Direct-from-the-founder letter

The pattern

This still is filed under Direct-from-the-founder letter.

Define

A letter in one person's voice, written as if to one reader, signed by the person who owns the outcome.

Mechanism

Personal authority. The signature is the proof. The tone is the brand. A committee cannot write this and keep the mechanism.

Verdict

Trust sits on a person

Why it works

The portrait humanizes the brand. In an era of snake oil sold by men, a motherly female face offering sympathy and free advice was highly reassuring.

The big idea

A real woman, pictured and signing "Yours for Health," sells to women on the ground that "Woman can Sympathize with Woman," and answers their letters herself.

The offer

Vegetable Compound at $1 a bottle or six for $5; pills or lozenges by mail at $1 a box; a pamphlet on request; letters answered by Mrs. Pinkham; Liver Pills 25 cents at all druggists.

The proof

Her portrait, name, town and handwritten signature, a street address in Lynn, Mass., and flat claims such as "Is a Positive Cure"; no testimonials or numbers.

Lines from the ad

MRS. LYDIA E. PINKHAM, OF LYNN, MASS.,

Woman can Sympathize with Woman.

Mrs. Pinkham freely answers all letters of inquiry.

Steal this when

When the founder's identity and empathy are your strongest differentiating factors.

The emotion

Written to Trust. It makes the Avoid mistake.

Her portrait, signature and 'Woman can Sympathize with Woman' carry a flat 'Is a Positive Cure' with no testimonial or figure behind it, asking suffering women for faith that a face alone has not earned.