Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay [Paperback]

Lester Wunderman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Being Direct describes in vivid detail Leste r Wunderman''s discovery of the revolutionary advertising age ncy. It is essential reading for any business owner today lo oking for advertising stratgies that work. '

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lester Wunderman's Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay truly is both informative and entertaining. It combines an extraordinary personal history of "direct marketing" with a remarkably candid look at the field's most acclaimed practitioner. Written in an easy-going and deliberately persuasive style obviously honed during Wunderman's six decades in the trenches, the book shows his skill developing and gaining acceptance as he creates revolutionary advertising programs for future corporate stalwarts like the Columbia Record Club and American Express. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Born in a Bronx tenement, Wunderman started his own advertising agency with his older brother in 1939, at the age of 19. It went under two years later. With a never-say-die attitude, he learned the ropes, and by 1959, Wunderman, Ricotta & Kline (WRK), which he had founded a year earlier, was the world's largest agency specializing in mail-order advertising. A collector of African art, conversant with Spinoza and Marshall McLuhan, Wunderman credits his 1972 meeting with the chief of Mali's Dogon tribe as the key to his understanding of kinship and power-sharing-insights that led him to merge WRK (now Wunderman Cato Johnson, which he chairs) with a larger general agency, Young & Rubicam. Highly skimpy on personal detail, this career-oriented autobiography is a seasoned pro's detailed casebook of direct-marketing hits and misses. Wunderman's campaigns helped launch the American Express card, boosted Time Inc.'s magazine division circulation, devised interactive media to sell Lincoln Continentals and made the zip code an accepted part of the postal system. His account of these and other legendary feats is high-energy. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Adams Media Corp; 1st edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558508341
• ISBN-13: 978-1558508347
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting guide to the history of direct marketing, November 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay (Hardcover)

This book is interesting particularly for the evolution of direct marketing that Wunderman describes--and to a large degree, instigated. Readers will notice a tendency for Wunderman to toot his own horn, but don't worry; it doesn't ever become obnoxious.

The book would be good as a general guide as to what works and what doesn't--and why--in direct marketing. If a company is looking at direct marketing as a possible direction, this would be a good place to start to get an idea of what is involved, and what it takes to be successful. It may or may not help the reader that Wunderman describes using his techniques in marketing both goods (flowers) and services (credit cards).

In the end, you get more history from it than hard, specific tips. A very good read, but don't expect it to be "100 tips to direct marketing success". The hints are there, but you'll need to dig them out.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Getting experiences in Direct Marketing by reading, March 4, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Vienna, Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay (Hardcover)

As a Direct Marketeer I was really impressed by Wunderman's clear, sophisticated, simple book that is REALLY about direct selling ! For a Direct Marketing "freshmen" it helps to think about what you should think about. And for profis it is a treasure of Direct Marketing strategies that allready worked.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the MAN!, February 15, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Rialto, Southern California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Being Direct: Making Advertising Pay (Hardcover)

What a story! Wunderman invented so many of the marketing techniques we take for granted. Now he shares the inside story on how it did it. An inspiring trip through some of the greatest marketing ever.