Mad Men

The award-winning hit television series currently playing out it’s second season in the US tells the story of the glamour, history and madness of a Madison Avenue based advertising business in the early 1960s. A time when men were men and women were not taken seriously by the corporate world. When advertising was at the centre of a growth in marketing global brands. But it isn’t the advertising business that’s mad. It’s those businesses that don’t talk to or listen to ‘ad men’ that could be described as slightly unbalanced.

There are companies that will listen to, and act on the advice of their accountant and solicitor, but in a recession very few of these professionals will actually add value to or help grow the business. There main priority is ‘protect and survive’.

Whether they are consumer or service brands, there are businesses that do not look to advertising professionals for assistance in the same way as other professional services. In many cases, they treat marketing as a cost and worse still, that they can do it themselves. These businesses are potentially heading for a critical period.

Bill’s story

During a similarly tight economic period in the early 1990s I worked on the B&Q retail advertising account in one of the UK’s biggest ad agencies. The Marketing Director of B&Q, Bill Whiting said to his grateful ad men, “advertising is as important as paying the rent”.

At the time his ‘advertising’ budget alone was around £20million per annum and his competitors were spending similar sums. But while his competition cut their budgets, his strategy was to continue to spend and by taking a larger share of voice from his competitors he took a much larger share of the market.

To cut a long story short, when the up turn inevitably happened B&Q were perfectly positioned as the biggest player in their market and Bill became CEO.

 

not a tin of paint

 

Of course it’s not just about spending. It’s also about communicating the right things at the right time in the right way. It’s about uncovering customer insights, creating ideas and implementing them effectively.

Bill Whiting also famously said, “We don’t sell handbags”, in a reference to competitors selling products that didn’t fit well with DIY stores, just to generate revenue. I suspect he felt that customers want core product and services from their brands, especially during hard times.

“We don’t sell handbags… we sell dreams”, is another brand quote worth noting, this time from the head of Chanel. It’s not ‘what’ people buy, but ‘why’ people buy that is important in successful brand development.

In the seven years since we began, it has been our aim to give our clients the best strategic communications advice to create, build and sustain their business and brands, whatever their size.

If you get a chance to see ‘Mad Men’ on TV do, apart from the entertainment, there is a great message that more businesses should listen to when promoting their business: Really understand your customer. Make them a promise they need. Communicate it well.

3 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI