In the spirit of remembrance, it’s time to honor a legend of marketing and copywriting who we lost 4 years ago this month.
He was a true “Titan of Direct Response,” a pioneer, innovator of the highest order…and one of the most prolific (and original) storytellers in direct response history.
He basically invented “copywriting is storytelling” as a rule of thumb.
When Joe Sugarman passed away in March of 2022, there was an outpouring of posts, blogs and videos being shared in all corners of the marketing world…and it’s my turn today to make sure Joe is never forgotten.
Fans, students and friends–along with marketers and copywriters who may have never heard of him– owe a debt of gratitude to this wonderful man.
Here are just some of the contributions and advances he added to our craft over the 8+ decades he spent on this planet:
- He invented and perfected the use of the 800 number for ordering from catalogs…which included creating the path for consumers to use credit cards for an 800 number purchase.
- He also “perfected” the use of the “Batman Credit Card” (open loop…keep reading). 😊
- He was one of the first marketers to create successful A/B list and market testing in media beyond direct mail.
- Using one of those mediums—newspapers—he pioneered the idea to test new products regionally and inexpensively before rolling out with them nationally…and before risking too much money before he knew the potential. He was not risk averse…just brilliant.
- He was one of the first to use (and perfect) newspaper and magazine advertorials (there’s an example below). Every online marketer in the world has adapted this idea despite renaming it “native advertising.”
- He wrote one of the most important books about copywriting and human behavior (in the same league as Breakthrough Advertising and Influence) called Triggers. The “triggers” Joe identified are, “30 sales tools you can use to control the mind of your prospect to motivate, influence and persuade.” And those 30 do not include hypnotism, sleight of hand, bait and switch or less than scrupulous copy. They are based on how humans behave. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
- He also wrote other books on copywriting…and media buying (e.g., direct mail, print, telemarketing, TV), which was everything available at the time he began his career. He was multichannel before it was a word…or fashionable.
(NOTE: Check out the P.S. for a special offer on how to obtain a copy of Triggers and another one of his classics, with all money going to a wonderful non-profit) - Oh…he also launched a catalog of high-tech gadgets that was The Sharper Image before Sharper Image came to be…and came up with a little idea to sell sunglasses called BluBlockers that wasn’t so little. He sold over 20 million pairs (and they are still selling today).
(More on that phenomenon in a minute. I’m not exaggerating when I say BluBlockers became a modern-day Hula Hoop when they were launched. But I don’t think the Hula Hoop understood marketing like Joe…proof to come shortly.)
And Joe Sugarman was simply a great guy…always willing to share his wisdom with beginners and experts alike.
The picture below is priceless and gives you a still shot of Joe Sugarman in action…with lots more to come in this post with video links and more.
This one is from the Titans of Direct Response event in 2014, when he showed off his quick wit and sense of humor on stage to the delight of the other speakers at the event.
And trust me that the audience is laughing too.
Joe is at the far right with the microphone…and you might recognize some of the other Titans here:
He obviously just said something very funny. 🙂
Thousands mourned the loss of Joe when he passed…but let’s also celebrate him now with some anecdotes, swipe copy and videos that will put words and pictures to the Joe Sugarman story…and educate and entertain you at the same time.
Joe as a pioneer of the catalog and mail order business
Besides the game-changing e-commerce innovations he instituted before there was e-commerce, with 800 numbers and credit cards, the products he sold were always engaging, initially through his JS&A catalog.
While reminiscing with copywriting legend John Carlton about Joe, he said:
“The very first direct response product I ever bought was his negative ion generator from a full-page magazine ad in 1979. Would love to see that ad again. He single-handedly invented the model copy that built Sharper Image.”
Note to my online family: If anyone can get hold of that ad, send it to me and I will send it off to John…share it with all of you…and while we share it, you will make John (a.k.a. “The Marketing Rebel”) very happy. 🙂
And from direct mail historian and archivist, Denny Hatch:
Sugarman was the first to market a cordless telephone and digital watches to the masses.
