The name Jack Cole might not mean much to young direct marketers. But Cole, who died in South Dakota at age 87 on July 29, deserves to be remembered for his pioneering work as a directory and list compiler.
For one thing, he created crisscross or reverse directories, listing residents by address and telephone number.
A former IBM employee, Cole used IBM punch cards to put the listings into street sequence — a major technical advance when he started in Dallas in 1947.
Eventually, the directories covered the country, and were used by police, collection agents and marketers. They are now owned by the MetroGroup Corp.
Cole was also among the first people to compile lists from the white pages. These were considered more reliable than automotive files, the other type of compiled list then available.
And it apparently was Cole’s idea for the three main compilers at that time — Donnelley Marketing, Metromail and his own Mail Advertising Corp. — to split the cost.
“He went to Metromail and said, ‘If we did this together, we could save half the money,’ said James McQuaid, chairman of MetroGroup, who then worked at Metromail. “Then he went to Donnelley and said, ‘If we did it together, we could save half the money.’ He had a nice little business with three companies each paying half.”
John Cleary, the former CEO of Donnelley Marketing, credited Cole with producing the first ZIP code directory, “even before the post office did” and of being an early user of U.S. Census Data.
Cole also wrote a book, “A Hundred Million False Impressions,” on the treatment of direct mail by the press, and sent copies to every member of Congress, according to Cleary.
Cole sold Mail Advertising Corp., his compiling firm, to Metromail. And he sold his list business, National Data Compilation Center, to Donnelley. Metromail was later acquired by Experian, and Donnelley was absorbed by infoUSA.
Born in 1920, Jack Ridnour Cole graduated form the University of Nebraska and served in the Navy during World War II.
Cole was a multi-faceted individual and a conservationist. After selling his companies, he ran hunting and fishing camps, “which we did not buy,” McQuaid joked.
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