Media Zone: How Did Everything Get So Simple?

1 Feb, 2005 By: Dick Wechsler Response

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Wow, the amount of data direct marketers now have at our fingertips is dizzying. The variables we are able to isolate and analyze are mind-boggling. The limitless ways in which we are able to compare and analyze all these variable is mesmerizing.

Dick Wechsler

What's scary is that we now have the technology to capture and analyze the data to actually understand challenges like this:

What impact does direct mail have on television response rates if the outside envelope is tan craft and it arrived at a house on the same Wednesday that a quarter-page ad ran in the local market newspapers?

Still, despite the increased complexity of direct marketing, it really has never been simpler.

Executive News

John Caples, David Ogilvy and Lester Wunderman may never have imagined that it would be possible to access and analyze the huge amount of meaningful data that is now available to direct marketers. I suspect they would marvel. At the same time, they might be equally appalled at how far so many direct marketers have ventured from the basic rudiments that brought the discipline to where it is today. Whenever I find myself faced with a challenge I can't seem to crack, I return to the simple basics. After all, if it's worked once, it's likely to work again.

Arthur Lockard, my mentor and former partner, was a brilliant copywriter and a basic DR genius. "If you're going to use a colon Dick, use one!" he often said. "Graphically, it's a device that catches the eye. Grammatically, it's punctuation that tells the reader that something else is coming. It tells the eye to keep moving."

That was really great, simple advice. Keeping readers engaged and their eyes moving is exactly what direct response copy is supposed to do. If the reader's eye stops, you'll never get a response.

Many years ago I was writing a space ad for an investment advisory newsletter. I couldn't come up with a headline for the life of me. So I opened John Caples incredible book, "Tested Advertising Methods." Inside, Caples has a chapter devoted to can't-miss headlines. I read over the list and came up with this: "Who in the World Bought Amazon.com at $9:"(note the use of a colon. A question mark would have told the reader to stop). That turned out to be the most successful ad I ever wrote. And all I did to develop it was to return to the simple basics that have been proven effective time and again.

In the last century, I wrote a series of "Rules for Success." Whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by all our data and technology and groundbreaking new ideas guaranteed to generate incredible response, I pull it out. It's proven to be a very reliable compass and reminder of just how simple direct marketing really is:

• 1. Make empirical, not emotional, decisions.
• 2. Numbers are everything — never second-guess them.
• 3. Programs should work the first time, every time — don't justify spotty results, they will only cost you money.
• 4. Frequency is the benefit of success, not the key to success — poor results only get worse when you ramp up the media.
• 5. Never force anything — you can't beat a down cycle.
• 6. Don't waste time — opportunities are fleeting.
• 7. Cut your losses ruthlessly and push your winners aggressively.
• 8. DR is a science — the discipline will lead you to success.

 

Finally my last rule: Read Caples' "Tested Advertising Methods." You'll learn why humor is a lousy approach to direct response creative. More importantly, you'll see with crystal clarity that the rules that were proven effective more than 40, 50, even 60 years ago, still hold true today. It's all become so simple.

Dick Wechsler is president and CEO of a direct response advertising agency located in Irvington, N.Y. He can be reached at (914) 591-6600.

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