Post it Note

POST-IT NOTE MAILINGS: TRICKY AS A WEASEL, FORMULAIC AS A SONNET

James R. Rosenfield

April 2000

"Promise, large promise, is the soul of advertising," proclaimed Dr. Johnson in the 18th Century.

Large promise is certainly the soul of dot.com advertising these days, a promise broken as soon as you access most websites. Nothing new about that, of course. Using the Gillette Mach 3 razor won't turn you into a dashing jet pilot, and drinking Coors won't make you instantly irresistible to the opposite sex.

I've been saying for years that the true purpose of advertising isn't to build brands-it's to build consumerism, and it does a splendid job of it. "Making you sick, then selling you the cure, is what advertising does," said Marshall McLuhan.

But advertising has never been as powerful as it is now. The ubiquity of media, combined with the sheer production skills of network TV commercials, as well as the proliferation of product placements and other forms of "stealth" advertising, has resulted in a simulacrum of reality that now interpenetrates reality itself. It not only makes you sick and sells you the cure-it now defines the context of your illness and wellness.

Case in point: My 78 year old Mother wants a computer, because she's convinced that it will soon be impossible to shop without being on the Internet. Not even the looniest nethead would dream of such a thing, but here's Mom fearful about not being able to buy groceries!

Advertising creates reality. Direct mail imitates reality. That's one of the several key differences between them. Advertising purveys authentic phoniness. Direct mail, in many of its incarnations, purveys phony authenticity. That's what personalization, faux air-express packages, and brown kraft envelopes are all about.

Which brings me to those direct mail solicitations featuring post-it notes.

Unless memory fails me, I don't think I've written previously about these sly, subversive packages. They're tricky as a weasel, and formulaic as a sonnet.

THE FORMULA

1) Plain, unadorned white #10 envelope, close-faced, with no return address

2) Name and address look as if typed on an old-fashioned typewriter

3) First class stamp, slightly tilted, as if affixed by hand

4) Inside, what appears to be an article clipped from a magazine or newsletter, always with a torn, jagged edge, as if ripped out by hand

5) A post-it note, affixed at a slight angle to the top right of the "article," personalized using the first name, and always "signed" by "J."

AN EXQUISITE IMITATION OF REALITY

The great majority of the population is hip to sweepstakes, phony air-express packages, and brown kraft envelopes. They all wear their deceptiveness on their sleeves, with the exception of the diabolically cunning letters Publishers Clearinghouse used to send to their frequent suckers.

But the post-it package is the real phony thing, one of the great cons in marketing history. Everyone's been fooled by this format at some time or other.

The most accomplished of the three solicitations I've received lately pitches the Trend Letter.

The faux torn-out page looks like it came from Business Week magazine. On the bottom left are the words "EXECUTIVE FOCUS JUNE 1999." In tiny type, albeit on the center top of the page, is "ADVERTISEMENT." The post-it note says "James, Try this. It's really good! J."

The personalization is of course an area of vulnerability, and the impression that this was sent by a friend is compromised by "James," since my friends usually call me "Jim." "J" is the signatory, I suspect, because just about everyone knows someone whose first name begins with that initial.

"Marketing" is the section from "EXECUTIVE FOCUS," and the headline and subhead of the "article" are "HOW TO STOP THE COMPETITION FROM EATING YOUR LUNCH! Just keep calling out the trends…"

The body copy, although painfully obvious, is gracefully journalistic: "If you fail to spot trends and react to them before your competition, they can get an invaluable edge. You can lose your market practically overnight.

"The handwriting is on the wall. The way your business reacts to newly emerging trends is perhaps the best barometer of your future success…

"The Trend Letter, published since 1982, adheres to a simple yet unique concept: The best way to anticipate the future is by understanding the present.
"A recent survey of Trend Letter readers overwhelmingly rated the dizzying pace of change as their biggest challenge. Over 90 percent of readers are upper management, nearly half are CEOs or owners."

Pretty nice copy. But…

WOULD THE TREND LETTER BE MORE CREDIBLE IF THE COPY WERE UP-TO-DATE?

Yes, indeed, to answer the question.

The "article" tells us that "Dell has become an 8 billion dollar company…" That goes back to 1997, according to Standard & Poor. In 1998, Dell's revenues were $12 billion and some change, long before June 1999, the date of the "article" and the postmark. (By the way, the postmark on the three packages I've collected recently is "SANTA ANA CA," the Orange County fastness where presumably the post-it note direct mail factory is located.)

"Mazda, the auto maker, correctly anticipated a new automobile trend with the Miata sports car…" Miata had its day in the sun long, long, long before June 1999.

"Grow Big International became the fastest growing company in America by responding aggressively to changing consumer values (goodbye status, hello low prices)." Those of course were the values of the early 1990s. By June 1999 consumer values had migrated to somewhere between Nero's Rome and tulip-maniacal Holland.

I am mystified at "Grow Big International." It seems not to exist. Standard & Poor found a company called "Grow Biz International," which has a stock market capitalization of $23 million and the lowest recent stock price in its peer group. I doubt whether it could have ever been the "fastest growing company in America."

"Trend Letter advises some of the most successful companies in the world. This includes Coca Cola, AT&T, Johnson & Johnson, Westinghouse, Merrill Lynch, Nabisco, Federal Express, Marriott and DuPont."

What an odd list for a publication that by definition is supposed to be leading edge! AT&T has been the archetype of the tired behemoth, Merrill Lynch in June 1999 was still in denial about the Internet, Coca Cola was poisoning people in Belgium, Nabisco was recovering from R.J. Reynolds, and DuPont was no longer Delaware's leading employer.

Most remarkably, Westinghouse didn't even exist, having changed its name to CBS Corporation in December 1997, long before June 1999!

There's no mention of anyone high-tech, and absolutely no mention of the Internet and e-commerce, which is what everyone was talking about in June 1999.

What's going on here?

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