Ever wonder who invented direct mail?
Remington Typewriter Co. claimed that it was “the originator of the advertising circular letter,” and that this happened soon after the typewriter was invented in the early 1870s.
The company sent letters “advertising the new machine and written on the machine itself!” wrote Remington's Alan C. Reiley in a 1916 article. “It was perceived that the invention possessed the means to advertise itself — a new means never before possessed by any other commercial product.”
Prior to this, direct mail letters “simply could not be done on a paying basis, for the physical limitations imposed by pen-writing were insurmountable,” Reiley argued.
Ahem…that's not quite true. Lottery agents sent letters in the 1830s, and by 1865 were flooding the postal system.
And the claim that the typewriter was a breakthrough? On the contrary. Americans distrusted typewriting at first, so mailers for years used a process that allowed them to send facsimiles of handwritten letters.
But the machine did provide benefits, one being that advertisers now had “the means to talk direct to the prospect, to call him by name, to address him by name, to speak to him and seemingly to him only,” Reiley said.
And it facilitated the still hunt, the opposite of “hunting with a brass band,” Reiley said. This enabled the mailer “to develop an effective campaign without advertising his plans to his competitor.”
Reiley conceded that “there were physical limitations which prevented the use even of the typewritten letter on a grand scale.” But printers found ways to “imitate typewriting so perfectly that only an expert can tell the difference.” The result? The loss of the personal appeal was offset by “the greater volume and efficiency of distribution.”
