Wednesday, June 26, 2019

#59 DIRECT MAIL vs. DIGITAL PROMOTION



Posted by Denny Hatch

DIRECT MAIL VS. DIGITAL PROMOTION
You Never Get a Second Chance
To Make a First Impression


Only a Fool Would Immediately
Trash This Terrific Offer
The self-mailer for THE WEEK arrived in mid-January 2019.
This fat, giant interruptive mailing had not only contained the pitch for a weekly magazine, it included the actual current issue of the magazine as a FREE SAMPLE.
At 8" x 10-1/2" it dominates your mailbox and your attention.
You can’t ignore it.
You can’t simply click “Delete” and expect it to go away.
You gotta deal with it—physically look at it and handle it.
It screams, “HEY! THIS IS REALLY, REALLY FREE!”
Plus, GET 6 MORE WEEKS FREE!
What’s more: SEND NO MONEY!
NO HIDDEN PRICING. “If I like it, I can continue with 19 more issues (25 in all) for just $1.39 each. That’s 72% savings off the single-copy price.
Absolutely NO RISK: “If you do not like it, write “cancel” on our bill, return it unpaid and you’ll owe absolutely nothing.”
IF YOU SAY “YES,” you’ll receive an additional freebie.
Like the private briefing presidents receive, it’s packed with inside information and classified intelligence from around the globe. An invaluable guide that no leader should be without—it’s yours FREE when you send in your RSVP Card found on the front of this issue.

This mailing is hugely flattering.
Wow! The publishers called me "leader!" They think so highly of me as a possible customer they are spending big bucks to reach me!
Printing and production (including the magazine): at least 50¢.
Postage: According to the USPS, postage would average 50¢ apiece.
     That means basic price is $1.00 ($1000 per thousand)!

Plus… the publisher has committed to investing in:
• Printing and Mailing: 6 additional free issues
• Printing and mailing at least 6 invoices (postage 38¢ each).
• Printing and mailing: Free premium, CONFIDENTIAL INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING.

Selling Magazine Subscriptions 
the Old-fashioned Way
In the heyday of magazine direct mail circulation mailings—the 1970s and 1980s—two of the dominant figures were the elegant, erudite and witty copywriter Bill Jayme and his partner, Finnish art director, Heikki, Ratalahti.  They brought in gazillions of subscribers and made themselves a small fortune.


When Jayme-Ratalahti magazine offers hit your mailbox, you did not ignore them. They were lively, fun, pictorially gorgeous and great reading.



A sample Jayme offer for a monthly magazine: Send for THE CURRENT ISSUE FREE. No Risk. No Obligation. If you like it, take 11 more for the special introductory rate of $9.95 (a 73% saving under what others pay).
     THE WEEK went Jayme-Ratalahti one better: instead of simply offering free issue, they sent everybody the current issue free.

Had Any of the Above Mailings Arrived in Digital Form…


They would have shown up like these 65-character subject lines and pre-headers—boring type in the inbox looking like every other dreary message announcement.

THE WEEK’s Unusual Editorial Model:
Steal Outside Research and Rewrite!
Our editors scour hundreds of magazines, newspapers and websites worldwide to bring you the most intriguing stories and influential commentary—left, right and in-between.
     We find the best. Boil it down. Banish the boring. And deliver the facts straight to you in a clear, concise package with minimum advertising and maximum insight.
     Buried in its promotional copy is a brilliant USP (Unique Selling Proposition):
"You read less, but you know more."

Interesting Facts from THE WEEK
It was founded in the UK in 1995 and launched in the U.S. in 2001:
     • 74% of readers do not read a daily newspaper.
     • The daily news site—TheWeek.co.uk reaches 2.1 million global unique visitors per month.
     THE WEEK JUNIOR—published for 8- to 14-year-olds in the UK since 2015—has an average circulation of 59,266.
     • U.S. rate base, 550,000 readers.
     These folks seem to know what they are doing.

