Model D Promotional Button

In the early 1980s, computer manufacturers relied heavily on their dealers to introduce customers to their products. With personal computers still relatively new and expensive, manufacturers used promotional materials and events to help their dealers attract customers, build brand recognition, and sell more computers. Even inexpensive items such as button pins could serve as small but effective reminders of a manufacturer's brand, keeping its name and products visible to customers as they browsed a dealership or spoke with sales staff.

In the early 1980s, buying a computer was much like buying a car. One did not simply go online, find the desired specifications, check out, and wait a few days for a box to arrive at the front door. Instead, buying a computer was much more of an event. Computers were new, expensive, and unfamiliar to many potential customers. Computer dealers sprang up across the country, allowing potential customers to "test drive" the different computers they carried. Customers could ask technical questions, and highly trained sales staff could help direct them toward a computer that best suited their perceived needs.

Leading Edge sold its computers through dealer networks rather than primarily through direct sales, supplying dealers with machines that customers could examine and try out in the store. Many computer manufacturers, including Leading Edge, incentivized their dealers to promote their products through sales and promotional events. These promotions often included rebates, bundled software or hardware, and significant price reductions.

As part of these events, a manufacturer might send promotional brochures, banners, and, in this case, buttons that a dealer salesman could pin to his suit. These simple and inexpensive promotional materials could help capture a customer's attention and encourage questions about the products, potentially leading to a demonstration and, ultimately, a sale. Such promotions benefited both the computer dealership and the manufacturer.

The Model D promotional button measures 2.5" in diameter and weighs 0.5 oz., making it light enough that a salesman would likely barely notice it after an hour or two of wearing it. The pin's red background dominates the design, with "Leading Edge Model D" written in all caps blue at the top in an arc extending around slightly more than half the circumference of the button. Directly in the center of the button is an illustration of a Model D computer, complete with the DC−2014 keyboard and a DR−1240 monochrome monitor. Directly below the keyboard, near the bottom of the button, is the slogan for the promotional event: "Professional−level power at a price for everyone." The quotation marks surrounding the slogan appear as solid blue stars.

On the rear of the button, it was business only. The only notable feature was a safety pin integrated into the button at the very top, allowing it to be secured to a salesman's suit or shirt. Positioning the safety pin at the top helped keep the button facing outward rather than pointing downward as the fabric of a shirt or suit jacket sagged or shifted. This ensured that the Leading Edge name and Model D branding remained visible to customers and kept the small promotional item doing its job: attracting attention and keeping the product in front of potential buyers.