Alex Pooley's Blog

It’s been over a year since I left full time work and I’ve had the privilege of seeing business from many perspectives. I am beginning to form the conclusion that business is all about turning unpredictable circumstances in to predictable ones.

Let’s say that you sell puppies in a shopping center. You know that you will average x number of people walking in the store each day, of which you can predict y% will purchase. Though you will experience cycles, you know that some breeds will outsell others. You also have a known margin on your puppies, and you also have
predictable monthly revenue, costs, and hence profits.

The biggest hurdle facing anyone starting a business is to discover these “knowns”. You don’t know what you haven’t seen, and you will never see what you never try. And don’t assume! Measure! Test! You know what they say right.. “when you assume you make an ass out of u and me”

The biggest personal challenge is to get your feet wet. Once you’re in though, don’t hesitate or you will eventually freeze to death. Make sure that before you hop in, you set a soft budget of money and time. Spend as little money and time as possible but kick as hard as possible in every direction you can. Build channels and test.

My first mistake was to not budget my time. My second mistake was to not budget any money. You need money, and you need time. Without money, it takes too much time. Without time, you won’t make any money! ;)

My definition of business: predictable channels from your customers to a sale.

Good luck!

Dear Reader:

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.

That is the start of the direct mail letter for The Wall Street Journal. The letter ran for almost 30 years and is estimated to have returned about $1 billion, or about $1.28 million per word. The author of the letter, Martin Conroy, recently passed away. He was paid $600 for his efforts which was apparently a good rate at the time.

The amazing thing to me, is that the letter never states that the student who went on to become the president of the company read The Wall Street Journal. It’s only implied!

You can read the entire letter, and about the very first direct mail on Denny Hatch’s Business Common Sense.

Unilever got back to me within a couple of days which is a good effort considering their web page says to give them three weeks. As it happens, I recently purchased a book that dedicates a few pages to the advertising of Lynx. Apparently when Unilever advertised Lynx they promoted the feature that it makes you smell good. The ads ran pretty well. They ended up getting BHH to come up with a fresh campaign. BBH saw the product from the eyes of the target market and started selling on the benefit that Lynx will make women find you attractive.

I’m curious to know their position on targeting mothers. While the current strategy seems obvious, it’s also pretty clear that male teens are not the ones buying the product. There’s no email address for BHH on their web site but I managed to track down an email that I’ll give a shot.

Here’s the uneventful reply for Unilever.

Dear Mr Pooley

Bradley Cursley
Lynx Advisor