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-   -   History of whatever.... If you can't afford Porcelain then we have just what you want (http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthread.php?t=10918)

GordonJ February 24, 2021 03:10 PM

History of whatever.... If you can't afford Porcelain then we have just what you want
 
His name is well known.

Josia WEDGWOOD. He was a potter and Entrepreneur.

In the Colonial times in USA, and up through our independence, Josia was working away perfecting his craft of making near fine earthenware for the emerging upper middle class.

Sure, Kings, Queens and the whole of upper crust society had China, Porcelain from China...it was one of the major imports of the time for the wealthy.

But there was DEMAND for nice tableware, and Josia filled in nicely. He is considered by many people as being the father of "modern" marketing having developed such concepts as direct mail, money back guarantees, self-service, free delivery, buy one get one free, and illustrated catalogues.

His early catalogues, like those of Sears and Ward, were simply ONE PAGE HOTSHEETS.

His company, shortly after the Revolution, was one of the largest Exporters to the new USA, and demand soared.

We have European Royalty to thank for knock offs, emulations, simulations...you may not be able to get your hands on Ming Dynasty Pottery, but you could get Wedgwood, a symbol of success as much as a Rolex became eons ago. Actually, it did become a Royal Brand, thanks to Queen Charlotte and once she gave her "seal of approval", Wedgwood became the de facto china of royalty.

Now Josia was also in the printing game, and used a process which is known as transferware, and is quite the collectible today.

But all this is history, what I discovered was his meticulous bookkeeping of buyers. One of the first Entrepreneurs to develop MAILING LISTS, and then send out back-end offers. Ben Franklin knew of Josia's work, and it was reported, he may have brokered deals (for a FINDER'S FEE) between Wedgwood and American distributors.

Anyhow, that is some history. Fast forward to post American Civil War, and the building of the Railroad system, one of the great successes/boondoggles (or ClusterFx) of the 19th century.

But the real significance of the Golden Spike on May 10, 1869 wasn't the joining of the coasts...it was the ability to SELL stuff remotely, to any place in America...as Montgomery Ward began to do in 1872, just 3 years later after organizing suppliers in Chicago and his first catalog was a HOTSHEET, with 112 items and prices on a 8 x 12 sheet of paper.

Then came Richard Sears, who made his first real money selling watches, and one TIMING factor involved in his success (we seldom talk about timing) was the introduction of TIME ZONES, and many of his customers lived close to the line, so pocket watches soared, seldom mentioned in history.

Sears then secured suppliers and issued his own HOTSHEET, and with a decade the two companies grew at Facebook/Amazon speed, mainly because they could then DELIVER the goods via railroad to anyone in the country.

Now a part of the history few discover is; the hundreds of employees who had the job of tracking the customers, what they bought and sending out follow up offers. We read a lot about the early days of copywriting and all these geniuses, but many got their start at either Sears or Wards writing copy for these direct mail giants.

For several decades LISTS were maintained by hand, on cards, often 4 x 6 cards, and new purchases were added to the card, a crude system for identifying buyers was added.

Then came Herman Hollerith and his success with punch hole cards used in the Census of 1890, showing his tabulating machine did work for keeping data...it wasn't long before several companies were formed and then combined and what emerged was IBM, and an interesting side note, it was IBM punch cards used in Nazi Germany to keep tabs on the Jews, and this part of history has often been swept under the carpets where T. Watson is concerned.

But, back to lists. PUNCH cards became the way to manage list and coupled with modern printing, we came into the pressure label used for the last 100 years. Modern computers and mailing lists weren't much of a thing until a few of the Direct Marketers which exploded in the 1950's and 60's had need for maintaining control of their customer lists.

Enter Harvey Brody. He was one of the first people to offer mailing list controls and supervision. With a computer program partner he revolutionized the mailing list industry and many fortunes came along.

After I post this, I'm going to shine some light on a promotion, lists and secret words of almost automatic response,

interested?

