Hi Gordon,
*Ashamed*... I actually don't know much (anything) about Ed Mayer!
I am impressed by your breadth of knowledge... I'm gonna have to learn more!
And... propaganda of course is fascinating, with a huge overlap with marketing and copywriting...
About the financial publishers... My perception I think is similar to yours! It's not a good time now for the financial newsletters...
I think the reason is because of how poorly the stock market has performed this year...
People have been getting their money out, until it looks like times will be good again (from a stock market point of view)...
If you're not investing in stocks, why would you subscribe to a newsletter about stocks? Of course, you wouldn't...
Another niche they've done well with the last few years is newsletters related to cryptocurrencies... But those have now tanked even worse...
These are tough times all around for many...
I came across this recent article...
The headline:
Target profit plunges 90% as inflation-weary shoppers pull back
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/17/i...ngs/index.html
Best wishes,
Dien
Quote:
Originally Posted by GordonJ
Well. Most of the millions of dollars of sales data I have seen shows that this 40/40/20 formula is right, most of the time...51% of anything is most, right?
It is as good as anything out there, but as you know, I'm a copy HISTORIAN, and my take on all of these so called formulas...is, maybe, they are mostly right.
Mayer's book was published in 1950, the data from his histories went back to the thirties...and then the BOOM of mail order in the 1950's aided that.
My cautionary advice about all things copywriting is...use them as frameworks, not FOUNDATIONS.
I think using the 40/40/20 idea is a good one, if laid upon the foundation of avatar want (demand) and TIMING.
It was pretty, pretty, pretty easy to sell those novelties of the 1950's we all look to as "great copy", but be it sea monkeys, ant farms, spud guns, hula hoops or Davy Crocket hats...the idea, appeasing the kids is no different than having them have a game boy or even cell phone today.
The demand to appease kids, as you are rapidly coming to understand, is a foundation which any marketer can build on.
Then the framework, maybe can follow some formula, to make things easy for the marketers. Some day in the future, when a young one gets an ice cream cone for the first time...it starts a chain reaction which lasts a lifetime...the demand is there, up to Ben, Jerry et al to get her to try one of their brands.
I note, today, there are or seems to be, a lot of COPYWRITERS being laid off and contracts ended by big FINANCIAL PUBLISHERS, just today in my email, got a letter from one of the S. FL guys...it seemed almost desperate.
Their OFFER for a subscription to a service which has historically performed as good as a coin toss, had a lot of copy technique, methodology and well, the fact copywriters are being let go...speaks louder than all the words they think they carefully craft.
Gordon
And lets not forget, he was an expert in propaganda. I wonder if he followed this formula in propaganda too??
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