Letters to the Editor

TESTING CANADIAN WATERS

It was extremely reassuring to read Larry Riggs' article “Northern Exposure” (September).

I assisted in launching Crest Fruit Inc.'s first international campaign this year. We did our first mailing into Canada, a grapefruit club offer and gift fruit catalog from Red Cooper.

We ran into each of the issues mentioned in Larry's article and more. It was very difficult to find a decent list. We're fortunate to have a company that's doing the logistics and importing on our behalf.

Overall it was a pretty tedious setup. I was even told by Canada Post Borderfree representatives that they were not interested in having us as a merchant partner due to all the paperwork necessary for perishable food items. However, the article has given me hope for a sweet outcome.

We found that we're one of only a few firms that's tried to offer a food continuity plan in Canada. We hope to be the first to succeed at catering to that underserved market.
Bonnie Loflin
Marketing Development Director
Crest Fruit Inc.
Mission, TX

TWO OF A KIND

Ray Schultz's retelling of the background to the rejection of Bill Jayme's initial nomination to the DMA Hall of Fame (Direct Hit, September) — a knee-jerk, off-putting reaction to his stated favorite pastime — brought to mind the similar banishment of an equally talented copy-iconoclast, Jim Black. Jim was the first co-chairman of the fledging Direct Mail Writers Guild in the late 1960s.

When Jim was asked to come up with some sort of award theme (à la the Caples or Echo awards), he brilliantly proposed the Golden Trashcan — “for the worst piece of junk that made it into the mail to be foisted on the public,” as I recall him describing it to me.

Sadly, in those days before curmudgeon-like behavior was de rigueur, the idea never made it through committee and Jim narrowly escaped being tarred and feathered. (For a look at what it was like in those good old days, check out “Mad Men” on TV's A&E.)

Soon after this, Jim decided to flee the country and settled in Europe, where he did his magic for the better part of a decade. He returned to the states only after the Nixon years were over and the memory of the Golden Trashcan had begun to fade.

Like Bill Jayme, Jim Black was truly one of a kind. Which, I guess, would really make them two of a kind.
Irv Mayer
Saugerties, NY

‘ANCIENT MARKETER’ WEIGHS IN

Here I am again, the 91-year-old ancient marketer, taking Russell Kern to task for his September article “The Power of Prose.”

His ideas for repositioning offers for “tough times” are the very same offers that have been used in “good times.” And the emotional appeals he suggests have been taught in the DMA's Direct Marketing Institute since the days of Ed Mayer. The concepts are timeless.

Back in 1975 Ed McLean taught how to word offers in much the same way. The concept? The same offer stated differently is perceived as being a uniquely different offer and can give a substantial boost to results.

However, if we're facing tough times and are still doing the same things over and over, expecting different results but not getting them, then for certain it's time to get back to the basics of marketing.

Just coasting along is not an option in a down economy. Consumer values are changing and the environment in which we market has changed. When companies recognize these patterns and adapt marketing to the needs of the times, their reward will be great.

It's time for businesses to take a close look at the inherent drama in their goods and services. Something dramatic and fascinating exists in these offerings. This “something” is the big idea to market.

In “Marketing Myopia,” Harvard's Theodore Levitt hit the nail on the head for a solution to today's shortsighted market. He wrote, “Selling focuses on the needs of the seller, marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the seller's need to convert the product into cash, marketing with the idea of satisfying the needs of the consumer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering, and, finally, consuming it.”

This is economics and marketing 101. Microsoft's Bill Gates and FedEx's Fred Smith epitomize this concept. They brought products to market that people didn't know or imagine they needed and as a result spawned several new industries.

In marketing classes we were taught the “four P's” — product, price, place, and promotion. They still provide a good scaffolding for market planning, but they represent the seller's thinking, not the buyer's.

Jerry McCarthy of Northwestern University introduced the concept of the four P's in the first edition of his book “Marketing.” He's since converted this to the “four C's” to match the buyer's thinking.

They are:

• Product is now customer value.
• Price is now customer costs.
• Place is now customer convenience.
• Promotion is now customer communication.

Today customers want value, quality, convenience and helpful communication, not high-hype hit-and-run sales promotion — salesmanship, not showmanship. Innovation is essential to inspiring sales in a sluggish economy — great products, new services and super-interesting things move people to action.

This discipline might help direct marketing meet the demands of customers in tough times. Marketing's mission is to sense people's unfulfilled needs and then create attractive solutions. If we DMers rise to this challenge, it could give an entirely new dimension to our industry.

I'm sure Mr. Kern is a talented direct marketer. I suggest he study the evolution of copywriting for direct marketing; he'll discover his advice for positioning offers differently dates back to the days when hall of fame copywriters like Frank Johnson, John Caples, Max Sackheim, and living legend Les Wunderman were making their marketing magic.
Bob Hemmings
Hemmings IV Direct
Pasadena, CA