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

by Dan S. Kennedy

In other words why sell everyone attending a medicine show the same one-size-fits-all-cure, when you can identify problems A, B, C and D separately, and then offer a cure specific to each individual ailment. Undoubtedly, only the color of the liquid in bottles A, B, C and D changed; the potion itself was the same. But the price at which it was sold could be higher because it was specialized, the desire for something precisely formulated to cure A by a sufferer of A was greater, many people suffered from more than one malady and would therefore buy two medicines rather than one, and—here’s the cleverest part—the very fact of having precisely formulated medicines for different maladies graced Dr. Brinkley with more authority. I have just named four different, important advantages in the radical change John Brinkley made to the traveling medicine show business and the doctor’s pitch. It’s worth taking a minute to go back and identify each of the four, and then stop and think of ways you might apply them to your business, profession or industry.