Whatever Works: Where Product is King

Several obstacles had to be overcome. Feldman was a major supplier of health-related products to the low-end catalogers of the era—Sunset House, Foster & Gallagher and Spencer Gifts, as well as the giant Hanover House family of catalogs. The partners went to the four catalogers and announced their plan to start a healthcare title with the promise that they’d make available any successful items on a wholesale basis. This was a win-win proposition. Hanover President Harold Schwartz warned the fledgling entrepreneurs that no lists were available, as these were the days before sophisticated list segmentation. The solution was to build lists using space advertising.