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| Tiffany's "Blue Book" was the first mail-order catalogue in the United States. |
Thomas J. Barratt from London has been called "the father of modern advertising". Working for the Pears Soap
company, Barratt created an effective advertising campaign for the
company products, which involved the use of targeted slogans, images and
phrases. One of his slogans, "Good morning. Have you used Pears' soap?"
was famous in its day and into the 20th century.
Barratt introduced many of the crucial ideas that lie behind
successful advertising and these were widely circulated in his day. He
constantly stressed the importance of a strong and exclusive brand image
for Pears and of emphasizing the product's availability through
saturation campaigns. He also understood the importance of constantly
reevaluating the market for changing tastes and mores, stating in 1907
that "tastes change, fashions change, and the advertiser has to change
with them. An idea that was effective a generation ago would fall flat,
stale, and unprofitable if presented to the public today. Not that the
idea of today is always better than the older idea, but it is different –
it hits the present taste."
As the economy expanded across the world during the 19th century,
advertising grew alongside. In the United States, the success of this
advertising format eventually led to the growth of mail-order
advertising.
As early as 1845, Tiffany's company produced a Blue Book; this was the first mail-order catalogue in the United States.
His first catalogue was a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8
by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale and ordering
instructions. Montgomery Ward identified a market of merchant-wary
farmers in the Midwest. Within two decades, his single-page list of
products grew into a 540-page illustrated book selling over 20,000
items.
Richard Warren Sears, another famous American entrepreneur, started a business selling watches through mail order catalogs in Redwood Falls, Minnesota in 1888. By 1894, the Sears catalog had grown to 322 pages, featuring sewing machines, bicycles, sporting goods, automobiles and a host of other new items.
Organizing the company so it could handle orders on an economical and efficient basis, Chicago clothing manufacturer Julius Rosenwald became a part-owner in 1895. By the following year, dolls, refrigerators, stoves and groceries
had been added to the catalog. Sears, Roebuck and Co. soon developed a
reputation for high quality products and customer satisfaction. By 1895,
the company was producing a 532-page catalog with the largest variety
of items that anybody at the time could have imagined. "In 1893, the
sales topped 400,000 dollars. Two years later they exceeded 750,000
dollars."
In 1906 Sears opened its catalog plant and the Sears Merchandise Building Tower.
And by that time, the Sears catalog had become known in the industry as
"the Consumers' Bible". In 1933, Sears, Roebuck and Co. produced the
first of its famous Christmas catalogs known as the "Sears Wishbook", a catalog featuring toys and gifts and separate from the annual Christmas Catalog.
Victorians also used Trade Cards to advertise much of the product purchased in the United States. These were small decorative cards, similar to the visiting cards exchanged in social circles, that businesses distributed to clients and potential customers. Trade cards first became popular at the beginning of the 17th century in London. These functioned as advertising and also as maps, directing the public to merchants' stores, as no formal street address numbering system existed at the time. |
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