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girls attending high-school, or for their
parents, the cards involved will auto-
matically be addressed. If the names are
on Addressograph plates or Elliott sten-
cils, the plates should be tabbed or
punched for automatic selection.
Assuming that all of this has been
done, completely and correctly, let's de-
cide what to mail.
VARY DIRECT-MAIL TO EACH FACTOR
The foregoing discussion just about
answers that question. Your mailing list
is so inclusive, yet so thoroughly sub-
divided, that your mailing messages can
be varied to fit any factor at exactly the
right moment. For example, in May arises
that perennial question what to give . . .
to the June bride, to the high-school or
college graduate, not mentioning those
who have a birthday in June, or who are
celebrating a wedding anniversary, and
what to do with idle children during the
summer months. Different direct-mail
messages can be sent to each, each
piece illustrated and worded to fit the
case as perfectly as your own sales mes-
sage would be if you phoned or made a
personal call. By careful planning, your
mailing pieces, a 4-page illustrated let-
ter, for example, may remain unchanged
on pages 2 and 3, but changed on the
front and back pages, or on the front
page only, to fit perhaps a dozen
variations in prospect classification.
The Direct-Mail Advertising Association,
an organization of which many of you can
well afford to be members, was kind
enough to lend me an example of what
can be done when a mailing list has been
adequately classified. A series of seven
mailing pieces was addresed to 5,000
homes having a yearly income of from
$2,500 to $5,000, in which there was at
least one little girl in the 7 to 10 age
bracket, and in which there was no piano.
The name of the girl was determined,
and each mailing piece was imprinted
with her name, Helen, Joan, Louise, etc.,
and the mailing pieces were so written
as to portray the life story of a girl in
their class. The envelopes containing
these pieces, were not addressed to the
girls, but to their parents. The mailing
pieces pictured what a piano meant to
Helen, Joan, and Louise during child-
hood, during their high-school and col
lege day, during courtship years, their
motherhood days, and during old age.
And there weren't many girls who didn't
warm up to the idea of experiencing in
real life what these messages were telling
them they would if . . . and there weren't
many parents who didn't come to the
conclusion that their Helen, Joan, or
Louise should at all cost be those Helens,
Joans, and Louises so vividly pictured in
the mailing pieces.
The entire list was not mailed at one
time, but by groups of 25 names. The
seven mailings to each group of 25, were
mailed one week apart over a period oi
seven weeks. By not mailing all at one
time, the dealer avoided the embarrass-
fcc
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW, SEPTEMBER, 1
ing aftermath of a successful direct-mail
piece of having more buyers in his store
than his sales force could handle . . .
a mistake which always results in busi-
ness going elsewhere. And he also made
it possible for his sales force to follow up
the mailing pieces with personal calls.
Naturally, the seven pieces were not all
mailed to each name on the list. Those
who bought a piano after the first piece,
naturally did not get the remaining six,
and those who bought after the second
mailing, did not get the remaining five.
Resultant buyers were ready for a dif-
ferent direct-mail effort, that of asking
them for names of others who might be
interested in pianos, for example.
It not only sold many, many pianos,
but it also assisted in closing such "plus"
business as radios, radio-phonographs,
records, band instruments, sheet music,
service and repair work. Note that band-
instrument part. Don't quit if the girl just
don't "wanna" play piano . . . maybe she
is all set to play a violin or a clarnet, and
if you can help her satisfy that desire,
you're all set to sell a piano to the fam-
ily so that some other member of the
family can become her accompanist.
Incidentally, I note that the dealer had
a hand-out piece for salesmen to give the
prospects, in which the entire seven-
piece story is reproduced, their entire line
of pianos illustrated and described (but
not priced), and . . . get this . . . all the
piano teachers in their trading area listed.
That last part surely won the support of
all piano teachers.
This is but an example of what can be
done with direct-mail if the mailing list
is properly built and classified. A similar
series of messages could be addressed to
classifications other than girls in the 7 to
10 age bracket, in piano-less homes of the
$2,500 to $5,000 income class. Get any
combination of factors you want to sell
to. and there is some sales theme that can
be converted into a series of mailing
pieces that will "click" and bring new
piano prospects to your store. Perhaps no
other factor combination will bring as
quick and large a return as this cam-
paign, but' the possibilities are great in
other fields also . . . opportunities you
cannot afford to neglect.
ADVANTAGES OF DIRECT-MAIL
An analysis of direct-mail as a sales
tool will show why it is a great business
builder when properly used.
1. It is DIRECT. You talk to the very per-
son your salesman would call on, and will
have to call on if the sale is ever to be
made. You talk the prospect's language
. . . you strike directly to his heart by dis-
cussing him, his family, his home, his
own desires. If he is a business man, you
talk to him in terms of after-office-hours
and week-ends, of the relaxation, the re-
creation, the enjoyment he personally gets
out of a piano by making piano-playing
his hobby.
2. It is TIMELY. You can talk wedding
gift to the parents and relatives of a girl
to be married, and can picture to them
dying companion throughout her entire
lifetime and the means of developing in
her children the finer senses which music
engenders. Its timeliness has a great deal
to do with its effectiveness, and the op-
portunities to use this factor of timeliness
are many.
COMPLETE
3. It is COMPLETE. You are not limited
by square inches of space or in minutes
of time. You can tell a complete story. And
don't hesitate to tell a complete story.
You'd fire your salesman if he made calls
merely to wish a prospect a good day and
leave without trying to close a sale. Your
direct-mail can be a good salesman, too,
and yet be courteous and show no sign
of high pressuring.
4. Direct-mail is VARIABLE. In the same
mail, on the same day, you can send out
a dozen types of direct-mail, each type
custom-tailored to fit a given set of condi-
tions. You treat each person as an in-
dividual, and not as a mob. Vary your
direct-mail to fit each case to the "t." Only
direct-mail offers you that possibility.
PRIVATE
5. Direct-mail is PRIVATE. You can tell
each individual what you want just him
to know, without any one else listening in.
Other advertising media are "open let-
ters" . . . but direct-mail pieces are "clos-
ed letters," with the contents limited to
the person you are addressing. Your
salesmen can add a personally handwrit
ten postscript to the next letter being ad-
dressed to Mr. Smith, saying "Mr. Jones
has suggested that I substitute that piano
bench your wife admired when she was
in the store last v^eek. It's a pleasure.
Mr. Smith, to hold that bench for you." Or,
"I located a prospect for your present
piano, who is anxious to have it imme-
diately. He's willing to pay $100.00 for it,
which gives you quite a sizable trade-in
value if we can arrange matters within the
next few days." Write your own ticket
. . . but tak'e advantage of the privateness
of direct-mail.
EASY
6. Direct-mail is EASY. I'm not saying
that to mislead you. Direct-mail is the
easiest, because it is the closest to sit-
ting right alongside your prospect and
telling him directly, confidentially, com-
pletely, with all the variations necessary
and just at the most opportune time, ex-
actly what you want to tell him. Can any-
thing be easier? No struggle to put a
1000-word idea in a space meant for a
600-word message, no worry as to how
your fine illustration will look, no heart-
ache trying to make it sound as if you
were talking to Mr. Jones only while know-
ing that it must also sound as if you were
talking to just Mr. Meier or just Mr.
Popoloni or just Mr. Bombovitch . . . you
can't be individual and cosmopolitan at
the same time! And you don't have to
tear your hair out while trying to revise
last month's ad to fit a new set of con-
ditions and get it ready for publication 24
hours from now.