Why I did not subscribe to THE WEEK
I’m up at 5:00 a.m. With morning coffee and iPad in hand, I blow through Apple News (with links to hundreds of worldwide sources), and pay for digital subscriptions to The New York Times and The Washington Post. I scroll through most of the sources THE WEEK’s researchers steal from. And I see them a week earlier than THE WEEK’s subscribers.
     (In case you missed my May post, I fired The Wall Street Journal when I discovered they were ripping me off.)
    For current news I tune in to CNN, Fox News and MSNBC throughout the day. I don’t feel the need to spend $99.99 for a digital subscription to THE WEEK or ($129.99 for print)—yet another source for last week’s news regurgitated and rewritten.

Takeaways to Consider
• You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

• Direct mail emphatically ain’t dead.

• However, direct mail is horrendously expensive and very complex.

• In the current craze to use vastly cheaper digital promotions, the ranks of old-time direct mail experts are thinning. Do not be conned into hiring a techie wizard who claims complete knowledge of direct mail. You’ll wind up deeply in debt.

• Knowledge needed for successful direct mail: pricing and offers; copy and design; printing and mailing know-how; list research and rental; scheduling; budgeting; forecasting; product fulfillment; follow-up mailings, billing series, upselling and renewals.

• “There are two rules—and two rules only—for successful direct mail. Rule #1: Test everything. Rule #2: See Rule #1.”
 —Malcolm Decker

• Ed Mayer’s Corollary: “Don’t test whispers.”  (E.g., Don’t test $49.95 vs. $49.99. Testing is expensive. Look for breakthroughs.)

“Success in direct mail is 40% lists, 40% offer, 20% everything else.”
—Ed Mayer

• The three most important words in direct mail: “Arithmetic, Arithmetic, Arithmetic!”

P.S. A shout-out with sincere thanks to direct mail guru/expert Dick Goldsmith of the Horah Group for taking the time to check my arithmetic and critique this post. If you are planning to do direct mail, Dick can be reached at dgoldsmith@horah.com
###

Word count: 960



At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT
dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:  
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and e-mail to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. I look forward to being in touch!


IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT… Write Me!
Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account, contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your request. Thank you and do keep in touch.  dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers: 
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome. 
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion!

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

#58 Jeff Bezos Leaves Tens of Millions of Dollars on the Table!



Issue #58 – Tuesday, June 19, 2019
Posted by Denny Hatch

Jeff Bezos Leaves Tens of Millions of Dollars on the Table!


In my 83 years—60 years in marketing & P.R.—I have never seen or owned a product so life-changing and so chock-a-block full of revolutionary features and benefits (and so affordable!) as Jeff Bezos’ Kindle!

[Oh, Kindle!] “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.”
                Elizabeth Barrett Browning

In the illustration above, the little gizmo Jeff Bezos is holding in his hand can contain all books shown in the photograph. Jeff is holding his original model. Peggy & I have since owned four or five of these wonders.

1. Size.
My current Kindle is 4-3/4” x 6-3/4” x 3/8” thin. Light weight. It slips into my jacket pocket.

2. Massive cost savings.
At a book Expo in 2007 I saw Jeff Bezos himself pitch his Kindle invention for $399. I bought one then and never looked back. (And never again bought a printed book). Current price: $59.99 - $229.99. (Protective cover is $10 to $40 additional.)
     Kindle’s $60 base price is the Gillette razor business model: Charge peanuts for the handle and the first few shaves and make a fortune on selling blades year-after-year.)

3. A massive library in your jacket pocket!
Kindle can hold up to 1,100 books.

4. Quick review of Kindle.
A number of years ago I wrote a column on the early Kindle. My chum, Gordon Grossman, former circulation director of Reader’s Digest (whose sweepstakes made gazillions of dollars for DeWitt and Lila Acheson as well as for himself) wrote me the following comment:
Very good, balanced article on the Kindle. I’m an unabashed enthusiast, and would sooner go somewhere without my credit card than my Kindle. The reason I got it is because I’m very, very tired of lugging something like 60 pounds of books on the three- or four-month cruises we take every winter. It does solve that problem with style. On a daily basis, the wonder of the little devil is being able to order a book and watch it appear on my screen about a minute later. I’m up to something like 50 books and counting. It’s a great device. Love it, love it, love it.