Gordon

EricC February 24, 2021 03:43 PM

Re: History of whatever.... If you can't afford Porcelain then we have just what you want
 
Gordon,
As I have been digging up resources for my own projects in the weird and wonderful area of the occult I have found something fun and related to your history lesson.

Authors like Sydney Flowers who wrote, in addition to courses about Personal Magnetism, Hypnosis, Clairvoyance, etc..., titles such as:

The Men Who Advertise (1870),
Secrets of the Mail-Order Trade (1900),
Principles of the Mail Order Business (1901),
Conducting a Mail Order Business (1921),
Mail Order Organization (1922),
and Mail-Order Made Easy (1928)

He's not the only one either. Lots of colorful characters were out there creating, publishing, and selling remotely.

Everything olde is new again.

GordonJ February 24, 2021 06:32 PM

Indeed.
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by EricC (Post 41621)
Gordon,
As I have been digging up resources for my own projects in the weird and wonderful area of the occult I have found something fun and related to your history lesson.

Authors like Sydney Flowers who wrote, in addition to courses about Personal Magnetism, Hypnosis, Clairvoyance, etc..., titles such as:

The Men Who Advertise (1870),
Secrets of the Mail-Order Trade (1900),
Principles of the Mail Order Business (1901),
Conducting a Mail Order Business (1921),
Mail Order Organization (1922),
and Mail-Order Made Easy (1928)

He's not the only one either. Lots of colorful characters were out there creating, publishing, and selling remotely.

Everything olde is new again.


Yes it is. It is said the best thing that ever happened in Chicago was Mrs. O'Leary's cow and the fire of Oct. 1871. What happened after the fire, almost instantly was an influx of capital America wouldn't see again until Silicon Valley emerged (not counting war machines).

Between 1871 and the next four years, OPPORTUNITY was found in the Windy city. Almost all of the business district was rebuilt, with bricks and stones and fire stations every few blocks and many a New York magnate set up outposts in Chicago.

One of the first businesses, which had state of the art equipment sent there was the PRINTING business, and one can see that for decades after that, including the great Sears and Wards catalogs, Chicago became the printing capital of the world. It had a nearby supply of paper, from Wisconsin and Minn. and many skilled workers.

You will find in your studies it is the reason why, so many of the Occult crowd flocked to Chicago, as one might say, fresh blood. It also became the largest railroad center in the world, as Carl Sandburg pointed out the "hog butcher" of the world and as Upton Sinclair so vividly described in The Jungle.

Cheap labor.
Cheap transportation.

An occultist in Chicago could easily get back East for a tour, the Midwest and then go West too. You will find many packed theaters during 1880 to 1930 with men and women giving talks on everything like How to Win Friends and Influence People to Mesmerism, Psychic Phenomenon etc.

As a publisher, Flowers had many vehicles come to him, and his book MAIL ORDER MADE EASY, may be the template for thousands of similar titled books since then. By 1928, the Remote Direct Marketing world was well established. I don't know about his later life, but it is purported he made a fortune, whether he kept it or not, I don't know. Almost all of his earlier work on Mail Order came from the hundreds of spin offs of Sears and Wards. It is amazing, work there a few years...one was ready to step out into their own world.

Until Covid-19, there were many people following the template the occultists established well over a 100 years ago.

Thanks for the Flowers report.

Gordon

Dien Rice February 25, 2021 08:27 AM

Amazing history... I had no idea about...!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GordonJ (Post 41620)
After I post this, I'm going to shine some light on a promotion, lists and secret words of almost automatic response,

interested?

Hi Gordon,

Wow... I had no idea of all that... Pretty amazing!

Some surprises in there too...

For some reason, I had the idea mail order only went back to say, the late 19th century, but clearly it predates that...

Thanks!

Very keen to hear any more when you have time to share... :)

Best wishes,

Dien

GordonJ February 25, 2021 01:07 PM

You will find in our archives, exact dates for some of this research.
 
