Learning from the Best

In “Reason in Common Sense,” Volume 1, George Santayana wrote “Those who ignore history are bound to repeat it.” For the world of marketing, I would paraphrase his words to “Those who ignore history are bound to make unnecessary mistakes.”

There is much to be learned from the greats of advertising and marketing. Despite new technologies, expanded media and a marketplace exploding with product choices and competition, the ways to influence consumers, position brands and motivate purchases are basically unchanged.

Advertising creates brands. Consumers align with brands. They buy the brands that reflect their image of themselves. Consider that there are six types of vodka, ten regions in the world that produce vodka, and so many brands of vodka that there is no definitive list.

Yet in 1997 a new vodka called Grey Goose was introduced. It was made in France, a country known for wine, not vodka. Within seven years the company was sold for $2 billion. What was the reason for the success? A great brand created by great advertising.

Advertising and marketing, not product superiority, is what put Subway in the top three fast food chains. It’s what drives BMW to outsell Mercedes as the superior German car in that price class. It is why an unknown product, the Dyson vacuum cleaner, became the number 2 brand in the U.S. market in just two years.

To understand how to become a top brand – globally, nationally, regionally or locally –take a look at the best advertising campaigns ever produced and what you can learn from them.

The Volkswagen Beetle, 1960s ad campaign. At a time when Americans were driving really big cars, all made in the USA, being asked to create an ad campaign for a small, funny looking foreign car with the engine in the back, seemed a task doomed for failure.

But the creative team consisting of Helmut Krone (art director), Bill Bernbach (creative director) and Julian Koenig (copywriter), created a success so powerful that by the end of the decade Americans were not only buying the small German Beetle, they were also buying small Japanese cars. This is an ad campaign that not only changed consumers minds, it changed the most powerful industry in America.

The Beetle campaign started by stating the obvious with the ad “Think Small.” That message resonated with a changing mood in the country that mainstream auto manufacturers failed to notice. In the 1960s counter-culture was quietly upsetting the status quo. Authority and power were challenged. Rebellion ruled.

What more exemplified rebellion than to turn away from the products conspicuously consumed by the masses? The Beetle was more than a car, it was a statement. The advertising used simple images and straight-forward language to position the car as “not for everyone.” In the campaign series that also included “The Snowplow,” “The Lemon” and “The Funeral,” the Volkswagon Beetle made the little guy the hero.

What you can learn from this success is that you need to watch and spot trends so you can be ahead of them. There are always factors and indicators that are the proverbial canary in the mine. They signal that change is happening. Most people resist change. Successful companies spot it, embrace it and use it to their advantage.

McDonalds’1970s campaign. In 1971 McDonald’s launched its first-ever national advertising campaign. The commercials did little to sell the food. Nor did they focus on the low prices or the great taste.

Instead they featured McDonald’s employees happily singing to customers that “You deserve a break today, so get out and get away, to McDonalds.”

The campaign was created by Needham, Harpers and Steers, a New York agency. The policy at Needham was to not produce spec creative, but rather pitch an idea. When Needham got the account it took months to prepare creative. Shooting was started and stopped. Different tunes and lyrics were created. Different phrases and combinations of words were bantered about.

With each change the campaign became stronger. When it finally aired the McDonald’s jingle was a quick hit with consumers. People instantly memorized it and sang along. The Brand was established. But not for hamburgers. It was established as the place you go when you need good food fast.

What you can learn from this campaign is a lesson that is still valuable today. The most important thing for the customer isn’t the product, it’s the experience. “You deserve a break …” is all about the McDonald’s experience. Deliver great experiences and consumers will make you their brand of choice.

Nike, the 1988 campaign. This is the year Nike found its voice with three little words: “Just Do It.” It was the end of the Reagan administration. And Reagan was a president who had paved the way for this type of rapport. He personified the “Just Do It” spirit with his strong challenges and alliances on the international scene. “Just Do It” captured the same ultimatum as Reagan’s famed “Mr. Gorbachov, tear down that wall” speech.

Going into the 1980s Nike had 50% of the U.S. athletic shoe market and 18% of the worldwide market. Nike had not run any national TV advertising until 1982. The “Just Do It” slogan has been deemed so powerful it is enshrined in the Smithsonian Collections and has been touted as “one of the most inspirational brand statements of all time” by the Center for Applied Research.

Try to think of the slogan for any of the other athletic shoe brands such as Reebok, Adidas or Converse. Chances are you don’t know what they are or what those companies stand for. What you can learn from Nike is when a company slogan is a perfect fit with the company’s spirit, it produces a brand so strong that eventually only the slogan is needed to identify the brand. By the end of the 1980s Nike had 43% of the worldwide market.

The California Milk Processor Board, 1993. In 1993 the consumption of milk in California had been steadily declining for 15 years. The California Milk Advisory Board funded a $23 million per year ad budget to sell more milk.

The resulting “Got Milk?” ad campaign, developed by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners did just that. Here’s how. The research team at GS&P found that 70% of all consumers had milk in their refrigerators at all times. They knew and understood the product.

The research also showed that most people only drank milk with something. (Cookies and milk.) So the goal was to get people to drink milk with foods not usually associated with milk or drink it even when there was nothing to go with it. The strategy was to increase sales not by getting more people to drink milk, but to get the people who do drink milk to drink more of it. Increase consumption and you’ll increase sales.

The “Got Milk?” campaign did it with humor and suddenly it became cool to drink milk. Not only that, the campaign became immensely popular with consumers and “Got Milk?” became a phrase used in common conversation.

In 1998 the slogan “Got Milk?” was licensed to the National Milk Processor Board and the campaign expanded to include the faces, but not the names, of celebrities. By adding the celebrity cachet, awareness of drinking milk has increased 90%. Today the slogan is an international icon and the phrase has been parodied more than any other ad slogan.

The lesson to be learned from “Got Milk?” is that when you have a mature product, one that the marketplace is familiar with and fully understands, you need to get consumers to think of using it in a different context to make it fresh, exciting and new in order to sell more.

How you position and differentiate your products, whether they are goods, services or destinations, is the ultimate challenge for establishing and building your brand. It is all about positioning your product in the mind of the consumer. When the consumer sees him or her self in your brand, you have secured a place in the consumer’s mind. Be true to your brand, and your place will be secure. It’s a lesson you can learn from the best ad campaigns ever created.

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