5. Choose your font.
Click on the Aa symbol at top left and you can choose any of 10 fonts. Regular or bold.

6. Font size.
Take a look at the Jeff Bezos’ Kindle illustration at the top of this post. You can choose tiny type all the way up to the giant
  BOOKS
  AREN’T
DEAD. 
 Simply spread your index finger and thumb on the screen and you can change font from teeny to huge. Late in their lives, my in-laws got macular degeneration and could only see huge type. Kindle would have made there last years truly golden. I have terrible eyesight and 20/400 and cannot read newspapers and most books. Kindle and iPad are my sanity savers.

7. Line width.
The screen is 3-1/2” across—roughly the equivalent of a newspaper column. Easy peasy on the eyes.

8. Lighting.
Kindle is backlit. You choose the brightness. With no backlight, it’s like reading type on the page of a book. When backlit, you can read it comfortably in the pitch-blackness of a jetliner at night and not disturb seatmate or fellow passengers.

9. Come across an unfamiliar word?
You don’t need to carry around a 1,000-page dictionary to look up words. Simply touch the word on the Kindle screen and instantly up pops the various definitions and derivations from Dictionary.com.

10. Don’t recognize the name of a person, place or item?
Touch the word onscreen and instantly up comes the Wikipedia article.

11. Come across a person’s name or place from earlier in the book you don’t remember?
Touch the little magnifying glass icon, type in the item and Kindle will instantly list all the places in the book where it appeared. For example, I am re-reading Ed Cray’s masterful biography of George Marshall, a young widower whose beloved second wife is featured throughout the book. Up popped 127 results. When and where did George and Katherine meet? I touch the magnifying glass icon and typed in Katherine. Result #1: …was also bringing her seventeen-year-old daughter. Katherine Tupper Brown had accepted the invitation to… Tap the back arrow icon at the top of the page and you are taken to the place you were last reading. This is great if you’re in the middle of a complex novel with myriad fringe characters.

11. Wanna highlight a sentence, paragraph or full page(s)?
No underling with a pen or yellow Highlighter. Simply swipe your warm finger over the text you want to save and it turns gray and stays gray (unless you decide to delete the gray).

12. What happens to your highlights?
They are aggregated and easily accessible with the touch of a finger.

13. Can you get a printout of your highlights? YES!
If you want your highlights, contact Amazon and they will instantly email you the passages you have highlighted. They arrive in Excel, but you can easily translate these to word.

14. An aside: avoiding plagiarism.
Google “Doris Kearns Goodwin plagiarism” and you’ll get 21,000 hits. No, the beloved Pulitzer Prize historian did not intentionally steal another author’s work and call it her own! Apparently she hired freelance researchers to lighten her load. These assistants did the reading, copied relevant information and submitted it to the author who inadvertently copied some of the notes verbatim, not realizing these were the original author’s words. It was dumb and sloppy of Kearns Goodwin and a stain on her reputation. If the desired material been on the researcher’s Kindle, Goodwin would have known these were the author’s words and cited them as such.

15. Free sample chapters of books.
I watch a lot of TV. When the author of an interesting new book is being interviewed, I can go to Amazon to see if it is available on kindle. If so, I can tap DOWNLOAD SAMPLE and a few chapters are instantly on my Kindle. I can be reading the author’s book while the interview is still in progress.

16. Lighting-fast delivery of books.
Hear of a book you want to read? Order it on your desktop, smartphone, laptop or iPad and it appears instantly—and ready to read—on your Kindle. I’m talking 20 seconds!

17. Cost of books.
The paperback edition Ed Cray’s biography of George Marshall is $25.87 on Amazon. The Kindle edition is $15.39. I save $10.48. What’s more, on Kindle, I can instantly access it any time no matter where I am in the world.

18. Free books!
Hundreds of the greatest classics are free on Kindle.

19. Audio books.
You can listen to audiobooks on Kindle. Over 475,000 are available.

20. Intimidated by a giant book?
I am. The paperback edition Ed Cray’s biography of George Marshall weighs 2.4 pounds and has 864 pages. Seeing and handling these mammoth monsters is off-putting. You think you’re making real headway and you’ve got hundreds of more pages to read. On Kindle, you holding a few ounces in your hand and seeing one page at a time. A blissful reading experience!

