Making Them Believe

The 21 Principles and Lost Secrets of Dr. J. R. Brinnkley-Style Marketing

Dan S. Kennedy, Chip Kessler

• Publisher: Glazer Kennedy Pub
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9780982859056
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

An analysis of the twenty-one business marketing principles of an historic millionaire eccentric and how you can profit from them.

Dr. John Brinkley was, at one time, the wealthiest doctor of his time, undeniably the most Barnum-esque promoter in medicine in his time, vilified and prosecuted as a quack, and praised as saint by the amazing number of men who flocked to him for his "fountain of youth"—and by their wives.

Making Them Believe delves deeply into his twenty-one marketing principles, providing a blueprint for adventurous advertising, marketing, promotion, and personal promotion that can install a "fountain of profits" in just about any business! If you'd like to—and would profit from—making yourself or your business famous and magnetically attractive, locally or globally, this in-depth analysis of the lost secrets behind Brinkley's amazing success story is for you! In this book, you'll discover:

· Dynamic pathways to Maximum Authority—so that you are sought out and your "prescriptions" accepted without question

· Two kinds of Clarity essential for marketing success—missing from most businesses

· The question to ask yourself, that, when answered, dramatically multiplies the power of advertising and elevates you above all competition

· The 3-Step Brinkley Blueprint for savvy use of media—the trap most businesspeople fall victim to

· A most radical, revolutionary change to your entire approach to selling—why the sale delayed can be the sale more easily made

· The Brinkley Prescription for virtually unlimited price elasticity & the all-time, best-ever answer to any and every price objection

· The Brinkley Secret to being admired—as a means of attracting customers especially eager to do business with you

Making Them Believe also includes a transcript of a Brinkley Radio Broadcast, archive examples of actual Dr. Brinkley sales literature and sales copy from his advertising, plus, moneymaking secrets & lessons from Napoleon Hill (author, Think and Grow Rich ), Martha Stewart, Dr. Atkins, Zig Ziglar, and Dave Thomas (Wendy's)

PRINCIPLE #1

PRESENTING YOURSELF WITH

AUTHORITY

1
There’s No Substitute for Authority

By Chip Kessler

In Dr. Brinkley’s time, classic credibility mattered a great deal. Today, new types of credibility, authority and believability apply. People in Brinkley’s era, for example, would never have trusted a ‘virtual bank’ they couldn’t walk into, see a huge vault in its corner, and if need be, rush down to, to rescue the money they had on deposit at start of a crisis. But for people who now bank online with an institution that has no physical presence in their community at all, and initially attracts its depositors with television or online advertising, the matter of trust still matters.

Given a choice, who among us doesn’t put our trust and confidence in the man or woman who has relevant, authoritative credentials? No matter if it is a job around the house that calls for a repairman to visit, or having to place a child into daycare; we want peace of mind that we’ve made the correct selection from a cluttered field of would-be suitors seeking our business.

In following the examples, which of the choices gives you more confidence that this person can re-wire your downstairs family room?

Mr. Ernie Jones, Electrician

Mr. Ernie Jones, Master Electrician

Who in your mind is more competent to handle the busted pipe that’s causing water to cascade onto your bathroom floor?

Mr. Wendell Smith, Plumber

Mr. Wendell Smith, Master Plumber

Finally, you are in need of daycare services for your toddler because both you and your spouse now are working. There are two options to choose from …

The Little Tykes Center

The Red-Robin Pre-School

Which of the above daycares would you call or visit first, based on the name of their respective businesses? Which daycare based upon what you heard and liked would you place your child with and potentially not even visit the competition?

In my little, informal survey, most pick The Red-Robin Pre-School - influenced by the word ‘school’ vs. the word ‘center'. Naturally we want the best for our children. We want them to have fun during the day however; we’d also like the idea of them being in an environment that offers structure … and learning. Indeed, both establishments may offer the same exact kind of care, the same activities and structured learning and supervision, but the name “Pre-School” means something to the discerning parent.

ACCEPTED AUTHORITY CAN TRUMP ALL OTHER FACTORS.

