A few days ago, I was talking to a radio sales rep about copywriting and the subject eventually came around to advertising legends.
 Out of the blue he said, "If there was one legend who could be with us this morning, who would it be and what would you ask him?"  It was an interesting question.
 And it wasn't one that I could easily answer.
 There were so many people who influenced me along the way.
 Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy, and Rosser Reeves to name just three.
  Fortunately, the waitress chose that particular moment to bring us the check and within minutes I was on my way back to the office.
  But the question stayed with me for the balance of the day.
 And by late evening I decided that it wouldn't be any of those fellows.
 Instead, it would be direct response legend Drayton Bird.
  The truth is that next to Claude Hopkins, Drayton was the man who totally embraced direct response.
 And that told me that he was not only willing to "talk the talk" - he was willing to "walk the walk".
 In direct response there is literally nowhere to hide.
 The campaign either works or it doesn't.
 And Drayton was always right there - on the front lines of capitalism.
  And then I did something that was totally impulsive.
 I knew that Mr.
Bird was still actively involved in the business because I had stumbled across his newsletter about a year earlier on the internet.
 And I knew that his email address was on his newsletters.
 So I wrote him a brief note and asked if I could submit a dozen or so questions for his review.
And to my surprise and delight, Drayton Bird agreed to answer them.
MA: You're a man who has traveled all over the world - and by the sound of it - have been traveling worldwide from the get go.
 How important is a world-view when it comes to creating effective direct response advertising?  DB: The more you know, the better you can do.
 The broader the mind, the greater the potential.
  Ideas come from many sources and ways of looking at things.
The essential desires of human beings do not vary that much, but their habits, views, problems and circumstances do.
  The more sources you have, the more you understand the different ways in which people see things and the varied ways they solve problems - and therefore the more you have to draw upon.
One purely practical benefit is that you can often take what works in one place and apply it another.
When I worked on American Express, I recall finding an idea in Singapore, which we tried in Hong Kong, then London, then Spain.
 It did well everywhere.
MA: The term USP has been with us since the fifties.
There have been dozens of books written on the topic, and yet most great USPs seem always to be just out of reach.
 How does one develop a great USP, and is there a process or little secret to getting the USP right - the first time out?  DB: Today almost everything can be done faster, though not necessarily better.
 Never has it been easier to copy a good idea, so the material from which to fashion a unique proposition is easily copied; thus the basis of that proposition is not secure.
  In any case the trick with a USP is rarely that you have something the other fellow doesn't; it is that you talk about it where he doesn't, or express it better.
  Having said that, what most customers want is not something unique but something better.
 This usually revolves around service.
 As Jeff Bezos said, "Are my customers loyal? Absolutely.
100%.
 Right till the moment someone comes along and offers better service.
" MA: You have had one-on-one relationships with some of the great advertising minds of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries - David Ogilvy comes immediately to mind.
 Is there something about these individuals that makes them inherently well suited to the world of marketing?  DB: You made me think on this one.
  I don't think the answer is peculiar to the world of marketing.
 It applies to success in any field of endeavour.
  I think the people who triumph tend to have most of the following qualities.
 They are deeply insecure - harried by fear of failure.
 They are far more persistent than others.
Never give up.
They are brave - take risks.
They are more optimistic, harder working and a little crazy; not just obsessive and perfectionist but downright eccentric.
 They are extremely persuasive and charming when necessary, quite wily and often a little unscrupulous.
  They are self-centred, utterly intent on their aims, maniacally competitive, calculating and not too concerned with, or unaware of the chaos they cause in their personal lives.