21. Ecologically sound!
The creation of an 864-page printed book with cover requires the dirty business of manufacturing of paper and ink. With Kindle, you’re acquiring a few teeny-tiny spritzes of electricity

22. Battery life.
Depending on the model Kindle you buy, the battery charge can last 10 houea on up to weeks!

23. Kindle is a Godsend for publishers.
The cost of creating a printed book includes paper, printing, binding, packaging and—worst of all—returns. Kindle, on the other hand is a few spritzes of electricity from the author’s computer to the digital publisher’s inventory and invisible signals to download it into your Kindle. The publisher’s production cost of a kindle edition is essentially zero, zip, nada. The sales revenue is pure profit.

24. Royalty bonanza for the author.
Where authors get 15% to 20% royalty from print books, on Kindle we get up to 70% royalties.

Amazon’s Truly Crappy Marketing of Kindle

Above is the typical landing page for a Kindle. Below is the main copy block made readable by being three times larger than on your computer:

• The thinnest, lightest Kindle Paperwhite yet—with a flush-front design and 300 ppi glare-free display that reads like real paper even in bright sunlight.

• Now waterproof, so you’re free to read and relax at the beach, by the pool, or in the bath.

• Enjoy twice the storage with 8 GB. Or choose 32 GB to hold more magazines, comics, and audiobooks.

• Now with Audible. Pair with Bluetooth headphones or speakers to listen to your story.

• A single battery charge lasts weeks, not hours.

•The built-in adjustable light lets you read indoors and outdoors, day and night.

• Get instant access to new releases and bestsellers, plus over a million titles at $2.99 or less.

The Above Kindle page is the complete opposite of
everything this magnificent invention stands for.
• Teeny-tiny unreadable mouse type throughout.
• No headlines.
• No subheads.
• Few features.
• No benefits.
• No excitement.
• No warmth.
• This landing page is a reading nightmare.
• In short, a total turn-off.

Desperately Needed for Starters: A USP!
     In the past, this cranky blog devoted two posts to the science and art creating a Unique Selling Proposition.
     Above are 24 features that make Kindle the greatest contribution to the reading experience since Gutenberg.
     If you can't come up with a powerful USP out of 24 features, a new marketing team is needed. 
     In October 2018 I posted:
     I listed some of the most famous USPs—the catch phrase that immediately differentiates a product from everything every other product or service in the world. Here’s the list:

The challenge to Bezos' copywriter: Take all 24 features of Kindle compress them into a single, powerful benefit that makes it unique and an essential addition to the life of every literate person in the world.
     By George, I think I’ve done it in just eight words!
     Below is Kindle’s logo with Denny's USP for Jeff Bezos to use as he wishes.
     It goes to Jeff with my thanks for his genius and for enabling me to create a giant library that I carry in my pocket all over the world for a fraction of what others pay for a ton of clunky print books!
     Go get ‘em, Jeff! 

Takeaways to Consider
Traditional book publishing is the most efficient system ever created for turning trees into landfill. —Denny Hatch

• The Kindle concept and execution represents the greatest revolution since Gutenberg in making the printed word available in a convenient format at a price everyone can afford.

• Kindle elevates Jeff Bezos into the pantheon of the world’s greatest inventors, right up with Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Tesla, da Vinci, Ford, the Wrights, Steve Jobs, Braille, Berners Lee and Fermi.

• Alas, at present the Bezos marketing effort is pure dreck—leaving tens of millions of dollars on the table.

###
Word count: 1825



At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT
dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:  
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and e-mail to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. I look forward to being in touch!


IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE POSTING A COMMENT… Write Me!
Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account, contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your request. Thank you and do keep in touch. Thank you and do keep in touch. dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers: 
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome. 
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com

You Are Invited to Join the Discussion!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

#57 The 11 Mentors Who Changed My Life.




