Muscular Marketing

Muscular Marketing
Like so many others, as a teenager this author became fascinated with feats of muscular strength, power and athleticism. As I matured, I read everything available about the subject ‑ books, magazines and those fantastic mail-order courses. The unintended, positive consequence of all that reading was
a rich education from some of the best copywriters of the time.

Think of the Charles Atlas ad, “How a Ninety-Eight Pound Weakling Turned Into a He-Man In 90 DAYS!” The illustrated story shows our young hero getting sand kicked in his face by an obnoxious bully and losing his girlfriend, all at the same time. Shortly thereafter our young oppressed ‘boy’ “discovers” the secrets of physical training and proper diet and promptly packs on slabs of rippling muscle to his once boney physique, thus turning him into a ‘man’. You remember how the story ends. “Mac” returns to the same location of his greatest humiliation on the beach and when he is confronted by the bully he serves up his own brand of justice by punching out his former tormentor. Those were the good old days.

I love the story, and can certainly relate to it ‑ in my own way. Waaay back then, I saved up my money and invested in the Charles Atlas “Dynamic Tension” course and was never bullied again. Partly it was the physical change, and partly it was the self-confidence I gained. Although now-a-days I rarely buy “muscle magazines”, I do flip through them during my regular visits to our local Barnes & Noble bookstore. Last week I was intrigued by a cover photo and story about Joe Weider and Arnold Schwarzenegger. If you’re not familiar with Joe Weider, he’s the publisher of Muscle & Fitness, Flex, and about two dozen other magazines, and he owns a vitamin supplement company – all in all a huge conglomerate. He is among the biggest media moguls in the world. Joe Weider was one of the few people who gave Arnold his first big break by putting pictures of him on the cover of his magazines and doing feature stories about his body-building training methods. This was long before Arnold could speak enough English to carry a conversation let alone consider acting. Joe didn’t pay the young Schwarzenegger much money
Derek & Katie Freund (15)
Working out April 4th 2009
but he did give him exposure and taught him the basics of direct response marketing ‑ a fact few people know, respect or understand. That’s how Arnold made his money initially. He also did seminars. There are plenty of successes to “model” regardless of what business you’re in. Perhaps I’ll bring in one of those early courses that Arnold sold via direct mail to one of our Info-Marketing Mastermind meetings. What’s more interesting and of practical use for the rest of us is how Joe Weider got his own start. As a 19-year old living in Montréal Canada, he decided to start a magazine titled Your Physique. Our young mogul would clip the names of Canadian subscribers that wrote to the “Pen- Pal” section of the American publication of Strength & Health magazine. He accumulated the names and
addresses of over six-hundred Canadian muscle/exercise enthusiasts. Certainly a lot of work by today’s standards. He quickly turned that information into cash by sending out a postcard with a subscription offer and giving out free copies of his first publications
at local gyms, thereby creating the initial subscriber list that built his empire. That was in 1939, still thirty years before he was to ‘discover’ one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.

At our local Southeast Michigan Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle meetings we often discuss the value of building your (pick a name) list, database, herd, or tribe. The point is, every relationship has value. The modern marketing term for what Joe Weider did is “host beneficiary”. The “host” was the original Strength & Health magazine that had already identified and sold to hundreds of fitness enthusiasts. The “beneficiary” was Joe Weider, who instinctively knew the value of matching a good offer with a great list. Over time it made him worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Opportunities like this abound everyday. Often this information is readily available public information for FREE, rentable from list brokers and resellers or from other marketers who want to cooperate with you.
Best advice: Learn everything you can. Don’t miss a GKIC chapter or Mastermind meeting. And build your list. http://www.nobsmichigan.com/.
By Derek Freund
Director Southeast Michigan Glazer-Kennedy Insider’s Circle