Chapter One. How to Pick a Winning Idea

If experience teaches anything, it is that most newcomers break into mail order with specialties or novelty items; this, however, does not pre­clude beginning with staples. It should be pointed out that once established, the "staple" mail order firm has a better chance for survival than the "specialty" firm. Too often, phenomenal results are obtained with a specialty for a year or even two, and then the orders begin dropping off, the advertising cost per sale goes up, and suddenly the head of the firm is looking for a new item or a new business or his old job.

If your forte is the novelty or specialty, do not let this touch of pessimism dampen your ambition; its intent is rather to forewarn you and to anticipate such an eventu­ality by preparing substitutes or side-lines long before the decline. Then too, the sad day may never come. There are well-established mail order firms doing business with the same item they introduced ten or twenty years ago. Some so-called experts disparage novelty or "fad" items because of their short life-span; this advice is fine for the well-heeled beginner who can take his time and shop around for a product with longevity possibilities. The opinion of­fered here is that any legitimate item that gets you started profitably in mail order, no matter how short the duration, pays its way, if not in large profits, then at least in valuable experience to be applied later more gainfully. The im­portant thing is to get started; don't procrastinate—do it today!

Selling Staples in Mail Order

A staple is any commodity the public regularly uses and for which there is a steady demand. This classification covers food, clothing, tobacco, household supplies, and any other product a large group of people find essential to everyday living.

The beginner without a set idea will probably do well to eschew staples unless opportunities exist for special purchase, permitting him to offer lower than established prices; or if as a result of local laws, certain regional differ­entials make it possible to offer the residents of a particu­lar state products by mail at prices less than those locally obtainable.

An outstanding example is the mail order sale of brand-name cigarettes to states where local taxes had driven the price to a point where it was profitable for the mer­chants to absorb the extra costs of the mail order operation and still allow the customer a substantial saving. A recent Congressional law, the Perkins Act, has challenged this practice by making it possible for the State to collect the tax differential from the customer. The constitutionality of this law is being tested by one of the largest operators. The staple is ideal for an established business already selling such merchandise. Sales resistance is comparatively easy to overcome if the price is substantially lower than that locally offered. Elaborate promotion material may not be required. An offering of three vacuum-packed cans of a national brand of coffee may be made on a combination postal card, provided a good saving can be promised the customer. Most of the methods used by local retail mer­chants to attract business, such as loss leaders, combination sales, etc., are applicable to mail order, but always there must be just a little bit extra to the offer.

Specialties

In this group are many products which are really staples, but because they are most successfully merchan­dised through mail order (especially by beginners) and in the minds of the buying public have an exclusive charac­ter not available elsewhere, they are being discussed sepa­rately.

Specialties are products that are either exclusive with the seller or never obtained national retail distribution be­cause the manufacturer lacked the money or the sales or­ganization, or in some cases, where the advertising failed to keep pace with distribution. An example of the latter is the widespread sale of a brand-name home paint sprayer by a specialty mail order company despite the good retail distribution by the manufacturer.

Regional Products

Also covered by this classification are regional products not easily obtained in another locality—Florida citrus jams and jellies, New Mexican and Indian blankets, leather and hammered silver products, Gloucester and Cape Cod fish products, products from faraway lands, etc.

Disguised Staples

Some specialties are disguised staples (basic necessi­ties) for which a new use has been discovered either by a slight alteration in design or by the addition of some "gim­mick." Height-increasing shoes are an example of the metamorphosis of staple into specialty.

Neither by its exclusiveness or newness can a specialty be expected to succeed unless it fills a basic need for a large number of people—the larger, the better. A patent conferring exclusiveness of monopoly character on the inventor is no guarantee of success in mail order if the invention has only a narrow appeal.

Novelties

The demarcation line separating specialty and novelty may indeed be faint. Here the reference is to items of tem­porary popularity such as fads. Their appeal is frequently only to the younger public—novelty jewelry, picture al­bums and medallions of the current newspaper "heroes," magic kits, etc.

Exclusive Services, Schools, Courses, Information

Correspondence schools, stock information, business analysis, news letters, insurance services, handwriting anal­ysis, horoscope readings, laboratory analysis (urine, etc.), art courses, music lessons, and similar services are popular mail order businesses. The beginner, lacking certain spe­cialized skills (professional or technical), is cautioned to eschew this category. Many states now require licensing of correspondence schools by State Boards of Education. Qualifications are rigid—principals must have the proper scholastic and pedagogic backgrounds.

Personal Products

Orthopedic devices (rupture supports, back and shoul­der braces), marriage manuals, personal hygiene products, hair colorings and medicines, salves, lotions, skin prepara­tions, cosmetics, denture products, are all favorite entrees to mail order.

Legal Restraints on Mail Order Sales

There are strict federal and local regulations govern­ing the sale and labeling of such products. The federal government has laws against the mailing of obscene mat­ter. Exaggerated claims and misrepresentations should be avoided. If any doubt exists, obtain an opinion from the Federal Trade Commission, Federal Food and Drug Com­mission, the Post Office in Washington, and the local Board of Health.

New interpretations of law are constantly being made. A claim considered reasonable today may be not so tomor­row. Conversely, a federal court decision may upset a too strict interpretation by one of the regulating agencies. The knowledge that our largest corporations are in constant litigation with the federal agencies over matters of adver­tising claims and labeling, despite large high-priced legal staffs which should be able to advise what may or may not be said, indicates the difficulty of making any flat state­ment here as to what is proper.

The self-censorship, imposed by most publications, radio and television, will to some degree prevent the new advertiser from making misleading or fraudulent state­ments in his advertising. Since a restraining hand may not be present in direct mail, the beginner is again counselled to write the above agencies for their bulletins and opinions.

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