Posted by Denny Hatch

 The 11 Mentors Who Changed My Life.
Who Changed Yours? An Invitation...
At age 15, I wrote a press release for this play. The week was SRO.

Evelyn Lawson
When I was 15, I wanted to be in the theater. In the summers of 1950 and 1952 I worked as an apprentice at the Ivoryton Playhouse in Connecticut. There I struck up a friendship with Evelyn Lawson, a heavy drinking, heavy smoking ex-Ziegfeld Follies chorine in her 40s who did publicity and P.R. for the theater. I asked her about what she did.
     “Publicity and public relations is the business of letting people in on what you are doing,” she told me. “I write news releases about upcoming plays and send them to the local newspapers. If they print my release, people will read it and buy tickets to the show. In effect, publicity is free advertising.”
     “How do you get them to print it?”
     “Editors are lazy. Give them something they can use and they’ll run it, rather than going to the trouble of writing something themselves."
     Fast forward to the end of summer. The Playhouse signed up an extra show—Dream Girl—starring Judy Holliday who that year had won the 1950 Academy Award for the Best Performance by an Actress in the film Born Yesterday. This was a big deal for the theater.
     For Evelyn, it was a pain in the ass. She was tired from the hot summer (no air conditioning back then) of hard work and wanted to get back home to Cape Cod.
    When I offered to write the release, she jumped at the opportunity to (1) foist the work off so she could drink and smoke and (2) maybe get her jollies by mentoring a 15-year-old kid about what she did for a living.
     Evelyn taught me about headlines, generating excitement in the lede graph, dropping in fascinating tidbits of information and gossip about the play, the author, Judy Holliday’s career and, of course, the urgency to order tickets before they sold out.
     Under Evelyn’s guidance, I wrote several drafts on the clunky old Remington office typewriter.

When approved by Evelyn, I laboriously retyped it on waxy purple stencils, affixed each page to a black ink-soaked mat and hand-cranked 20 copies of each page on the primitive office-duplicating machine.
     To finish the job, I waited until the ink dried and then collated, stapled and folded the two pages; typed addresses on 20 envelopes; licked envelopes and stamps; and mailed them at the post office.
     I was thrilled to discover the Middletown Record printed my release verbatim! Even more thrilling, Dream Girl was SRO all week.
     At age 15, I had acquired a marketable skill that I have used throughout my 60-year career!
    Evelyn Lawson changed my life!

U.S. Army


The U.S. Army was founded 244 years ago. After graduation from Columbia College, I served as a draftee 1958-1960. In the private sector, only Proctor & Gamble has a mentoring system equal to that of the Army.
     Following basic training at Fort Dix, NJ, I was stationed on Governor’s Island in New York Harbor. The Army gave me skills I never would have had in civilian life as a recent college grad:
     • Wrote press releases for the Public Information Office (PIO).
     • Produced and wrote a weekly radio program featuring the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra stationed in Germany for WQXR in New York.
     • Did publicity and promotion for Armed Forces Day, New York, 1960.
     • Wrote, produced, directed and narrated a documentary film for the New York National Guard on its training facility at Camp Smith, Peekskill, NY.
     Okay, the U.S. Army was not a “mentor” in the usual sense of the word. But during three centuries, it has a tradition of mentoring. Officers and enlistees must continually work with and train those men and women serving under them.
     In my case, I was handed various assignments and mercifully used common sense and did not screw up.
     In spite of all the Mickey Mouse chores (K.P., prisoner watch, cleaning latrines, I loved the Army; it gave me boundless confidence that I was not the dumb-ass kid my parents believed I was.
Quick Takeaway
I flat-out believe the two-year draft should be reinstated and every kid—whether after high school or after college deferments—should serve the country somehow. Opportunities: military, teaching aide, Peace Corps, hospital or agricultural assistant or interning for a corporation or non-profit organization. 
     Chances are two years of work in the real world with a government salary and health care will give them one or more lifelong marketable skills, work history and references for a job well done. 
     This is a hell of lot better scenario than moving in with—and mooching off—their parents after graduation spending two years whining about how tough it is to find a job before starting off flipping burgers at MacDonald’s.

