In 1934, as the nation grappled with the Great Depression, 24-year-old Rodney Baber Sr. took a job washing dishes at the King Cotton Hotel in Memphis.  Seeing an opportunity to reproduce the hotel restaurant’s menus more efficiently and make some extra hardscrabble income for himself, young Baber scraped together enough money, virtually all he had, to purchase a mimeograph machine.  Rodney immediately began offering this new service to his employer, and soon to other area businesses.  With this Depression-era gamble on a single mimeograph machine, Rodney Baber & Company was born.

Dishwashing quickly became a thing of the past for Baber as he added to the list of businesses that he served with his mimeograph machine.  Before long, he added additional services such as multi-graphing and offset printing that catered to larger companies.  By embracing the newest technology of its day, Baber’s company was born and flourished in the toughest of times, a time when innovation was an essential element of business survival.  Moreover, by sharing the newest ideas and services with his customers, Baber helped them compete in this difficult era.

Rodney Baber, Sr., founder, was a big believer in advertising everywhere...even on the family station wagon.

It is hardly surprising that a desire to use ink and paper to help his customers survive would lead a business trailblazer such as Rodney Baber to the emerging field of direct mail advertising.  In a time before television, when limited radio broadcasts were underwritten by a few large national brands, companies relied mostly on a sign, word-of-mouth, and what little print advertising they might occasionally afford to promote their businesses.  Baber correctly envisioned that the development of a suitable customer list and the value provided by the U.S. Post Office, coupled with his printing equipment, would be the perfect way to bring affordable marketing to depression era businesses starved for customers.

In the 1960's, "personalized" letters were printed out on tape driven typewriters. The woman in the middle would "spin" from one machine to the next, typing in variable copy and then push a button to let the machine type the rest. By the time she typed in the variable copy on the last machine, the first machine would be finished and ready for a new one, which she would insert by hand. Output? About 6 a minute on 6 machines. Today's output at Baber? 235 per minute.

With the zeal of a missionary, Baber began sharing and implementing his new concept with the slogan, “Letters AS you want them, WHEN you want them”.  In a time when most people still communicated important messages through letters, Baber’s relatively modest equipment was able to create simple but powerful direct mail advertising.  He could send a letter for any business to the very best prospective customers at exactly the right season or even the right day, payday perhaps, for every imaginable product.  To this simple premise he added unique ideas for each merchant’s situation and boundless energy.  His clients found that even in the Depression, Baber’s direct mail advertising would bring in customers.

Second Lieutenant Rodney Baber, Sr. at the end of WII.

As America moved from the Depression to World War II, Baber had already built a solid company and a reputation as an enterprising innovator, what today we call an entrepreneur.  His firm located in an attractive building at 119 Madison Avenue in downtown Memphis.  Faced with answering the call to serve his country, yet wanting to preserve his enterprise, Rodney Baber merged his company, forming Baber-Graves, so that his new partner Mr. Graves could run the business while he went off to the war in Europe.  Baber served as a 2^nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, was wounded in France, and awarded the Purple Heart medal for his military service before returning to Memphis to regain control of his company.

The nation recovered from the Depression and World War II with unprecedented prosperity and growth fueled by innovation and technology.  While many prewar businesses fell by the wayside in this brave new post-war economy, Rodney Baber’s company, conceived with a philosophy of embracing innovation and technology, was rather poised to flourish and take its place in the new order.  Throughout the 1940’s, 1950’s, and 1960’s, Rodney Baber’s relentless pursuit of new ways to serve his clients kept the company that bore his name at the forefront of its industry.  Among his numerous innovations was, in 1962, a reference book containing the contact information for Memphis area business and civic leaders, movers and shakers, which he dubbed Contacts Influential and later renamed Who’s Who in Memphis Business. 

In 1969, tragedy struck Rodney Baber & Company as well as numerous other businesses and families when a private airplane carrying a group of influential Mid-South businessmen on a leisurely hunting excursion crashed en-route leaving 16 dead and 11 survivors.  While Rodney Baber Sr. was among those lost that tragic day, his family including his wife Martha Baber determined that his company would bravely go forward.  Robert F. Bartusch with Southern Mailing Services was recruited by the Baber organization to become its new president.  He proved to be a strong and able leader for more than 15 years.  During the Bartusch tenure, Rodney Baber Sr.’s two sons completed their educations and pursued other careers, Rodney with Morgan Keegan in Memphis, and Mike with The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta.

Mike Baber

By 1983, younger brother Mike Baber became interested in returning to the family business.  While Martha Baber had always helped with the family business, and her sons had worked odd jobs there as youngsters, Mike was now ready to devote his energies full-time to the family enterprise.  For the next three years Mike ploughed all of his corporate experience and talents into learning as well as into making new contributions to Rodney Baber & Company.  By 1986 the time had come for a second generation of the Baber family to lead the company and Mike was ready.  Re-christened Baber, Inc. the company adopted a new name but maintained the founding principles of Rodney Baber Sr., namely innovation, the embracing of new technology, a focus upon giving clients a competitive edge, and delivering measurable results for clients.

For 20 more years Baber served Memphis and Mid-South businesses. From small retailers and manufacturers to Fortune 500 companies like FedEx and Hilton Hotels, Baber delivered the innovation and quality needed to become a major provider of products and services to marketers.


In 2004, Baber became the first company to offer online ordering of Direct Mail and Printed products. Mike Baber’s vision of what the internet could do for the Direct Marketing industry became the driving force for the next few years and in January of 2011, Baber, Inc. became Baber Direct Marketing. Using the internet with the best technology Baber Direct Marketing began delivering the ultimate Direct Marketing packages that included advanced variable data output with personalized web pages, email deployments, web site development, text messaging and telemarketing. And Mike Baber says “We’ve only just begun.”

In 1934 Rodney Baber, Sr. knew that information was essential to any serious and competent person who possesses ambition and drive and wants to make things happen in business. And today Mike Baber takes information and combines it with a creative use of technology, experience and organization and he helps people do something that has become more and more complicated and challenging than ever before. He helps people connect.