news
Vintage Toronto Ads: File Under Finkler
Source: APEO Dimensions, July-August 1980.
A competitor of Len Finkler Ltd. took one look at today’s featured ad and slapped his forehead. “Of course!” he muttered to himself. “Why didn’t I think of sending out our yearly shipments of thirty-five catalogues in a nice, neatly organized reusable file with a cartoony mascot instead of shipping them in a loose, easily damaged or disposed of manner?” He considered recent complaints about the last mail-out, looked at the leaning tower of sales material from manufacturers eager for his business, and poured his sixth coffee of the day.
He had to know more about the person behind the ad. He sifted through a messy file cabinet and found the shoebox filled with clippings that served as his private intelligence agency on the competition. After fifteen minutes of digging, he found a faded Globe and Mail profile on Finkler that outlined his better-organized rival’s beginnings in the business world:
Well, I was 29 years old and really had no idea what I was doing, going to do or how to do it. But I learned as I went and I made my mistakes pay off by not repeating them. I had always been interested, even as a kid, in electronics. I had worked for an electronic parts distributor first as a shipper, then moved to the inside order desk and eventually into outside sales. In 1955, I decided I was going to get out on my own. I established contacts with some suppliers in the United States. They looked me over, decided I wasn’t likely to let them down in a pinch, and I was appointed their sales representative in this area. I then managed to get my previous employer as a client and through persistence and a lot of legwork gradually built up the number of my accounts and the volume.
Launching into cup number seven, he read that from a starting point of “$65 in a briefcase, a desk at home and a good wife,” Finkler built a Downsview-based importing and manufacturing business that earned $3 million in sales by 1970. Seven figures in sales…and that was a decade ago.
He leaned back in his chair and thought about how he barely cleared five figures a year. Was presentation a problem? Perhaps. He called a friend in the file-making business. Forget the Finkler File—clients looking for a wide assembly of car audio and electronics components would soon behold the Bolder Folder.
Additional material from the March 31, 1970, edition of the Globe and Mail.