As does the title, Doctor. Growing up poor in the hills of North Carolina, John R. Brinkley rapidly came to realize that it was not a lifestyle he wanted to keep. At an early age, and still bound to his home, young Brinkley became captivated by a traveling medicine show and the “Doctor” Burke that dispensed his brand of “cure-all in a bottle". The cash that flowed to Burke from excited customers that were enamored of the Doctor’s message was a message young Brinkley had clearly received. John Brinkley recognized something very important while observing the Doctor peddling patent medicines from the back of a wagon: accepted authority could trump incongruous elements and gain acceptance for just about any promise, however outrageous. Even though people generally associated doctors and medical care with small, professional offices and clinics, if a man were accepted as “Doctor", he could stand on a wood box at the back of a wagon and persuade people to buy the cure for what ailed them. John also saw that ‘sales’ was path to prosperity, thus, as soon as he was able to go out on his own, John Brinkley would take to the road to perform in such surroundings himself.

Creative, Construction Dissatisfaction, Acted Upon

Not only was Brinkley a quick and eager student of this craft—a very early form of what my co-author, Dan Kennedy, has plied so profitably: platform selling, John was willing to invest the time and energy to learn more than the basics, and ultimately to elevate his game to a whole new level. He wasn’t just satisfied in being a mere medicine show “Doctor” peddling a “one bottle for whatever ails you cure.” Rather, his mindset was to expand his product line, and with it his base of customers. His strategy was brilliant: not only niche out your target market, but within your target market, sub-niche, and build out your line of products to match each sub-niche. In other words why sell everyone attending a medicine show the same one-size-fits-all-cure, when you can identify problems A, B, C and D separately, and then offer a cure specific to each individual ailment. Undoubtedly, only the color of the liquid in bottles A, B, C and D changed; the potion itself was the same. But the price at which it was sold could be higher because it was specialized, the desire for something precisely formulated to cure A by a sufferer of A was greater, many people suffered from more than one malady and would therefore buy two medicines rather than one, and—here’s the cleverest part—the very fact of having precisely formulated medicines for different maladies graced Dr. Brinkley with more authority.

I have just named four different, important advantages in the radical change John Brinkley made to the traveling medicine show business and the doctor’s pitch. It’s worth taking a minute to go back and identify each of the four, and then stop and think of ways you might apply them to your business, profession or industry.

Even though he literally re-invented the medicine show and made it a much better business, John Brinkley wasn’t satisfied with simply being a medicine show doctor. He yearned for the prestige and credibility of being the “real thing.” He foresaw untold advantage of being able to present himself as a real doctor, with credentials from a recognized medical school. However, becoming a doctor through the usual channels wasn’t of interest to him. In Brinkley’s money making focused mind, this path was too long and tedious. After all, he wasn’t actually after the expertise—just the credentials… an early nod to the idea later enunciated and accepted as fundamental premise of advertising: perception is reality.

He ventured to Chicago and selected as his school of choice the Bennett Electric Medical College. Its so-called physicians preached herbal remedies as the best means to treat a medical problem. Needless to say, the AMA (American Medical Association) thumbed its nose at such practices. For Brinkley, however, both in the price and the less intensive course load, this type of medical degree was exactly what he was after. The school’s entry fee was $25, which he plunked down in 1908 to become the college’s newest enrollee. And yet John Brinkley was not to earn a degree. With a year to go, he quit school. Even this school’s study requirements proved too great for a man in such hurry. Perhaps it was the strain of working a full-time job and also taking class that decided this matter. Another theory offered by author Pope Brook in Charlatan: “To a certain kind of mind, graduation is cheating.”

In any case, although he dropped out of the Bennett Electric Medical College, Brinkley did not abandon what he had learned there, nor his plan to take his place among the nation’s most influential names in the field of medical healers. In fact, he sought a fast track. He headed from Chicago to Knoxville, Tennessee and a reunion with his original mentor, Dr. Burke of medicine show fame. Here, John obtained a crash course on the finer points of attracting willing and paying customers, more practical knowledge than his time spent in the legitimate school for would be Electro Medical Physicians.

Ultimately, John Brinkley concluded that formally issued and obtained credentials could be replaced with self-granted credentials and self-promotion. He had come full circle, to perception-is-reality, realizing that most people accept you as you present yourself. From that point forward, whether his name was John R. Brinkley or not (along there way there was the use of an alias or two) the man hailing from Beta, North Carolina always introduced himself as Doctor.

In time incidentally, John Brinkley did get his “medical degree.” For one so shrewd and cunning, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to add the one final piece in his search for credibility. He simply bought his degree in 1915 courtesy of the Eclectic Medical University of Kansas City, Missouri. The price: $100 and with it, he was instantly “licensed” to practice in eight states.

What might we conclude from his on-again, off-again desire for actual degree and license to practice medicine? Credentials without aggressive, effective promotion languish in frames on the walls of many a starving professional’s office. Aggressive, effective promotion absent legitimate credentials is always a bit fragile and vulnerable to attack. All things considered, possessing both is best.

