Last updated on September 8th, 2017 at 07:51 pm

With U-Printing’ special focus on Catalogs this month, we felt it would be a good time to look at the history of mail order catalogs as a way of showing what a well designed and well constructed catalog can do for your business.

The concept of mail order is believed to have been started by Benjamin Franklin in 1774.  The future president offered a catalog of scientific books for order by mail.  He also had the first mail order guarantee which read ““Those persons who live remote, by sending their orders and money to B. Franklin may depend on the same justice as if present.”

The first major mail order retail catalog was done in 1872 by Aaron Montgomery Ward (founder of the 20^th century retail juggernaut Montgomery Wards).   As shown here, it was a single page and focused on presenting dry good items which could be ordered by individuals in rural areas who did not have access to such items:

After some initial issues, the catalog was a huge success, reaching over 3 million people by the beginning of the 20^th Century.  Montgomery Ward reigned supreme in the retail mail order business until Sears challenged it in 1896.

Through a large portion of the early 20^th Century, mail order was a dominant force in retail.   As smaller local businesses were beginning to wane and the major department stores and shopping malls were just starting to establish themselves, millions of people did their shopping through mail order catalogs.

One illustration of the power of mail order catalogs and information is the rise of Charles Atlas and his “Dynamic Tension” system.  Beginning in the late 1920’s, Atlas began advertising a book detailing his system for building strength and a muscular physique.  The advertisement was based on promising that Atlas’ system could give you a body like Atlas in no time at all.  The most famous of these advertisements was the “Insult that made a man out of Mac” ad (shown here in a 2001 reprinted version):

The ads, which appeared in comic books for decades, fed on the fantasy of rebirth from someone who is bullied to becoming “the hero of the beach.”  The concept was so successful that the ad has become a part of our cultural history and is readily recognizable to most people in one form or another.

Another mail order catalog that has become a part of our cultural history is the Victoria’s Secret catalog.  The company began as a small lingerie store in San Francisco.  It sent out its first mail order catalog in 1978 and it looked like this:

After being sold to the Limited Co in 1982, the catalog made itself over, replacing staid traditional advertising with sexually charged photos of international supermodels.  This made the catalog so popular to both men and women that the brand became a part of the cultural landscape.

As the above examples illustrate, the mail order catalog is still a powerful advertising tool for your business.  With U-Printing’s 20% discount this month, there’s never been a better time to work on your advertising catalog.

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