How Drew Alan Kaplan—Turned a Catalog Into a Conversation
In the boom years of the 1980s gadget craze, DAK Industries did something radically simple: it made a catalog read like a conversation. The company’s voice belonged to its founder, Drew Alan Kaplan—the “DAK” in DAK—whose first-person, story-driven copy turned mail‑order pages into mini‑essays about radar detectors, shortwave radios, telecopiers, and bread makers. Readers didn’t feel sold to; they felt spoken to.
“When you write to one reader, you can win millions.”
The Origin of a Voice
Kaplan began as an audio‑tape enthusiast in Los Angeles, then built DAK into one of the country’s most recognizable mail‑order electronics firms. What set him apart wasn’t just what he sold—it was how he wrote. Each catalog page carried his byline and a dense block of narrative—often hundreds of words—explaining, persuading, teaching, and charming all at once. The catalog was an extension of a single, unmistakable voice.
The Catalog as Literature
DAK’s pages opened with exuberant headlines and promises, followed by long, conversational explanations. Kaplan didn’t hide behind specifications; he walked the reader through why a thing mattered and how it felt to use. That intimacy created the illusion—often the reality—that he was writing directly to you.
“I tried it. I liked it. Here’s why you might, too.” —the implicit DAK promise
A Business Model Built on Trust
Before e‑commerce, catalogs were expensive bets. DAK printed and mailed millions of them—huge runs that only made sense if customers kept reading and buying. They did. By the late 1980s, DAK employed hundreds of people and reached sizable annual sales, fueling ever-thicker catalogs that doubled as guided tours through fast‑moving consumer tech. The copy was the strategy: long‑form explanation as the engine of conversion.
Peaks, Shocks, and a Famous Bankruptcy Case
DAK’s momentum met the brutal realities of finance in the early 1990s. When a key lender abruptly pulled a major credit line, the company entered Chapter 11 and later liquidation. DAK even figured into a widely cited software‑licensing decision during bankruptcy—a reminder of how dependent catalog retailers were on credit and how quickly success could unravel when that lifeline snapped.
“The catalog built demand; credit fueled the press run.”
Why DAK Felt Different
- First‑person authority: Kaplan wrote as a fellow enthusiast, not a faceless merchant.
- Education over hype: Long explanations reduced buyer anxiety and built loyalty.
- Singular curation: One product per page, sold with a point of view, made choices feel easy.
- Relationship at scale: The copy made a national catalog business feel personal.
Legacy
Today, marketers talk about “content,” “brand voice,” and “direct‑to‑consumer relationships.” DAK did all of that before the web—by mail—and made it feel like a friend sliding a note across the table, saying, You’ve got to try this. Whether you remember the catalogs or discover them through archives and retrospectives, the lesson is the same: when you speak to one reader, you speak to many.
M/AI