His print ads in newspapers and magazines were everywhere you turned.
For example, if you traveled for business or pleasure back then, every issue of every in-flight magazine of every airline was certain to have two or three full-page ads for Sugarman’s goodies and high-tech gadgetry.
They were immediately obvious with bold, catchy headlines and long copy that grabbed the reader by the throat and would not let go.
My first “JS&A product” was a keychain with a digital clock inside a ball…sounds cheesy today but it was state-of-the-art in the 80’s.
And what I didn’t know then and I know now, cheesy or not, Joe tested it multiple times before putting it into the catalog.
Joe testing for success/how he decided what products to put into his catalog
Since the products were generally new “inventions” (of sorts) …and Joe treated every page of his catalog as incredibly valuable “real estate” (the cost of printing in full color and paying postage added a lot to that value) …he made a practice of testing new products in the “Southwest Edition of the Wall Street Journal.”
The demographics and psychographics were close to that of potential buyers from his catalog…it was less costly to run the ads regionally (and the southwest was even more targeted for his products at the time) …and by taking a ¾ page ad, no one else could advertise on the page with him so he could get more exclusivity…with numbers he could take to the bank…and determining the winners and losers before placing or not placing the products in pages of his catalog).
Sounds simple…however, not many knew about this technique…and Joe made this standard operating procedure (and famous/worth following) at the time.
But if anyone watched him, anyone could learn it.
Testing a small (yet similar) universe to roll out big with confidence to a much larger universe was the game he was playing…a game all successful direct marketers have always played and still play today…and he played it as masterfully as anyone.
And he shared everything he did with everyone in the industry so we could implement his successful and tested strategies in our own businesses, well beyond the “Southwest Edition of the Wall Street Journal. “
Joe had secrets but he never kept them to himself.
Joe as the creator of his own Hula Hoop: The BluBlockers story
After twenty years of selling gadgets and funky products through print advertising (magazines, newspapers and catalogs), Joe hit the jackpot with what on the surface seemed like a commodity:
Sunglasses.
But not just any kind of sunglasses…and the key element of success was the story, not the product.
He said:
Storytelling is very, very important. Some of my greatest ads, most successful ads, started with a story. And the story often has very little to do with the product you’re selling or the service you’re offering.
But… people love stories, because when they were very young, when they were very small, they were read stories. And that’s how they communicated and understood the world.
So…story telling is a really important part.
It’s one of the psychological triggers that I use a lot.
“Copywriting is storytelling” is what we live by today…but Joe lived by it before it was the thing to do.
Here’s how he told the story of BluBlocker sunglasses in print:
Here’s the lead of the ad:
Vision
Break-
through
_______________
When I put on the pair of
glasses what I saw I could
not believe. Nor will you.
______________________________
By Joseph Sugarman
I am about to tell you a true story.
If you believe me, you will be well
rewarded. If you don’t believe me,
I will make it worth your time to
change your mind. Let me explain. . .
The copywriting lessons from this ad (courtesy of Denny Hatch once again):
- This is intimate, personal direct marketing using mass media—magazines and newspapers.
- Note the byline. Few copywriters sign their work.
- He uses “I” and “me” (as opposed to “we,” “us” an “our”)
The most important word in direct copy is not ‘you’—as many of the marketing texts would have you believe—but rather, according to A-list copywriter Richard Armstrong:
“What makes a letter seem ‘personal’ is the sense that one gets of being in the presence of the writer… that a real person sat down and wrote you a real letter.” Whereupon Sugarman moves on with a story.
I found a presentation that Joe gave in 2011 which is the origin story of how BluBlockers came to be.
After finding it, I realized I was there in the crowd. I had forgotten.
Silly me.
Lucky me.
And now lucky you!
The presentation is about 8 minutes long…and well worth your time…to see how a genius marketer connects the dots…how he sold millions of units…and the “triggers” he used to do it.