Ash Green

When I got out of the Army in 1960, my first job was making $60 a week as a book publicist for Prentice-Hall in Englewood Cliffs, N.J. The company was a major publisher of all kinds of titles—nonfiction, self-help, biographies, business and salesmanship books and an occasional novel.
     My boss was a young socialite with the unlikely name of Ashbel Green, who went on to become a renowned and beloved editor at Alfred A. Knopf/Random House.
    My main assignment was to write press releases on new titles to accompany the pre-publication copies of the books being sent out to book reviewers. The purpose was to excite reviewers so they would want to write about this new book—either as a listing announcement or, ideally, with a full-dress review.
     A successful publicity release captures the reader’s attention. The headline and copy must make the book sound so irresistible it is immediately placed in the reviewer’s “A” pile of titles likely to get coverage.
How I learned to read a book and write
a two-page press release in two hours.
In my final months at Prentice-Hall, I could be handed the galleys of a non-fiction book and produce a two-page press release in two hours flat.
     Six or more sets of galleys were printed. These were two-foot-long sheets of raw type printed out before the book was turned into pages.
     Sets of galleys were distributed to management, sales, the author, editor and proofreader for final editing, corrections and changes. I got the sixth set.
     My job was to highlight the most compelling elements of the book in order to make the reviewers’ job easier.
     I developed a kind of system for speed-reading, enabling me to gobble up those long galley proofs. I spent some time on the introduction, foreword and first chapter to see where the author was going.
     Thereafter, I would carefully scan every galley sheet. When something caught my eye, I would slow down and start reading. If a section seemed usable, I would circle it, turn the page sideways and move on.
     It would take roughly 30 to 45 minutes to know what was in the book. I would mark up all the stories, characters, pithy quotes and observations to grab the reader’s attention and maybe, with luck, make news.
     When I finished the book, I would have 15 to 25 sideways galley proofs, whereupon I would carefully read over what I had circled. The release would begin to take shape in my mind and I would start writing. The finished release was essentially “the best of…” and filled with the juiciest goodies.

     Writing a column is easy. I just sit down at the  
     typewriter, open a vein and bleed it out, drop
     by drop.
      —Red Smith (1905-1982), Sportswriter

     Because I had done the research, I did not have to “open a vein and bleed it out, drop by drop.” I had plenty of material to work with and the writing came easily.
     My measure of success? That came when a reviewer put his byline on my publicity release and ran it as his own review. This happened more than once.
How Ash Green Changed My Life
     At age 83, with lousy eyesight, I no longer read newspapers with their dreary “gray walls of type” and tiny printing. Instead, every morning I hit the iPad and skim/read three news sources a day (which I pay for): The New York Times, Washington Post and Apple News. And I watch CNN, MSNBC and Fox News.
     I will not listen to podcasts. They are voice driven. If it gets boring, I have no way of scanning ahead to find more red meat.
     Nor do I read clunky printed books that take up space and often weigh a pound or more. My book reading entirely is on Kindle—in my opinion, the greatest technological advance in the printed word since Gutenberg. Think of it! I can carry a library of up to 3,500 books in my jacket pocket and I pay roughly half what “book lovers” pay for a print title.

