GordonJ
January 22, 2007, 03:13 PM
Some U.S. marketing history:
First National boom in remote direct marketing (mailorder) came in the mid 1860's with the selling of surplus WAR goods. Binocular ads ran in 1865 that are pert near the same as they are today. The Civil war created many fortunes for the suppliers...
AMAZINGLY. 142 years later; surplus, overstocks, discontinued items are still making people rich.
Today Big Lots, Dollar General, Dollar Stores etc...barely scratch the surface of so-called "surplus" goods. More on this later.
In the 1880's "modern" salesmanship was born, based in some part to theater, and you can learn a neat trick or two from Aristotle and his Poetics and the three act play formula and quite a bit from Shakespeare, who created some of the greatest "sales" pitches ever..."Friends, Romans, countrymen..."
So it should be no surprise to the students of persuasion and marketing to see APPLIED salesmanship in this time period with people like P.T. Barnum, a MASTER of the sizzle. Rapid communications, the telegraph, expedited the boom in marketing.
Cereal companies took the lead in continuity programs, free gifts, and packaging. Other industries saw their success and copycatted it.
By 1900, bikes were the best selling Mail Order item of the day...hundreds of thousands of bikes were sold via ads in magazines, shipped by rail.
Enter the CAR. There were 1001 car makers in the early days, then the Ford shakedown, the shakeout and shakeup...and the great boom of modern industrialization accompanied by worldwide revolutions...
World War I created a huge manufacturing base that propelled many industrialists to MILLIONAIRE status...
the the Great Depression, but many people lose sight that although 25% of the work force was unemployed, 75% were still working, still buying...and guys like Robert Collier grew huge Mail Order businesses.
WW II saw rationing accompanied by women in the workforce, and post WW II was the PEAK of modern U.S. Society...some put it at the 1957 Chevy. The PEAK that is.
Some of us can pick it up from there...younger people should know...
we went through tumultuous times in the 60's with Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.
The 70's were the rebound PEAK and the foundation of modern marketing...as discussed in previous posts, some of those savvy guys who were in on the TV early days...Ron Popeil, E. Joesph Cossman, Harvey Brody...
were teaching others HOW TO MARKET with tested and proven 'scientific' advertising...that is, measuring results.
Then one day Al Gore and his buddy were getting high on life in their garage, forming a little Southern Rock band...when in a moment of total enlightenment, he invented the Internet.
And here we are today. See? The times they are ALWAYS a Changing.
BUT the thing that is overlooked by so many of today's NET only people, those that do not remember a time before the Internet...think that the Internet is the ONLY way to do things...Wrong BUCKWHEAT (with a nod to Gary Halbert on that one)...
Take Chatteling.
We've ALWAYS done it. But the newspapers made it easier to buy and sell stuff. eBay is all about chatteling. It hasn't made the classified sections go away, in fact, there are MORE ways to find stuff than ever...such as craigslist or one of the places where you can place your stuff for sale...
And SURPLUS. You'd think that by now everyone would be buying and selling surplus items online...but here is the problem...do a search for surplus at google...49 MILLION sites come up...narrow it down all you want, but it is still like trying to find a needle in a haystack...
otherwise, all those eBayers would have their sources, and there wouldn't be 1001 and people selling HOW TO FIND SOURCES FOR EBAY books, courses and pdf files out the wazoo.
In this #2 Dylan post, I just wanted to point out that there is ALWAYS changes taking place...and there is always opportunity to cash in on these changes...
BUT, also to show you that much of today's MARKETING is nothing more than the same old same old it has been for centuries...
that basic human behavior hasn't changed that much...basic wants and needs are what they have always been...time isn't really any faster...
and that if YOU want to find your way to Internet fame and fortune, you might want to consider doing what so many of today's success have done...
STUDY and LEARN from the OLD Masters that have paved the way for you...and apply their history lessons to current times...
MORE on this later this week. I'm building a foundation you'll be able to build on later...
