Mail-order catalog

The pattern

This still is filed under Mail-order catalog.

Define

A catalog that is the store: browse, choose, order, without a clerk and often without a website.

Mechanism

Assortment as argument. Density, numbering, and an order path do the closing. The book is the funnel.

Verdict

We have a range, remote buyers, and a way to take the order on the same object.

Why it works

Each title is drawn as its own small sign, so the eye jumps down the column like it would along a shop shelf, and every entry closes the sale with the same three facts: what it covers, how long it is and what it costs by post. Placing the list beside the jokes page means it sits where readers linger longest, and a well-known author's name leads the column to lend weight to the rest.

The big idea

Ten books drawn as ten small signs, headed by Salama Musa's name, each with contents, length and postal price, so the reader can order without visiting a shop.

The offer

Salama Musa's Selections, 50 essays in 320 large pages, for 10 piastres; the Modern Arabic-English dictionary for 100 plus 5 post; other titles 10 to 25 piastres plus post, from al-Matba'a al-Asriya, Cairo.

The proof

Named authors, Salama Musa, Gustave Le Bon, Anatole France and Nicola Haddad, a doctor as author of one title, and the sociology book called the only one on its subject in Arabic.

Lines from the ad

مختارات سلامة موسى

Salama Musa's Selections

خمسون مقالة نفيسة في العلوم والآداب والاجتماع

Fifty fine essays on science, literature and society

المطبعة العصرية بشارع علوي رقم ٥ بمصر

al-Matba'a al-Asriya, 5 Elwi Street, Cairo

Steal this when

Use it when you want a list of many products to read as a browsable shelf, led by the one name your audience already trusts.