2
In Search Maximum Authority

By Dan S. Kennedy

Chip has identified three chief ways by which the amazing Dr. Brinkley sought and created authority for himself. (Did you identify all three for yourself?)

On entering the business of the traveling medicine show, and the selling of patent medicines from the stage, John Brinkley reinvented both the products and the pitch to provide authority by specialization. In doing so, he tossed aside the most fundamental, universal norm of that business: the presentation of one magical, powerful, amazing elixir that cured every imaginable ill. Tossing aside this same norm in any number of other businesses over the years has been of comparable breakthrough value. At the time that two guys started their direct-selling company in 1959, the ‘rule’ of door-to-door cleaning products was also one bottle of glop to clean everything, and they initially followed that approach. Amway began with a bottle of cleaning fluid called L.O.C., for Liquid Organic Concentrate, that cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, carpet, functioned as laundry soap, as shampoo, even as ingredient for homemade toothpaste. But this was supplemented in short order by a growing array of cleaning products, each for a single purpose. The professions of medicine and law began with practitioners who did everything, but evolved into a specialist for every isolated need—corporate contract law, family law, elder law, and so on, and clever marketers like one of our Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle™ Members, Bill Hammond, have invented their own subspecialties; in his case, Alzheimer’s family law. Brinkley set aside the way the business he was in was done, in order to give himself greater authority by (product) specialization. There is definitely a lesson there for everybody.

If I may, I’ll tell you a funny story about this specialized product tactic that I’m proud of, but many would think I ought to be ashamed of myself for. Of course, I’ve been in the advertising business my entire life, so shame is something of a foreign concept. Anyway, I was working with a fledgling, struggling direct sales company in desperate need of any increase in sales to be had, but lacking capital to add new products. One of its slowest sellers was an excellent, aerosol-foam leather cleaner, treatment and polish in one. I created three different labels for the same can. One, for a cleaner, another for a treatment, and a third for the polish to be buffed to gleaming shine, and packaged the three as a “system". Sales leapt up, and distributors and customers alike raved about the unmatched shine and new softness and pliability of their shoes. I imagine the leather was softer and shinier thanks to getting three consecutive applications and rubbings rather than one, but only thanks to that—the goop was the same in all three cans. Based on this discovery, I used the same trick with that company’s aerosol weed killer. I made a label for a weed prevention spray, to be applied to the same areas where the weed killing spray was used, immediately afterward, to keep weeds from coming back. Same stuff in both cans. If anybody feels an apology is due, you aren’t getting it from me!

This is now a staple strategy in over-the-counter medicines, nutritional products, skin care products, cosmetics, and many others, and I have my suspicions about how small the difference in actual ingredients may be between Tylenol^®, Tylenol^® for Migraine Headaches, Tylenol^® for Back Pain, and Tylenol® Cold and Flu. Today’s drug companies and Dr. John Brinkley have more in common than anybody in big pharma’s boardrooms would ever admit.

Again, there’s a valuable lesson here for any business owner or marketer, should you care to embrace it.

Another path to authority traveled by Brinkley was placement of self in environments conducive to it. The very act of standing up on a stage in front of an audience and confidently and persuasively delivering a presentation has always given that person a grant of authority from the assembled audience, and always will. People have been conditioned from childhood to see such persons as authority figures. They’ve had twelve or more years of school, sitting and listening to their teachers, compelled to learn, memorize and agree with the teachers’ presentations—quite often of mere opinions as facts. If they have religious upbringing, they’ve had similar conditioning through Bible study classes, catechism classes and church services.

To an extent, John Brinkley overcame a disadvantageous place with the authority-giving advantage of public speaking.

Ideally, you want to exercise thoughtful control over your ‘place', over your selling environment, so that it strengthens and does not undermine your authority. Most people do not give this enough thought.

Finally, Brinkley gained authority with a credential: Doctor. He first settled for it by self-appointment and proclamation, and later secured it as legitimate title from a recognized institution, albeit one loose in its requirements. Credentials that convey authority come in many shapes, sizes and types. My friend and student, Diana Coutu, has, for her pizza business, numerous ‘best pizza’ awards and ‘chef awards’ secured from national and international competition, and features them in her every ad, brochure, menu, web site, even on the lid of the pizza box. Does her having secured these “honors” guarantee the consumer a better-tasting pizza than may be available from a competitor, and at a significantly lower price? Not necessari...