Thanks Dien,

Do you recall when our local library Summit County Public Main Branch was renovated? It was about 2001 and for over 2 years the library was housed in an old supermarket. During this time, I spend 2 to 4 hours a day in the historical section making copies and doing research.

The Summit County Library has some unique collections due mainly to the contest between the Rubber Companies, founders built mansions, have parks named after them and donated books, and MOOLAH galore during the early 20th century.

Thank you Goodyears (Seiberlings) Firestones, etc., etc. and their contributions made Akron one of the richest small cities in America.

Point being, I used that time to dive very deeply into mail order, advertising, marketing and have a bent for local history, it was enjoyable research for me.

Never intended to do anything with it, for my own edification...but as I am going over notes and Marie Kondo ing my life...thought it might be time to share some of these secrets.

Akron was the early days Chicago, pre steel, and shortly after the Erie Canal was built. The area was the Oats Capital and I've told the story many times about Quaker Oats and how they developed some of the many marketing vehicles which were BREAKTHROUGH. It has a long history of Remote Direct Marketing and so it is no surprise the likes of Gary Halbert, Dan Kennedy, Ben Suarez, Gary Taylor, Bud Weckesser and many others have originated from the area.

I got my start with KRISTEE PRODUCTS, and you may remember my story with that, started as a courier/seed, collecting offers (promotions) which had been sent to customers whose name had been rented.

Back then, pre Harvey Brody computer list management, there was a lot of misuse of mailing lists. So a Remote Direct Marketer like the long established Kristee Products had a big list and rented it out. They were keyed, and I would buy stuff with their money, have it sent to various local addresses and then pick it up...and often be allowed to keep the product.

It was a great gig and I was fascinated with the Mail Order aspect, having been a door to door salesperson of some of their catalog stuff prior to that.

Anyhow, it changed ownership during this time, the founder retired and the marketing guy, a long time employee took over and started doing workshops and seminars, which is where I first encountered Gary Halbert.

This early work in the business gave me sort of an inside view and then I found out about the little one man bands which were doing great selling INFORMATION. Kristee sold products and I got a peek at how that supply chain worked.

Now about the same time Mid 60's, my Aunt Nelle worked for Sidney Olson who had a camera shop on State Rd and also an electronics business with his brother...Olson Electronics grew pretty big in the 1970's. I worked at the Chapel Hill Mall store.

But as a teen, I was able to go into the warehouse, now a building on Akron U campus and pick out returned kits and such for free, it was less than a mile from Kristee. Now Olson Electronics had a huge mail order division as well as the many stores.

So you see, I was sort of immersed in the mail order business unknowingly. It was just something that evolved and only because of family mostly, people knowing people and those people knowing people type thing.

There is the backdrop.

I'll post up some more history as well as reveal one of the biggest secrets of copywriting...

if anyone is interested, that is.

Gordon





Quote:

Originally Posted by Dien Rice (Post 41624)
Hi Gordon,

Wow... I had no idea of all that... Pretty amazing!

Some surprises in there too...

For some reason, I had the idea mail order only went back to say, the late 19th century, but clearly it predates that...

Thanks!

Very keen to hear any more you have time to share... :)

Best wishes,

Dien


GordonJ February 25, 2021 03:40 PM

Before I reveal the copywriting secret, some more history...
 
One of my best childhood friends was Howie Marco, we would visit his grandfather in Chicago during the summer. His father was Dean of the Library at Kent State University.

Howie was an only child, smart guy, good golfer and we would take trips to Kent State, hoping to meet girls, but using his father's permission to search the library, which was just rebuilt and was huge. Has some great collections.

One of those collections I later pursued was the Billy Goat section. It was actually the collection of books published by Saalfield, at one time the largest publisher of children's books in the world. It sat across the street, sort of, from Firestone on S. Main. I believe Mr. Marco was in charge when they rec'd the collection.

I knew people who worked at Saafield, and in the mid 60's they were printing 80,000 books a day. The company was started from the purchase of a printing company, and Akron also has a great history of PRINT, it is sort of a natural thing, connecting printing to mail order.

Bud Weckesser used a local printer to create his first information product, the famous hamburger recipe booklet. By the way, recipes were, and are great HOTSHEETS, and if you do **** or any of the fad diets over the years, you made moolah oolah... still going strong, I guess people will always want to eat, eh?

Anyhow, the Marco family were very good to me, and once I got my license I was able to go to the Kent State library on my own and access the "secret" collections...some required wearing gloves and staying in a certain room...like most libraries have. It was there I discovered many turn of the century works on the New Science of Psychology, which closely mirrors the Occult time line.

See, the American Civil War was the reason for so much advancement in medicine, science, and psychology. The last half of the 19th century saw rise to new thought on all fronts.

So maybe I lived in a perfect storm of opportunity, but it was fueled by a rabid curiosity of many things...I attribute that to my ADD.

Now in order to become the world's largest Children's book publisher, they must have had some good marketers.

Get this, one of John F. Kennedy's favorite books was the Billy Goat books, and his Grandmother subscribed to the series. SEE? A popular book...with followups.

It is the MASTER BLUEPRINT for success in many fields, followed by many genres too.

The reason they had to print 80,000 books a day and it was marvelous to watch, we took a field trip there in 1959 when I was in the 4th grade. Seeing things made is something we did on our field trips, I don't think those are as popular today. But the reason was...they had

BUYERS ready and willing and able to pay. Whether it was Kristee Products or Children's Books or Reports the "paper and ink" business was thriving because people want both information and entertainment. Add in education and you've got a winner.

I was lucky to have had access, merely coincidental, to so many ideas, things and places...I had no idea how golden it was. I thought it was just being nice to the poor kid in the neighborhood.

OK, now for a big secret....

Gordon

PS. Although most libraries special sections are closed, I hope to access the Kent State library's collection of E. Haldeman-Julius books, including all of the little blue books as well as the bigger works they published. If you don't know who E. H-J was, I advise you to google him NOW.

GordonJ February 25, 2021 03:57 PM

The big secret.
 
If everyone knows it, hardly a secret eh?

But here is one, a big one...and I am confident that it will be simply brushed off, looked at, and get an oh yea, or oh right...and will get glossed over and never looked at again.

The power of a secret exposed, it remains a secret to those who only see the surface...few ever crawl inside. So, it doesn't matter if you know it, I know you most likely won't use it or ever consider it again. Which is ok.

Now I've worked under several Non Disclosure Agreements (NDA) and won't get into specific details but I will say, copywriters can use this secret for 80% of their offers, maybe more, if you learn the depth of it. Are you ready?


Here tis:

The single greatest action response mechanism is an appeal to ....




wait for it...

insecurity.


Whether I was perusing old magazines from 1860 or books on psychology from 1910 or studying the secrets of remote direct marketing there runs a common thread.

We humans are a dang insecure bunch.

Now it took me a decade of Elmer Wheeler/Elmer Leterman and Maslow and Crane to SEE it, to understand it and then to later USE IT.

Only Psychopaths and some Sociopaths lack insecurity, in fact, it being a hallmark of their anti social behavior, they think they are superior.

The rest of us, we aren't.

Appeals can be blatant, like Charles Atlas sand in the face or Karate training in the comic books of yesteryear. And they can be very subtle, when selling prestige, how you will look (jewelry, makeup BILLIONS of dollars).

Well there is the secret, now feel free to ignore it.

Gordon

EricC February 25, 2021 04:28 PM

Secrets
 
Thanks Gordon.

Excellent. Wow. I have been writing from a very backward perspective in a couple different ways. Even though my own experience with people agrees with you.

