Direct-mail response

The pattern

This still is filed under Direct-mail response.

Define

A physical letter or pack whose only job is a measurable reply: an order, a donation, a call.

Mechanism

Response engineering. Outer, letter, lift, reply device. Every surface earns its keep or it is cut.

Verdict

We can mail, track, and fulfill, and the unit economics survive the stamp.

Why it works

The headline is a number, three million men, and the first line makes it concrete for a Cairo reader by saying it is more than twice the people of Cairo and Alexandria together. That crowd of past students removes the fear that study by post does not work. The rest of the space is a coupon with a tick list of courses in French and English and lines for name and address, so the reader can act before he turns the page.

The big idea

Three million men, more than twice the people of Cairo and Alexandria together, have studied with the ICS; the coupon lets the reader see if it can help him.

The offer

Full details, free by post, of the marked course, taught in French or English: send the coupon to International Correspondence Schools, Davies Bryan Buildings, Emad El Din Street, Cairo.

The proof

Three million past students, put in local terms as more than twice the people of Cairo and Alexandria combined, and a number that grows year by year.

Lines from the ad

ثلاثة ملايين رجل

Three million men

ارسل بالبريد الكوبون الآتي لترى هل هذه المدرسة تساعدك

Send the coupon below by post to see whether this school can help you

(استعمل هذا الكوبون)

(Use this coupon)

Steal this when

Use it when you have a large, true customer count and want the reader to reply with a form on the same page.

The emotion

Written to Trust. It makes the Say move.

It puts three million past students in Cairo terms, more than twice the people of Cairo and Alexandria, then asks only for free details by post 'to see whether this school can help you'.