EDWARD S. SUCHERMAN & ASSOCIATES LTD.

I’m a young thinking old guy, 61 to be exact.  I’ve seen a lot of changes in marketing – from copywriters and artists with pens and Exacto blades and art boards and film to digital cameras, Raster image processors, digital printing, public domain stock photos, ubiquitous web sites, social networking, and kids fresh out of high school who never took a marketing class but have great technical skills creating ads and brochures without color separations on powerful Apple computers.  I’ve had SEO experts tell me that I could learn from them, but they had nothing to learn from me.

When I was in college (undergraduate at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, from 1966-70), I was a hot shot writer trying to decide between a career in journalism and advertising.  Those were the golden years of advertising, led by great people I never met, like Leo Burnett, Bill Birnbach, Mary Wells, David Ogilvy, etc.  These were the giants who made me decide to become a huckster for life.  Later, when I went back for my MBA, I discovered that advertising was not enough for me, so I expanded from advertising into marketing.

And last night, I wondered to myself, how would Leo Burnett have done in our modern, search engine optimized world?  So, I Goggled him on “Brainy Quotes” and here are some of the results, plus my comments.  Please know that what he called “advertising”, we would now call “marketing”.

1. “A good ad which never runs never produces sales.”  Thank you, Leo.  The way to break out of our current recession is for some company with enough guts to go ahead with a great new marketing campaign.  That company will gain enormous market share and will sail into the recovery well ahead of its competition.
2. “Advertising is the ability to sense, interpret…to put the very heart throbs of a business into type, paper, and ink.”  Thank you Leo.  Today, of course, we would be talking about cable television and the Internet in addition to print ads, but the fact remains – nothing is more important to a company’s success than its marketing message.
3. “Nobody is in business for fun, but that does not mean there cannot be fun in business.”  Thank you, Leo.  The recession has a lot of people depressed, and with good reason.  But life is short and we will only be able to enjoy it, and our jobs, when we have fun.
4. “I have learned that to guess what the boss or client wants is the most debilitating of all influences in the creation of good advertising.”  Thank you, Leo.  Marketing messages need to strike home with the customer, not just the client.  The client has hired us to advise him or her, not memorize and repeat his or her words.
5. “If you can’t turn yourself into your customer, you probably shouldn’t be in the ad writing business at all.”  Thank you, Leo.  Marketing is all about selling, and selling is all about the customer’s emotions and feelings.
6. “The work of an advertising agency is warmly and immediately human.  It deals with human needs, wants, dreams, and hopes.  Its “product” cannot be turned out on an assembly line.”  Thank you, Leo.  And, I might add, unless your graphic artist on his/her computer is trained in human emotions, not just technology, you are not going to have an effective promotional marketing campaign.
7. “There is no such thing as a permanent advertising success.” Thank you, Leo.  I will never rest on my past glories.  Nor did you.  But you and your agency sure created long-term success with Tony the Tiger, Snap, Crackle and Pop, the Pillsbury Doughboy, the Friendly Skies of United, the Jolly Green Giant, and on and on.  In my opinion, Leo Burnett is still the best marketing firm in the world.
8. “Make it simple.  Make it memorable.  Make it inviting to look at.  Make it fun to read.”  Thank you, Leo.  Your assessment certainly stands the test of time.
9. “Plan the sale when you plan the ad.”  Thank you, Leo. Marketing is always about sales and brand building.

In summary, Leo Burnett would have been just as successful today, because he understood that, regardless of the medium, great marketing is based upon the marketing message, its uniqueness, the depth of its warmth and impact, its ability to be memorable, the product it represents and the sales it creates. 

Thank you, Leo.

Ed Sucherman

THE MARKETING MACHINE

www.edsucherman.com

edsucherman@gmail.com

 

 

Tags: Advertising, Emotions, Search Engine Optimization, marketing message //