BluBlockers Part 2: Going multichannel…including going Hollywood (or at least to Venice Beach) 😊
“Multichannel” was part of Joe’s standard operating procedure once he had a hit product…and infomercials were a new, hot medium when BluBlockers launched.
Joe created a blockbuster infomercial like no other for these sunglasses.
Here is one of the earliest infomercials for BluBlockers from 1992:
No origin story needed with man/woman-on-the-street reviews like these.
And there’s a lesson hidden in plain sight about testimonials while you watch.
A key question every copywriter should ask after they get an assignment is straightforward…and only a starting point:
“Do you have testimonials from happy customers?”
Joe was ahead of the curve because he knew walking down Venice Beach offering a pair of BluBlockers to anyone who wanted to try them on would be an instant testimonial.
Nice shortcut. 🙂
Quoting Richard Armstrong again, this time on the power of authenticity of the testimonials you gather:
Real testimonials have a genuine sound to them that’s very hard to reproduce, maybe the grammar is ever so slightly off, a peculiar choice of word usage, a point made that no professional copywriter ever would have considered; try and use these real raindrops wherever possible before you start seeding the clouds. People can spot the real ones from the made-up ones a mile away. I’d be very careful about doing too much rewriting, suggesting and editing.
Reminds me of when Gene Schwartz said, “Grammar is overrated.”
Especially when grammar is replaced by authenticity.
Joe as the inventor of the “Batman Credit Card” …or how he turned 250,000 problems into an opportunity
There is nothing more indicative of what Joe Sugarman is all about than his adventure with the “Batman Credit Card.”
And it was far from a winner…on the surface anyway.
The story goes—short version—that he saw a marketing opportunity during the growth of branded credit cards coinciding with the original Batman TV series to cash in on the excitement.
His wasn’t going to be an actual credit card…but he had grand marketing plans for it.
He was approved to print the cards by the folks who owned the intellectual property…he then proceeded to print 250,000 of them…only to have the approval rescinded.
(The story is a lot more involved, and Joe told it on stage many times, with all the storytelling magic he is known for. If anyone can find a video of him telling the full story, please send a link to me and I will share it with this community. Seeing him present it live multiple times were highlights of my career…and I only wish smartphones with video had been invented when I saw him give that speech.)
Anyway, Joe ended up with 250,000 of these in a warehouse in Chicago:
He tried to get permission to market them a few times—unsuccessfully—but because Joe always saw opportunity in everything, he turned this apparent failure into a branding bonanza for himself…and a case history on making lemonade from lemons.
Here’s the copy on the back of the card…with Joe’s wit and storytelling coming through in a big way:
While Joe didn’t use the cards to pay his income tax, he derived many non-monetary bonuses from them…which also made him rich:
- He used the cards to show his humility…not intentionally but it came through. When someone as successful as Joe Sugarman can laugh at himself by owning 250,000 cards that are essentially worthless, it’s refreshing…and inspiring.
- The story became a keynote speech…one that I’m sure he charged for at least a few times (although Joe was always so generous with his time so maybe not). Whether he did or not, we all know that getting paid for public speaking is not the only reason to do it. It gave him additional connection to the direct marketing community he loved so much…with entertainment and lessons galore.
- The cards became synonymous with Joe Sugarman…his calling card if you will…and wherever he went, whoever he met, there was a Batman Credit Card for all, free of charge. Find some long-time direct marketers who knew Joe and you will hear them compare notes on how many Batman cards each one has…it became a sign that you were part of Joe’s inner circle, which numbered in the thousands (but not quite 250,000). 🙂
- Doesn’t every superhero need an ID card? And it made him synonymous with this quote as well:
He did this throughout his life—with and without a Batman Credit Card in his wallet.
He will be missed…but he will be remembered forever.
Warmly,
Brian
P.S. My buddy Joe Polish cleaned out a warehouse of two of Joe’s books when he passed away—Triggers and The Seven Forces of Success—to the delight of Joe’s daughter, April.
His goal was to spread the Sugarman gospel.
Like me, Joe considered “Professor Sugarman” a friend, mentor and legend.
And we want to pay that forward.
Joe (Polish) has a non-profit—Genius Recovery—which has as its mission to “rid the world of addiction.”
And it’s making big strides under Joe’s leadership.
So…if you want to do a good deed…and grab copies of these two Sugarman masterpieces…send $100 to my PayPal account at brian@titansmarketing.com.
Then email me your best mailing address and I will send 100% of the money to Genius Recovery while having both books mailed to you ASAP.
No fancy order page or upselling.
You need these books in your marketing library…and your purchase will go to a cause “the two Joe’s” believe in.
P.P.S. Joe Sugarman would have loved AI…but I guarantee that he would have a take like mine on it…which I will be sharing this Wednesday online…and live.
On March 4th (that’s this Wednesday!), I am participating in an exciting FREE summit, hosted by two of my stellar Titans Xcelerator members.
I am honored they asked this old (but not extinct) “T Rex dinosaur” to share some core fundamentals of direct response and how everything related to AI circles back to those fundamentals.
Including Joe Sugarman fundamentals.
At a mastermind I attended last week…with some of the most successful online marketers in the world… I learned a about AI Agents, why we all must invest in AI…but with a consensus that made this dinosaur smile (because maybe I will never be extinct):
“AI can get you to 90% of anything…or close…but it’s the last10% that is everything”
I may be deluding myself to believe this…but for now, I will work hard on that 10% every day and in every way.
As you know, I have been in the direct response game for over four decades.
I watched the rise of the infomercial and profited a lot from that rise.
(With Joe Sugarman as my teacher.)
I watched the birth of the Internet.
I watched email replace direct mail as the “killer app” (and then have seen direct mail make a comeback in new and exciting forms).
Every time a new technology arrives, the gurus scream that the old rules are dead.
To date, they have been wrong.
There is no doubt that AI is a gamechanger…but only time will tell the extent of the game changing…what it will displace…and the good and the evil it will create.
Regardless, this Summit will be actionable and useful to you…guaranteed.
I am not an AI hater when it comes to marketing…and in fact I embrace it fully by bringing in only the top players to educate my Titans Xcelerators.
But one thing I know for sure:
The medium changes but the fundamentals of human psychology do not.
It’s understandable that everyone is losing their minds over AI…it’s dizzying, scary and exciting all at the same time.
And for good reason.
It is a disrupter with legs.
But it’s not a magic lottery ticket.
Remember, if you automate a bad offer, you just lose money faster.
That is why I agreed to sit down for a “Fireside Chat” at the upcoming No BS AI Summit.
On March 4th I’m joining Titans Xcelerator members Dr. Theresa Pantanella and Parthiv Shah, two operators I trust, to have a real conversation about where this industry is going.
I am not going to teach you “prompts.”
Nor am I qualified to.
I will stay in my lane by teaching you how to apply Eternal Marketing Truths to this new technology so you can build a business that lasts longer than the next trend.
We are going to discuss:
- The “O to O to O” Strategy: How to use AI to move from Online to Offline to Online to…a multichannel approach that would make Sugarman proud
- Relationship Capital: Why AI makes “High Touch” more valuable, not less
- Why the concepts of Lifetime Value, RFM and the 41/39/20 Rule remain alive and well
- The Titan Mindset: How to stay grounded when the world is getting more complex every day
I am sharing the stage with Jeffrey Gitomer and other serious players.
There is no fluff here.
If you are up for sorting out how to use AI without breaking the timeless rules of marketing, I want you in the room to hear the “Old School” perspective on the “New School” tools.
Remember:
Technology changes. The principles stay the same.
Most people will use AI to become average faster.
I want you to use it to become a Titan. 🙂