http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/08/194-fryd-dm-lesson.html 

#194 Blog Post - Wednesday 22 August 2023

Posted by Denny Hatch

The Greatest Direct Marketing Lesson
I Have Learned in the Last Sixty Years 

Quickie Preface: Mike and Susan Fryd are close friends andneighbors. A modest, shy, low-key guy, Mike quietly and offhandedly mentionedhis book was being published. I immediately bought it and read it. Whereupon Iwas gobsmacked. I guarantee you will be also. —DH

Below: My Review ofMike Fryd's Stunning
Reminiscence Just Published on Amazon

A Riveting and Often Hilarious Memoir of Nazism andMotherhood.

My Mother’s War isthe gripping account of growing up as the child of penniless Polish Jews whospent six years dodging capture and certain death by the Nazis. You will savorMichael Fryd’s paean to his indomitable entrepreneur mother who saved herfamily. Mike Fryd writes: 

“The entirebusiness establishment was in a state of chaos; there was no organized systemfor the transportation and distribution of goods. There were shortages ofcertain commodities in one part of the country, while mountains of the samerotted next to idle railroad tracks only fifty miles away.

   “This was a perfect climate for making money on the black market. Somehow, mymother found people and trucks who helped her move merchandise from areas ofsurplus where she could buy them at very low prices to areas of scarcity whereshe could sell them at a premium. Often, our one-room apartment served as atemporary warehouse for whatever was the transaction du jour: medicines, hams,tires, furs, condoms, yes condoms. Mom brought a truckload of them from Germanyand sold them at a very handsome profit to drugstores in Warsaw. Condomswere in short supply in Poland and were much needed to control venerealdiseases spread by both the German and Russian armies.

   “When my mom wasn’t smuggling watches, one could always find her on the Rue desRosiers where she indulged in her favorite profession, black marketing inforeign currency. When I wasn’t in school, I would often accompany her,reprising my old role of “Mule,” an unobvious carrier of sizable sums ofillegal currency… It was an exotic and exciting bazaar where millions ofdollars changed hands every minute, and a man’s word was his bond. My mom wasthe only woman trader, as far as I know, and I was the only child around. 

      “Many of the dealers went out of their way to teach me the tricks of the tradeor just to amuse me. I learned how to count money fast, just like a banker, andhow to spot a fake diamond; a drop of water beads up on a diamond, but spreadson glass or cubic zirconia.”

I Couldn’t Put the Book Down

I read it straightthrough the weekend. It is one of a kind —a masterpiece! As I reluctantly cameto the glorious ending of this extraordinary adventure four words keptrepeating themselves inside my head: Movie. Spielberg. Academy Awards. —DennyHatch

Michael Fryd

From Mike Fryd’sPreface

“While writing I realized the heart of the story was my larger-than-lifemother, Evelyn Fryd. We survived against all odds because the Nazis and Polishanti-Semites were no match for her. During those years she was a mythic figurewith boundless energy and cunning, determined to do whatever it took to saveher family from Hitler’s clutches.” 

In the Mayhem and Horror of World War II, in Poland,
Evelyn Fryd Morphed into World Class Direct Marketer

For starters, shewas constantly aware of — and practiced — the five-letter credo that describes exactlywhat we direct marketers do:

“Create wants and change behavior.”

To achieve thesegoals, direct marketers are perpetually challenged and are forced to learn lotsof new stuff every day. It's a fascinating career!

• Exactly who areour buyers or clients?

• How and where dowe find more of them?

• The challenge isto get inside their heads and walk in their shoes so we can think how theythink, feel what they feel, and know and become them. Talk to them. Make theirlives better. Like us lots. And want to hear from us often.

What Does the Mike Fryd’s Mother in World War II
Have to Do with Direct Marketing Today? Everything!

A serialentrepreneur, she was on a perpetual learning curve — continually studying aboutbusinesses, products and services and how to buy them, market them and makecustomers happy. She was also a world class student of people — always able tosee into their inner selves, their wants, their needs, their fears, greed,guilt, anger and desire for exclusivity. In all her transactions she providedsalvation and exuded flattery. Everybody loved her!

In short, Evelynwas a textbook direct marketer — getting inside the heads of the people shedealt with, seeing what they saw, feeling what they felt and, in effect,becoming the person and talking directly to them. 

