(Re: Loose Cannon: Dullards At Sharper Image, Direct Newsline, Monday, March 17, 2008)

As a former mail order marketing and advertising manager, I read the news of the Sharper Image problems with a feeling of nostalgia.

They burst onto the 20th century mail order scene with such a terrific punch -- exciting full-page ads with spectacular copy.

They broke all the rules of mail order. "You can't make money on ads. They should be used only for lead generation." But year after year they made money on ads.

"You can't be a single-item company. You have to have a catalog to spread out the sales among many different items." But year after year, they rolled out these superb single-item offers without a catalog.

They taught us how to pick successful merchandise, how to write copy, how to make one paragraph after another build up the benefits of a product, until the customer simply had to go ahead and buy it.

I sincerely hope the company does not go into liquidation. When I moved to Boston, my first employer here went into liquidation in my second year with them! When the figures were announced, the vendors (chiefly the catalog printers) and the customers ("customer deposits")lost almost equal amounts, in six figures. Unlike gift cards, the customers' losses in those days were prepaid orders that were never shipped.

Fred Morath
Fred Morath Direct Marketing
Natick, MA