

Both writers were also dedicated students of direct response marketing and were up on the latest trends and techniques for making their clients (and themselves) ever larger profits.

But while one writer spent an entire week on writing and edits, his leisure-loving colleague cranked his final draft out within hours of sitting down that first evening.

And here’s the capper.

The ad that was written in mere hours buried the week-long effort by many multiples.

What Made The Difference

While one writer spent days building the perfect lead, piling layers of proof into his ad and extracting every conceivable hot button to boost response…

The other writer had a hunch that a good, old-fashioned story was called for to sell the dickens out of his particular product.

And he was right.

But where did he get such a brilliant idea?

This is a 4-page Christmas advertising spread from Marshall Field from 1950.

Growing up in and around New York City, I recall what a big deal the department store windows were around Christmas time.

Fascinating and nostalgic advertising in the per-Internet days and respondents to this ad could order a booklet with the story about the Marshall Field Christmas windows.

Click on the image to download the PDF.

There is great excitement in Wonderland these days now that the Uncle Mistletoe windows are open along State Street. Many of the animals have roles in the Mistletoe adventure staged there and all the other Wonderland folks are coming downtown (on Uncle’s magic rug, of course) to see the windows.

“Why, this is more fun than being on the stage,” exclaimed Obediah Pig the other day.

“It is being on the stage,” declared Michael O’Hare.

“That’s right,” said Uncle Mistletoe, “and we’ve got all those children to entertain and they’re the most wonderful audience in the world.”

Edward Bear, who had been sitting to one side, spoke up, “This is the most exciting adventure you’ve ever had, Uncle Mistletoe. I hope every boy and girl can get to see what happens.”

“You are right, Edward Bear,” said Michael O’Hare. “This year’s adventure is really exciting. It’s called, ‘A Party for Santa,’ and it’s all about a surprise that Aunt Holly and Uncle Mistletoe plan for the old gentleman when he finishes his trip around the world.”