Comparing Evelyn Fryd to Three of the Greatest
Direct Marketing Entrepreneurs of My Lifetime

David Ogilvy

"He walked into aLondon agency and asked to see the boss. He had bought a country house and wasabout to open it as a hotel. Could the agency help him to get customers? He had$500 to spend. Not surprisingly, the head of the agency turned him over to theoffice boy, who happened to be the author of this book. I invested his money inpenny postcards and mailed them to well-heeled people living in theneighborhood. Six weeks later the hotel opened to a full house. I had tastedblood.”
    —Confessions of an Advertising Man

Maxwell Sackheim

In 1926 Max was an agency copywriter whogot inside the heads of book readers and came up with a unique scheme that soldtens of millions of books. Ninety-six years later it is still going strong. Themain elements of the business model that persuaded members to join the club:

• Irresistible Introductory Offer (Signup and take your choice of one, two,or three books free), no risk to have a look.

• You can acquire best-selling titlesbefore they’re available in stores.

•  Dazzle your friends, neighbors andbusiness associates with how much you know about what's going on in theworlds news, literature and culture.

• Special book club editions are cheaperto manufacture.

• Ergo: discount prices, bigsavings.

• The “Negative Option” makes it easy-peasyto build a world class library. (“Unless you tell us not to send the MainSelection (or want one or more Alternate Selections), the book will be shippedautomatically.”

• If not 100% satisfied, full return privileges, no hassle, noquestions asked (even if you’vealready read it).

• Bonus books. (Buy 4 club selections at terrific discountprices and get one free reward book of your choice.).

• Sackheim’s name for the club: Book-of-the-Month.

Bill Bonner

In 1979 stony broke and up to his ears in debt Bill mailed adry test — an 8-page letter offering a trial subscription to INTERNATIONALLIVING (an imaginary magazine that existed only inside his head). Ifhe got enough orders, he would publish it.

The launch mailing package for INTERNATIONLIVING did 300% of breakeven and was hugely profitable from Day 1. Today AgoraPublishing is a mini conglomerate of 30 companies that bring in over $1 billiona year.

 Bill Bonner in front of the first of his two 18th century chateaux in France (just up the road from David Ogilvy's.)

A Totally Opposite Career from Direct Marketing Where a
Guy Did the Same Thing Over and Over and Over Again

Last week I turned88. What triggered this Blog Post was this New

York Times Obituary that ran on my birthday.

Philip L. Sherman,Who Circumcised Thousands of Babies,Dies at 67

Hisrecord, he said, was 11 in a single day, including two pairs of twins — aconsiderable scheduling feat, considering that the ritual is to be performed onthe eighth day of the baby’s life and during daylight.

He diedon Aug. 9 at his home in Englewood, N.J. He was 67. His daughter, Nina ShermanGreen, said the cause was pancreatic cancer.

Mr.Sherman, whose website (as well as his vanity license plate) was emoil.com, claimed to have performed some 26,000 ritualcircumcisions, mostly in the New York metropolitan area, during his 45-yearcareer. He was trained in the Jewish religious practice of brit milah — aprofession generally spelled “mohel” in English and pronounced “moil.”

Hisservices did not come cheap. “You pay $800 for a steady hand and a goodreputation,” Scott Stringer, the former New York City comptroller, toldThe Times after his son, who was born in December 2011, was circumcised by Mr.Sherman. “It’s not the kind of thing where you’re looking to save money.”

But Mr. Shermansaid he did not turn away families who could not afford his fee.

He alsoserved as a cantor at several synagogues in New York, including the Spanish andPortuguese Synagogue in Manhattan from 1985 to 2019. He also occasionallyworked as an actor.

Yes, heacknowledged, of course the baby feels pain during it. But, he added, “whenit’s done properly, only for a moment.”

And, yes,he said, it was also true that sometimes even just by imagining the removal ofthe baby’s foreskin, one of the parents or a guest might pass out. But, hesuggested cheerfully, “usually at a bris, there’s no shortage of doctors orlawyers.”

Excerpted from Sam Roberts' splendid tongue-in-cheek obit, August 15, 2023
Photo credit: Fred R. Conrad, The New York Times

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 Word Count: 1654

6" x 9"  292pp
Hardcover:     $39.95
Paperback:     $29.95
ebook/Kindle: $19.95

Amazon

 https://www.amazon.com/Method-Marketing-Denison-Hatch/dp/1648372767/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=method+marketing&qid=1681898276&sr=8-9

Barnes & Noble

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/method-marketing-denison-hatch/1100485178?ean=9781648372766