Making Them Believe: The 21 Principles and Lost Secrets of Dr. J. R. Brinnkley-Style Marketing

by Dan S. Kennedy

The professions of medicine and law began with practitioners who did everything, but evolved into a specialist for every isolated need—corporate contract law, family law, elder law, and so on, and clever marketers like one of our Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ Members, Bill Hammond, have invented their own subspecialties; in his case, Alzheimer’s family law. Brinkley set aside the way the business he was in was done, in order to give himself greater authority by (product) specialization. There is definitely a lesson there for everybody. If I may, I’ll tell you a funny story about this specialized product tactic that I’m proud of, but many would think I ought to be ashamed of myself for. Of course, I’ve been in the advertising business my entire life, so shame is something of a foreign concept. Anyway, I was working with a fledgling, struggling direct sales company in desperate need of any increase in sales to be had, but lacking capital to add new products. One of its slowest sellers was an excellent, aerosol-foam leather cleaner, treatment and polish in one. I created three different labels for the same can. One, for a cleaner, another for a treatment, and a third for the polish to be buffed to gleaming shine, and packaged the three as a “system". Sales leapt up, and distributors and customers alike raved about the unmatched shine and new softness and pliability of their shoes. I imagine the leather was softer and shinier thanks to getting three consecutive applications...