Shall I hear from you soon?
Yours very respectfully,
[Signature: G. L. Lawrence]
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This letter was sent out on very tasty tinted stationery. It was written by someone who understood the subtle processes of the feminine mind. In the first place the lady is flattered because the sales manager himself writes to her and offers to give her order his personal attention. Surely an opportunity to secure the very best suit the house can turn out!
"It is the difference of QUALITY, of genius in its cutting, that I want your friends and neighbors to see and admire in your suit." No fulsome flattery here; it is so delicately introduced that it appears entirely incidental, but the shaft strikes home. There is just enough left unsaid to stir the imagination. The logic and the matter-of-fact argument that would appeal to the man gives way to suggestion and persuasion and the necessity for prompt action is tactfully inserted at the proper place.
In another letter from the same house the prospect was impressed by the great care used in making up garments:
"In order that your measurements may be taken exactly right, we send you with this letter a 'Republic' Tape Measure. This is the same kind that our cutters use and it is entirely accurate.
"We send this tape measure to you because we want to avoid the least possibility of variation in your measurements. We want to make your suit perfect, and we will personally see to every detail of its making."
* * * * *
No battery of arguments and proofs could make the same appeal to the woman as the tape line sent in this way. The suggestion is more powerful with a woman when skillfully handled than statements, assertions and arguments. Compare the subtle appeal in the above to the paragraphs taken from a letter sent out by a house that was trying to enter the mail-order field: