Throughout the 60s all the way to the 90s, Columbia House was a major player in the music market, grabbing significant market share, all because of their irresistible,...View More
blowout offer. Although they constantly tested different variations of their offer, it basically consisted of getting around a dozen albums of your choice for $1-2 with the condition that you must agree to buy a certain number of albums at full price within the next 1-2 years. They figured out how they can make enough money on the back-end to create an over-the-top front-end offer that gains major attention. It's the ultimate setup to attract a huge number of customers. Because their back-end sales were almost guaranteed, they had the freedom to create an offer that would easily blow away other competitors who didn't have enough revenue on the back-end to justify creating as strong an offer. With that said, Columbia House was also very tricky & controversial when it came to back-end sales. If you notice in the ads below, they barely mention that you must buy a certain amount of albums to get the deal. So much attention is put on the $1 deal that many overlook the condition. Combining that with their use of automated billing was led to its demise in the late 90s. They couldn't get away with it anymore. Next week we'll showcase the originator of the record club offer, famous copywriter Max Sackheim who originated the concept, but with books.