Eric

Dien Rice February 25, 2021 06:47 PM

I LOVE this ad (to illustrate your point)...!
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by GordonJ (Post 41629)
Here tis:

The single greatest action response mechanism is an appeal to ....




wait for it...

insecurity.


Whether I was perusing old magazines from 1860 or books on psychology from 1910 or studying the secrets of remote direct marketing there runs a common thread.

We humans are a dang insecure bunch.

Now it took me a decade of Elmer Wheeler/Elmer Leterman and Maslow and Crane to SEE it, to understand it and then to later USE IT.

Only Psychopaths and some Sociopaths lack insecurity, in fact, it being a hallmark of their anti social behavior, they think they are superior.

The rest of us, we aren't.

Appeals can be blatant, like Charles Atlas sand in the face or Karate training in the comic books of yesteryear. And they can be very subtle, when selling prestige, how you will look (jewelry, makeup BILLIONS of dollars).

Well there is the secret, now feel free to ignore it.

Hi Gordon,

Thanks!

I keep a list of a summary of some of the best techniques I've learned from various copywriters... You, Gordon, of course, are on the list!

You are great when it comes to talking to people's real (and often hidden) desires and fears... And another one who I've found is great at this is... the late Bud Weckesser.

I LOVE this Green Tree Press ad...



(Click on the image to see the larger version... I got it from here...)

Thanks to Gordon, I actually met with "Webmaster Raymond Steinbacher" (who wrote the course the ad is for)... I remember us sitting around having a beverage, I think, Gordon, Raymond, and myself, in Erie many years ago...

Of course, this ad is about the feeling of insecurity - of using a computer! (Especially of older folks, back in the early days of the 'net...)

Apparently, it sold 1.5 million courses at $12.95 each (according to Mike Winicki's research)...

It is one of the greatest direct response ads, in my humble opinion...

Thank you, Gordon!

Best wishes,

Dien

GordonJ February 26, 2021 11:19 AM

You will find his stories are all about overcoming...
 
...insecurity.

You know I went over millions of dollars of Bud's ad, and had the results right in front of me. Pete kept great records of how the ads performed, where and when they ran.

Between GreenTree Press and SCI (seed world), I may have analyzed as many ad results as anyone.

Green Tree took in millions with their various diets, and most of the ads featured stories taken from real people and turned into empathetic promotions which worked.

Housewife almost arrested.
Trick on EX.
Boyfriend Wanted.

Woven through the words that made Bud a multi-millionaire and let him build that beautiful home we wandered through...was a deep knowledge of people's insecurity. He was, after all, a College Professor of Communications.

One mentor once told me, EVERYONE IS FISHING FOR COMPLIMENTS.

And if within those you boost their ego, give them recognition (one of Garn's Fatal Four), it is a Cialdini style click-whirr shortcut to access their reprtile brain of survival....and sur THRIVAL.

Weight loss fortunes are made on insecurity. But it has nuances. Many facets. And the words used to evoke it emotionally at levels of unawareness, are power words which leverage pennies to dollars.

Gordon






Quote:

Originally Posted by Dien Rice (Post 41632)
Hi Gordon,

Thanks!

I keep a list of a summary of some of the best techniques I've learned from various copywriters... You, Gordon, of course, are on the list!

You are great when it comes to talking to people's real (and often hidden) desires and fears... And another one who I've found is great at this is... the late Bud Weckesser.

I LOVE this Green Tree Press ad...



(Click on the image to see the larger version... I got it from here...)

Thanks to Gordon, I actually met with "Webmaster Raymond Steinbacher" (who wrote the course the ad is for)... I remember us sitting around having a beverage, I think, Gordon, Raymond, and myself, in Erie many years ago...

Of course, this ad is about the feeling of insecurity - of using a computer! (Especially of older folks, back in the early days of the 'net...)

Apparently, it sold 1.5 million courses at $12.95 each (according to Mike Winicki's research)...

It is one of the greatest direct response ads, in my humble opinion...

Thank you, Gordon!

Best wishes,

Dien



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