| Making a character out of the advertiser | | | | of pear growers. The ad set off with the |
| brings the message alive. Maxwell Sackheim is | | | | headline: "Imagine Harry and Me Advertising |
| most famous for inventing the | | | | Our Pears in Fortune!" Here's a snippet of |
| Book-of-the-Month Club. But before that, he | | | | Sumner's copy: "Out here on the ranch we |
| invented some dramatic, and dramatically | | | | don't pretend to know much about advertising, |
| successful, advertising. One of his | | | | and maybe we're foolish spending the price of |
| patented techniques was to make a character | | | | a tractor for this space; but my brother and |
| out of the advertiser, writing ads as if the | | | | I got an idea the other night, and we believe |
| clients themselves were actually talking. One | | | | you folks who read Fortune are the kind of |
| Sackheim client was Frank E. Davis, "The | | | | folks who'd like to know about it. So here's |
| Gloucester Fisherman". This is how Sackheim | | | | our story..." Years later again, in the |
| wrote for him: "There is no use trying. | | | | '70s, Frank Schulz took a Joe Sugarman |
| I've tried and tried to tell people about my | | | | seminar. Joe suggested the character formula. |
| fish, but I wasn't rigged out to be an ad | | | | Frank wrote a headline: "A Fluke of Nature." |
| writer and I can't do it. I can close-haul a | | | | He told of the accidental invention of the |
| sail with the best of them. I know how to | | | | "ruby red" grapefruit, and about how picky |
| pick out the best fish of the catch... But | | | | they are in picking the fruit. The rest is |
| I'll never learn the knack of writing an ad | | | | marketing history. One variation on the |
| that will tell people why my kind of | | | | character gambit is the open letter. Norman |
| fish-fresh caught, with the deep sea tang | | | | Cousins resigned from The Saturday Review to |
| still in it-is lots better than the ordinary | | | | launch his own World Review Magazine. Showing |
| store kind. "At least you can taste the | | | | one heck of a lot of character, he put up |
| difference. So you won't mind, will you, if | | | | $15,711 for three insertions in The New York |
| I ship some of my fish direct to your home? | | | | Times. They were headed, "An Open Letter to |
| It won't cost you anything unless you feel | | | | the Readers of The New York Times." He told |
| like keeping it. All I ask is that you try | | | | them what was wrong with the journalism of |
| some of my fish at my expense and judge for | | | | the day and what they'd get from the World |
| yourself whether it isn't exactly what you | | | | Review. That first round of advertising |
| have always wanted." This copy sold tens of | | | | netted Cousins $54,923.00 in subscriptions. |
| thousands of tubs of fish right across the | | | | Every viable enterprise has a character |
| country. The authentic character of the | | | | behind it somewhere. When you find it, then |
| Gloucester Fisherman brought life, and | | | | you know what's unique about the company-and |
| customers, to the product. You're thinking, | | | | that's at least halfway to great advertising! |
| "Great then, but now? Come on." Maybe you've | | | | |
| heard of a couple multi-millionaires named | | | | Robert Greenshields is a marketing success |
| Harry and David? Ever wonder how they got | | | | coach who helps business owners and |
| started? Years after Sackheim, a copywriter | | | | professionals who are frustrated that they're |
| called G. Lynn Sumner wrote an ad for a pair | | | | working too many hours for too little reward. |