 Frank Watts

My father was the author of more than 40 biographies and history books. His first editor was a six-foot part Cherokee Indian divorcée and one-time singer with the Paul Whiteman band named Helen Hoke. If you saw her across the room, you’d think for a minute she was the great Metropolitan Opera coloratura soprano Joan Sutherland.
     In 1943 Helen married the six-foot tall son of a Baptist minister from Lawrence, Kansas who made a very good living traveling the country as a book salesman. On the side Franklin Watts had a one-man book publishing company.
     When Frank married Helen, she became not only his wife but also his business partner and steered Franklin Watts, Inc. into becoming a major publisher of children’s books. Their bread-‘n’-butter: THE FIRST BOOK series.
     Frank and Helen became great friends of the family. My parents and the Watts were heavy drinkers. One night my mother said, “Frank, you have a face like a Toby mug.” 
    Frank sat for a ceramic artist and had 100 Toby mugs of his puss sculpted and fired as Christmas gifts to his friends, suppliers and customers across the country to use as pencil holders. The object: every time they reached for a pencil they would think of Frank and order more FIRST BOOKS.
     In my sophomore year in college, my mother, stepfather and I were invited to spend with weekend with Frank and Helen at the cottage they rented on Long Island's Fire Island. We all gathered for pre-lunch drinks on the roof deck overlooking Great South Bay. Frank had just poured his third Bloody Mary when I asked, “Frank, what do you think I should do with my life?”
     Frank looked over at me quizzically and thought for a moment. Then speaking slowly so as not to slur his words he said, “Denny… you are a great houseguest. You help out in the kitchen. You’re a terrific bartender. You’re a good listener. People like talking with you.”
     He took a big swig of his bloody and continued: “Denny… You have all the makings… of a … first class… slob.”
     My mother’s jaw dropped. My stepfather shook his head in disbelief. Helen burst out laughing.”
     We all looked at Frank and waited.
     “What I think you should do with your life is get yourself 52 really good friends and arrange to spend one week a year with each of them.”
     In 1962 Frank hired me to do publicity for $90 a week—a lordly $30 increase over my Prentice-Hall salary. In short order I was turned into a book salesman, going on sales trips with Frank showing me how it was done. I became a book salesman calling on stores, jobbers and libraries in cities and territories not on the itinerary of his regular crew of independent travelers.
     At Watts’ company I learned about business travel, selling and entertaining customers, three-martini lunches and how to set up a booth and work attendees at book conventions. Here are my favorite Wattsisms:
     •“People love to be sold.”
     • “Always ask for the order.”
     • “Once you have made the sale, like the Arabs, fold your tent and go home.”
     • “When in Doubt, do the obvious.”
     • “Corn should be seat-high to the privy on the fourth of July.”
     • “Dealing with a customer is like making love to a widow; you can’t overdo it.”
     Frank Watts was a bear of a boss. I had worked my way up to become sales manager and had built a list of customers—book wholesalers, retailers, school and public librarians and was beginning to make some money.
     But Frank owned the business. During the Depression years of the 1930s, the book sales were so terrible it became the industry norm to allow any unsold books to be returned for full refund. This was the only way publishers could be guaranteed of new books getting into the stores.
    Frank Watts’ arch bugaboo was returned books. Every year on his birthday, Frank would come into the office and snarl: “Do not wish me many happy returns! There is no such thing as a happy return!”
     At one point Frank was so frustrated that he personally wrote many of my customers blistering letters scolding them for their sloppy returns systems. Whereupon they stopped stocking FIRST BOOKS and other titles. As a result, my income tanked. So I quit.

M. Hughes Miller
     When I left Frank Watts, without two nickels to rub together, I had an idea for a children’s book series and absolutely no idea what to do with it. I bounced if off a wonderful guy I knew, Hughes Miller, who had founded The Weekly Reader Book Club and made a gazillion dollars as president of Bobbs-Merrill as publisher of the legendary Joy of Cooking (continuously updated and still in print today after 88 years!).
     An old friend of Frank and Helen Watts, he took pity on me, let me use a desk in his office in the Seagram Building and spent hours giving me a cram course in how to launch and run a business—creating a prospectus, cash flow, spread sheets—the information you spend tons of money for two years getting an MBA. The book series did not get off the ground. The last time I saw Hughes was at Lüchow's on 14th Street where he introduced me to his new wife, Mala Powers (18 years his junior). I was dazzled. She had played Roxane opposite José Ferrer in his 1950 Academy Award winning performance in the title role of Cyrano de Bergerac.
     I loved the guy.

Elsworth Howell plus Lew, Bob and Ed

In case you missed this recent post, in 1965 I was offered a job with a book publishing company. The four guys who ran the company were truly great mentors and teachers. They did everything they could to make me a success. Those eight months were truly a life changing experience.


Walter Weintz

In case you missed the recent post, Imagine Ordering 100 Million Pennies for Your Envelope!, working as a copywriter for Walt Weintz was a hoot. Life never got better than that.

