Nov: 1% 1982 Morketins News Pag* 3

Cartoons prove to be effective debt collection loolA DUNNING LETTER is neverpleasant, but the head of a Charlot-tesville, Va., ad agency has found away to take some of the sting out of it.

When his efforts to collect a $ 1,948bill were consistently rebuffed,Charles (Chic) Thompson, president.Creative Media Group Inc., sent acartoon.

"Humorous cartoons have workedwell in advertising to make the salesand now we're using them to collecton the biU," he said. "We tried theusual methods—invoices, letters,pleading phone calls—but cartoonsgot the results.

"The client practically dared me totry collecting the bill. I didnt want tolose 40% of the money to a collectionagency, so I drafted the knife-in-the-back cartoon."

The cartoon depicts a tearfulThompson lying in a pool of blood asthe result of a knifcjepresenting theunpaid bill, in the back. "Pay our bill

Brown^—"The affluent have a psychological

commitment to spend. They can't af-ford not to because they have toomuch of a personal reputation to pro-tect and project. They may not bepleased paying Si5,000 for a Thun-derbird when the last one cost S8,000,but they can afford to pay it.

"They go through a lot of psycho-logical quirks when they buy. Theylook for all the ways they can to justifya high price, and that's whe^ theimage value of diesel engines andother high technology features comeinto making a sale."

For the mass market, such featuresmust be justified from a money-savingstandpoint, but there is little or nosuch advantage when the higher costof the features is considered. Brownsaid these consumers adopt a sourgrapes mentality: they develop a nega-tive mindset about the new cars torationalize why they don't buy an autothey can't afford.

"America is into a slowed purchasecycle on everything," he concluded."The prices of housing, food, and a lotof other necessities of life wdtild have

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for SI,948 today," the caption im-' ptores.

"The cartoon came out of a monthef frustration ftom talking to the guyknd trying to get him to pay his bill,"Thompson said.

Copies of the cartoon also were sentto the client's boss and some of hiscustomers. "He got a kick out of it*."although he didn't appreciate the copysent to his employer, Thompson said.Full payment of the bill arrived soonafter.

THE CARTOON'S SUCCESSprompted him to research the matterof debt collection, and he developed aseries of four cartoons for use at var-ious stages of debt delinquency.

For bills unpaid after 30 days, thecreditor sends a card depicting a de-pressed dog kneeling next to a padmarked "cash flow." Clearly, the un-paid bill is causing the dog some wor-ries.

After 60 days, "the dog is getting

-CONTINUED FROM FRONT PAGE

to come down a lot before peoplecould go out and buy new cars. That'snot going to happen.

"It's a whole new ballgame. If theauto industry is going to survive, it hasto start by addressing themarket and build from there."

CharfM (Chic) Thompton

very depressed," Thompson said. "Hegoes to -a fire hydrant I call SigmundPlug and asks the 'psychologist,''What should I do? I've tried every-thing to get this bill paid.*"

After 90 days, the debtor receives acartoon of his creditor standing infront of a domino. A line of dominosalready has toppled, and the last oneis all that stands between the creditorand the crushing burden of unpaidbills.

"The message is that the debtor isjust part of the problem, but the com-bined effect threatens the creditor'sexistence," he explained.

If that fails to get a response, theknife-in-the-back cartoon goes outafter 120 days.

MOST PEOPLE FEEL guiltyabout not paying a bill, which is whythey concoct excuses like "The check is.in the mail," Thompson said.

"The best way to get your money isto drive over, look the person in theeye, and say 'Write me a chetk now,'"he said. "I won't do that, though, be-cause ru probably see the person laterin a social situation and feel uncom-fortable.

"But the economy is causing peopleto deliberately pay late, and that has asnowball effect."

He is making available 25 copieseach of the four cartoons to creditorswho find themselves developing cashflow problems because of late bills butwho don't want to or can't turn to aheavy-handed method of collectingthe debt. The package is nominallypriced at $9.95.

"I'm never going to make it veryexpensive to use the cartoons becauseit helps all of us by addressing thelate-payment problem," Thompsonsaid. "I'd give them away for free if Icould.

"The response has been pheno-menal. People from across the coun-try are asking for the cards, from theAmerican Bar Association to news-paper chains."

A bank has asked him to draft aseries of cartoons for delinquent homemortgage customers, and the Univer-sity of Virginia also is commissioninga series.

TESTIMONIALS TO THE ef-fectiveness of the cards have been re-ceived from major corporations an^small businesses, he said. For somtbusinesses, they are the only practicalway to try collecting a debt,

"People who use professional col-lectors don't need the cards," Thomp-son said, "but in small towns wherepeople are close, they work.

"Banks, attorneys, and professionalassociations like this approach. Manypeople have contacted us about usingthe cards to try to collect loans tofriends. This would be a very good lineof cards for Hallmark to offer."

A cartoonist since his childhoodwhen he grew up next door to RubeGoldberg, Thompson is a formerWalt Disney employee. His full-ser-vice agency does extensive work withcartoons.

Drawing on his background inhealth education, he has developednumerous cartoons revolving aroundhealth and stress management forpsychologists and physicians such asDr. Henry Heimlich.

"One of my life goals is to have asyndicated comic strip dealing withhealth and stress management," hesaid. J^t.

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