Thoughts on Marketing
Mad Men
The hit television show is also an inspiration for marketing blogs. Those days and the way they are portrayed give an interesting perspective on the industry.
Steve Jobs: Marketing iCon
0235 days
Peter Drucker, one of the world’s most brilliant business management experts said “Innovation and marketing produce results. All the rest are costs.”
If the head of your company respects that, you are most likely very successful. But what if the head of your company happens to be a genius at both? Then you have Steve Jobs.
When Jobs began his company in 1976, he had the vision to create a computer for daily life. At that time, no one even considered the idea. At that time the world’s most advanced computers were at NASA and the Department of Defense. Today, Jobs’ iPhone carries far more power than anything either of those entities held in 1976. His crystal clear vision was far beyond what anyone else could even imagine. His determination and success in making it happen gave proof of the value of that vision.
Then came the Macintosh in 1984 and with it, what many consider the greatest ad ever. To think it only ran one time is part of its lasting genius. But it was a unique piece of marketing that only he could have created.
Fast forward to the iPod. The mp3 player was already invented, but Jobs marketed it in a way that made it his. The iPod was an unfamiliar product with an unfamiliar interface. One would think an explanation of how it works would be in order. Not Steve Jobs, though. He never showed it, never talked about it. He only had silhouettes dance to it, earbuds in place. The iPod was instantly cool.
He later reinvented the telephone with the iPhone, reinvented the convenience of a laptop computer by removing everything mechanical from it with the Macbook Air, and now has revolutionized portable computing with the iPad.
That doesn’t even mention revolutionizing product naming by adding an “I” in front of everything…that is after he revolutionized naming by calling his products by the least obvious names imaginable. Sure the Macintosh made sense for Apple, but Apple itself makes no sense, nor does naming his progression of operating systems after predatory felines. But that kind of thinking is what you get from a genius in innovation and markeing.
Farewell to Lynn Hauldren, the Empire Carpet Man
0396 days
Elmer Lynn Hauldren 1922-2011
Lynn Hauldren passed away yesterday. Those in Chicago know him as the Empire Carpet guy. His famous jingle of “588-2300” can be recited by anyone who calls themselves a lifetime Chicagoan. As an advertising man, he may not be Don Draper, but he practiced what he preached.
Lynn worked on the Empire account as an account executive in 1977, and was asked by the company owner to be the face of the company when auditions failed to provide the right personality.
It is a role he held for the rest of his life. Now that is branding. Advertising experts tell companies all the time to find exactly what they do best, then permanently promote that one thing. What better example can there be, but for the advertising executive to find that one role and do nothing but that forever.
Being the Empire icon was what he did, not who he was. Among his other interests were performing and singing, particularly in a barbershop quartet called “Chordiac Arrest”. A full and successful life to be sure.
Rest in Pease Lynn. You left a fine legacy.
UPDATE – Empire Carpet was kind enough to dedicate a website to their beloved spokesman. It is an online museum that does justice to his contribution to their company as well as our community. Be sure to stop by and take a look. You will enjoy learning more about him while reliving your own memories.
This TV Icon Should Create Icons
1672 days
Even the show itself has an advertising icon.
Here we are with another season of Mad Men. Of course I enjoy the show. How could I not? I live it here, right down to smoking in the office (don’t tell the city please). We even have a retro martini bar that is our favorite stop after work.
But there is one thing about the show that bugs me. In advertising, the era of the 60s was famous for its use of advertising icons. In fact, many of those icons have endured until today. Tony the Tiger, The Green Giant and Mr. Whipple were but a few still in use. But Josephine the Plumber, the Ajax White Knight and the Frito Bandito were all icons created in the Sixties as well.
So why do we never see Don Draper pitching the use of an icon in the show? It almost seems deliberate that they ignore that part of 1960s advertising. Perhaps an episode that showed Don Draper pitching Cap’n Crunch would be bad for his image. More likely, creating an advertising icon is a lot more work than can be whipped out in a show that has enough realism on its plate to begin with. Either way, to me it is the most glaring omission in an otherwise wonderfully realistic show.
In case you wonder just how prevalent these icons were in that era, here is a list of some that were either created or had their most popular days in that era.
Tony the Tiger Norelco Santa NBC Peacock
Jolly Green Giant The Pillsbury Dough Boy Speedy Alka-Seltzer
Marlboro Man Aunt Jemima Betty Crocker
Madge from Palmolive Josephine the Plumber Mr. Clean
Cap’n Crunch Count Chocula Quisp and Quake
Frankenberry White Knight from Ajax Frito Bandito
Hawaiian Punchy Mr. Whipple Maytag Repairman
Juan Valdez Mr. Peanut Campbell Kids
Charlie Tuna Elsie the Borden Cow Lucky Charm Leprechaun
Sonny of Cocoa Puffs Toucan Sam Cornelius the Kellogs Corn Flakes Rooster
Trix Rabbit Geoffery The Giraffe Mrs. Olson
Raisin Bran Sun Quaker Oats Man Ronald McDonald
Wendy of Wendy’s Morris the Cat Choo-Choo Charlie
The Lessons of a Mad Man
0796 days
Ah for the days when advertising was advertising....or was it?
Ah, the days of real marketing. Back when one smoked a pipe right at the conference table, when the after dinner martini hour started just after breakfast, when…OK, maybe those weren’t all they are cracked up to be.
However, they did understand the business. The rest of us would do well to understand how they went about it. It seems that for every example of great marketing (not to be confused with great creative) we see today, there are tons of awful and awfully expensive avoidable mistakes to counter them. I am sure that the disasters occurred back then too, but like music, since only the classics live on, from our perspective it seems like the older era featured nothing but great work.
These trying times are weeding poor efforts out of today’s marketing, however. Except for a couple of temporary lapses, our economy has been good for a very long time. For marketers, that meant that we could put out some poorly thought out work, and still have a campaign succeed.
This economy is not as forgiving. If you haven’t been clear in defining your particular value, and been able to clearly communicate it to exactly the right audience, you have little chance to succeed.
As a result, having the tools available to create and deliver advertising are not enough. Now we have to understand when PR is necessary instead of advertising, how to articulate and even establish the brand, how to collect and effectively use response data available through online campaigns, and what to adjust when things still don’t work as well as they should.
It is a scary time for marketers who are accustomed selecting work based on nothing more than their personal color preferences, and still having success. But there is no need to be afraid. Solid marketing still works every time…even now.
