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