Bob Teufel


Walt Weintz had two major clients: Rodale Press and CREEP—The Committee to Reelect the President (Nixon). In 1972 this funny thing called Watergate happened. On August 9, 1974 Nixon was out on his ass. So was Walt Weintz. He had the choice of firing me or firing his son and partner, Todd.
     On hearing my fate, I immediately called Walt’s remaining major client, Bob Teufel and asked if I could pick his brains. He readily agreed.
     Teufel is a lovely guy—an easygoing, passionate fisherman who was circulation director of Rodale Press. He went on to become president throughout Rodale’s heyday. After running 3 book clubs and working as a copywriter in the Weintz agency for four years, I was trying to decide whether or not to go freelance. Teufel was my mentor for two hours in the Oak Bar of the Plaza Hotel in 1974. His sage advice dictated the rest of my career. Bob Teufel’s guidance on freelancing:

If you are good at what you do—and have good people skills—go freelance. 

• You’ll work harder than you ever have in your life, make more money and have more fun than you ever imagined.

• If one client fires you, you are still working.

• The ultimate joy: you can fire clients you don’t like.

• Spread out your work. If you promise to meet deadlines too close together, you will miss at least one of them and lose the client.

• Never rely on a single client or customer for more than 25% of your total revenue. 

• Always make time to sell when you are busiest. Lining up new business is hard, tedious work—especially if the sales cycles are long. An individual or company can become consumed by current projects. Once these are completed, nothing new in the hopper can mean trouble ahead.

• Always go first class. Customers and clients like the aura of success. Dress well and entertain them well. Walt Weintz drives a Mercedes. He takes me fishing on his 58’ Bristol Trawler and invites me on fishing weekends at the exclusive Megantic Fish and Game Club in Maine. It doesn’t get any better than that!
     Teufel was my last mentor. After that I worked with and for many people who often filled my head (and notebooks) with ideas and concepts. And I always tried to give more than I got. 
     But by 1974 I was on my own. 
An Invitation to Readers...
The most important people in my career were the men and women who mentored me in my starting out years. They spent time teaching me marketable skills that I have used throughout my 60-year career. They changed my life.
      This is not the stuff I learned in school and college. This was on-the-job training. These are the folks who taught me business, management and creative skills without which I would be a street bum today in my 80s.
     If this post resonates with you, would you consider sharing memories of your mentor(s)—the who, what, where, when, how and the lessons taught that made you what you became.
     I would be delighted to publish your story—either in the Comment Section below or as a separate post. If you would like me to work with you as an editor, I would be honored. And you will be honoring those who changed your life.
     Give a shout. I am dennyhatch@yahoo.com

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At age 15, Denny Hatch—as a lowly apprentice—wrote his first news release for a Connecticut summer theater. To his astonishment it ran verbatim in The Middletown Press. He was instantly hooked on writing. After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army (1958-60), Denny had nine jobs in his first 12 years in business. He was fired from five of them and went on to save two businesses and start three others. One of his businesses—WHO’S MAILING WHAT! newsletter and archive service founded in 1984—revolutionized the science of how to measure the success of competitors’ direct mail. In the past 55 years he has been a book club director, magazine publisher, advertising copywriter/designer, editor, journalist and marketing consultant. He is the author of four published novels and seven books on business and marketing.

CONTACT
dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Note to Readers:  
May I send you an alert when each new blog is posted? If so, kindly give me the okay by sending your First Name, Last Name and e-mail to dennyhatch@yahoo.com. I guarantee your personal information will not be shared with anyone at any time for any reason. I look forward to being in touch!


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Google owns Blogspot.com and this Comment Section. If you do not have a Google account, contact me directly and I will happily post your comment with a note that this is per your request. Thank you and do keep in touch. Thank you and do keep in touch. dennyhatch@yahoo.com

Invitation to Marketers and Direct Marketers: 
Guest Blog Posts Are Welcome. 
If you have a marketing story to tell, case history, concept to propose or a memoir, give a shout. I’ll get right back to you. I am: dennyhatch@yahoo.com

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