Gordon Jay Alexander
Student of the Masters
First National boom in remote direct marketing (mailorder) came in the mid 1860's with the selling of surplus WAR goods. Binocular ads ran in 1865 that are pert near the same as they are today. The Civil war created many fortunes for the suppliers...
AMAZINGLY. 142 years later; surplus, overstocks, discontinued items are still making people rich.
Today Big Lots, Dollar General, Dollar Stores etc...barely scratch the surface of so-called "surplus" goods. More on this later.
In the 1880's "modern" salesmanship was born, based in some part to theater, and you can learn a neat trick or two from Aristotle and his Poetics and the three act play formula and quite a bit from Shakespeare, who created some of the greatest "sales" pitches ever..."Friends, Romans, countrymen..."
So it should be no surprise to the students of persuasion and marketing to see APPLIED salesmanship in this time period with people like P.T. Barnum, a MASTER of the sizzle. Rapid communications, the telegraph, expedited the boom in marketing.
Cereal companies took the lead in continuity programs, free gifts, and packaging. Other industries saw their success and copycatted it.
By 1900, bikes were the best selling Mail Order item of the day...hundreds of thousands of bikes were sold via ads in magazines, shipped by rail.
Enter the CAR. There were 1001 car makers in the early days, then the Ford shakedown, the shakeout and shakeup...and the great boom of modern industrialization accompanied by worldwide revolutions...
World War I created a huge manufacturing base that propelled many industrialists to MILLIONAIRE status...
the the Great Depression, but many people lose sight that although 25% of the work force was unemployed, 75% were still working, still buying...and guys like Robert Collier grew huge Mail Order businesses.
WW II saw rationing accompanied by women in the workforce, and post WW II was the PEAK of modern U.S. Society...some put it at the 1957 Chevy. The PEAK that is.
Some of us can pick it up from there...younger people should know...
we went through tumultuous times in the 60's with Civil Rights and the Vietnam War.
The 70's were the rebound PEAK and the foundation of modern marketing...as discussed in previous posts, some of those savvy guys who were in on the TV early days...Ron Popeil, E. Joesph Cossman, Harvey Brody...
were teaching others HOW TO MARKET with tested and proven 'scientific' advertising...that is, measuring results.
Then one day Al Gore and his buddy were getting high on life in their garage, forming a little Southern Rock band...when in a moment of total enlightenment, he invented the Internet.
And here we are today. See? The times they are ALWAYS a Changing.
BUT the thing that is overlooked by so many of today's NET only people, those that do not remember a time before the Internet...think that the Internet is the ONLY way to do things...Wrong BUCKWHEAT (with a nod to Gary Halbert on that one)...
Take Chatteling.
We've ALWAYS done it. But the newspapers made it easier to buy and sell stuff. eBay is all about chatteling. It hasn't made the classified sections go away, in fact, there are MORE ways to find stuff than ever...such as craigslist or one of the places where you can place your stuff for sale...
And SURPLUS. You'd think that by now everyone would be buying and selling surplus items online...but here is the problem...do a search for surplus at google...49 MILLION sites come up...narrow it down all you want, but it is still like trying to find a needle in a haystack...
otherwise, all those eBayers would have their sources, and there wouldn't be 1001 and people selling HOW TO FIND SOURCES FOR EBAY books, courses and pdf files out the wazoo.
In this #2 Dylan post, I just wanted to point out that there is ALWAYS changes taking place...and there is always opportunity to cash in on these changes...
BUT, also to show you that much of today's MARKETING is nothing more than the same old same old it has been for centuries...
that basic human behavior hasn't changed that much...basic wants and needs are what they have always been...time isn't really any faster...
and that if YOU want to find your way to Internet fame and fortune, you might want to consider doing what so many of today's success have done...
STUDY and LEARN from the OLD Masters that have paved the way for you...and apply their history lessons to current times...
MORE on this later this week. I'm building a foundation you'll be able to build on later...
Gordon Jay Alexander
Student of the Masters
