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SECTION III
CONSUMER MAIL ORDER LETTERS
We see them almost every day. We open our mailboxes and discover the store has come to us. You
name it. Someone is trying to convince us we should buy a product or service from them — sight
unseen. This is no small task for the copywriter. The customer can't touch, feel, or see the product.
They can't see the "store." They don't know what the salesperson looks like. Words alone must
create a convincing picture.
Although photographs or drawings in a brochure or booklet will help do the job, testing has
shown that the words in a direct mail letter most often make the difference between success and
failure.
To supplement the classic direct mail letters shown in the preceding chapter, I've chosen a number
of additional consumer mail order letters to show how copywriters have handled other difficult
mail order selling situations.
THE FRANKLIN MINT "NORMAN ROCKWELL PLATE" LETTER
Franklin Mint letters (in addition to the classics used to introduce The Franklin Library) are
among the contemporary classics of direct mail because each successfully introduces another new
series of collectibles.
The first, a one-page letter announcing the first Christmas plate by Norman Rockwell, is particularly
notable because it created today's boom in collectible plates. While plate collecting had been
enjoyed throughout the world since Bing & Grondahl of Denmark introduced its first Christmas
plate in 1895, it was a rather quiet hobby with only a limited number of participating collectors.
But by bringing America's favorite artist into the act and producing etched plates of silver, The
Franklin Mint started a trend that has been growing ever since. This single letter produced 18,321
orders at $100 each.
One thing The Franklin Mint had learned through research was that the "big" market was made
up not of dedicated collectors, but of people who wanted some kind of collection —without having
to work at it. The primary interest of most buyers wasn't in potential appreciation value —
that would involve constantly tracking the market, involving special knowledge and "work."
Thus, the typical Franklin Mint letter doesn't lead off with an "investment" approach, although
something about the history of appreciation of similar collectibles is usually woven into the copy
to establish the type of item being offered as worthy of collecting. The key emphasis in this letter
was that this was a "first" — an important selling point in the collectibles field. And, of course,
there was strong emphasis on the "limited edition." A few years before, The Franklin Mint had
introduced the idea of using an order deadline as a means of establishing the limit of an edition.
At the time, true collectors scoffed at the idea of letting the number of orders decide an edition
limit. But The Franklin Mint was dealing with "non-collectors" — those who didn't have the foggiest
idea of what quantity constituted a limited edition. However, a deadline date was something
they could understand. Today, an edition limited by deadline has become relatively common.
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