Continuity Marketing: Pleasures and Pitfalls

Grolier Enterprises

Grolier Inc. published Encyclopedia Americana, which was sold door-to-door. Elsworth Howell formed Grolier Inc. to ship annual update volumes to American buyers on an automatic, continuity basis. Why stop with encyclopedias? In the early 1960s, Howell, together with Bob Clarke, Lew Smith and Ed Bakal, hit on the idea for “The Beginning Reader’s Club” that sold the Dr. Seuss books by mail for children. It is still profitable after 40 years.