Boron - Chapter 07

Now, let's discuss some other ways of finding out what people like to purchase by mail. In addition to mailing lists, there are a number of so called "hot" mail order publications. These are the newspapers and magazines that mail order companies advertise in over and over. You should make it a point to discover what these publications are and get copies of them and become very familiar with them. You should pay attention to their editorial content and pay special attention to the mail order ads they carry.

There is a newsletter out of New York City called the "Gallagher Report". This newsletter covers the world of advertising and once each year they publish a special edition that lists all of the major magazines and it ranks them by circulation.

You should get a copy of this special issue (ask Eric) and then get copies of the top 100 magazines and go through them and find out which ones carry a lot of mail order ads.

I have just come in after visiting with you, Kevin, Blade and Z and a digression at this point might be productive. Z, as I am sure you will agree, probably feels a certain sense of relief that, because of the circumstances, she has more or less gotten her own way in regards to her ad. It's really too bad. Too bad for her! You have just seen an excellent example of why I generally treat clients with an iron fist. Z pulled this same stunt when she had her other ads written (by other people) and the ads were miserable failures.

If I were on the street I would have handled this situation in a totally different way. In fact, after about 5-minutes I would have told her to get lost and that she either gets out of my face or else she can write her own ad.

The lesson here concerns control. Can you imagine how disastrous it would be if a patient could tell his surgeon how to do the operation? Or, if an athlete could tell his coach how to do his job?

I could go on and on. But isn't it ridiculous! A client pays me big money to write an ad and then they want to tell me how to do it!